Blog (Page 25)
It’s Hard to be a Christian Teen
In a room filled with rambunctious junior highers bouncing off the walls with anticipation for our first youth meeting since May, our first meeting since creating a newly renovated youth room and rebranding with a new group name, I launched a new ministry year here at Ashworth Road Baptist Church. Our goal this year is for each youth to see the bigger picture of His story – the bigger story that takes place in the Bible. As such, I…
The Value of Children’s Ministry
I was saved as a child at the age of 12 at summer church camp. Through the years, I’ve come to realize that there are many people who did the same thing and decided to follow Jesus as a child. Statistics say that nearly 80% of people in church today decided to follow Jesus before the age of 18 and 50% of them came to know Him before the age of 12. It actually becomes harder and harder for a…
What’s Most Important?
As we consider religion, Christianity, the Bible, church, it is very easy for us to compartmentalize and reduce all these down to the least common denominator. We never verbalize it, but we sometimes think “What is the least I can do to still be considered a Christian?” For some it boils down even further, “What is the least I have to do to avoid hell when I die?” So we tell ourselves if I read a few Bible verses every…
How Would Jesus Vote?
As I finish up my last class of my seminary journey, Christian Ethics, I am being confronted with all sorts of issues related to the church, politics, and how Christians vote. I have read about abortion, capital punishment, war, marriage, poverty, politics, immigration, and racism. Before taking the class, I might have looked at each of these issues quite simply – yes, I support, or no, I am against it. But I have been surprised at how complex each of…
Helping When it Hurts (or Itches)
A couple weeks ago I went out with a team of 8 people to cut down weeds at a woman’s house for our Summer of Love project. The owner told me she knew she had some poison ivy among the weeds but had sprayed it all with weed killer the previous week and killed it all. Our team worked for about an hour cutting down all sorts of weeds, small trees, and even large tree branches for this woman, doing…
Life’s Not Fair
Growing up as a middle child, I suffered from a severe case of Middle Child Syndrome. What you read about Middle Child Syndrome is very true. We ARE the mistreated, abused, neglected children in every family. And no, you may not contact my mother to confirm what I just said! Every time I felt that I was being treated unfairly as a kid, my parents would respond with the same answer…Well, life’s not fair! All of us at one time…
What’s Most Important?
Years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to an author by the name of Richard Foster. Foster has written several books and founded a ministry around the belief that spiritual renewal and spiritual formation and development can help Christ followers enjoy a closer walk with Jesus, leading to a more vibrant and fulfilling Christlike life. I recently read a quote by Foster, “The essential thing is this: Are people really growing into the life of Jesus? If they’re not, we better take a…
Getting out of the Pit
Have you ever felt like you were in a pit? The pit. A deep, dark place of isolation, helplessness, and hopelessness. A place where even God seems a million miles away. Inaccessible. Most of our lives are like roller coasters with peaks and valleys. Times on the mountaintops and times in the pits. If you are in the pit, you are not alone. We’ve all been there. David wrote Psalm 40 following a time he spent in the pit. Even…