In December we decided to offer water baptism for our HS students in the gym (where we normally meet) during a Wednesday night service. In the past, the only 2 options for students to be baptized were in our Sunday worship services along with adults or at our Summer Camp in Panama City Beach, FL. We wanted to offer students an opportunity to go public in front of their friends in our worship context. So we bought a portable swimming pool and set it up in the gym. Several students were baptized that night, including one who took advantage of our spontaneous invitation toward the end. Below is a story I wrote for one of our church communication pieces about a young man who went public with his faith that night.
It all started with a conversation about religion.
That’s how Jacob Gillespie describes the events that led him to Mt. Paran North for the first time. Jacob is a 17 year old student at Sprayberry High School who began attending the High School ministry at North in the Spring of ’09. He was friends with MPN member Amy Sever and one night while they were talking she asked him about religion and his beliefs. He described his current views about the church and religion that he admits were not based on personal experience and just on perceptions since his family “never talked about church or religion”. However, Amy told him that his beliefs were similar to those of her church and invited him to come with her to a service. Though he claimed to be “afraid of church” and not wanting to get “sucked into the mess I thought it was” he accepted her invitation.
He goes on to say, “I had originally planned to wait until I was 18 to go to church just to avoid any influence from my family as to where to go and what to believe. I wanted my beliefs to be my own, but I knew I had an empty place in me that could not be filled by anything the earth has to offer.” So he began attending the High School Wednesday night worship service and Sunday School class with David and Helene Hindman before joining in the Sunday morning services in the Sanctuary. This thing he was once afraid of began to make him feel “complete” and “happy”.
After going to the HS summer camp in Florida his understanding of God began to grow. He said, “I learned that as a human I wasn’t too insignificant to matter to such a supreme entity because he loved me, and it was just that simple.” He started to use the skills he had been taught at camp to pray and read God’s Word, which brought on so many more questions.
Thankfully Amy’s parents, Charles and Sheila Sever were there with understanding and patience to answer his questions. Jacob said, “They would take any question I had, no matter how blasphemous, crazy, or disrespectful it was and calmly answer it because they understood my thirst was simply for knowledge and they were more then willing to help quench it.”
When we announced that we were going to offer water baptism in a HS Wednesday night service during December, Jacob knew immediately it was for him. He invited his family, and they enthusiastically agreed to be there for such a big moment in his life. On that December night Jacob was baptized and here is how he describes what he felt:
“When I finally came out of the water, I didn’t feel much different but somehow, I don’t know, I just felt clean. I know, ‘of course you felt clean that’s the point’ but it was weird. Like no matter how hard I could scrub in the tub there were these metaphorical crevices of muck and grime I just could not clean. I had never really noticed it before because it was all gradually accumulating, but when I came up I knew it was all gone.”
That night, the outward expression of baptism finally matched the inward change in his life over the previous few months. However, this story isn’t just about Jacob Gillespie. It’s about Amy Sever. It’s about her parents. It’s about the Gillespie family. It’s about the cross intersecting with a boy who’s family never talked about religion.
So he stepped into the pool with his family and friends sitting on the front row, and started talking about his new found religion!
This picture is my mom holding my youngest son Tucker. He is 8 months old and already a sweet little kid who loves and fears his 2 older brothers at the same time.
Tucker has had trouble swallowing since he was very small. He nursed well almost from birth but as we tried to make the switch to baby food, solid food, bottles, sippy cups, etc he couldn’t do it. My poor wife has literally tried every kind of bottle known to man…he won’t take it.
At his most recent doctor visit his measurements showed him to be in just the 3% range for weight. So even though he is 8 months old, he measures like a 4 month old. Needless to say the doctor was concerned, and diagnosed him as “Failure to Thrive”. She very much attributes this to the fact that he cannot be sustained and continue to grow at the necessary pace on the consistency of the breast milk that has gotten him to this point. He needs more calories. He needs thicker foods. He needs food that will fatten him up and help him continue to grow like he needs too. She has given us some tips to try and referred us to a specialist. (Thankfully, after much prayer and patience he has begun eating a little better)
I am confronted by this idea of failure to thrive in ministry to students. How many of my students are still trying to live on the milk when they should have already moved on to the baby food, and solids and meat? A statement I heard that I love is, “don’t allow the longevity of a kid in our ministry to cause you to equate that with their spiritual maturity.” We must continue to prod them. We must continue to challenge them with “food” that will help them to grow. Eventually they have to become self-feeders. Corrie can’t be Tucker’s only source of food very much longer or it will be detrimental to his growth. The same is true of our students or me or you. They must be taught the skills of Bible reading, prayer, devotion, meditation, fasting, solitude, worship, etc.
If not we run the risk of having lots of babies who never get off the milk and aren’t strong enough to survive.
“By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.” (Hebrews 5:12-14 MSG) (via youversion.com)
In my quest to lose a little weight this year I am working out a little more regularly. One of my favorite ways to get some cardio in is playing basketball. At my local YMCA 5 nights a week are open gym nights where anyone can play some pick-up 5 on 5. I’ve been over there a few times with mixed results.
Last night I went and was able to play in a few games before they closed. In the first game I was guarding a guy named “D”. Great guy and I enjoyed talking a little trash with him throughout the night. He was by far one of the fastest guys I’ve ever seen on a court in person. This created problems for me, as my greatest strength is not the swiftness of my feet.
One problem, “D” couldn’t finish. He would blow right by people into the lane and realize he had gotten too far under the basket and have to throw a bad shot up toward the rim. Or he would get a rebound on our end of the court and take it the length of the floor only to dribble it off his foot just before he went up. Or he would make a spin move and attempt to pass it to a teammate streaking to the basket and throw it behind him.
I have never claimed in life or ministry to be the “flashiest” guy. I realize there are student pastors, husbands and fathers that get it right with way more regularity than me. That being said I hope that one thing I offer is consistency. Steadiness. Faithfulness. Those are qualities I admire in others and attempt to live out in my own life. To me this looks like:
- Under promising and over delivering.
- Giving the same effort for an event of 10 that I would 1000.
- Showing my wife affection like I did when we were dating…or more!
- Investing in my kids as much as I do in my job.
- Not creating new visions, ministries, goals, and theologies on a whim because of the latest book, sermon, or conference I’ve enjoyed.
- Starting out like I can hold (thanks to my Peepaw Lanier for this one)
It may look different for you. Just some thoughts from the Y!
December 14, 2009 at 11:25 am · Filed under Family, Personal
This picture was taken when my wife Corrie and I were 15 (though obviously we weren’t married yet ). At that point we had known each other for about 2 years, and our friendship was a lot of fun. A few months after this picture we would date for a little less than 4 months. Before and after that short tryst we both dated other people…all the while, remaining friends.
In college our friendship grew. I confided in my roommate that I really liked her a lot, but was afraid we were now in what Joey and Ross referred to as the “friend-zone”. Her mom badgered her about why she didn’t just date me. Her reply was always, “He’s just my friend.” My mom didn’t believe us.
I got a job working at a church as a part-time youth pastor and my friend Corrie helped me connect with the girls. Our heart for ministry and the increased amounts of time spent together only deepened our bond. In January ‘03 my pastor called for a Solemn Assembly of 40 days for prayer and fasting. Both Corrie and I, unbeknownst to the other, participated in the fasting component. Neither of us were asking God for a mate, we were asking Him for clarity about the future, a sense of purpose in life, and a growing relationship with Him. The 40 days ended on a Friday…we went on our first date the following Saturday night.
On Tuesday I called my mom and told her I needed help finding a ring. A few weeks later I went to a youth conference in Nashville, TN. I had a couple of rings shipped to the hotel from a jeweler/family friend. I picked the one I liked and sent them back to have it sized. Then I talked to Corrie’s mom and received her blessing.
9 years after meeting her, but only 6 weeks after dating her, I asked Corrie to marry me on a Wednesday night in a youth service in front of the students we had been ministering too, together. I told her that night, “this place seems fitting to start our life together, because ministry is what we are committing our lives too, together.” It didn’t have the Hollywood effect of roses and candlelight, but it had a certain understated quality that fit our lives pretty well. She said yes, by the way.
A few months later I accepted my first full-time ministry position and moved to Mobile, AL…alone…but only for a short time. 7 weeks later Corrie and I stood in her home church to pledge our love for one another.
6 years later, we have added 3 little boys to our family:
…and oh how that has made life fun.
I don’t know what the future holds, but if the last 6 years are any indication it’s going to be an unbelievable ride! I’m so happy this little girl
My friends Jared and Ashley Waldrop are moving from their place of ministry the past 4 years to a new place of ministry. They will do very well there, no doubt in my mind.
For lack of a better term, I grew up with Ashley. Our parents were friends before we were born, so we spent lots of time together in sporadic increments in our early years. Life and ministry took our families apart and we saw less of each other in our teenage years.
Jared, I don’t know as well. I met him while we were in college. I have always liked him. We see each other far fewer times a year than I would like. But I watch their life and ministry from afar with great admiration.
As he leaves his current church he created a list of the things they’ve heard him say during his time there in messages, at lunch, etc. It’s a great list, worth your time. Here’s a snippet:
1. Love God. Love People. Let everything else flow out of that.
3. What you do today is forecasting your tomorrow. Your choices matter.
9. You’ll never feel more alive or more like Jesus that when you’re helping others.
10. Spirit vs. flesh – what you feed will win. Feed your spirit.
20. Pray. And stay around people that do.
21. Guard your influences. Guard your eyes and ears. Keep the Godly close.
24. Sowing wild oats isn’t worth it. Ever. You reap what you sow.
25. Go. Mission trips, conferences, retreats… get away, let God speak to you.
26. Be a catalyst for Godly change without becoming cynical. Keep a firm resolve while staying tenderhearted.
December 7, 2009 at 3:24 pm · Filed under Family, Personal
Yesterday Cooper participated with his K4-5 choir in our Kid’s Christmas Musical at the church. He had a little speaking part in between songs, and he really prepared over the last few weeks making sure he had his part memorized. He also dressed himself because he wanted to look “like a preacher”. I thought the size of the crowd would freak him out a little, but he said he was “only a little bit nervous”.
November 19, 2009 at 2:53 pm · Filed under Personal
This feels like a post I should make on my birthday, but that’s still 7 months away. This is actually something that came from my twitter account (FOLLOW ME HERE) earlier today.
I wrote in successive tweets:
I was confronted in the last 24 hours with the fact that I’m getting older. Here’s how I know:
1) I’m shrinking. I used to be a lot closer to the 6ft mark on the gas station door height measuring sticker
2) In a mtg this morning a man was casting a very big vision and I felt his timeline for accomplishing it was too ambitious (hate this one)
3) I was ticked last night that I missed the 2nd half of the previous days “Deal or No Deal” episode to see how well the guy did
I would also add:
4) The difference in time between when I wake up now and when I went to bed in college is rapidly decreasing
5) I made a reference to a show the other night, and most of my high school students hadn’t been born yet when the show was on the air
There are many more I’m sure, but what are some things in your life that point to the fact that you’re getting older?
Often times our lack for intentional investments steals our attention towards bigger and better dreams, rather then, the community you live in…Living life investing into next opportunities most of the time will sour influence…So here is a question:
“What would happen if you invested into one idea and one community your entire life?”
It’s a challenging read from a great guy. Give it a look!
November 12, 2009 at 3:39 pm · Filed under Personal
Tomorrow I am getting to do something that I have to do every few months to stay sane! I’m taking a dream day.
Now the name is a little misleading, because I’m not going to sit around and daydream all day. It’s a refueling, planning, preparation day (with some dreaming involved).
Each of these days looks different. In the past I have taken dream days at a coffee shop and stayed there for 7-8 hours just writing things in a book or typing on my laptop. Another was at a camp up in the mountains. You get the idea.
Tomorrow’s version will take place between here and Asheville, NC (where I will be speaking on Saturday). It is my plan to map out the rest of the 2010 events and series calendar, series development for the next few months, some staff and volunteer development issues, and spend some quality time talking and listening to the Lord.
It serves as a Sabbath of sorts for me, and allows me to push from reactive leadership and ministry to proactive.
How do you make that move from reactive to proactive?
Yesterday our College Pastor, Justin Walker, unveiled the new name, brand, website and philosophy for college students here at North. You can visit the site at cornerstonempn.com and read about some of the others things mentioned above.
Justin came on board with us back in June. Since then he has gotten married to his high school sweetheart, Amanda, and started in the Masters of Theological Studies program at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
I’m so excited about what is happening in this community of students, and what the future holds for them. There’s nothing earth-shattering about this approach but it is very different in intentionality and philosophy of success than what we’ve done in the past and what’s being done for college students in other places.
Justin’s contact info is on the website if you’d like to dialogue with him about this new endeavor.
Last night was a powerful night. We started a new series called “The Price is Right” and will, for the next few weeks, be looking at the cost of God’s “free” gift of grace.
The talk last night was a typical week 1 message. I defined some terms (grace, mercy, forgiveness, etc) to make it easier for us to all move forward together in the remainder of the series. I then looked at Romans 6 and to the flagstone verse of John 3:16 to really understand what grace was all about and how we are supposed to respond.
I was very transparent in a story from my past about getting into credit card trouble in college and my parents “bailing me out”. They extended grace to me by paying for my mistakes. I described the difference in my use of a credit card and my friend’s use of his dad’s “in case of emergency” card.
I talked to our students about the difference in genuine struggles with sin issues and temptation vs a flippant attitude about the grace of God.
I then confronted these 2 groups of people that I felt like were sitting in the room listening to my talk. Those who were genuinely struggling with sin issues, but sincerely trying to overcome them with the help of the Lord were only swiping “daddy-God’s” credit card of grace in case of emergency, and I encouraged them to keep fighting, keep chasing, don’t give up.
But there are those who swipe “daddy-God’s” credit card of grace often to fulfill their own desires and on a whim. Then they come to Him on Sundays and Wednesdays and hand Him all their receipts and ask Him to pay the bill. They do this week after week after week. I stated that for these people, “you may have misunderstood the point of Jesus coming to earth.”
The band came back up and sang “Decode” by Paramore (one great lyric: “How did we get here when I used to know you so well? How did we get here? Well I think I know.) Then I closed us out.
- I didn’t bring our students to the altar.
- I didn’t have them repeat after me.
- I didn’t “finish” the sermon.
Instead of putting a big bow on the end of it, I left it for them to “finish” on their own.
Is that safe for students?
How do you feel about that?
I wrote this post as a draft on the day of the following event a few weeks ago, but have held it until now. I maintained the present tense of my original entry.
—
Today I had what was by far one of the most difficult days I have ever experienced in ministry or otherwise.
I was a part of some conversations where 2 people I have worked closely with in Student Ministries and that I care for deeply were told their positions were being eliminated. Neither of them have done anything wrong. Both of them are hard workers.
But as part of a larger evaluation of our organization it was decided that their positions (along with several others in our church) were no longer needed in their present form.
The decisions were not made because of financial troubles at the church. The decision was made after the launch of our new ministry vision and an effort to evaluate our current ministries, which in turn led to a look at personnel.
That look revealed that we were overstaffed in comparison to other churches our size and in relation to our total budget. That’s the easy part of the process. The next parts became more difficult.
After identifying the problem, now you have to start looking at actual positions filled by actual people.
Our pastor, Dr. Mark Walker, and Executive Pastor, Dr. Kirk Walters, led this process well and have, in my opinion, treated the departing personnel with dignity and compassion both personally and financially.
With that being said…some people I love got some bad news today and I hate it for them!
In our student ministry staff meeting today we had an incredible conversation about what our role should be within our local church body, and how that affects the way our environments for students are set up.
For example, are we supposed to reach students in relevant environments that appeal to them and their needs while operating on the DNA (the vision for ministry) of our local church?
or
Should we recognize our role as a conduit to help students grow in a relationship with the Lord before they eventually are “handed off” to our Adult ministries and general programs, corporate worship gatherings, etc?
If you chose option 1 then the style, programming, etc is dictated by the culture of students while being filtered by the over-arching vision.
If you chose option 2 then the style, programming, etc also contains a filter of how our adult environments operate.
And too muddy the water even more, if option 1 is your choice, and for many it probably would be, how can we have student specific services that are very different from our adult gatherings and still help students integrate into the larger church body or feel comfortable in those settings.
I’m sure this is a struggle for a number of churches, but I would especially see this as a problem for more traditional churches like ours. The Sundays include a choir, full orchestra, lots of people including the Pastors on stage wear suits, the offering is taken with gold plates The main college environment is more conversational in style, does not offer a band, but more reflective personal worship times, etc. How can we help bridge the gap between our Student services and our main corporate services if the cultures of these environments are extremely different?
Josh Griffin is a great resource for anyone in youth/student ministry, and seems to be a great guy in general. His blog always provides practical and simple insights for ministry to students. So when I got the opportunity to read his book of actual and blog-type entries I jumped at the chance.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the book is super cheap, so anyone can afford this book, and small so it’s an easy read. It’s only $4.99 if you buy 1, and they get cheaper if you buy them in bulk. Second, anyone from Vicky Volunteer to Freddy Fulltimer can use the principles in the book. The way it’s broken down you don’t have to work at the church 9-5 or even be the lead youth pastor or leader to understand and appreciate it. There are principles about events, staff, leaders, interns and personal development and care. Here are a few of my favorites:
-Volunteers: Bring Someone Along
Youth ministry isn’t meant to be done alone. Any project you are working on should have some volunteer component. Many hands make the load light.
– Is there an adult volunteer I can share this with?
– Who on our volunteer team could take charge of this?
– Is there a student leader who has the skill for this project?
Bring something to the meeting
If you’re headed into a meeting, be a good teammate and be prepared for it. Spend a few minutes in research. Spend a few minutes coming up with ideas. Spend a few minutes praying about it. Spend a few minutes searching for a solution to the problem you’re meeting about. The meeting doesn’t start when everyone gets there; be prepared before you walk through the door.
Obviously there are a bunch more, but you get the idea. It’s bite-sized truths for ministry in our context…and you get a few free because there’s more than 99 Thoughts in the book…
RT @jasonisaacs I watch "A time to kill" about once a year, and it seems to make me hate white people for about 24 hours afterwards//so true 2 days ago
Headed to Cooper's tee-ball tryout & draft today. Another monumental moment for me as a dad. I'm his coach already but still should be fun! 2 days ago
Awesome lunch with some great pastors and youth pastors at an FCA lunch. Loved Kingdom-based conversation as opposed to denom-based convo 4 days ago
This is my personal blog. Most of what is written is my opinion, observation, original thought, or things I find interesting somewhere else. While I am employed by Mt. Paran North, the things expressed here are not endorsed or necessarily accepted by Mt. Paran North or it's leadership. So don't go sue the church because you don't agree with something I write. Just post a comment and tell me I'm an idiot. It'll just be better for all of us.
and started in the Masters of Theological Studies program at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.