Upside Down, week 3

Our final week of Upside Down was focused on the fact that Jesus gave a lot of attention (maybe the most) to his closest companions or his friends and family. This really vital because I think it's sometimes easy to focus on serving people around the world and in the community and neglect the people closest to you.

Example of Jesus serving his friends
Jesus served the 12 disciples by washing their feet. This was the ultimate act of service because it was dirty and humbling. It was a job for a servant and back then people's feet were really nasty.

The Challenge
Not only should we allow Jesus' example to encourage and motivate us to serve, but we should also see that Jesus served the ones he was closest to. Sometimes we get comfortable with our friends and family that when we really think about it, we can't think of the last time we did something really nice for them or encouraged them.

Students last night made a commitment to serve someone close to them over the holidays and I am praying that they will follow through on their commitments!

Upside Down, part 2

This week, since we are celebrating Christ's birth by trying to do what He did which is serve, we gave our time to some people that many would say don't deserve it.

Jesus was always giving his time to what the Bible called the "least of these." Check out Matthew 25:31-40.

He was always giving his time and love to the unloved or who society would say didn't deserve it like the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the worst of sinners, criminals, etc. This is what made Christ live so Upside Down.

So this week in Edge, we gave our time to the least of these. We spent our time of worship this week writing cards and donating toothpaste and candy to guys at a juvenile detention center down in Green called Indian River. Many people would say that these kids don't deserve our time because of the crimes they have committed, but because of Christ, we know that they are well worth our time and our effort. After all, Christ thought we were worth it!

Pray with me that God would continue to show students this Christmas that it's not about them and that they would learn to live UPSIDE DOWN just like Christ did.

Upside Down, Week 1 Recap

This month, we are doing a series called, "Upside Down." This series is based on the reason for the season...celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Everything about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ was Upside Down from what the world is like. The world lives with a "me first" mindset, but Christ lived with an others first mindset. So during this month, we are going to celebrate this amazing holiday by living like Christ and putting others first. Each week, we will be talking about a different mission.

Week 1: Serving the World
Week 2: Serving the Community
Week 3: Serving our friends/family

Jesus did all of these things perfectly when he was on earth and so we are going to emulate Christ in that each week, we will have a different tangible way to serve others.

THIS WEEK: Serving the World
Last night, we talked about how Christ died for the world. He didn't just die for some people, for Americans, for those who love him, but he died for the world. (John 3:16, Mark 16:15)

The problem
There are 16,348 people groups in the world.
6,647 have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ (that's 40% and 2.7 billion people).

The Solution
The Solution is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. So if we know Christ, we are the solution. Christ commanded us to go and tell the world.

Our Mission
India is in the top 10 nations with the most unreached people groups (87% of their country is unreached).
Our church partners with the India Gospel League (IGL) whose mission is to share the gospel with India. They have missionaries there, share the gospel, train pastors (some HCC pastors have trained their pastors), and send them out to spread the good news.
One of the ways they ask people to help is by giving money so that a pastor can be supported and sent out to an unreached village to share the gospel.
It's $1200 to send a pastor to a village to live for a year to share the gospel with the village and start up a church. It's also just $700 to build a small structure for the church to start meeting in that village. That's $1,900.

We are asking that each student make a small sacrifice to make an eternal impact on the country of India. If 100 students give up 1 Christmas gift worth $20, and instead have their parents give them the $20 to support this pastor, we would have all we need to impact a whole village for Christ. What an amazing cause!

Please encourage your students in this! It needs to be their sacrifice, otherwise, we are not really putting others first.

Parent Surveys

Hey parents,
Would you take a couple minutes and complete these 3 surveys? It will only take 2-3 minutes total. This is to benefit the new parent group that has started called, "Block Watch." It's a group whose purpose is to join parents together in an effort to help protect our kids from the dangers of technology and equip them to make the right decisions. Just click on the surveys below to take them.
Thanks for your time!

Survey 1
Survey 2
Survey 3

Joshua, part 3

We had a great night last night which was our final night in the series called, "Joshua." We finished with a student, Jordan, an 8th grade boy, giving his testimony, what God has been doing in his life, and then giving the challenge to students. It was powerful because it was peer to peer. Here is the basic outline from last night.

Review Crossing the Jordan River
Joshua was obedient even when it didn't make a lot of sense. Joshua resolved that he would be obedient to God no matter what. If he would have listened to his friends on this, he may never have been used to do such an amazing thing. We do the same thing. We make our friends our authority and we are obedient to them. If this is the case, God can't use us in the same way.

Review Battle of Jericho
Joshua was obedient again when God had him go to battle in a very unorthodox and illogical way by walking around the walls of Jericho, blowing trumpets, and yelling. Yet again, Joshua didn't listen to what was logical or normal or acceptable, but instead obeyed God. This obedience allowed him to be a part of something amazing. It's the same with us. If we stop listening to what the world calls normal and start obeying God, he is going to use us to do amazing things for him.

SIDE NOTE: Obedience sometimes sounds really boring and uncool, but look how God used Joshua's obedience to make him a part of something so crazy, so unbelievable, so cool. God can do the same today. Example I gave: The 3rd leading cause of teen death is suicide. Many teen suicides are a result of not having friends, feeling unloved, ignored. God's command to us is to love others. If we would be obedient to that command and love those who feel unloved, we could LITERALLY SAVE THEIR LIFE!

Joshua's Farewell
At the end of Joshua's life, he gave a challenge to look at all that God has done for the people of Isreal and worship him. His challenge is to choose whom you will serve? Joshua's response was, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." That was the final challenge for students last night. Who will you choose to serve today?

Joshua, week 2 Recap

This is the 2nd week of our Joshua series. We are taking a journey through some of the major events of Joshua's life and how God used Joshua to accomplish some pretty amazing things for the Israelites.

This week, I told the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. The only problem is that it wasn't a typical battle. Joshua was told by God to take his men and march around the city for 6 days, blowing trumpets and yelling loudly. Then on the 7th day, he was supposed to march his guys around the walls 7 times, blow the trumpets, and yell, and then the walls of the city would collpase.

Joshua was obedient to God even when obeying him meant doing something totally different from normal (marching around the city and yelling). Joshua did this because his ultimate authority was God. If Joshua would have done what was culturally and socially acceptable and normal, God would have never done such an amazing thing in his life. But God was his authority which meant that God used Joshua's obedience to do something amazing for His people.

We talked about how it's the same type of thing with us. We tend to do things because they world says they are normal. We do things becuase they are culturally or socially normal, but obedience to God is more important than doing the normal thing.

THE CHALLENGE: Is obedience to God more important than being normal? Or is being normal more important than obedience to God?

Joshua, part 1

Our newest series started last night called "Joshua." You can probably guess that it's a series based on Joshua from the Bible. As a matter of fact, there is a whole book dedicated to his leadership of the Israelites. There is so much to learn from Joshua about obedience to the ultimate authority. That's what this series is focused on. Here are some key points from last night...

1. Background on Joshua
We started off with a little background on Joshua and how he arose as a leader for God's people. He was Moses aide, one of the 12 guys who were sent to check out the promised land and report back, and then God chose him as the leader to take Moses place once he died. His mission was to take his people in the promised land.

2. Crossing The Jordan River
Since his mission was to cross the Jordan River, I told the miraculous story of how Joshua led the whole nation of Israel across just by being obedient to God. The waters parted and the nation walked through.

3. God's Authority vs. Friend's Authority
If Joshua would have listened to others, they would have had all sorts of ideas on how to get over to the promised land, but Joshua was obedient to God and saw him as his ultimate authority. That led him to being someone who was used by God to do something amazing. It's the same with us. We look to our friends for approval, but why?

4. If God is your ultimate authority, who can stand against you
God told Joshua that no one will be able to stand against you if you obey me. Obedience to God as our ultimate authority allows God to use us to do amazing things for Him. Why are we afraid when we have God?

The Real Deal, part 3

The title of this message is CIRCUMSTANTIAL FAITH. it's the last message in our series called THE REAL DEAL. This series is all about what it means to have authentic faith in God.

The last 2 weeks, we talked about how and why we can trust God by going over a pledge from God's Word that we called, THE EDGE PLEDGE. It goes like this.

1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.

This week, we talked about living this pledge out or actually believing these sayings to be true to the point that it changes the way you live.

The hardest time to ever trust God is when the world around you comes crashing down, or when things are not going well.

Proverbs 3:5-6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

Our own understand of THE EDGE PLEDGE is much different than God's understanding.

Job's Example: Job is the best example of someone who experienced terrible tragedy in his life and never lost his faith in God.

God's word never says that we will have an easy, problem free, stress free life filled with wealth, health, and success in everything we do. That's just not true. However, it doesn't matter what happens in our lives, we have to hold onto the truth of God's Word which we stated in THE EDGE PLEDGE.

This sums up what I spoke on last night.

If you ever want to know more or have questions, you can find the full talk on itunes if you search "Edge Talk Podcast." Also, let me know if you have more questions to follow up.

The Real Deal (part 2)

The Real Deal series continued last night with the last 2 parts of the Edge Pledge. As a reminder, the first 2 portions of The Edge Pledge from last week are...

1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.

The next part is what we talked about last night...

3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.

The Real Deal series is based on believing that God is someone we can trust. It's only then that we can be the kind of authentic Christian that God wants us to be. We broke down each of these statements last night.

Last week we talked about the fact that God is who He says He is and can do what says He can do. If we truly believe this than we have to believe what God has to say in His word about who we are.

I AM WHO GOD SAYS I AM

Who does God say that we are if we know Christ?
1 John 3:1
Ephesians 1:3-8
We are blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, and forgiven.

I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST

Philippians 4:13
It means that we only do things through His strength. The only way we can accomplish anything is by his power, by his strength, and by his love.

We will experience fear and failure, but we can never let those things define us because only God is the one who tells us the truth about who we are if we know Him as Savior.

THE EDGE PLEDGE

1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.

For the full audio of my talk, you can download it on itunes. It's called "Edge Talks"

The REAL DEAL--Part 1

Last night, we dove into our series called, THE REAL DEAL. This series is based on the idea that God is someone who we can trust...He is THE REAL DEAL. Not only that, but it's only when we believe that God is THE REAL DEAL that we become the THE REAL DEAL ourselves...the kind of person who lives out their faith. Here are a few highlights from last night.
The next couple weeks are dedicated to helping students know through Scritpure that God is someone they can trust with their lives. We are doing this by saying THE EDGE PLEDGE. The first 2 statements of THE EDGE PLEDGE are as follows...

1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.

Here is a brief breakdown of what we talked about with each of these statements...

1. God is who He says He is.
All over Scripture, God makes claims about who He is. Those claims are so powerful that we have to either believe everything He says about Himself or we have to believe everything He says is a lie. It's all or nothing.

In Scripture, every time God is about to do something for His people, He reminds them of who He is. (I am the Lord, I am God Almighty, I Am who I Am, etc.). Then He always goes on to do something powerful in and through his people (Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.).

2. God can do what He says He can do.
If God is who He says He is then He will have to do what He says He will do. What God can do is a direct result of who He is. Example: God is called a Savior because He saves.

Matthew 16:13-18
Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" and Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Because Peter trusted Christ and knew the truth about Him, He went on to be the rock that Christ's church was built on.

The point is that trusting that God is The Real Deal will change your life. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Peter is the same God we serve today.
He is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do.

We will finish out the Edge Pledge with 2 more important statements next week.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things through Christ.

The Real Deal (intro)

This week, we started our brand news series called THE REAL DEAL. The theme of this series is authentic faith. So often, students make decisions for Christ, but their lives don't really reflect the decision they have made. The reason for this is that students don't really trust that God is THE REAL DEAL.

KEY PHRASE FOR THIS SERIES: If we don't believe that God is THE REAL DEAL, then we will never be THE REAL DEAL!

Here are a couple key points from the talk last night.

1. People are looking to follow a god who backs up his words with action. Our God has done just that. HE is the REAL DEAL.

We serve a God that can be trusted to do what He says He is going to do. He claimed to love us more than anything else in the world and he backed up those words with action...sending His son to die for our sins.

2. If we don't trust that God is the Real Deal, we are going to have a hard time being The Real Deal ourselves.

Being a Christian who others call THE REAL DEAL (someone who backs up their words with actions) starts with believing that God is someone who can be trusted.

3. KEY VERSE for this series: Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

We finished by breaking into groups with different leaders and breaking down these verses. Leaders asked students about ways in their life right now that they are having trouble trusting God.

This whole month, we will continue this series, and I challenged students that by the end of this month, I would love to hear people say Edge students are THE REAL DEAL.

Prayers of the broken...

Last week, in Edge, we finished our night with giving students an opportunity to respond to the message by writing a prayer to God. Part of their challenge was to ask forgiveness from the brokenness in their lives, realizing that Christ took it on the cross. Here is a list of some of the brokenness in the lives of middle school students...

difficulty with school work, trouble growing up, parent's divorces, lust, pornography, masturbation, identity, people teasing them, relationship trouble, bad friendships, living in fear, gossip, lying, cheating, and hating, and not caring.

This is just a glimpse of the brokenness that exists in the lives of students in our ministry...if this is what they admitted, I can't imagine what they might still be holding onto or what hasn't surfaced yet.

This is a tough time of life, but a time where students need Jesus Christ in such a real way. Let's continue to point them to the one who took all of our sin and shame. The one who was broken for us so that we no longer have to be broken.

Fix You Video

This is the video we ended with last night at Edge. Another youth pastor did this when he had students in his ministry write down the things in their life they struggled with. We had students watch this to reflect on their own brokenness and need for Jesus Christ. They followed this up by writing their response in a prayer to God.

Unbroken, part 3

This week at Edge was the gospel night which means that we shared the part of the gospel story that is so unbelievable! The part where God in His amazing love for us, made a way for man to get back into a right relationship with Him through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Here are a few points...

We are broken through our sin and hopeless.
Because of our sin, we are desperate and hopeless. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves (Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23). Seperated from God.

God, in His amazing love, decided to make a way to save us when there was no way.
God sent Jesus Christ to this earth to save us with one mission and that was to die to take on our sin. When we were powerless, He came and saved us. (Rom. 5:6-9)

Jesus Christ took our place on the cross.
He died the death that we should have died so that we could have a life that we didn't deserve. (2 Cor. 5:21).

He was broken so that we don't have to be broken anymore (unbroken).
Christ took all the brokenness, all the shame, all the pain, and all the sin when He was nailed to the cross. (Isaiah 53:5)

We finished with a video clip to show our brokenness before God. I will post the video in another post. It was a powerful time for students to reflect on the brokenness in their life and the forgiveness that is offered through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

At the very end, students wrote prayers to God about their own brokenness in their life.

Unbroken: Part 2

Last night, we did the second part in the Unbroken series entitled "Broken." This is the part of the story where things go really bad and really wrong because of man's disobedience and sin against God. Here are a couple of points made last night.

1. Every good story starts off well, but then things get really bad before they get better. That's the same with the gospel story.

Examples: I used the examples of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The 3 Little Pigs" as fun examples to prove that every story is like this (the wolves being the really bad part).

2. Things went wrong for Adam and Eve because they lost sight of their need for God.

God created man to reflect His image and have a perfect relationship with Him so that He was all they needed. Things went wrong when they thought they needed something else or something more.

3. All of mankind is broken because of sin and it's seen all around us.

Examples: death, divorce, sickness, povertly, pornography, cheating, lying, etc.

My challenge to students was to find where the brokenness was in their life.

4. Our sin puts us in a hopelessly bad situation, seperated from God and deserving death (Romans 3:23 and 6:23). Our condition is desperate.

I finished with this thought tonight because I wanted to have students understand the weight of their sin and the brokenness in the world. Without understanding this, we will never understand our need for Christ. I left them with the idea that God is the one who created us and He is the only one who could possibly get us out of this mess...we need Him...BAD!

Next week, we are going to talk about the greatest news of all time...when God made a way to get us back into that right relationship with Him...the way He created us to be.

Unbroken: Part 1

Last night, we continued our Edge series called "Unbroken." In this series, we are going through God's story for all time found in the Bible. This first part of the series is focused on God creating the world and creating man. Here are some key points from the night.

1. God's Creation is AMAZING and everything about it points to his glory.

From a caterpillar having 228 seperate and distinct muscles in it's head to the universe being 150 billion light years big (we watched a video that showed this), creation is amazing and shows how big and glorious our God truly is.

2. God created MAN in HIS Image

Out of all of God's amazing Creation, he chose to make something he treasured more than anything else in this world. He chose to create man. He made man in His image for the purpose of representing and reflecting Him. Mirror Analogy: A mirror's purpose is to reflect light so that when we look into it, we see an exact representation of ourselves. God is the same way. He created us so that when he looks at us, he sees an exact representation of Himself.

3. Because man was created in His image, man had a perfect relationship with God.

We talked about how Adam and Eve's lives were perfect because of one thing, God made them to be that way. They didn't have any problems (not because it was sunny every day), but because God created them to have perfect relationship with Him.

4. Stop and Worship God for His creation

This is only the beginning of the big story of God, but it's so amazing that it should cause us to stop and worship. Last night at Edge, we worshiped in some different ways. Students had the opportunity to respond through drawing, writing, and reflecting (ask them about it).

It was a great night. Next week, we will discuss the BROKENESS that came through sin.

Unbroken (Intro)

Parents, as promised, here is the outline of my talk last night at Edge for you.

Tonight was the intro of Edge for the year and the introduction to our series called "Unbroken."
Here are a couple key points and take aways from the night.

1. Your life compared to eternity is like a mist. (James 4:14)

I used 2 illustrations for this point. You can ask your son/daughter about them. One involved my grandpa being in a movie and the other involves toilet paper. That is all I will say.

2. Since our lives are nothing compared to eternity this life is not about us, but this life is all about God. He is the main character.

From the beginning of creation to the time when everyone bows down to worship God, this whole story, this whole life is all about God.

3. Since this life is all about God, than wouldn't you want to make the very short time you have all about God.

4. Unbroken overview

I finished tonight by giving the overview of the Unbroken series that will happen over the next few weeks. It's this: God created us to reflect his image and have perfect relationship with Him, sin broke it and now all of us aren't living as we intended to live, but God did something so amazing...He made a way to get us back in that relationship.

That's the story for last night!

LATE NIGHT CHALLENGE
I also challenged students to invite their friends to the Late Night and to Edge throughout this month because the gospel story we are telling is not just for them, it's for everyone and they need to hear it. Help me challenge your son and daughter in this!

Parents Parents Parents

We just had our fall parent meeting and I am reminded of how it important parents our to the ministry I lead. I would even go so far as to say that Edge is a ministry to parents just as much as it is a ministry to students. If we don't value parents in this ministry, we wouldn't have students in this ministry...bottom line. The reason is that parents play a vital role in the lives of their kids. As a matter of fact, parents are way more influential on their kid's lives than any youth pastor or small group leader. Because this is true, it's my job to help. It's my job to partner with parents. Our leadership team has to come along side the parents to point their kids to Jesus Christ. Sometimes, we say the same things as the parents, but because we are not the parents, student's listen. This year, my staff and I have decided to beef up the parent aspect of our ministry. We are adding 2 things to help:

1. This blog will serve as a tool for parents. I will be posting 1-2 times per week with follow up outlines to my talks, recent culture news, middle school trends, valuable parenting resources, and more. My desire is to see this as a way that parents can join me in this ministry (really, I am joining parents).

2. This year, we are also going to record all of my teaching talks from Wednesday nights so that parents have access to them if they are interested in hearing what I talked about. This will help parents follow up with their sons/daughters more effectively. I start the conversation and my desire is to see the parents continue it.

Jillian and I just welcomed our first baby girl into this world on Sunday. Her name is Reese Dillon Iannetta and she is incomprehensibly beautiful! We are both very in love with her. It's crazy that she is here now after 9 months of preparation. She's better than I could have imagined. When I first had the chance to hold her for a while, I just stared at her with wonder and amazement. My eyes welled up with tears of joy. I didn't know what to do, I was so taken by her! Having this baby has made me see more of God than I thought I would. I mean she isn't doing anything for me...she is just eating, sleeping, and pooping, yet I love her like crazy. This is exactly what God's love is like for us. My love for Reese pales in comparison to God's love for me...His child. He looks at me with the same wonder and amazement...the same love and joy, but His love is perfect. And I don't have to do anything...He just loves me. Many of you reading this blog are right in the middle of parenting a middle school student and probably feel some of the same things. You love your child like crazy and it probably seems sometimes that they are not doing anything for you. I am sure you don't always revel in amazement. You don't always see them as beautiful beyond belief. There are times when your child even seems like a stranger to you. But you love them. You love them like crazy. That is God's love. I know that when Reese grows older, she will mess up and she will disappoint me, but there is one thing I know for sure. I will never stop loving her, no matter what she has done, no matter what she becomes. Why? Because this is God's love. It's unconditional. It's for me.

Any Day Now

My wife and I are expecting our first baby any day now. It's difficult not knowing when the baby will come. The unknown is always hard and more importantly, it moves us to trust God more. Over the last couple months, we have been preparing for this child to come...getting a crib, clothes, strollers, reading parenting books, and thinking about things we have never thought of before. We are making a lot of changes to our lifestyle and our house all in preparatin for our daughter. We have to be ready because when she comes, there is no turning back. She is coming and it's imminent. It started to get me thinking about Christ's return and how it is imminent and really how it will be any day now...especially in light of eternity. I was thinking about how intentional we are to prepare for our daughter's arrival, but how much less intentional people in general seem to be about preparing for Christ's return. We hear all about it all the time, but how often do we really live like His return is imminent. We go about our day planning for the future, saving money, being cautious about life, and thinking that someday we will do something great for God, but Christ could come back any day. When he does, all the things that were most important to us suddenly mean nothing. So what does preparing for Christ's return really look like? To prepare for our daughter, my wife and I have had to sacrifice quite a bit...we had to make purchases, work on the room, and read books...not to mention what my wife has to go through in her pregnancy. It's all for the child that is imminently coming. What sacrifices are you making for Christ? It's only what you do for Christ that will last. He is coming any day now and there is no stopping Him!

fathers

This year's father-son trip meant more to me than any past trip because I am only a month away from being a father myself. Watching these fathers express their love for their sons was inspiring to me. Here are a some things that I learned from this trip.

1. Men in general don't always express their true feelings, but this trip is a time when fathers unleash their love for their sons in a real way.

2. It is vital for fathers to be vulnerable around their sons especially when it comes to issues of sexual purity.

3. I think it's safe to say that the fathers on this trip grew way more than the sons. It made me realize that people grow more in their faith as parents than they ever did without kids.

4. The rugged camping atmosphere sets this trip up for success...men were meant to be in the wilderness, hiking through cavs, diving into rivers, and making fires.

5. This trip is only a way to start to opening up the lines of communication between father and son. My prayer is that it will be ongoing.

If you are a father and you don't do something like this with your son, you are seriously missing out. This is one of the favorite things I do with my job. I am back and I am already looking forward to next year.

What a difference a year makes...

I spent the past week with 25 seventh graders in Kentucky serving on a mission trip. It was a really good trip and a privilege to be a part of. This was the first year we took an all 7th grade trip and I made some observations. First of all, I realized why we don't take 6th graders on these trips. Secondly, there is a big difference between a 7th and an 8th grader. They did a great job, but I definitely could tell the difference between this trip and past trips with 8th graders. Even when we had 7th graders with 8th graders, it seemed that the 8th graders brought the level of maturity up quite a bit. Now, by no means am I saying that 8th graders are really mature and 7th graders aren't. However, the difference in maturity level was noticeable. Just another reason why this age group is so unique and why I enjoy ministering to them. They are changing every second it seems. It always seems like they teach me just as much or more than I team them. All in all, there was a lot of life change on this trip. My prayer is that it would stick. Also, my prayer is that these same students would come back next year because I can't wait to see what kind of difference a year makes!

Partnering with schools

Today, I received a call from someone at Hudson Middle School. She said that she was scheduling all the dances for the next school year and wanted to make sure that their dances didn't conflict with any of our Edge ministry events. First of all, I couldn't believe that she actually cared about this. Secondly, I love the fact that our events are actually taking enough students away from the dance that the school is actually concerned about it. That's a great encouragement to our ministry and the Edge students who are getting the word out at school.

With all of that said, I love the opportunity to partner with public schools. With the middle school in this community, there have been unbelievable chances to partner such as FCA, coaching, teachers who attend our church, the superintendent attending our church, and now this. I treasure the times I am at that school because it changes the whole ministry from "come to our territory" to "we'll come to your territory." Isn't that the way Jesus did it? He came to this earth to our territory to live among us. I am so grateful to God for the opportunities that have opened up in the schools the last couple years. My prayer is that God would use the interaction I have with students, teachers, coaches, and principals for his kingdom.

Now that the dances don't conflict with our ministry, maybe I will volunteer to chaperone at the dances...now that will be entertaining.

Thanks for letting me share my joy with you.

Time to step up to the plate, parents

A parent recently sent me an link to an article and news clip from goodmorning America. It's about how teens are viewing oral sex as no sex at all. It's a very acceptable thing to do among teens right now. On top of that, there are teenage girls actually getting paid for sexual acts, taking off clothes, etc. I am not even talking about inner city kids...I am talking about wealthy affluent community kids. It's always been bad, but it's getting really bad.

My fear is that by the time students get to high school, it's too late! With each day, I feel that middle school ministry is getting more and more vital so I am working to do my part. Honestly, I think high school is the new college and middle school is the high school. The girl in the goodmorning america video is 14.

This is stuff is happening at your kids school and maybe to your kid. Even if it's not happening to your kid, they know someone that's doing it. It's vital that parents do not choose to bury their head in the sand as so many do. Who is going to educate these kids? Who is going to tell them that oral sex is sex? Who is going to define prostitution for them? Who is going prepare them for the battle of pornography? The church? Yes. Parents? Absolutely. High school is too late for the sex talk. Middle school might be too late. What are you afraid of? It's your kids life. Step up to the plate and have the talk. It's seriously time. Christian school? I don't care. Yes, even you.

PHIFF

I got PHIFF. Do you have it?

Recently, at a retreat, I got to witness 4 students make first time decisions for Jesus Christ. It was an amazing thing! Just the other day, I met with one of the girls who made the decision. Her parents wanted me to talk with her more about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (which is really great!). I told her that knowing Christ is a guarunteed ticket to heaven with him forever and there is no changing that (Rom 8:38-39). But I also wanted her to know that it is so much more than that. After talking to her, I came up with a little acronym to show what happens to someone after they are saved. I call it PHIFF.

PURPOSE: Knowing Christ gives the believer a purpose to life. What was our purpose before Christ? Well, the truth is that whatever our purpose was, it is nothing compared to the new purpose and meaning to life. A believer knows that they are living to glorify God in all they do, to obey him, and to keep eternity in mind. (2 Timothy 2:21)

HOPE: A believer has the hope of eternity. The believer no longer just puts their hope in the next best thing that is going to happen in their life, but instead puts their hope in the only thing that lasts forever, eternal life. This means that no matter how many bad things happen throughout the course of the believers life, they will still have hope...a complete hope. (John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

IDENTITY: The believer also has a brand new identity. Once someone is saved, he is a new creation. That person belongs to Christ. The believer no longer is identified by the way they look, the friends they have, or how good they are at a certain sport or instrument. Those things all come in a very distand second to the fact that they were purchased by the blood of Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

FREEDOM: Freedom is given to those who know Christ. Many people think that following Jesus means that you have less freedom because you have to follow a lot of rules. Not true. True freedom comes from being free from the power of sin. No longer is the believer a slave to sin. Sin is not freedom but only slavery to that sin. Christ's death liberated us from the sin that owned us. (Galatians 5:1)

FAMILY: The believer also gets a brand new family. That person still has their immediate family, but now the believer just made their family a lot bigger. There is now a special bond among other believers. You are on the same page, you have support, love, and accountability. We were made to have community with other believers...we cannot do this life alone. (Acts 2:42-47)

While this is not an exhaustive list of everything that happens to a believer, it is really important to share these things. Knowing Christ is so much more than just a free ticket to heaven...you get purpose, hope, a new identity, freedom from sin, and a new huge family in Christ. You get PHIFF!

Walls

I have been listening to this song lately called True Love, by Phil Wickaham. It's all about the love of Jesus in death that broke down the wall of sin that seperated us from God. It's amazing! All of us are a part of putting the wall up between us in God...every time we sin...but in one amazing and miraculous event in history, the God of the universe destroyed the hideous wall by dying to pay our debt of sin. As I work with middle school students, I want them to realize their part in putting up the wall of sin and more importantly Christ's part in destroying that. It's the most important thing they could ever know...i hope you will join me in this! I found this video that shows this so much better than I could explain. Remember the unfathomable love of Jesus, today!

Life is hard.

This week, I saw many middle school students impacted by their first real tragedy. A Hudson Middle School teacher who also attended our church was arrested for showing an inappropriate video to a middle school boy. This teacher was so devastated that a few days later, he took his own life. Most middle school students cannot wrap their minds around such a tragic series of events with someone they knew and looked up to. I had the task of ministering to students impacted by this tragedy. My job, as their pastor, was to help them by responding biblically, but the bottom line is that this is terrible. For the first time, middle school students began to realize that life is hard. It's so important to remind them that Jesus himself said, "In this world, you will have trouble." I mean Jesus has given a ton of incredible promises throughout Scripture, but this one is not so easy to swallow. The truth is...life is hard and this won't be the last tragedy some of these students experience throughout their life. Let's not lie to them...let's not tell them following Christ equals an easy life. They must know the truth. But let's also make sure we finish Jesus words in John 16:33. It says, "In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Followers of Jesus live with a hope that all terrible things in life will come to an end because Jesus has overcome it all.

Walk with Them

Just this week, I met with a student whose dad is dying of cancer. This is something that no 13 year old boy should have to deal with. After all, being 13 is difficult enough. This day in age is the hardest it's ever been for middle school students. On top of dealing with peer pressure, popularity, puberty, and sexual issues, they are faced with family deaths, parental divorces, single parent homes, illnesses, violence, abuse, and the list goes on. My heart goes out to them, but my mind keeps going back to how vital it is for every student to have an adult to walk through the teen years with. Someone who is not their parent. Someone who will listen. Someone who will care. Someone who will be there. Someone who loves them with the love of Jesus. If not, who will be there through the tough times? And most importantly, how will they respond to death, divorce, and illness? In my ministry, it is our goal to make sure that each student has an adult they can turn to. Someone to walk through life with. While we have not completely accomplished our goal, I love watching students form relationships with adults who care. It is happening in our ministry and we are looking for more of it. This particular boy whose dad is dying didn't have that person in his life, but his mom pursued one. Does your middle school student have that? If not, I strongly suggest you find someone. It can make all the difference.