The following is the written testimony of one of our middle school Club sixth graders:
Christ is important to me because if I don’t believe in Christ I might not go to heaven. If I didn’t believe in him I wouldn’t understand church. If I didn’t believe in Christ I wouldn’t have the friends I have today. If I didn’t believe in Christ I wouldn’t be on the PATH that I am on today.
It is also a testimony of how God is using Grace’s youth ministry to change the lives of students. Allow me to explain…
We spent the first four weeks of Club this fall introducing the kids to a principle called The Path Principle. (Now you’re starting to see that testimony a little differently right?) The Path Principle says this:
Direction – Not intention – Determines your destination
For example, as a student you may intend to one day be happily married, but if you set off in the direction of dating with no purpose other than how you feel and you do it over and over again, you will most likely wind up at a very different destination. The same goes for the paths they’re on in school, with their families, their hobbies, even with sports.
So we spent four weeks on this. We spent four weeks letting parents know we’d be covering The Path Principle in Club. We did it to minister with them and support them as they point their teens in the direction of Jesus so they end up at wonderful destinations in their lives.
If you’re a parent, or someone that works with teens, or someone that loves a teen, may the most important thing to you not be how they’re doing in school, or in their sport, or in some other activity… May the most important thing to you be the paths your teen is on. And most importantly, they path the teen you love is on with Jesus.
I’m going to be telling our story about the youth ministry at Grace on a regular basis beginning today. Here’s the first about Club last night…
I’ve been getting hammered with requests from people offering to volunteer with the middle school and high school kids. Last night was Brian’s first night. After small groups, Matt, one of Brian’s kids who had met him for the first time that night, walked up to me and said, “Awesome choice! That was GREAT!” Brian has a significant background in youth ministry but to make that kind of an impact on his first night is extremely rare!
We continue to have student leaders step up and shine with every passing week. They’re showing up early to prepare, getting more comfortable, and putting their own personal touches on how they do things. Last night Camden figured out how smoothly transition in and out of running a DVD clip (thanks for Tom’s guidance), Hope is turning into our own “Game Gal” and Matt our “Game Guy”, and Mike was a lot smoother with the announcements and even made notes on the notes to make sure he got the main points in.
There’s certain rule I learned a long time ago… Everyone loves to pick on the big man. Well Taylor has become our official big man and the smaller kids love nailing him in dodgeball. Last night was no different as Taylor gladly and gleefully took every hit with a smile and a snarky comment. I’m not sure he realizes it yet, but it’s enabling him to become a giant leader to our smaller kids.
We announced our Ultimate Pentathlon event for the first time and gave each kid five postcards about it to hand out to their friends. A lot of kids were pumped about it and some took extra cards to hand out to friends!
Diane gave our final message in our series “Four Reasons Why Teens Don’t Follow God”. She implemented a few new elements in her style that worked well that I may adopt. Kids hear from men so much that I LOVE it when they get to hear a woman explain the love of God.
I had nearly every one of my sixth grade guys there last night. When we gather I make them circle their chairs up nice and tight so we can see and hear each other clearly. Last night they got real tight, knee to knee, and I sat there and explained to them how much God LOVES them. Being that close, that tight, and that dead serious about what God is simply all about was AWESOME! They’re a great group and getting closer. We’re going out for lunch and a movie on an upcoming day off. And the fact that my son is in that group is just God giving me one amazing gift
Today we’re terrified of the flu of the day and countries with nukes that can only launch them with a catapault. Back in the 80s we knew how many ICBM’s were pointed at us and who was doing the pointing!
Enter Patrick Swayze and the Wolverines to save us!
Any man worth his Man Card is stopping at this when channel surfing at 2 in the morning. You gotta love the Fighting Philosopher
The Pittsburgh Pirates have now had 17 straight losing seasons. I honestly don’t know how management can live with themselves!
Ironically, Pittsburgh’s other two professional teams both won their championships this year. My goodness, just drive across town and get some advice for Pete’s sake!
