This week was week 3 of the Big Give!! God has really been doing some neat things in our time. This last week concluded our Gifts of Grace for East Plano kids, it was awesome seeing our students come into church with gifts for kids. I really look forward to worshiping with our students each week. Our student worship team does such a great job.
This week we encouraged students to get involved in a couple of mission projects. One is teaching ESL to kids at Meadows Elementary and the other is helping raise funds to build schools in Uganda, in partnership with Invisible Children (invisiblechildren.com). Note – the second opportunity in Uganda was inspired by one of our students who shared how she was getting involved in a project called schools for schools. She did a great job and her story fit so well with the talk. Here is the outline with pictures we used to drive home the point that you have to stay focused.
THE BIG GIVE
How to Give!
December 7TH, 2008
“‘So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.’” John 13:34-35 (NLT)
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
1. It takes FOCUS!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)
What do you see? Look at the pictures very closely!
“I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:14 (NLT)
2. It takes SACRIFICE!
“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16 (NLT)
3. It takes COMMITMENT!
“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37 (NIV)
4. It takes FOLLOW-THROUGH!
“As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NLT)
Excited to see what happens this week as we talk about Where to Give Big.
What a bust week into a busy weekend. However, I feel like we have made some great progress in a short amount of time. Last week I e-mailed every students that attended our weekend service and filled out a communication card, to let them know I am praying for there request and to follow up on some decisions they were making. Several of our Students indicated that they wanted to grow spiritually but admitted that they didn’t necessarily have a plan to accomplish that. Here is what I sent them,
1. Find a consistent time and place to meet with Him. I spend time with God early in the morning, but I used to spend time with God late at night before I went to bed. The time doesn’t matter, what matters is that you find/make the time. 2. Read the Bible and Pray. When you read the Bible God speaks to you, when you pray, you speak to God. Many times the question is where do I start, and how much do I read. Even if you don’t like to read (I don’t like to read) its important, so start small. Here is what I encourage:
o Pray – Ask God to forgive you of sin and to guide you as read His Word.
o Read a Bible you understand – NIV or NLT are great translations.
o Read 1 Chapter a day – A great place to start is in 1, 2, 3 John, James, or the Gospel of John, from there you may have developed a stronger habit and can pick a book from the Bible you would like to read.
o Highlight verses that impact you or seem to jump out at you.
o Think about what you read.
o Pray – Ask God for help, thank Him for the things in your life and lift up concerns to Him.
o Think about what you read throughout the day and begin to apply it to your life.
3. Don’t Give Up! – If you miss a day, it’s going to be ok, just pick up where you missed and start there. It will take a while for this to become a habit. There will be days that you forget, or even days that you don’t want to read. In those days still try to read but admit to God that you are tired, or feeling lazy, or stressed and ask Him to give you the strength you need to meet with Him. It’s ok to be honest with God! This will get easier the more you begin to have consistency, I promise!
The services this weekend were awesome. Great worship, the talk seemed to connect on personal levels and the Illustration about the family really allowed us to see the way it was supposed to be, and James a 9th graders shared his story and brought it all together. It was so powerful. Following the services we went to celebrate baptisms with three families. It was awesome seeing Dads baptize their kids.
Last night I was able to connect with Connor and Nick at Chili’s. I learned a lot about them and had a great time hanging out. Dash from “The Incredibles” (AKA Josiah) was there also!
Well last week was a week of sickness in the Gould home. It seems like this month has just been an unhealthy month for us. On Monday Night Jackson was throwing up, Wednesday Night Josiah, Thursday should have been me, but I hate throwing up, but Saturday takes the cake. I felt like death. Couldn’t even move without wanting to vomit, then Sunday, guess who, yep Mom (aka Stephanie was sick) So all of us have had it and hope it stops there because I don’t want a repeat!
However, the weekend services must carry on and they did. Lucky for me, we are developing a teaching team in Fusion and I was able to pass the baton to Marti late Saturday Night and she did an awesome job!!!! We started a new series on Habits encouraging students to start some. From what I have been told is everything went well. Worship was great and students paid attention for the most part. I’ve been told there were two that were really a distraction. If you are reading this you should feel bad and repent! You know who you are!!! 🙂 Anyhow, attendance was up and God is moving! Its so awesome!!! If you are a teenager you should come check it out, if you are a parent of a teenager, you should encourage them to check it out, if you are a random reader of this blog, well, pray that God would give our ministry a passion for Him like no other!
What a great Weekend! Yes we had some challenges but everything seemed to work out. Ken Freeman and Nick Thurmond kicked us off in a great way. Here are some Highlights:
6 student accepted Christ Friday Night
Ken Freeman really did a great job connecting with all of us and challenging us to be evangelistic.
Nick Thurmond led us in great worship.
Host Homes – Awesome! This weekend couldn’t have happened with out them
Small Group Teams – Coaches and Small Groups leaders did an awesome job on not a lot of sleep!
Great discussions in homes and then at the church
The Game – fun, tiring, stressful, glad to see the 11th and 12th graders win finally!
The Food – Lasagna for dinner Saturday and a full breakfast Sunday Morning, how can you go wrong with that.
The first – Tyler leading worship for the first time with our group, Josh and Lisa both speaking for the first time to a large group!! Major highlights for me
Don’t forget the Friendship Evangelism Challenge!!!
Reveal you are a Christian!
Extend and invitation to church or event!
Ask if you can share your story!
Communicate how/why you became a Christian!
Help them to know Christ!
Lastly, seeing the student building full!
This truly was a great weekend but lets not let it be something we look back to as and event but as a start to a great journey of reaching our friends for Christ!
Dan Gould 