The Explicit Gospel… a NEEDED word for our churches and our students.  _______________________________________________________________________________________________ this video was originally posted on The Resurgence.

The Explicit Gospel… a NEEDED word for our churches and our students. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

this video was originally posted on The Resurgence.

Normally, I wouldn’t write a long blog post pitching a book. However, when a book literally changes my life, it’s time to write a post. Yesterday, I wrapped up my 2011 reading list with Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. Furtick is the… View More

Normally, I wouldn’t write a long blog post pitching a book. However, when a book literally changes my life, it’s time to write a post.

Yesterday, I wrapped up my 2011 reading list with Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. Furtick is the 31 year old pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. Furtick’s tremendous faith, commitment to vision and sensitivity to God’s voice has helped grow this church to 9,000 members. For five consecutive years, Outreach Magazine has called it one of America’s fastest growing churches.

So, how did this book change my life? Let me just share one of the opening sentences:

If the size of your vision for your life isn’t intimidating to you, there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God.

Yikes.

And it doesn’t stop there. He has in his cross hairs the boring, lackluster, faith-less lives most of us live. The story traces the idea of Joshua’s prayer in Joshua 10:12, when he literally spoke to God and commanded the sun to stand still. This level of faith and audacity is simply not evident today. In fact to many of us it’s uncomfortable, or even insulting and irreverent to imagine this type of faith.

But, as Furtick writes:

Of course, every believer in Jesus has a measure of faith—it’s the prerequisite to salvation. But after that, if we’re honest, we think of faith primarily in terms of a spiritual thought or a comfortable feeling.We hope it’s enough to get us to heaven when we die. But in the meantime, it’s barely enough to keep us praying, giving, and going to the eleven o’clock service. Let me ask you: does the brand of faith you live by produce the kinds of results in your life that you read about in the biblical stories of men and women of faith?…The chasm we see between our mundane spiritual experiences and the overcoming faith we read about in the accounts of biblical heroes is downright discouraging.

Refreshingly, his cry for greater faith doesn’t trend toward selfish, indulgent ambition. However, he is not shy about trusting God for the promises that he, as Author of Creation, could only bring about. Furtick himself is a testament to this, as his commitment to faith has allowed for a life that completely defies his age or experience.

This book began reconditioning me to actually believe that God is in my corner and desires to use me for great things. Some of my big takeaways?

• The pursuit of holiness can easily become the pursuit of safety. Sure, it’s good to relentlessly kill idols in your life. But the moment your afraid to step out, is the moment you don’t understand God as father and we, his children. To ignore your big dreams and visions for fear of being selfish, can mean ignoring an open door from the Lord. It’s not bad to desire to be used for great things in your generation. Audacity can be Holy.

• Stop qualifying your prayers and dreams so the religious people in your small-group won’t attack you for being selfish. Complacency balks at audacity. Often, when your prayers and dreams are so big that they feel preposterous, you’re getting close.

Let me leave you with Furtick’s overview of Sun-Stand-Still type faith!

Activating Faith: This is all about rejecting passivity and fear. Look at the stories of faith in the Bible, is there any doubt that God is calling us to audacious living? Why do we have these examples?!

Approach God with Boldness: Come with confidence, calling on God based on his proven faithfulness to men like Joshua. Do you realize God’s desire is for faith-filled living? In fact Scripture says, “without faith, you cannot please God” and newsflash…this isn’t referring to faith for salvation.

Ask for what seems Impossible: If we have the audacity to ask, God has the ability to perform. Believe God for things that are too big for you to accomplish alone. And stop with the, “if it’s your will” speak. For most of us, this is a mental “out” that we give ourselves to lessen the blow if God doesn’t come through. Instead, believe that God is at work on your behalf. And trust him to answer, whether it’s yes, no or later.

Advance toward the Answer: Furtick calls this “push while you pray”. Audacious faith doesn’t throw up prayers and hope God answers. It means you are willing to become the answer to your prayer. Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, but notice how he marched through the night to be in position to defeat his enemies? Make moves.

Give God Glory: God loves the glory that comes from the success of audacious acts of faith. In fact, the more audacious, the more the glory he can receive. The stories can be ours to tell, the story itself is always about Jesus.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

this post can be originally see on Charlie’s blog Do Life Big.

5. Relax. (You shouldn’t feel the pressure anyway.) A lot of pastors feel stressed before giving a message. It’s understandable–it is a weighty honor. But it should never be an overwhelming burden. If it feels like an overwhelming burden, you… View More

5. Relax. (You shouldn’t feel the pressure anyway.)

A lot of pastors feel stressed before giving a message. It’s understandable–it is a weighty honor. But it should never be an overwhelming burden. If it feels like an overwhelming burden, you are trying to take God’s role from Him. Let God be about the growth and change.  He’s better at it. Paul tells the Corinthians, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6)

God makes things grow. What does that mean? The pressure is off. Our responsibility is to plant, water, and create an environment where growth is possible.

Here’s how the prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, put it:

“The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise it could consist of the wisdom of men. We might preach ‘til our tongues rotted, ‘til we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.”

Think about…

1. Pray a short prayer before writing your message acknowledging that you ultimately have no power with regard to eternal things. Acknowledge your dependence and ask God to do His work.

2. Pray a short prayer before giving the message. Acknowledge dependence, ask God to do His work.

3. Pray afterwards. Acknowledge dependence, ask God to do His work.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Click HERE for parts 1,2,& 3 of this series.

The reality is there are a limited number of things in this life that absolutely everyone on this planet knows and understands.  Pain is one of them.  We all experience it at some time or another.  However, while this pain may… View More

As I sit and think about what has happened within the Alliance Youth family over the last four years I am overwhelmed. According to recent data, 40,000 students every year benefit from the youth ministries of our local churches. Over… View More

As I sit and think about what has happened within the Alliance Youth family over the last four years I am overwhelmed. According to recent data, 40,000 students every year benefit from the youth ministries of our local churches. Over the last four years (with the help of two LIFE conferences) we have seen hundreds of students come to Christ and commit themselves to the vision that God has planted so firmly in their souls. Thousands of students have traveled across the country and across the seas in order to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to a lost world. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been given by students for the benefit of God’s Kingdom here on this earth. Those numbers are staggering and we should all be so encouraged by what God is doing with our students, but even with all the amazing things that are going on, I am often left wondering—what is next for the “next generation?”

For the last 50 years emphasis on student ministries here in the United States has been overwhelmingly intentional. Churches have molded and adapted themselves to care very specifically for students along the different pathways of their lives. Children’s ministries have come to be a major contributor to the mission of the church while student ministries have helped redefine the rules of overall church engagement time and time again. Yet even with all of this intentionality the church still experiences a lack of engagement with the young adult population. In my estimation the church is hemorrhaging and we are dangerously close to losing an entire group of believers aged 18-30 (aka. the next generation).

This is nothing new to any of us in youth ministry. As a matter of fact this is nothing new to anyone in the church—especially the leadership, yet despite its “elephant-in-the-room” persona, very few are doing anything about it. The simple reason nothing is being done is because far too much time is being spent on trying to figure out how we got here.

“Is the lack of young adult engagement in the church the fault of individualized approaches to youth ministry? Is it because our churches as a whole tend to be out of touch with current philosophical and cultural trends? Is it because our church’s Facebook page hasn’t been updated since April of 2007?”

The answer to all of these questions is yes, and no. Churches can always be more progressive, but the church wasn’t established to be the pinnacle of information technology. Sure it’s helpful to understand how people think and what dictates their understanding of right and wrong, but isn’t the church supposed to be a body of renewed minds anyway? And yes, youth ministry can be highly individualized, but at the end of the day it’s hard to find the one-size-fits-all Sunday morning program that hits every generation right where they’re at. Regardless of who’s fault it is for the spot we’re in one thing is for sure, if we are not intentional about bringing up the next generation of believers within in our churches we will find ourselves at a cross-road like no other in the history of the North American church.

For this reason the National Office is making the call for change. Over the next few months I will be transitioning out of the National Youth Office (Alliance Youth) and moving into a brand new position as Director of Envision Culture (starting July 1st). Currently you may associate Envision Culture with an International Conference or as the office of Envision Trips (short-term missions) but going forward the Envision Culture office will encompass all of these endeavors and so much more! It is my hope that Envision Culture will play a major role in the life of the local church—through training and resources for discipleship, church planting and mobilization. All of this with an aim to mobilize the next generation for Kingdom change.

As the Alliance Youth office will no doubt be in flux over the next several months I want you to know how much I have truly enjoyed being your National Youth Director. The last two LIFE conferences have been truly remarkable (and planning for the next LIFE continues to go very well) and our ENvent schedule for 2012 is flourishing under district leadership! I also believe that we are networked more than ever before—now thanks in part to our brand new website. I want to encourage you to continue to take part in the community of Alliance Youth by being an active participant on this new site! (Please take some time and thank Christian Ostrom for all of his hard work on getting this website online over the last six months. Great work Christian!) There will be more information on the Alliance Youth office transition (as well as the future direction of Envision Culture) on the website in the months to come.

I want to thank you once again for all that you do for the youth in your church –but more importantly for who you are! I will continue to champion your work as we seek to provide a greater engagement for your students beyond High School.

Be encouraged. Change is in the air.

_________________________________________________________________________________

this letter was recently sent out in a news letter to our Alliance Youth family. If you wish to receive updates from the National Youth Office you can sign up on the Home Page!