You are Valuable

Not too long ago, I heard the story of a young man who felt worthless. He felt that everything he did was ending in failure. He couldn’t see how he could get out of the despair he felt because of the bad things that were happening in his life. I’m sure he’s not the only one.

Not too long ago, I went to the funeral of a 22 year old young man who had taken his own life after battling with depression and struggling to find worth.

Not too long ago, it came to my attention that many students I know have battled with depression despite living in families that are overwhelmingly positive on the outside.

HOWEVER… (and that’s a big however)

Not too long ago, the God of the universe created you in His image.

Not too long ago, the God of the universe showed His love for you by sending His Son Jesus to die for you.

Not too long ago, the God of the universe tells us that you are valuable. You have been bought with a price!

This is the way the Pastor Josh Laxton said it one time in a sermon about the woman at the well. Take some time to watch it, and never, ever forget it.

An Incredible Story of Contentment

Yesterday in church, our pastor preached about being content. It was a sermon out of Philippians 4 where Paul says he has learned to be content in every circumstance. You can watch the whole sermon here if you’d like.

At the end of the service, John, one of our members, talked about his story. It really made me think about how I need to be satisfied with Jesus no matter what.

Check out John’s story below or on YouTube.

Five Retreat Reminders

I have taught many courses about planning retreats and camps, and I’ve participated in a ton of them, but there’s always something I can learn from any experiences. This weekend we had our “Fall Retreat” with our students, and I was reminded of some things that I probably have taught multiple times but may have forgotten over the years.

Here they are:

  1. Small groups is where it’s at: As much as we plan the large group experiences and try to get the worship and main speaker to mesh with our students, the small group times is always where much of the real life conversations take place. Small group leaders are crucial. In fact, this year, my student leadership team saw the preliminary schedule and asked me to include more small group time.

  2. Students will worship if you lead them and let them: I’m always worried about the “worship” time with students. Quite often, I feel like it has potential for falling through and having little impact. This weekend, however, I saw many of our students worshipping freely. One of the band members even commented that they were singing louder than the sound system.

  3. The Group that Plays Together… We intentionally built in time for leaders and students to play together. Too often I have gotten caught up in the need to teach something or make everything purposeful in the sense of having “a point” or being a “teachable moment.” The reality is that sometimes we need some time to let down our hair and just play. They also need to see their leaders being real.

  4. Make it Fun for the Leaders, too: Leadership can be difficult. Leading a retreat often means no sleep and (sometimes) cold showers. We ask leaders to do a lot. So building in some time for them to have fun as well with the students is an important aspect of retreats and camps. Don’t make them be the police all the time.

  5. Don’t Go Alone: One of our rules for the retreat was “Don’t go anywhere alone.” That works for physically safety for the students, and it also works for mental stability of the person leading the retreat. One thing I wish I did better was delegate things to my leaders. I need to learn to ask others to take specific parts of different events and then rest in their ability to do it. It’s important to not try to do everything in a camp or retreat. That’s something I need to work on.

These are things that I have been reminded of this week. I sure learned a lot from this weekend, both from the teaching times as well as from the entire planning and executing process.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need some sleep.

The God of the Hills and Valleys

I don’t know why, but I hadn’t heard this song until a few weeks ago. The lyrics are incredible. For our family, this past year has been a year full of hills and valleys. Things are constantly changing, and even when you think you have reached a mountain top, you didn’t arrive there alone.

God is with you.

We just finished a series about change in our student ministry, and the three great truths we talked about are: God’s character doesn’t change (Hebrews 13:8), His Presence doesn’t move (Isaiah 43:2), and Trials are for our good (James 1:2-4).

Derek’s Testimony

One of my friends from church went with me on the trip to Cuba, and he shared his testimony one night for the youth group. His story is amazing, and I wanted to be sure I got it on video and share it with more people. Since you probably couldn’t be there with us, I’d encourage you to listen to his testimony.