Thursday night was a long night, but awesome!
It started with a Youth Leadership Meeting (we call ourself the Servant Team). It was followed by a bible study, which cut us short on time. The conversation was going awesome and very productive; we just needed more time! I was absolutely blown away by our two ladies, Teresa and my wife, with how insightful and dead-on they were concerning things we need to be more aware of and begin doing. Not to mention them stepping on my toes with something I need to be more pro-active about (I can't give specifics, not for my sake, but for those involved). I'm beginning to see the chemistry in this group and I can't help but be excited! I mean, everyone brought so much to the table, but I think the rest of us were impressed with our ladies.
We talked about the difference between being inward focused and outward focused, and while we want our youth to bring other youth it is not the job of the youth to do so as much as it being a passion we hope to instill in them. And hopefully we'll create an environment that is worthy of that. We talked a lot about going out and we talked a lot about big events to draw new people in, but not as one time events but as both a focus and lifestyle.
All of them have expressed how they've never been on a team like this, where they are allowed to take ownership in the ministry, not always being told what to do all the time (or just being thrown in without any direction or training). I think it's beginning to show that they're getting comfortable with the idea.
There there was the bible study. We meet first to have a meal, but with the Servant Team meeting being right before it the meal was delayed, which was fine because a few of us took the time to beat each other up on Wii Boxing. That was lots of fun.
Maybe the Servant Team meeting has some of us off onto the right foot or perhaps it was something else, but from the time the meal started it seemed that there was a true feeling of fellowship. Those that barely knew each other were talking like old friends. It was great to witness and participate in.
Then we got to the Bible study. We have started looking at a series call The Way of the Master. This was week 2. Week one pretty much just pointed out the fact that it is the occupation of every believer to be sharers of our faith with others and because of this fact we need to prepare to do our job well. At the conclusion of week 1 they had to go out and ask two Christians three questions about evangelism. So the Bible study this week began with us sharing the responses we got from other Christians. It was obvious that from our the responses we shared that most Christians we know don't share the gospel often, if at all, and the primary reasons were fear of rejection, fear of not knowing what to say, fear of misrepresenting Christ, and feeling ill-prepared.
We watched a 20-25 minute video that took us through tons of scripture putting the passages into context and helping us to understand a few concepts about false converts (through incomplete or false Gospels), God's Law, talking with people and not arguing with them, helping people understand they're need for Christ in an non-offensive way, and legalism and grace. Then we discussed these things and wow what an incredible discussion. It's nothing short of awesome!
It was a great night!
