Published November 6, 2017
Heritage Baptist Church, South Abington Twp., Pennsylvania
Luke
Ministry Highlights
We had a big outreach event this month. Out of 45 students that were registered for this event, 17 of those students were unsaved/unchurched friends of our HSM students. I was so excited to see our students really take advantage of this outreach event in the life of their friends. A lot of unbelievers got to hear the gospel. We are excited to see the fruit we see from this event and are continuing to ask God to move in big ways in our group and community.
Earlier this month, we had each student create a specific growth plan for a spiritual discipline as well as a particular sin area they are surrendering to. Every student walked out of a Sunday morning gathering at HSM with 2 completed growth plans they were supposed to get to people who would help them accomplish their goals. This month I was so encouraged to see many students taking this seriously and getting these growth plans into the hands of youth leaders and parents so that they can better accomplish growth in their lives.
The worship experience we have at youth group is so awesome. I love looking into the crowd and seeing so many students passionate and moved by the worship experience we have. Kyle, our worship leader, does a great job with our church and student ministry. In today’s culture, students are often looked at as kids who don’t care about much, are entitled, are lazy, etc. But to see so many students in this demographic moved and passionate about the work Jesus had done in their life is always so encouraging to see. I have the privilege of seeing this every Wednesday night.
Key Prayer Requests
God would direct Shaelyn and I what He wants us to do next and where He wants us to do it.
Shaelyn and I would have tons of opportunities for gospel centered conversations with our unbelieving friends. And that God would save those people.
God would bless the ministry at HSM this year.
Prominent Lessons
In my current role I do a lot of teaching and leading directly. This is how I naturally saw myself having the biggest impact. While I still think that is true, another area of long term influence was shown to me this week. I work with students in a location that has a lot of Bible College students apart of our church and ministries. Meaning, there are a handful of youth ministry majors that help out at HSM. I try my best to set those guys up to have opportunity for teaching and leadership so that they can be best prepared for future ministry. This past week I helped one of those guys create and organize a message in our Luke teaching series. It was a pleasure to be a part of that process. This guy has spoken in the past and it was honestly kind of rough so he came to me to help him improve this next time around. I helped him and gave him some insight in how he could possibly use his personality and style to be effective.
What really occurred to me was that maybe the best possible influence I can have on this world would be to influence influencers. I don’t have to do all of the ministry directly but can be a voice and help to people who are in positions of direct ministry with people and students. This can be a big push of mine in the next year with our 23 youth volunteers.
I have often felt like every time I have made a controversial decision it is met with the highest possible resistance. As I have processed this and talked with some men I respect I have often heard the response, “now you know why a lot of churches are unhealthy.” I realize on such a deeper level that making difficult decisions that are met with resistance is all a part of the process of helping produce health in a local church. I am so committed to not be bullied or held hostage to make unbiblical decisions just because families, parents, etc. are putting pressure on me. I was again reminded this week that if I am serious about growing people and ministries, it will come with tough leadership decisions that are met with resistance.
My experience over the last couple years with students is that you can create a ministry and culture where you have fun but are still very serious about serious things. It has been confirmed in my mind the last couple weeks. We can have a ministry that has tons and tons of fun but we don’t have to do that at the expense of growth and seriousness over spiritual matters. We don’t have to pick one or the other. We also don’t have to only teach really deep and sacrifice fun and high energy excitement at youth group. The combination of this has really seemed to be increasing our numbers at HSM.
We have even seen this in our worship experiences. We will start out with really upbeat and interactive songs. This allows kids to get really into it and super super sweaty. But we always end our singing time with some acoustic songs to lower the energy a bit before teaching. My observation is that students don’t disengage from this but move right into serious reflection and worship. I think it can be easy to downplay what students are capable of. Sure students want to have fun, but we don’t have to sacrifice spiritual growth or seriousness to make this happen. We can effectively do both every week.
Key Goals for the Next Month
Continue in my reading plan!
Spend some significant time with a student a week.
Pray with Shaelyn every night about our future, unbelievers we are trying to reach, and personal decisions that have to be made.
Shaelyn
Ministry Highlights
I am a high school girl small group leader and we just met for our first focus group meeting this month. Myself along with three other girl leaders are in a group with 3-5 high school girls right now. I was really encouraged by the conversations we were having with girls about doing devotions and how open they were with their struggles. They set goals for themselves and we have been keep them accountable to that through texts, nights out together and asking them when we see them.
We had an amazing youth group event this past Friday called 1Night that started off at the church and we later went to Skyzone. We had 17 un-churched kids come to the event! The students did such a great job at inviting their unsaved friends to this event, which is exactly what we wanted! We want these kids to have a burden for their unsaved friends and we were encouraged to see that more.
Key Prayer Requests
That our HSM students will be able to have follow up conversations with their friends who attended the 1Night event and that we will see them at HSM.
That I will stay committed to keeping the girls in my focus group accountable to their commitments.
Prominent Lessons
I had the reminder this month of how great it is to stay in touch with the youth leaders and students throughout the week. We had a youth leader who lost his job last December and 11 months later he now has a job again! We were texting and talking and praying for this family and it has been exciting to see God’s faithfulness through all they have been through. I have realized the importance of community yet again through this whole process and how important it is to stay in touch with those who are going through difficult circumstances. It can be easy to forget about other peoples problems when I have a busy week myself at times, but I’m never to busy to stop and pray for them.
Key Goals for the Next Month
Take time though out the week and see how the other girl youth leaders are doing. Some have no family/friends in the area and I want to be an encouragement to them.
Take time to pray with Luke about next year, post-internship.
Take time to surprise Luke with the simple things.
Get up early and do things like devotions and workout before work.
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