Welcome to the end of the year everyone! It’s time for us to wrap up 2015, wrap up presents and get a move on with winter sports! I spent a little bit of time last week going through the High School’s calendar and plugging all of the basketball games and concerts and I realized that there are a ton of opportunities to go into our High School kids world and connect. This is such an important part of youth ministry, that we go where they are. It’s actually an important part of ministry in general. We’re going to be walking through the advent calendar this month and reading about Jesus being born, and what better example of “going where they are” than Jesus coming to us the way he did. Do you need a model of this incarnational ministry? Check out how Jesus did it.
Going into the world of who we are trying to reach, makes sense
Unfortunately it’s not as easy as it sounds. The practical idea of going into the world of who we are trying to reach makes sense, and we can talk all day about all the opportunities we have to do this, but actually going is the hard part. In youth ministry I’ve experienced this on a weekly basis. I put my focus and work into a weekly event we hope kids come to, when in actuality, the bread and butter of youth ministry is relationships (like Jesus) and discipleship (like Jesus).
If you’re anything like me, you may have felt one time or another isolated in church culture, eating and breathing church life. I honestly don’t believe that is what pleases God most. What if we were free to be involved in our community working alongside people that need to hear about the hope of Jesus? What if we were able to spend significant time with friends and family in meaningful intentional relationship desiring to grow in our walk with Jesus, together? What if we were able to do all of this while being an active and healthy part of His church? We can do it and we should do it. God deserves our worship, our service, our generosity all with us being able lead people in an ever changing culture to the hope of Jesus.
Let’s be more like Jesus.
We’re in a season of Advent, the coming of Jesus into our world to change our lives forever. He left all of his comforts and glory of heaven to walk with us here, and that was incredibly costly. Let this month start an incredibly costly personal desire to see lives changed forever, even if it requires less comfort and glory. Let’s be more like Jesus.