My goal for Fuel Student Ministry at CFB

"The goal of student ministry is to develop disciples who see the world as missionaries and live as missionaries. The goal is not to have a great event and have a lot of buzz. This means we do less student ministry that is based on the lowest common denominator. It means you score success in long-term disciples. It means to help students to grow and to develop their own plan for gospel impact now. If you help individual students to develop a plan for gospel advance in the context of your local church you will in fact help them to hear from God and be confident in their planning and thus to be better prepared about college, career, etc. This means your role may be less to be the Pied Piper to students and more a developer of leaders who can help students develop uniquely. Or, it could mean that your focus is not primarily to plan events or even to be a great speaker, but to help student see themselves as artists who were created by God to be remarkable in some way for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel." -Alvin Reid

This is my goal for the student ministry here at CFB. I want to see our student ministry grow. That does not mean that we need more people here. I want to see students grow in the knowledge of who God is and what He has done in their lives. If more people come and grow in that way, I will be happy. If less people come but they grow in that way, I will be happy. I want students who make an impact for the kingdom of God. I want to see students love God with all they have and realize that Jesus is better than anything this world has to offer. I am still praying that by October of 2012 we have 100 students at our weekly gatherings, not for numbers sake but so that they can all be learning about the life changing power of the Gospel.

My goal is not to be an event planner but a mouthpiece for God who speaks truth into the lives of the students that God has given me charge over.

Humbling

This video is extremely humbling. When I see what this amazing woman is doing to reach people with the gospel it makes me stop and think about my own life and how I am using it. We have so many excuses for not sharing the gospel but they all fall away when we see the lengths that she goes through to get the message of Jesus Christ out to the world.

I pray that you will take the time to watch this video and allow it to change the way you live for Jesus.

Sarah Coiner's Story from Andrew Fish on Vimeo.

Halloween Outreach

I mentioned during the Pastor's Minute yesterday that we are going to do something a little bit different for Halloween this year. Instead of having something here on our campus, we are going to invade neighborhoods in Cheraw with the gospel. One of my seminary professors said one time, Halloween is the only night of the year in our culture where lost people actually go door-to-door to Christian homes. I think this could be a great opportunity to reach our neighbors and engage in intentional spiritual conversations.

I was a part of something like this last year in my neighborhood in Durham. We had a table set up in the driveway and gave away free hot chocolate and water to the adults who were walking with their children. Members of our church manned the table and engaged people in conversation and gave each one of them a gospel booklet.

We had houses like this all over Durham and it was great to get to talk to people and engage them with the gospel. I really think we can make this a success here in Cheraw.

We will have an informational meeting tonight at 7:00 in the Street. I hope that you will be a part of this outreach and live as missionaries right here in our own town.

A Dry and Weary Land

I am currently reading through the Bible using the ESV Study Bible one year reading plan. In this plan, each night I read from several sections of the Bible but there is always a Psalm to read. I have always enjoyed reading the Psalms and this time is no different. Last night I read Psalm 63 and part of it really got me thinking about the gospel. Yes, the Gospel of Jesus. It is not just in the New Testament. Read what David said in the beginning of this Psalm.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

Is that not a great picture of the gospel? If we really believe that our lives have been changed because of what God did through Jesus did on the cross, wouldn't that be the way we respond to God? I long for this to be my daily response to God. It is clear that David had an incredible relationship with Him because he knows that God's love is better than life!

Is this the way you respond to God? Do you long for Him like water? Do you consider His love better than life itself? If not, I pray that you will consider what God has done for you and would begin to relate to God in that way.

Radical Student Ministry

I want to be a radical Student Pastor. I do not want to be a program director or a sanctified babysitter. I want to be a shepherd to the students that God has entrusted to my care. I pray big prayers for my ministry because I want to see lives changed for the glory of God. Imagine what could happen if the 25 or 30 students that are here for the majority of our times together decided to stand up and live lives that glorify God no matter the cost.

I have a request. I have begun praying that God would bless the Student Ministry here at First Baptist and that in one year...October 1, 2012, there would be 100 students who are involved in the activities here on campus. Would you join me in praying this prayer? I honestly believe that this can happen. Joshua prayed for the sun to stand still (Joshua 10:12-14) and it did. The same God that answered that prayer can answer this one as well.

I am not interested in numbers just to have people here. I want to see 100 students here praising God for snatching them out of the pit of Hell. I cannot do this alone. It will take the church stepping up and becoming involved in the ministry to students. It will take volunteers giving up their time to help out with our events.

Dr. Alvin Reid says in his book Raising The Bar, "Imagine what wold happen if thousands of young people in America served Jesus with the passion of a Bin Laden? Imagine if high school youth spent as much time planning to reach their peers with the gospel as McVeigh spent planning his bomb attack?"

I ask you the same question. Imagine what could happen if 100 students (or more) in Cheraw decided to serve God with the passion of Bin Laden or McVeigh. This is a radical passion and I would argue looks more like the passion the Apostles served God with than anything we see in America today.

Please join me in prayer that God would do a radical work in the Fuel Student Ministry here at Cheraw First Baptist for his glory and his alone.

Pray for the Nations

I am teaching through the book of Ephesians right now. Paul is constantly reminding his readers that there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ. He is urging them to be unified with one another. As I have been studying this text and teaching on it, God has been reminding me that this is still true today. When we come to faith in Christ, we are all brothers and sisters no matter what our background is.

I have started giving out a new nation for our students to be praying for on a weekly basis. This week we are praying for Afghanistan. 93% of the people groups of Afghanistan are unreached. God has a heart for the nations and the unreached and we as Christians should too. Only .05% of the population of Afghanistan are believers and the ones who are believers face unbelievable persecution.

We may not be able to go to that country but we can all join in prayer that God would move in a mighty way there and draw countless people to himself. Will you join me in praying for this Afghanistan this week?

A "Dangerous" Christian

Jim Elliot is one of the most well known martyrs of our time. One of my professors from SEBTS recently had a blog post of many of Elliot's most famous quotes. A couple really stuck out to me.

“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are “harmless,” and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. We are “sideliners” — coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!”


Did you catch that? Far too many of us are content to stand on the sidelines of this war. We are mostly unharmed because we are harmless. We don't do anything that would make our enemy harm us because we are pacifists, not wanting to engage.

This makes me think about a few years ago when I was the leader of our group of kids at children's camp. We were playing paintball and had made a plan that on go, we were all going to go to different bunkers. When the horn sounded I ran for my bunker only to realize none of the children had run for theirs! They were afraid to engage and therefore harmless to the other team. Far too many Christians are this same way. We want to sit back in our Christianity and let others be in the line of fire.

I pray that we would become "dangerous" Christians. That we would be in the line of fire. This means that our lives will not be easy. This means that we may have some casualties. But we have been on the sidelines long enough when we have been given clear orders to engage the enemy and win souls to Christ. I close with one more quote from Jim Elliot that I offer as a prayer for myself and all who read this:

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another after facing Christ in me.”  Amen.