Monthly Archives: March 2011

03.28.11
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Connect 2011 Recap

As I post this morning, I am exhausted after a sensational weekend that we just came through! As many of you that keep track of this blog know, we had our big Connect event with Grace Baptist Temple this past weekend. This past Saturday evening, roughly about 300 students gathered to worship God to have a ton of fun. The energy level was through the roof. It was unbelievable. We had a ton of fun games. We saw the youth pastors act crazy and students participate in game time. Lifesong from Trinity Baptist College came to help for the weekend and did a fantastic job. The Lord used them to bring the energy, but also to lead the people to worship. It was incredible. Daniel Riddick spoke about the importance of being connected to Jesus. The three words he used were Surrender, Mission, Pursue. It was awesome to see the altars filled during the response time. The best part of the entire night was to see 2 people come to know Jesus as their Savior! What a success? It has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with God and what the Holy Spirit was able to do.

If you were not a part of the Connect event, we are planning on February 25, 2012 so mark your calendar to come be a part! We hope to see you there! Trust me, you do not want to miss it.

03.25.11
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1 more day until “Connect 2011″

Tomorrow is the moment we have all been waiting for, CONNECT 2011!! I am stoked about this event. Josh Harvey (student pastor-Grace Baptist Temple), Jordan Ledwell (Student pastor- First Baptist Church of Welcome) and myself have all gotten together to catch the vision of this youth event. This is open for the community. It is an awesome opportunity for you to bring your students too. The purpose of connect is “to connect students with youth groups across Winston Salem!” We want many students there who are not connected in a youth group so that we can share Christ’ love with them, they can get saved, and get connected in youth group! The event is tomorrow (March 26) from 7-9 pm at Grace Baptist Temple. Daniel Riddick will be speaking. Trinity Baptist College will be doing the worship. If you are interested, come on out or contact me with any questions. Pray for the event and pray for the students.

03.25.11
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Top 15 Blogs

Over the past month, I have really been engaged in the blogging world. Blogging (in my opinion) is as big now as it has ever been. Technology is running crazy, and the best way to get information out is through social networking such as twitter, facebook, or blogging. Here are my top 15 blogs that I try and regularly check up on. They have some great helpful information that may help you in your ministry:

  1. Steven Furtick (Pastor of Elevation church- Charlotte, NC): 
    http://www.stevenfurtick.com/
  2. Clayton King (Evangelist & Campus Church Pastor at Liberty University): 
    http://claytonking.com/blog/
  3. Mike Calhoun (Vice President of Word of Life local church ministries): 
    http://mikecalhoun.wol.org/blog/blog
  4. John Piper: 
    http://www.desiringgod.org/blog
  5. Mark Driscoll (Pastor of Mars Hill church): 
    http://theresurgence.com/
  6. Perry Noble (Pastor of Newspring church): 
    http://www.perrynoble.com/
  7. Ed Stezer (Lifeway Research): 
    http://www.edstetzer.com/
  8. Tom Messer (Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church-Jacksonville, FL):
    http://www.tommesser.com
  9. Albert Mohler (Pres.-Southern Baptist Theological Seminary): 
    http://www.albertmohler.com/category/blog/
  10. Church Leaders (Pastor Resources): 
    http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/
  11. Church Leaders (Youth Resources): 
    http://www.churchleaders.com/youth/
  12. Cary Schimdt (Youth Pastor-Lancaster Baptist Church): 
    http://www.caryschmidt.com/
  13. Ministry 127 (Pastor Articles and Resources): 
    http://ministry127.com/articles
  14. Paul Chappell (Pastor- Lancaster Baptist Church): 
    http://www.paulchappell.com/
  15. C.J. Mahaney (Sovereign Grace Ministries): 
    http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/blogs/default.aspx
03.21.11
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Get Connected- Book Review

I mentioned in my last post that God allowed our pastoral staff to attend the Timothy-Barnabas conference in Gatlinburg, TN. The conference is put on by Dr. Johnny Hunt and his wife, Janet. It was extremely encouraging, and I sure hope I have the opportunity to go back at some point. While at the conference, we were given some great resources. I began a book by Dr. Johnny Hunt called, “Get Connected-mobilizing your church for God’s mission.” If you desire a book on literally how to get your church connected to the heartbeat and mission of Jesus, THIS IS THE BOOK! I am so impressed with this book and how to get your behind what we are doing. The book gives helpful principles of how to get your people out of the “I attend church” mode and into the “I have a purpose” mode. What I mean by that is that the book gives principles to help move your people from just attending church and that’s it to a place of finding purpose and involvement in the church! I recommend the book highly!

03.21.11
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Principles on Preaching

This past weekend, our pastoral staff and our wives had the opportunity to attend the Timothy+Barnabas conference in Gatlinburg, TN. This is a pastor’s conference put on by Dr. Johnny Hunt and his wife, Janet. They do a fantastic job. This was the first time that I had attended the conference, and I was overly impressed. There was an excellent balance of practical teaching and instruction, but also encouragement. I also was impressed with how much they did for the wives as well. What an incredible time we had. He taught us on some practical preaching principles, and I wanted to share these with you:

  1. Preach theologically
  2. Preach expositionally
  3. Preach illustratively
  4. Preach thoroughly
  5. Preach intentionally
  6. Preach practically
  7. Preach visionally
  8. Preach professionally
  9. Preach passionately
  10. Preach compassionately
  11. Preach humbly
  12. Preach Boldly
  13. Preach urgently
  14. Preach expectantly

These are some good principles to apply to your preaching each week! Hope this helps. If you have never been to the conference, I encourage you to attend. I came back refreshed and encouraged. The Lord really used the conference in my wife and I’s life.

03.10.11
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Connect Youth Conference

On Saturday, March 26th from 7-9 pm, Grace Baptist Temple will be hosting the first annual Connect Youth Conference at their church! The Grove will be a part of this, and we want everyone to come. There will be fun games, awesome prizes, intense worship, and FREE pizza! The best part is that it is all FREE for everyone! Lifesong from Trinity Baptist College will be presenting drama, music, and some games! Daniel Riddick from Trinity will be speaking. If you and your youth group would be interested in attending, please join the event on facebook or call us at 336-764-2103. We will see you there and look forward to connecting with you.

03.08.11
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The Point of Christianity

Tomorrow night, I will be speaking to the Grove students on “The Point of Christianity.” Now, there are many things under this point. You could say the point of Christianity is to glorify Christ, and I would agree. You would say the point of Christianity is to spread the Gospel, and I would have to agree. There is ONE overwhelming theme of Christianity and that is a personal relationship with the Father! If society gets this, they get it! This is what it is all about. If we get our relationship with the Father right, everything else will fall into place. Then, you will glorify the Father in all things. You will get Christ’s name to the nations! “A soulwinner will not always be a Godly person, but a Godly person will always be a soulwinner.” I think we try and handle the results before handling our foundation! The results of Christianity (love, service,  faithfulness to church, Godliness, witnessing, honesty, etc.) are results of how your personal relationship with Christ is. Too many believers are focusing on those results trying to get those down when in reality if you get your personal relationship with Christ down, those things will fall into place. BTW, I am writing about knowing ABOUT God, I am writing about knowing God! You can have personal knowledge of someone, but not know that person. Too many students have personal knowledge about God, but they do not know God. This is the point of Christianity! Learn to KNOW GOD!

03.02.11
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Developing Servant Leaders

Recently, I went to lunch with a couple of student pastors (Josh Harvey- Grace Baptist Temple and Jordan Ledwell-First Baptist Church of Welcome). We discussed many things, but I did ask them what was one thing they are struggling with in student ministry. We all came up with the same conclusion, and that was getting students to serve and get involved. It just so happens that this morning during my quiet time, we dealt with the importance of serving. Now, this post is similar to yesterday’s post about Developing Student Leaders. We live in a “Please Me” generation. I have noticed that students come expecting to be pleased and entertained, and leave directly when they are done. They are not their to help or to serve. They want to be served. So, we are trying to change this issue.

1. Implement student leaders. If you do not have a student leadership team, you need one. Go ahead and institute it quickly. I do not care if there are 2 students on the team or 25 students on the team. It is important, because you can give them responsibility and teach them to serve.

2. Teach on serving. The students need to hear lessons on serving, and how life is not all about them.

3. Give them areas where each of them can serve. Sometimes students are not serving because we have given them nothing to do. Our student leadership team involves only juniors and seniors. Well, a 9th grader came to me wanting to serve. I found out his gift is video and technology. I have him making an intro video for our student ministry each week to play on the screen. You have to give them ways to serve.

4. Exemplify this for them. You cannot blame the students for not serving if they do not see their student pastor serving as well. We must set the example. We need to be cleaning up after youth group. We need to be moving tables or picking up trash if we expect them too.

5. Pray for God to change the trend. I honestly believe students are more reachable today. They are wanting to be involved and serve. Many times, we just do not give them areas to serve, or we do not give them any freedom to make the area of service their own. I believe everything must be bathed in prayer. This is certainly something to pray over. Pray that God would change their hearts and give them a servant’s heart. We all need a servant’s heart.

03.01.11
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Developing Student Leaders

I have been involved in student ministry since the summer of 2004. I was an intern during college, and then, after college went directly into full time student ministry work. I love working with students! I am confident in this calling on my life. Well, I have made many mistakes, probably much more than you! I have learned one thing though, and that is the importance of developing student leaders. This is something it took time for me to grasp, but I believe I finally have learned the value in it. I wanted to share a few thoughts about developing student leaders in your student ministry:

1. Keep your students accountable. If you are breathing, you need accountability in your life. I do not care if you are 80, 20, a pastor, or whatever, you need accountability. We all do. We need to keep our students accountable the same way we keep our adult leaders accountable.

2. Give them Responsibility. In my earlier days in student ministry, I created student leaders with no responsibility. Now, that does not make any sense to me now. We must learn to trust our student leaders with things. Recently, I allowed my student leaders to completely direct an entire service. I allowed them to plan and perform the music, the drama, the message, the set up, the power point, etc. They did it all, and I just showed up. Now, I was nervous, but they came through. It was their own. Learn to go ahead and give them responsibility.

3. Meet with your student leaders regularly. You need to meet with them at least monthly to discuss the health of the ministry.

4. Get your student leaders input on activities and lessons. Who better to know what students are struggling with than….students? Ask them what they are struggling with and ask God to give you lessons to meet their spiritual needs. Also, if I plan activities that I like, the students will not always enjoy them, but if I choose activities that students enjoy, students will love them. Get your students involved in the planning of the student ministry.

5. Pray with them. This will deepen our relationship with our leaders. It will also give them a chance to be reminded what really matters. It is a good example for them to follow.