Tonight, Stephanie and I are hosting a group of students that have been meeting together for the last 11 weeks on Sunday Night and doing a daily study from a work book called Max Q. I know, the title is riveting! But when you understand what Max Q is, the title makes sense! 11 weeks ago we had an open call to any student that was willing to take on this challenge and be a student of influence. Here is what we introduced to them 11 weeks ago:
MAX Q
Becoming a Student of Influence
Week 1 – Introduction
Christ is the strongest, grandest, most attractive personality ever to grace the earth. But a careless messenger with the wrong approach can reduce all this magnificence to the level of boredom. ~Jim Rayburn
The real problem of lost teenage America is not a lack of evangelism but a lack of substance in the Christian students who live, study, and play among them. ~ MAX Q
As we begin this journey together our desire is that your Character would be stretched, encouraged, and challenged. At Fusion, we believe we begin to develop students of influence only as we choose to put our focus on the character of our students rather than the charisma of our environments. The breadth and power of our students’ influence on their unbelieving friends are directly proportional to the depth of the content of their character. And the effectiveness of our ministries in influencing the unbelieving student culture is absolutely dependent upon the character of our core students. Our goal in this process is that each of you would take the steps to become what we call core students.
Why Max Q? Max Q is a term used in the space-shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. You see, roughly one minute after launch, a space shuttle must withstand a condition of extreme force called “maximum dynamic pressure” – “Max Q” for short. This is the critical point in flight from an aerodynamics perspective. It’s when the most stress is placed on the vehicle. It happens just after the shuttle goes supersonic, at an altitude of 25,000 to 35,000 feet (5 -7 miles up). Mission success demands that all systems on the space shuttle perform at the highest level. When designed properly, prepared carefully, and executed perfectly, the shuttle and its crew safely reach orbital velocity of 17,600 miles per hour at about 8½ minutes after launch.
Our role in your development is difficult, yet so significant. We (your leaders) must create ministry environments that develop students who can withstand intense pressure. Students who can be light in dark places. Students who will not waver from their faith while they passionately pursue relationships with their lost peers. Students who know how to gain influence and earn the privilege to lead. That’s our desire as a ministry and the question we ask you before we go any further is this . . . Are you willing to be that type of student?
If the answer is yes, here’s where we have to start.
- It has to start with us your leaders! Our leaders must make a commitment to model, lead, challenge, encourage, correct, and hold you accountable to the things of Christ so you can be the person of influence God is calling you to be.
- It starts with you! You have to be willing to be stretched, lead, challenged, encouraged, corrected, and held accountable to the things of Christ. It is going to take some work, there will be times it may be hard, to be honest, they may be times that you want to quit or disagree with the process … but I promise in the end, God will use this process to teach you what it means to be faithful, what it means to be a person of Character, what it means to be a person of influence, and what it means to be a person that is used by God.
The students that are coming over tonight desire to be used by God. They are a work in progress and some of them will move on to mentor the next group of students that will take Max Q in the spring. Some will retake Max Q because of their lack of doing the daily study or missing too many sessions. Regardless, tonight marks a starting point for our ministry to begin developing student leaders. In the Spring, I will offer this to our adult leadership team. We will meet at the same time as the students. Josh Harris who has been shadowing me in these last 11 weeks and will lead the next class of students through the material while I lead the adults through the materiel. (by the way, I think every adult should go through the class, these principles aren’t just for students, they are for anyone that wants to be influential.)
I am so proud of the students that took this serious, didn’t give up, and are seeking ways to be an influence in the arena of life that God has placed them. I am excited to see what God does through them and He uses them to advance His Kingdom!
Dan Gould 