Gotta A Good Thing Going

Last night after Young Life Club, I remembered that I wasn't going to be able to be at Campaigners on Wednesday morning as usual.  We have 8 - 15 guys who show up for a our weekly Campaigner Bible Study at 6:00am at a local coffee shop just around the corner from the high school.  Anyway, I wasn't going to be able to lead on Wednesday and when I checked with the other leader who usually comes he told me he wasn't going to be able to be there either.

So, I started to walk around the room and let the guys know we wouldn't be having Campaigners this week.

That's when Mitch & Vinnie decided they didn't need no stinkin' leader.

Vinnie's voice boomed over the music on our sound system.  "Hey everyone!  Guys campaigners, Wednesday morning at Barnie's.  Mitch & I will be leading it."

What a blessing for me to hear for 2 reasons.  First, it's obvious these guys love coming to Campaigners.  It amazes me that they all get up so early every week to hang out with us and read God's word.  And, number 2, that these guys are willing to take the initiative to read scripture with their friends and discuss it on their own blows me away.  That's just super cool.

I can't wait to hear how it goes.

Small Group Help - CT Website

Christianity Today has a website specifically for small group leaders.  It's called smallgroups.com (can't believe that domain was available) and It's designed to meet the need many churches have as their small group ministries grow.  I haven't had a chance to look at all of it, but there's some good stuff that I think I might either use outright or at least get some ideas from for my Campaigner group.

Christian Today launched the new site to equip small-group leaders with thousands of articles, ideas, and icebreakers for their meetings; over 50 downloadable training tools leaders can share and discuss or use for personal development; over 200 customizable and downloadable Bible Studies; and an expert panel of small-group leaders and authors that answer difficult questions pertaining to small-group ministry.

There are prices listed on most of the stuff, but right now that price is $0.00.  Might want to take advantage of this before there is a charge.  I don't know if that's in their plans or not.

Gospel-Centered Everything...Even Topical Discussions

I've had some great discussions over the past year or so about making Jesus central to every Young Life talk we do. That's easy most of the time, but challenging when it comes to particularly the Sin talk - telling kids about our separation from God due to our sinfulness. But still, Jesus is & should be central to everything we teach, even when it comes to specific topical teaching & discussions.

Resurgence posted some thoughts under the title "Gospel-Centered Discipleship: How It Looks" and I love this statement.

A gospel-centered church does not just preach the gospel. The gospel is not an addition to our ministry or even a beginning point; rather, the gospel must saturate every part of our church's life.

I understand the value of topic-based discussions, especially in Campaigners. Kids seem to always want to talk about topics that "apply to their lives", and it's a temptation as leaders to give in, plan for, & do an entire discussion on some topic but leave out the gospel, as if the gospel doesn't "apply to their lives." The gospel needs to be in and through everything we do.

So, how do we do that?

1. Rely on scripture. The gospel runs through scripture, so if we are using it Jesus will be central.
2. Most "topical" discussions that kids want to talk about are usually about their misguided responses to a longing for deep relationship with God. Keep that in mind & steer discussions toward Jesus.

I would take the whole Gospel thing one step further & say we should not only apply it to church, but to our own lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ must saturate every part of our lives.

Model Quiet Times For Your Kids

I began meeting one-on-one with one of my school's most committed Christians. He's been in Young Life for 4 years and is a Wyld Life Leader, too.

We started meeting before school every Thursday morning to do some mentoring/discipleship. About the third week into our meetings, we talked about quiet times. Turns out, he has a really difficult time knowing what to do when he sits down to spend some time with God. It actually has made him not make them a priority, because (these are my words) it almost seems like a waste of time to him.

That got me thinking about our other kids. How are we leading our Campaigner kids in the most basic Christian discipline, spending some alone time with God? They don't know how to pray, they don't know what to read, and I realized I haven't done a good job of leading them.

I decided to model quiet times for him, so that's what we did for the next few weeks. We sat at Denny's and had quiet times together. I also told him what I had done in my quiet time that morning, what I had read and what I had prayed about.

I think it's also important to give them some sort of structure for their quiet time. Let them know God is not interested in the structure, but that it gives them a starting place from which to build their own quiet time routine.

Think about how uncomfortable it is to just sit next to someone with nothing to say, especially if you just met that person. It's the same with our relationship with Christ. We need to have something to do together, at least at the beginning. There is of course something to be said of those who reach a point in a relationship where just being together is bliss, but for those in a new relationship, we need to teach them some structure.

Here's what I taught my friend.

1. Pray that God would teach you something while you read the Bible.
2. Pick a book of the Bible you will read consistently. I talked to my friend about books that appeal more to the heart and books that appeal more to the head. For instance, I love Proverbs, because I like thinking about wisdom and how to live. My friend is more sensitive and prefers to read Psalms. It would be a good idea to lead new Christians to one of the gospels, but don't shy away from the chance to explain different books of the Bible.
3. Read a chapter.
4. Ask. What is God trying to teach? Why did He put this passage in the Bible? How should this affect my relationship with God? How should it affect the way I live?
5. Pray the scripture back to God.
6. Spend time praying for others.
7. Pray for yourself.

Incidently, I know a lot of leaders don't have consistent quiet time, either. So let me encourage you to do that. It's impossible to lead our kids in their relationship if we are not spending time getting to know Christ better ourselves.

Resources...

Gocampus.org - Quiet Times
All About God - Quiet Times - An Appointment
Myquiettimes.com - Ideas for Your Devotional Times
Time With Jesus - A little corny (and centered), but an example of someone who really values their time with Christ.

My Utmost for His Highest: Orange Cover (My Utmost for His Highest)