Because It's Always Winter, but Never Christmas.....

So this past week has been different for me. I've been in a very reflective mode.  Probably cause I just finished reading the book "Through Painted Deserts" by Don Miller.  It really makes me just want to go and live somewhere different for a while, you know just drop everything and prove to myself that I can live outside of this Bible Belt Bubble, where life is handed to me on a silver platter.  Do we ever think about how good we have it here?  Tonight I bought two girls roses just cause, I can sit here and purchase whatever I want (within limits) and still be able to eat tomorrow (I have a meal plan, cause school is paid for).  I am able to come back to my room, in the sleet and rain and junk, and still be warm.  I don't think that people realize what it's like, what steps we need to take in showing our daily devotion to Christ.  I don't think we realize the implications of what it would mean if we truly took the time to figure out what it meant to be SOLD OUT to Christ.  I know that I really don't know the full effects of that, but I'm trying.  I spend my days walking from one thing to the next, praying, thinking, about what Christ expects of me, and being constantly reminded that I can't meet those expectations on my own, it's only through his help that this happens.  So this is the second time this week I've posted at some crazy hour, so I think I'm going to go to sleep now, cause I need it, and wake up in the morning and finish my homework for the week.  Hoorah for college snow days...which reminds me, I need to work on a bulletin board as well...hoorah for work! Goodnight

While His Friends Slept, Jesus Wept, and it's No Wonder Why...

Well it took me forever tonight to get the internet to work.  Sometimes I wonder about the Tech system. Anyway, I've had some stuff on my mind recently and something that I encountered today served to reinforce it.  We as "Christians" (whatever that's supposed to mean) need to not settle, we need to be constantly moving forward in our walk with Christ.  What happens is we get into a routine, where all that is required from us is Sundays, maybe Wednesdays, and if we're lucky Tuesdays (for BCM'ers).  Other than that, we live our lives, emphasis on OUR lives.  We are focused on US instead of CHRIST.  Now I'm mulling over some other thoughts that I may talk about in the next weeks, though currently I'm sticking just with the thought of settling.  At London the staff kinda has this saying, Don't settle for good when you can have great, or something along the lines of the 4-H motto, "To Make the Best Better."  Why can't we do this?  Why can't we live a life where as we sing to Hillsong lyrics we let Christ actually "Take it all"  No we sit here, happy with our lives as we know it.  That's not what it's about, if we are not experiencing growth, if we are not seeing life change, then we are not fulfilling our duties as "Christians" which means "Little Christ" but most of the time we are far from being little Christ's.  It kinda irks me, yes I need work, I admit it, send me to REHAB anything but get us out of this.  Here's the thing, today, we did Super Summer Arkansas interviews (online apps found here )  we are short guys, in a BIG way.  We have plenty of girls, but we need guys, like alot, but the probblem is guys settle, guys believe that they have to have jobs and do things in order to advance themselves in the world.  Guys don't buy into a life patterened after Christ, they buy into a "church" mentality, one where they show up for church and that's as deep as they get, so what I leave is with this, how to we get guys, how to we get MEN to buy into Christian lifestyles, where they see the need to do more than just show up for church, and actually become servicing members.

Lose Your Life Just So You Can Find It

So I've began to notice something, typically this happens when it's evident in my life.  Though recently it has been revealed to me through other means as well.  As the body of Christ we have a tendency to settle.  This idea is that essentially we have arrived and there is no need for us to do anything more.  The problem with this is that we have never arrived and there is a constant need for improvement.  If we meet one goal, we need to set another goal and meet it instead of reaching a goal and taking a break.   When we settle for what we have people see that and wonder why they need to strive for something better.  This can be shown evident through a typical Christian lifestyle, even though a person may profess Christianity their actions may not support that idea clearly.  If we as Christians were striving to be the best we could be we would be the examples that the world needs to see.  Instead the world has this idea of a corporate Christian who attends church services and gives donations of monetary goods as well as physical labor and then they go onto living a 9-5 lifestyle or whatever you would like to refer to it.  They end up in a place where they are not actively showing an example of Christianity, which coincidentally makes people believe that Christians are hypocritical and not wish to profess faith in Christianity.

Think Strategy not Programs, Small Group Philosphy

So tonight for Freshman Leadership we are moving into working from two books and not just "7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley. From 7 Practices we will be talking about strategy not programs. What organizations have a tendency to do is to create programs to fill a need instead of a strategy to move past that need. Once a strategy is in place, not only will a need be filled but there will be room for growth instead of the same thing taught repeatedly. This helps an organization grow and realize their full potential. From our second book "Leading Life Changing Small Groups" by Bill Donahue we will be talking about Small Group Philosophy, within this topic we will talk about vision as well as structure. Essentially with the students we will line out what they want the purpose of our freshlife groups to be and then we will talk about how to set up a structure to have a thriving small group that will help produce students who are growing spiritually as well as being prepared to be leaders themselves, or as the book calls them "apprentice leaders."

Fast times

So for those of ya'll who don't know (all five of my followers) I'm at intern at London First Baptist. That started about the time I came back from semester, so I'm doing that as well as working in BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) Leadership, over Freshlife or Freshman Ministries. As well as my other paying job as an RA in Paine Hall. As compelled by my Multi-Media Practicum class, I will be updating this blog twice a week, during the next semester. Most of the topics I will be covering will be in relation to the internship as well as BCM stuff, so yeah, look forward to getting back into the blogging realm.