It's been a while since I actively used this blog, but it's now up and running to be used as a forum to engage, reflect on, further develop Saturday Night's message throughout the following week.
By Monday or Tuesday one to two people will post response/reflections on the message. The Comment section will then be wide open to ask further questions, add insights, or further contribute.
The goal of all of this is that we might become better "Doers" of the word, rather than just "hearers."
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Youth Ministry Portfolio - Questionaire
YOUTH MINISTRY QUESTIONAIRE
Please take a few minutes to answer these questions honestly. If the question doesn’t make sense do try to consider what it is asking, but don’t get hung up on it. If you don’t have an answer it is perfectly okay to leave a space blank.
Please email your response to me at CurtisL@discovery-livermore.com
Indicate whether you are you a parent, youth, volunteer, concerned adult, or college student?
- Is our youth ministry friendly? For all youth? For non-youth?
- Does it include those considered “outsiders” (non-youth, first time guests, “outcasts” or youth that are different than our dominant culture group)
- Do youth bring friends? Why or why not? What parts of our ministries are generally used for this purpose?
- How many people have come to know Christ in a saving way through our ministry in the last couple years?
- How do youth in our ministry relate to the rest of the world? To our community? To others? Would you describe them as being in the world or of the world?
- Does our youth ministry invite youth into a story/way of life that is bigger than themselves? What are some of the elements of this story?
- What rights of passages do we provide to help our students transition from one developmental stage to the next? Are they anticipated?
- What percentage of our youth could be considered disciples of Jesus?
- Do youth feel valued in the life of the larger church? (not just accepted or even liked, but given actual value in the carrying out of the church’s mission)
-What age appropriate activities do we offer our youth?
- Describe the relationship our youth ministry has with parents…what are strengths in the relationship? What are areas for growth?
- Do teens initiate “spiritual” or “service” activities? To what extent are our activities leader generated?
- To what extent do youth know adults? To what extent are our youth known by adults?
- To what extent do youth know children? To what extent are our youth known by children?
- Who are the poor among us? What is our relationship to the poor?
- Describe the “communities” of which the youth group is a part. Describe the different “cultures” that make up our youth group?
-Can you put words to the overall climate of the youth ministry?
- What are the social and developmental needs of our dominant youth culture?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Mexico Experience 2008
Pictures and stories to come, but this year's experience again was unlike any other. God truly is good in the way that year after year, he can continue to challenge us and open our eyes and our hearts up to Him in new and exciting ways!
In many ways, the actual task of building our home dealt with the very themes we talked about as we prepared for the experience. One of the primary questions we asked from the beginning was: how do we faithfully walk with Jesus every day of our lives? Most of us are pretty good at crying out to him when life sucks. Less of us are good at remembering to praise him when life is great. But, how many of us truly walk intimately with him when things are just so-so? How many of us choose to spend time with him when we don't need something, but just because we want to be close to him? The reality is that this kind of intimacy takes discipline and intentionality.
Our houses reflected the so-so kind of spirituality we all feel most of the time. We didn't have impossible situations that required us to get down on our knees daily and cry out to the Lord for strength and wisdom. In fact, had we not prayed once, we likely could have finished the houses by our own physical strength and human wisdom. But we also didn't have the intense joy that has come in the past due as a result of the relationships developed with local children. We didn't even see children for the first 2 days. And so we were in a situation where we were building two homes for families we had hardly met and had zero relationship with, the work wasn't overly demanding, the weather was fine, stressful situations were limited, and yet God was calling us to lean on Him, depend on Him, and truly seek Him.
For those who did seek him during the week, the reward will be an increased awareness of God's presence in the ordinary, everydayness of their lives back at home. For those who didn't, they will likely find their faith to be the same ol' immature - pray when in need, thank him if something cool happens, but forget about Him during the rest of the time. We are all there at some point in our faith, but the goal is that we'd move past it and into a daily, intimate, faithful walk with Jesus.
Two thoughts I posed during the week that kept coming up and should continue to churn in our hearts and minds:
1. We always make time for the things that are important to us.
2. "Holiness is not doing all the right things, it is doing everything with God."
As I said in the opening, pictures and stories will follow. I just wanted to offer an initial observation from our trip. Continue to pray for our team as the Experience is not over yet. Groups will continue to debrief tonight, and this Saturday we will be trying to offer a summation of our trip to our family and friends.
Grace and peace,
Curtis
In many ways, the actual task of building our home dealt with the very themes we talked about as we prepared for the experience. One of the primary questions we asked from the beginning was: how do we faithfully walk with Jesus every day of our lives? Most of us are pretty good at crying out to him when life sucks. Less of us are good at remembering to praise him when life is great. But, how many of us truly walk intimately with him when things are just so-so? How many of us choose to spend time with him when we don't need something, but just because we want to be close to him? The reality is that this kind of intimacy takes discipline and intentionality.
Our houses reflected the so-so kind of spirituality we all feel most of the time. We didn't have impossible situations that required us to get down on our knees daily and cry out to the Lord for strength and wisdom. In fact, had we not prayed once, we likely could have finished the houses by our own physical strength and human wisdom. But we also didn't have the intense joy that has come in the past due as a result of the relationships developed with local children. We didn't even see children for the first 2 days. And so we were in a situation where we were building two homes for families we had hardly met and had zero relationship with, the work wasn't overly demanding, the weather was fine, stressful situations were limited, and yet God was calling us to lean on Him, depend on Him, and truly seek Him.
For those who did seek him during the week, the reward will be an increased awareness of God's presence in the ordinary, everydayness of their lives back at home. For those who didn't, they will likely find their faith to be the same ol' immature - pray when in need, thank him if something cool happens, but forget about Him during the rest of the time. We are all there at some point in our faith, but the goal is that we'd move past it and into a daily, intimate, faithful walk with Jesus.
Two thoughts I posed during the week that kept coming up and should continue to churn in our hearts and minds:
1. We always make time for the things that are important to us.
2. "Holiness is not doing all the right things, it is doing everything with God."
As I said in the opening, pictures and stories will follow. I just wanted to offer an initial observation from our trip. Continue to pray for our team as the Experience is not over yet. Groups will continue to debrief tonight, and this Saturday we will be trying to offer a summation of our trip to our family and friends.
Grace and peace,
Curtis
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A Week to Go
I hope you all have been able to catch up and keep up the daily Proverbs readings. I will admit that while I was in Israel it got very tough some days to do my readings. There were one or two days that I had to double up, but it was amazing how powerful it was to read the Scriptures in the very place they were written.
Today, you all should have read Proverbs 25. What an awesome chapter!
Verse 2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search them out."
This has actually been one of my life verses, as I have come to discover time and time again how much God has hidden within his Word, so that we might have the opportunity to discover new and fresh things about Him every time we read. As I was in Israel I realized how much is "hidden" from us as American readers because we have never seen the terrain or don't understand the Jewish culture. My prayer is constantly that I would fall more and more in love with God's Word, and I find the more I pray that the more discoveries I make and the more the Scriptures become alive to me.
My other thought for the day: what if we took the God's Word seriously? What if we believed God when he said obeying his Word will bring us life? When I read verse 21 and 22 I thought, what a powerful command to live counter-culture. Our culture tells us we should get people back when they wrong us or turn our backs on those who hurt us. God tells us that if we love and serve our enemies we participate in building a Kingdom of love and peace. What if we actually tried to do this?
Grace and peace...
Today, you all should have read Proverbs 25. What an awesome chapter!
Verse 2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search them out."
This has actually been one of my life verses, as I have come to discover time and time again how much God has hidden within his Word, so that we might have the opportunity to discover new and fresh things about Him every time we read. As I was in Israel I realized how much is "hidden" from us as American readers because we have never seen the terrain or don't understand the Jewish culture. My prayer is constantly that I would fall more and more in love with God's Word, and I find the more I pray that the more discoveries I make and the more the Scriptures become alive to me.
My other thought for the day: what if we took the God's Word seriously? What if we believed God when he said obeying his Word will bring us life? When I read verse 21 and 22 I thought, what a powerful command to live counter-culture. Our culture tells us we should get people back when they wrong us or turn our backs on those who hurt us. God tells us that if we love and serve our enemies we participate in building a Kingdom of love and peace. What if we actually tried to do this?
Grace and peace...
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Time To Catch Up
Just from my small group today, I have a strong inclination that about half of our team is behind of the Proverbs reading right now.
My suggestion right now would be to get caught up, and not get behind again. Figure out what time each day you will do your reading and let your parents know so that they can help hold you accountable. If you are looking for a "pump me up - make me feel good" Mexico trip this year, then go ahead and do all your readings the last day, but your Mexico feelings are going to disappear just like every other year leaving you to question whether what you experienced even happened at all.
But, if you want the type of faith Jesus had...the type that he taught the disciples to have...the kind that doesn't disappear after a spiritual high...then learning to hear from God daily is so important. And the Numero Uno (check out my Spanish!) way that we hear from God is through his Word.
Maybe in the comment section those of you who are making the time to read every day can offer suggestions as to what is helping you. Others may post why it has been tough so that teammates may offer helpful advice.
I continue to pray for you...may God open your eyes, direct your heart, and order your steps so that you may follow him every day of your life.
My suggestion right now would be to get caught up, and not get behind again. Figure out what time each day you will do your reading and let your parents know so that they can help hold you accountable. If you are looking for a "pump me up - make me feel good" Mexico trip this year, then go ahead and do all your readings the last day, but your Mexico feelings are going to disappear just like every other year leaving you to question whether what you experienced even happened at all.
But, if you want the type of faith Jesus had...the type that he taught the disciples to have...the kind that doesn't disappear after a spiritual high...then learning to hear from God daily is so important. And the Numero Uno (check out my Spanish!) way that we hear from God is through his Word.
Maybe in the comment section those of you who are making the time to read every day can offer suggestions as to what is helping you. Others may post why it has been tough so that teammates may offer helpful advice.
I continue to pray for you...may God open your eyes, direct your heart, and order your steps so that you may follow him every day of your life.
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