FM Youth Kickoff!!
The Bible lays out our purpose pretty clearly, to be a " Kingdom of priests and a Holy nation" (Exodus 19:6, 1 Peter 2:5). Sometimes when we go for extended periods of time without involvement in a larger community of faith the Christian life can be hard! Without other Christians to lean on and walk with we can feel like we are trying to live the Christain life by ourselves, and in the middle of a culture that is hostile to the truth of the Gospel that can be intimidating. So some of us keep the faith and endure the trials that come along with that ourselves, some of us give in to the temptations that are so readily available everywhere we turn, and some of us just turn off hoping that it will all just go away. God has placed a desire in me to keep youth ministry going during the coming summers (on a bi-weekly basis rather than weekly) to help keep students connected in a community of faith during the summer months.
On Tuesday September 15th we kicked of our FM youth ministry year. While I was setting up for the meeting I was putting out chairs and stopped at about 50-55 chairs assuring myself that these are our average numbers on a week to week basis. Out of nowhere I started to have this inner dialogue with God about the chairs and I felt like I was being told to keep putting out chairs. I started having a conversation with God about this "if I put to many chairs out and they aren't filled, then the critical mass of the room will be all thrown off... or the room will look to empty if the seats are empty... I had to come to the real issue- Do I have enough faith to just listen to God when His requests don't make sense to me? I thought for a while and was led to 2 Kings 13:14-19. Striking the ground with an arrow doesn't make sense, but God wanted to know if Joash would listen. I decided to put out many chairs (in other words- strike the ground with the arrow MANY TIMES!) in faith that God is ready to do something great in our midst as a youth ministry.
We had a great time of fun and worship and moved into our teaching time. We talked about God welcoming back the prodigal son into his arms even though he had messed up really badly. God killed the fattened calf for him and threw a party. I wonder how that son felt after that- was he now ready after feeling the total and complete forgiveness of his father to throw off everything and serve his dad with abandon? I think so. We had an altar call for our students who came up in droves to feel the forgiving touch of our God. They were reminded of their calling in the kingdom to be priests, and that we struck the floor with the arrow many times in faith, now its time to get out into our schools and communities and live as priests of God, inviting people to hear about and feel the forgiveness of the Father who RUNS to meet those who desire forgiveness and reconciliation. We had a time of anointing and the students who desired to live the calling of priest were anointed with oil and commissioned to go. We worshipped God some more and left for home.
The ground has been struck. We have faith that God will do what He says- by years end the number of chairs that were put out on this first night will be filled with people who have come to experience the love, forgiveness and abundant life that the Father offers. Students whose lives will be forever changed by an encounter with the Living God.
AMEN
351 days Old
