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Five or six years ago we made an intentional decision as a staff team to move our high school students (9-12 grade) to a serving role on Sunday morning. We had read about the nationwide trend among new college freshman who were leaving their home church’s youth ministries to attend college and not getting involved in a local church near their universities. We wanted to change this trend and see LifePoint students committed and plugged in to the local church during their college days. We believed  serving in a local church ministry was key to keeping students and families plugged in and committed.We spent time studying and learning from other churches who had made the move we were embarking on with our  students. We saw the difference it was making in their churches and in the lives of the students who were involved. As a staff team we decided the risk of upsetting the “apple cart” was worth it.  This new ministry would be called Max Impact.

The move was not fully accepted at first, probably due to our team not communicating effectively. Some people didn’t want their high schooler involved in serving and there were students who didn’t want to serve so we provided one (1) Bible study class for those who needed a place to be on Sunday mornings. This class revolved around God’s call to serve, sacrifice and understand how we were S.H.A.P.E.d to serve.

Fast forward to today, the difficulties of the early days are gone and people are settled into the new normal of Max Impact. Yesterday, I watched as kids lead out in our stage crew. In fact, there were 4-5 students whose parents are vitally involved the Production and Worship Arts area currently. Students were leading in worship in Student Ministry and now students are training other students to lead also. It is a blast to see the culture of raising leaders firmly being passed on to another generation of Christ Followers.

Thank you LifePoint Church for being willing to take the risk and for creating a culture were serving is valued. If your High School student is not serving on Sundays please see David McCaman and he will help them get plugged in to ministry.

Jesus was dedicated to the mission of God, His heavenly father. Jesus told those who were seeking to kill Him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). On yet another occasion, Jesus stated that His purpose was “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus spent His ministry demonstrating to His disciples how to be about His father’s activity. He told parables about seeking after lost sheep, lost coins, and lost sons (Luke 15). Jesus even sent His disciples on a trip to seek out people who were lost spiritually to tell them about His purpose in coming to earth (Luke 10:1-12). Jesus was the perfect example of being about the mission of God.

Before Jesus ascended back to heaven to be with His father, He commissioned the disciples to take on the activity of God. He commanded them to be on mission with God to reestablish the spiritual kingdom of God on the earth. The mission was and is God’s plan. The disciples would now take up the mantle of missions on the earth. Missions, as defined by Avery Willis and Henry Blackaby, “is the activity of God’s people—the church—to proclaim and to demonstrate the kingdom of God cross-culturally to the world.”

The disciples spent the rest of their lives living out God’s purpose for His followers and training others to be committed to the mission of God. God commissioned His one and only son, Jesus, to seek after His purpose in an active manner. Jesus, in turn, called each of His present and future disciples to be about the same activity and purpose He was about while He walked the earth. The commissioning recorded in Matthew 28:18- 20 gave the disciples their ultimate purpose for reestablishing the kingdom of God in the world, and that commission stands today as the clarion call for all of Jesus’ present-day followers

I have been reading about a couple of topics lately that not many people in the United States and the western world do not like to discuss. In fact, I couldn’t even type the words. I think my computer is having problems and wouldn’t allow the letters to be put together to spell the words.

Several months ago the I began to sense the Lord leading me to learn more about what it means to “share in the suffering of Christ”. Here are a few of the books I have been walking through as a read and try to digest. I haven’t completed all of them but I am in process.

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God by John Piper and Justin Taylor

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

If God is Good by Randy Alcorn

Any words you would like to add to this discussion I would love to hear them.

I would love to hear from you about passages of scripture that help you explain suffering to others.

Over the next 10 days I will ask a lot of questions to a lot of different people.  I have heard someone before, “If you ask the right people the right questions you will get the right answers.”  Sounds good, but I don’t know how practical it is all the time. Anyway, I am attempting to be a learner in a new land  for the next several days. The team of folks I am leading to explore Brussels will meet with many different people from various organizations and seek to gain as much info as we possibly can gather so we can prepare for the move to a new country in a few months. We are going as learners to a new country seeking input into how people live, think bout life, family and faith issues. It is only by asking questions, listening to answers, dialoguing with nationals and listening to the Holy Spirit that we will begin to understand the country, the culture and the people of Belgium.

Speaking of questions…what are some questions you might have about the country of Belgium? What questions would you want to make sure got answered if you were moving there with your family.

From a USA Today article published today….

Millennials are significantly more likely than young adults in earlier generations to say they don’t identify with any religious group. Among Millennials, 26% cite no religious identity, compared with 20% for most members of Generation X (born 1965-1980) at the same ages, and 13% for most Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) at those ages.

Worship attendance is sliding steadily, too: 18% of Millennials say they attend worship nearly every week or more often, vs. 21% of Gen Xers when they were in their 20s and 26% of Boomers at those ages. (Cathy Lyn Grossman, author)

Read the entire article here.

David Watson gave a good talk at Verge ’10 that has some good information when dealing with church planting.

Session 3 – Interpretation

A.  Three Keys to Interpretation

1.     _________________– raw content of the passage

2.  __________________ – what comes before and what comes after

Several types of Context

a.  ___________________

b.  ___________________

c.  ___________________

d.  ___________________

e.  ___________________

3.  __________________________– Scripture with Scripture

Resources

1) Study ______________________

ESV

HCSB

NAS

NIV

2) _______________________

Use same translation

3) Bible ___________________

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Revised and Expanded

The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Revised and Expanded

4) Bible _____________________ – smaller version of a Bible dictionary

The Holman Bible Handbook

Halley’s Bible Handbook

The MacArthur Bible Handbook

5) __________________– book of maps

Holman Bible Atlas

Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps & Charts, Revised and Updated

Holman Book of Biblical Charts, Maps, and Reconstructions

6) Bible __________________________

Holman Old and New Testament Commentary Boxed Set, 32 Volumes

The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Set, 28 Volumes

The NIV Application Commentary, New Testament Set, 20 Volumes

7) _______________________ – Greek and Hebrew words

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words

The Complete Word Study Old Testament Spiros Zodhiates Amg Publishers / 1994 / Hardcover

The Complete Word Study New Testament

Websites

http://www.biblestudytools.com/

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/Bible.org

http://www.desiringgod.org/

http://www.gty.org/

http://www.ligonier.org/

To listen to the teaching click here.

A. What is                                         ?
Introduction

1. The primary task of any teacher of Scripture is to explain the text. (Psalm 119:34)

We received this from our Team Bangkok leader Bret Cox yesterday. He has asked that we pass the note along to the church.

Dear LifePoint Church,

I am sorry this has taken so long to get to you. We have been balancing reading, class time, ministry, and personal time with our Lord. That really isn’t an excuse though as you dropped everything to rise up and meet our needs. Team Bangkok was completely and totally amazed at the response from our church when we had to relocate to unfurnished apartments. The body went above and beyond by supplying all our needs right down to forks and spoons! This was a picture of how Biblical community is fleshed out as modeled in Acts 2. Since we don’t know who made all the donations, maybe this can be posted on the website. We truly want everyone to know how much we appreciate our Church and their heart for missions.

A special thanks to Pat, Tim, Leslie, Jason and Witt for their sacrifice of time and energy to make the trip to Atlanta and work tirelessly to get the furnishings from the truck to each apartment, then make the late night drive back to Smyrna. What a long day for them! As we are learning in our training, we are blessed to be a blessing and you have certainly been a blessing to us. We LOVE each of you and look forward to all the glory God is going to receive through our faithful body of believers. With sincere love, Team Bangkok

Team Bangkok

Bret and Susie Cox

Seth Hood

Brandon and Crystal Hathcock

Steve and Tiffany Van Dyke

Brett and Beth Clark

Kyle Tanner

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.