It never ceases to amaze me what God will do when we finally shut our mouths and listen to His Spirit. I know everyone who showed up Sunday morning and Sunday evening were genuinely blessed by a fellow follower of Jesus and lover of Calvary, Keith Higginbotham. I just want you to know why I keep asking him to preach and teach when I am out of town…or maybe if you heard him you don’t need an explanation. God consistently uses Keith to encourage, challenge and convict through the clear and consistent teaching of God’s Word.

I’ve heard all kinds of good things from Sunday night’s meeting. Maybe I should just stay home next time! I’m sorry I missed it but if I had been here I probably would have messed with it. It just proves that when we get out of the way and let God move us amazing things will happen. Your spontaneous, unscripted, Spirit led prayer time was just what this church needed. My hope, expectation and prayer is that we’ll continue to respond to the prompting of the Spirit and allow God to show us His direction for how we should be making disciples. Let’s not move, plan, do, orchestrate, strategize, manipulate, or whatever until God leads us. Yes, that may make us uncomfortable, and yes, people may think we’re crazy, but think about what they thought of Jesus and His first disciples,

“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:6-7).

Oh that we would be a church that would turn the world upside down through God pouring out His Spirit through standing firm together striving side by side for the cause of the gospel! And may do this not for the sake of our name or the building of our kingdom, but for the sake of the name that is above all names and for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Grace & Peace,

We have so much for which to be thankful and so much to which we can look forward.

First a note on thankfulness. We should stop to praise and thank God for a great Awaken Weekend for our students. Each year this weekend seems to exceed our expectations. Thank the Lord for good leadership (Kristy Hall and all those who volunteered). Thank the Lord for a great group of students who sacrificed their time to paint the youth room and spruce up the prayer garden. Thank God for Jared and Victoria Snead coming to us again to invest their lives into our students. Thank the Lord for good weather for the entire weekend.

If Sunday morning was any indication of what God did over the weekend, then our hearts should be overflowing with gratitude. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Second let’s think about anticipation. Too often in youth ministry we are looking of immediate results and quick fixes, but I’ve learned over the years that we must be patient with the seeds planted today. We may not see the results from this Awaken Weekend for several years. It takes time for trees to grow, mature and then bear fruit. And that’s where the rub comes – waiting…patience. This character trait of patience is something at which we are just not that good, but the fruit of patience is well worth the wait.

Just think of pushing through, pressing into God, holding out hope, trusting in what only God can do, and then one day seeing the bud on the tree that is a promise of fruit to come. The alternative is to hang it up, cut the sapling down, throw it to the side and sulk in self-pity because things didn’t go the way we planned it. I think I’d rather wait it out and see what God is up to.

With Gratitude & Waiting,

Often the church has wanted to dictate the terms of getting the gospel out, and the world is saying, “That’s not going to fly.” I think the church has tried to get the gospel out by getting people in the church building without ever building relationships. For some reason we believe that just because we’ve built beautiful buildings and have well landscaped campuses that people will flock to us and want Jesus. Some people will come because of location or the building is easy to navigate or the bathrooms are clean or the nursery is safe or the chairs are comfortable or whatever… However, if that is our strategy for getting the gospel out then we are doomed to die a slow but certain death. I just don’t see that practice in the Bible.

The key to getting the gospel out is intentional missional living. Simply put that means that we are going to live our lives as missionaries wherever we are. It may sound odd to say that we are missionaries because we often think of missionaries as people who move far away from home, eat bugs and monkey heads, and live in mud huts, but that is not the case. Being a missionary locally means that we are going to look at every person God puts across our path as someone who needs Jesus. This means that we are going to want to build relationships with all kinds of people so we can eventually tell them about Jesus.

Let me remind you that getting the gospel out is a matter of loving, listening, speaking and living missionally. Loving people is what gets us out into their world. Listening to a person’s story is important for us to understand what they believe about Jesus. Speaking is looking for God to open a door to have a gospel conversation to tell them about Jesus. And living the gospel out is showing people who Jesus is through our lives. This all takes times and we must be patient and willing. Saving people is not up to us, that’s God’s job and He’s really good at it; sharing the gospel with people is our job – how good are we at it?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Grace & Peace,