Measuring the Growth

Currently I am doing some training with 5 of the students at Olive Chapel who are going on a mission trip to NY this summer to reach people with the gospel of Christ Jesus.  Part of this training is for them to write out their testimony.  In preparing for this I was reading Dr. Alvin Reid's new book "Evangelism Handbook."  In this was a section on a spiritual autobiography, or basically a more detailed version of your testimony to be able to tell people in a more personal setting.  In reading about this the reality hit me, how often do we as believers go months, or years, and never sit back and see the growth that we have experienced in God.  For some it's because growth is not there, but for others I fear it is because we are too complacent in our lives and are more concerned with other things than how much we have grown in Christ.  When I think about this I imagine a little kid backing up to the door post so that his mom or dad can mark his height on the wall.  When they mark it he stands back and observes how much taller he is than the last time they measured him.  In the excitement that he is feeling over his growth, he tells everyone he has seen how much taller he is.  Why do we as believers not mark our growth like this.  So often it seems we view our walk and growth with God as over when we walk down the isle and pray a prayer with the pastor.  It is dangerous for us to not take time to evaluate and mark how God is growing us.  As I look back on how God has grown me in my faith, just in the past year, it encourages me and reminds me of His faithfulness in my life.  I encourage you to mark your growth.  Keep a journal and document what God is teaching you, and periodically look back and see how God is moving in you.  And don't keep what God is doing in your life to yourself.  He is not just growing you for you, but for the church and for His glory.  Proclaim what God is doing, to the glory of His name and for the building up of the church.

A Review of Nexus

This past weekend I took the students to The Summit Church to take part in their NEXUS weekend.  As usual, the weekend was awesome.  The students were challenged to live out their faith and to proclaim it.  The students were lead in worship through preaching by Clayton King, J.D. Greear, and Jason Gaston and were led in worship in song by Carl Cartee It was refreshing to be a part of a student ministry event that was based around the Word of God rather than emotionalism.  The weekend was summed up by the sermon that Jason Gaston gave on Saturday afternoon.  He spoke out of Isaiah 6 and confronted the students with the beauty of the gospel and the dangers of religion.  One of the statements he made that really stood out to me was that the "gospel saves you and sends you."  This was really challenging to me and hopefully to everyone there.  So often I fear that we get so caught up in our comfortable lives chasing the America dream, that we lose sight of the fact that God saved us for more than this.  He saved us for His glory and to join in on His mission to make his name great among the nations.  I pray that the students who were there, and in fact some of the leaders, would follow this calling from God and allow the gospel to send them.

Student pastors, if you are looking for a Spring event on which to take your students, Nexus in that event.  Thanks Jason and The Summit Church for ministering to the students in this area with such an awesome, God glorifying weekend.