Him We Proclaim

Last week we attended a conference in Minneapolis that focused on planting churches cross-culturally. Though this is is not what we'll be doing in Costa Rica, there were still several concepts that are applicable to our ministry to the students. First off, the idea of multiplication. In church planting, there are 3 different kinds of churches. One is where a pastor stays at the church and is eventually replaced when he retires. The second kind is where the church plants another church. The third kind is where the church plants a church, and then the church plants another church that plants another church. See this diagram to get the idea... For the youth group, the idea of multiplication is in discipleship. If we equip the students to disciple others, and then have the discipled student disciple another student and the discipler another; an unstoppable force is created where students are maturing in Christ! The second application from the conference was the "3 Greats...

I recently heard about the discovery of the largest diamond in the world. It was discovered by the inspector towards the front of the mine. The workers had walked past this 3016K diamond everyday! Diamonds are made when pure carbon is put under extreme pressure. Diamonds aren't found in a form that you would want to wear on your finger or propose with. It takes a skilled cutter to get the diamond just right. We'll I'm not here to teach you about diamond, but I am here to tell you about our happenings. We're under a great deal of pressure to have 50% of our monthly funds pledged by the end of the month. Achieving this goal would allow us to be in Costa Rica by the end of the year. Not reaching 50% means we wouldn't be able to be with the students until late next spring. We feel this pressure because we love the students, and we want to be with them ASAP. We also feel the pressure because our lives seem to be on hold as we wait for this next phase. We've s...

Chasing Bubbles First Contact At the end, he kept trying to bath himself with a clean wipe.

On Monday I had the chance to speak at a camp that I first attended 20 summers ago (wow, I feel old)! I started out as a day camper, worked as a counselor, and eventually was over all the program directors. I dedicated every summer either learning the person and character of Jesus Christ or teaching others about Him. It was a blessing to be able to return to a place that holds so many memories. I spoke on John 15:4-8 where Jesus gives the analogy of the vine and branches. I focused on verse 8: " My  Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and  so   prove to be My disciples" (NASB). Three points stick out: we can glorify God; we glorify God by bearing much fruit; our fruit proves that we are His disciples. I was able to give a very clear gospel presentation with 1 John 4:13-14 which  describes  how we know we abide in Christ (what it takes to bear fruit): " By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His...

Life has been pretty crazy around here recently. Final shifts at work, final meetings with Oxford friends, family, and partners, and our final night's sleep in our incredibly lovely bed for the next month. Tomorrow morning we take off to Georgia in a final push to raise our support percentage to 50% by the end of the month. We'll drive down for a two week sprint of meetings and visits before flying up to Minneapolis for about a week. There we'll take a class given by ReachGlobal: Multiplying Churches Globally. We're reading the book for it now (as time permits, and other interests don't interfere), "Global Church Planting" by Gene Wilson. The first chapters were a little dull and filled with 'Christianese' (made up words and terms relevant to the select few who knew what was meant by them to begin with, because their usual definition is not usually what was originally meant anyways), and some of the scripture references were textbook eisegesis, b...