Case in point

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Guess what? Yesterday, it was just like God has read my post (it's funny how that happens - God is omniscent, omnipresent, omnipotent).

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At BUMC Sunday mornings see over 100 7th and 8th graders pass through the doors into Sunday School. This is a time for celebration and for praise. We, as leaders, need to do an awful lot of talking at the front of the group...with the dreaded microphone...to direct this large number of kids through the activities and then the devotion.

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To be honest, I don't really like talking through a mic, or feel the most comfortable with such a large large group - especially as it's only my 2nd week and I don't really know any of the kids yet. So, I guess I have just convinced myself that I'm better at leading smaller groups, using the excuse that, "it's what I'm used it".

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However, I had a 7th grade boy come up to me amidst a lettuce-related activity yesterday (you can ask about that yourself) and say how good he thought I was at annoucing stuff through the microphone. I was so humbled and yet didn't really have time to process what had just happened. Later on in the day I realised that this was a case in point. This was an unexpected thing, a blessing, from an unexpected person. In many ways it was a little thing, on the other hand his encouragement was more sincere and more powerful than one from another leader.

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Isn't it good to know that God is faithful even in the little things that we are concerned with. I definately thought it was a wow moment!

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Great unexpected things

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You know, I think that some of the greatest lessons we learn in life are unexpected ones, and generally from unexpected people, in unexpected circumstances! Often we only recognise these moments of learning some time after the moment has passed.

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I think this is linked with engrained prejudices and culturally presumed capabilities. A book written by 2 twin teenagers deals with this from the perspective of the adolsecent - Alex and Brett Harris' book "Do Hard Things: A teenage rebellion against low expectations" (have a look at their website http://www.therebelution.com/) says this:

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"When you look around today, in terms of godly character and practical competence, our culture does not expect much of us young people. We are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but we're expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations."

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Do we expect to learn great things from teenagers and younger kids? In fact, we probably have similar prejudices for lots of different sub-categories of people: our culture sometimes does not respect the opinions and views of the elderly; of the immigrant; of the single adult...the list could go on. Would you expect great things from these people? Would you expect to learn great things from any of these people? Or do we assume that because they are not the same as us, they has nothing to offer us in terms of wisdom and advice? In the bible God challenges us to consider our hearts:

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2 Corinthians 13:5 says " Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves."

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Matthew 7:1-3 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbour's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt?"

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We cannot assume that just because we are Christians and church-goers, even in ministrial positions, that our default attitude is one of perfect impartiality. Look again at this reference from Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

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It's a painful realisation, when you find out that your not always right and don't always know what's best. You discover that perhaps someone elses idea is better than your own and that you are wrong (sometimes) - now there's something that I haven't entirely got yet - my friends can testify to that! But, there is hope (not a cop-out):

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1 John 3:20-24 "For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us."

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Let us throw of our prejudices and partiality - let us expect great unexpected things from unexpected sources. Respect others and remember to humble ourselves, because in building one another up we are all stronger!

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Let's raise our expectations, because with God NOthing is impossible!

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Merge - First Sunday

Hello,

The meeting room (107 kids altogether)

me, Trey and Regina (the leaders)

Frozen T-shirt competition

Just a few photos from the first Sunday at Merge (BUMC's 7th and 8th Grade ministry)

Update!

As a reminder of what I’m doing out here in Nashville, TN

* Junior High Ministry (“Merge”) at Brentwood United Methodist Church >>>>>(primarily with 7th-8th grade girls, 12-14years old) [Aug 2008 – Oct 2008]
* Youth Intern at Spring Hill campus of BUMC (Junior High Ministry) [Nov 2008 – Aug 2010]
* CYMT student (Youth Ministry) [Aug 2008 – Aug 2010]
* Vanderbilt Divinity student [Aug 2008 – May 2010] >>>>>(Semester 1 = Constructive Theology) [Aug 2008 – Dec 2008]

Key people
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BUMC Youth Ministry team: Travis Garner, Trey Carey, Lindsay Brooks, Allison Fasig, Regina Rigney, Ann Porter, James Wells, me
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Spring Hill Ministry team: Mack Strange, Susan Huckaby, Courtney Williams, me
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CYMT staff: Dietrich Kirk, Lesleigh Carmichael, Keeley Kirk, Chris Andrews
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CYMT coach: Jacob Fasig
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CYMT (class of 2008): Anthony Harless, Samantha Tidball, Sara Ellet, Kate Adcock, Jason Woodall, Adam Simpson, Lauren Brooks, me
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Vanderbilt (class of 2008 + class of 2007): Joel Bruerd, Jon Snape, Joey Willis, Steph Dodge, Daniel McGarry


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Let's take this outside!

Hello everyone,

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It's great to have received so many emails in reply to my second prayer letter. If you are reading this and have not seen that yet - please leave your email address in a comment and I'll forward it on to you.

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This past week (Monday 4th-Sunday 10th) has been crazy. Orientation at CYMT (The Center for Youth Ministry) started on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we had a Rookie Retreat at Lakeshore UMC Assembly near Kentucky Lake. The second year students joined us freshers on Thursday and we packed up and left on Friday. On Saturday I wrote out my first assignment and Sunday I was introduced to the Youth at BUMC (Brentwood). Also, this evening both Mack and myself drove down to Spring Hill to have a look around and go to a 6.15pm service at Grace Park Baptist, a 3 year old church in the area. The population in this part of Tennessee has increased from 980 in 1980 to 7,000 in 2000 and today it is nearer 24,000.

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The title of this blog comes from the morning service at BUMC. It was a call to the church of today to rise up and be counted in mission and outreach to a fallen world. Let us not hold the truth of the gospel of grace inside our four walls, but instead let us burst out, over-flow with love and generousity into a world that is the complete opposite. The thing that I am begining to appreciate about Youth Ministry is the openness to radical change and the boldness to do difficult things. But, this call is not just for teenagers, it is for the whole body of Christ. I met an American lady yesterday in Spring Hill, she had never been to Europe let alone anywhere in the UK, but she told me that she has been praying for revival in Ireland and Scotland for many years. She wanted me to tell her what the church in those places was like. What are Christians in Ireland and Scotland doing? What does the church look like? What impact is it making to the surrounding society and the culture in which it is embedded? What would you have told her...

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Let's take this incredible, uncontainable hope outside! The souls of our family-members, friends and neighbours are at stake - do we truly believe that God has entrusted to us the responsibility of communicating his Lordship and sovereignity in this world? Let's rise up!

What it feels like to be a clay pot!

I've just returned from a wonderful 2 day trip to North Carolina and come to the realisation, as if I didn't know fully before now, how privileged I am to be in this place and have the opportunity to live, train and work with these amazing people. It's difficult at any time to come to terms with your own sense of inadequacy and by humbled by those you see and meet, but it's an ev en greater experience to be lifted up and encouraged by those very same individuals. To be reminded that:

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"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zep 3.17)

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To be told that:

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"Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Cor 3.4-6)

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And:

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"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil 4.13)

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God is faithful to all these promises and despite our weaknesses he reigns in truth. He is strong and can overcome the obstacles that, as clay pots, we risk collapsing under. If there's anything that I have learnt over this past 8 days here in Nashville, it is that ministry, or any sort, is a difficult calling to work out. It is impossible for any human being to be faithful to their calling on their own, it is God who uses us as instruments of his will. 2 Corinthians 4.1ff says that:

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"Since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. Onthe contrary. by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man;s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing...For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake...we have treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from Godin the face of Christ. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

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I could go on and on, but remember this - it is Christ not us, it is to his glory not ours and it is his strength that conquers and pervails even as our weaknesses are weighing us down. But proud in being a clay pot - we may get in the way if we were greater than what we are.