Mission 2 Mission

I will be leaving with about 50 other people from our church bright and early in the morning headed for a town in south Texas called Mission. Ironically enough, we are calling this a mission trip. Mission to Mission. Yep, ironic. Last year's trip proved to be fruitful and eye-opening as I trust this year's experience will be much the same. It is a great privilege to be able to serve in this capacity and I am filled with mixed emotions. God will do great things through this little trip and I am thankful that He has made this possible. Be in prayer for the recipients of the gospel for they are a huge part of our motivation. Also, pray for our hearts to be aligned with God's Spirit in order that we would represent Him well.

Summit: Open House

Well, last night our youth group hosted our first Summit: Open House. The reason for this event was to give the "young at heart" a taste of our weekly program. It allowed us to minister to the adults in a pretty fun and creative way. The concept of purposely putting these groups of people together was very intimidating to me, especially given the topic of our discussion. Our students definitely proved themselves to be huge contributers. They brought a certain spice that only they can. The topic of the discussion was basically the idea of youth and mature teaming up to achieve one common goal: Becoming disciples, creating disciples, and glorifying Christ.

The crisis is that we are faced with young boys and girls who are crying out to be taught how to be become Godly men and women. We, as the Church, have dropped the ball and so allowed our youngsters to walk through life with little to no guidance. Thus we have, in John and Stasi Eldredge's words, a world full of un-intiated men and women. These folks are left to figure out life on their own. Mom and Dad have exited the highway many miles ago. Others have determined that they needn't overstep their boundaries. Hey, "The school system can handle it," or "Why not let our government step in," we reason. Unfortunately this mindset may prove to be a major downfall for our youth. Instead we must take a more proactive approach. We must engage.

Joe White, who has been regarded as knowing more about teenagers than anyone in North America, has much to say on this topic. First and foremost, we must realize the power of parents. The roles of the mother and father must be taken with much seriousness and responsibility. They are on the front lines, so to speak, in the battle for creating disciples of youth. When they embrace their God-ordained responsibility families become stronger and youth develop more maturely.

But the local church also has a responsibility. And perhaps this role isn't necessarily as clear as it needs to be. The local church should be pooling its resources to provide families with the knowledge and the ability to develop disciples in the home. When the "church family" takes priority over the family at home then our vision of what's truly important becomes skewed. Rather than parent's realizing their responsibility to develop disciples in the home they forfeit that job to the local church's youth program. This only becomes the job of the church when, sadly enough, children are orphaned and have no other parental figures to show them the way. No, I don't believe the local church was designed to raise kids properly. The local church is far more than that (perhaps a topic for another discussion). By equipping families properly the local church offers a service that will indeed help fulfill its mandates, thus glorifying Christ and making disciples.

Hear my heart on this: I am not attacking family or church. I am only delivering my perspective on a possible cause to the given crisis coupled with a possilbe (and I think highly probable) solution. Whatever it takes, though, my prayer is to see people becoming disciples, creating disciples, and glorifying Christ.