Prayer Needed - The New Semester

I have been using a little time this summer to think and pray through what God might have in store for our teen ministry next semester. I've been realizing just how powerful and necessary prayer is. (I know. I'm always supposed to realize that, but sometimes God still has to give me reminders.)

Remember, even if just a few of you pray consistently, you can make all the difference. Just a couple people prayed for my trip to Nashville with me, and God let me meet some amazing people despite some initial kinks in the plan. And just this week God answered the prayers of a few people and saved 3 of our teens!

So, please pray with me for these key priorities in the Fall.

Pray that . . .

• God will create revival in this emerging generation (especially at Cary High).
• New teen ministry leaders will invest their lives in the students.
• We'll have a passion for getting the gospel out (especially to the teens).
• Our leaders and I will fall in love with Jesus and teach the teens to do the same.
• We'll multiply our faith into students - and they'll multiply their faith into their friends.

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story:
“Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’

But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. - Luke 11:5-10 (NLT)

The Gospel Rocks my Socks Off! (3 Teens Saved )

Hey guys,

I'm sitting in a friend's house in Tennessee. I've been here for a week meeting people who are interested in joining my ministry support team. I was in Missouri for a few days before this for our yearly Great Commission Pastors & Leaders conference.

So the other day, I got a couple phone calls and text messages with the coolest news I've heard in a while. In the last week (while I was gone, of course) 3 of the students we've been hanging out with prayed to received Jesus. It made my day - it made my year! The even cooler part (besides eternal fellowship with Christ and redemption from sin & God's wrath and all that good stuff) was that it actually happened while I was gone.

This year, I was really eager to start some small teen discipleship groups. We call them Root Groups. Two of the guys from our rising sophomore group had been praying for a few days that one of their friends would get saved. In the meantime, CJ (one of the other rising sophomores) invited that same friend to a Greg Laurie crusade. When the invitation came, they looked at each other and CJ asked if his friend wanted to go down front. He said, "I'll go if you go." So (to make a long story short) we have a new believer!

It meant so much to me when CJ took his friend to church the next day and then called to tell me that his friend was already starting to read the Bible. It made me so proud to see a student lead a friend to Christ (without any of us adult leaders pushing it). The best thing is that CJ was himself led to Christ by James - another guy in his small group.

This is "Multiplication"! This is what excites me about ministry. This excited Jesus about ministry! We pass on the power of the gospel from one person to another and one generation to another. Oh yea, did I mention that CJ's sister and one of her friends also went forward to receive Christ? They're part of our new middle school girls Bible study that spun off from the Bible study James & CJ started two years ago.

God is so cool & His gospel rocks my socks off!

The Cure for Boredom

Our church's Home Group leaders meet every other Thursday night for some doctrinal training, accountability, and fellowship. This meeting is different than our monthly church-wide leadership meetings. Here, the next generation of our church's leadership learns how to shepherd God's church together. From this group of maybe 10 men, I would fully expect to see some new pastors develop in the next few years.

We're each rotating through sections of Mark's Gospel to share messages this summer at our Sunday morning services. We're all a little nervous, but it's encouraging to see so many qualified men of God learning to step up to lead in the church. As our pastors are traveling in and out of town for both business and mission trips, it's refreshing to see that they have successfully reproduced their faith and leadership into the young leaders coming behind them.

I had the opportunity to share a message this Sunday on "The Cure for Boredom". I actually haven't listened to it yet. So, I hope I don't sound too stupid. Listen to some of it if you get the chance. It should be posted on our website in the next few days. Here's the link.

http://www.graceforstate.org/audio.shtml

Stupid Prayers

I had a conversation with one of my roommates a few weeks ago that reminded me of a really stupid prayer I prayed after graduating from NC State. I've wanted to blog on this ever since then, and I'm finally getting the chance.

I graduated from NC State in the Spring of 2001 with a Computer Engineering degree. The following Fall, I started working for IBM where I stayed for 2 years before entering full time ministry. God really blessed me with that job. The job market here was pretty sparse at the time.

Before I graduated, I already wanted to enter full time ministry. I was really excited about establishing the teen ministry at Grace so we could reach students with the Gospel and the reality of a relationship with Jesus. But, God thought I wasn't ready yet. (And, He was right.) Great Commission Ministries deferred my application. I needed to grow in my own relationship with Jesus and develop some more ministry skills. I also had to go through God's customized training program for my heart. It turns out that having worked a "real job" for two years gives me a lot better perspective and more credibility. One of the most important things God developed in my heart over those two years was a passion to reach the next generation and a passion to devote my life to reaching students full time.

During this time, I spent a lot of extra time walking in the park, working out my own faith, and crying out to God to use me to do something - anything - to help these students. It seemed like He kept showing me their need, but making me wait for opportunities to react. This built the passion that drives me today.

I enjoyed my work at IBM. God blessed me with some cool opportunities there, and it was fun - at least sometimes. But, I had a fear. I was afraid that I might enjoy my work at IBM so much that I'd just put off returning to ministry. I feared that I might forget about the students I prayed for so fervently. I was afraid that I'd get to the end of my life and realize, "Oops. I never quite got around to showing the love of Christ to the generations behind me." And, that scared me.

One day around the time I started working for IBM, I remember reading through Psalm 137 out by our back porch. (I like to read or take prayer walks outside the house or down at the park near my house. It's less distracting and I can see at least some of God's creation.) I didn't understand the context as well then, but verse 5 cut me right to the heart.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill .

I remember praying this verse as sort of a commitment to God. This is one of those really stupid prayers I always tell our students about. This is the kind of prayer God is sure to answer. (Of course, He always answers prayers. Sometimes we just don't like the answer; and sometimes the answer is "wait a few years - or ten".) But this prayer was something I knew God would hold me to. I was binding myself to the purpose God had for my life & I put my livelihood up as collateral.

I asked God to make my hands "forget their skill" if I should ever forget about our students. Now that's a truly stupid prayer. "God, make me forget how to do my job and fail so miserably that I'll either quit or get fired." That's basically what I prayed. I figured that would give God "permission" to do something drastic and wake me up if I lost site of His purpose for me.

Thankfully, God never needed to strike me down and make me forget how to program computers or design circuits. He just constantly grew my passion for a lost generation until it was time for me to enter career ministry. But, I think it's important for all of us to pray "stupid" prayers on occasion. These prayers are stupid because we're asking God for something that we really don't want - knowing that He'll give it to us. But, these stupid prayer are so important because they push our faith and relationship with Jesus so much deeper. They allow us to press beyond ourselves into the realm of what only God can do. They allow us to make a contribution to God's Kingdom - to have significance. They help us to change people's lives and experience Jesus first hand.

Do you need to pray a stupid prayer today?