A Lot To Learn

     I get the pleasure of hanging out with some cool friends of mine who are also in student ministry.  I get to be around these guys and get some insight (I give very little) and I really value the time I get to spend listening and learning all about this zoo they call student ministry. 

     I also get the honor and privelage to serve on staff here at Oak Leaf Church with some veterans to the game of student ministry. My pastor, Michael, did student ministry for 12 years before starting OLC. Our Executive Pastor, Anthony, and my boss, Jonathan (Family Pastor), also have done the student minitry thing for some time also.

    I also like to peak into other student ministry’s playbooks and see what they are up to as well. I follow Brad Cooper of Newspring Church. I host a lot of events, go to camp with and get to hang out with Matt Lawson of First Baptist Church Woodstock. I read several student ministry blogs. You should check this one and this one out. It helps give me ideas and inspire to be better at what I do.

    With all of that being said I have a lot to learn from a lot of different people. I realize that I am young and dumb and I don’t know a lot about this whole student ministry thing. But one thing I DO know is that I am certain that God has called me to reach students and teach them about Jesus. Now I have not been doing this very long but I do know the vision that God has put on my heart. I also feel that God has blessed me with an incredible opportunity to learn from some incredible leaders to one day, become one myself.  I love what I do and I can’t wait for this to be my full-time gig. BUT, I have a lot to learn before I can ever get there.

New Direction

I have been sadly unactive on my blog for quite some time now and I am sick of it. So after much debate (not really) I am taking a new direction with my blog. Everything you see on this blog will now pertain to student ministry, God, and the world we live in. That’s it. I wanted to be more focused and this is all that I know how to do it. So, my fellow 11 readers a day, have no fear…I have returned and this bad boy will have a new look in the coming weeks and the content will flow much more abundantly. I am excited to write so I just hope that you guys are excited to read what I write…probably not though.

How To Mess Up

If you know me in any form or fashion…I have probably show you how well I mess stuff up. Whether it’s physically breaking/dropping/kicking something or breaking plans/forgetting to call/running late/over booking myself, I have messing down to an art form.  I hate this about myself. In fact, I hate it sooo stinkin’ much that I am working my butt off to make sure that I improve my life.  And by life I mean: how I manage my time, scheduling things, creating to-do lists, being on time, doing what I say I am going to do and so on and so forth.  I am just sick of forgetting that I had a meeting with someone and that person saying to someone else: “oh well, that’s Jake for you.” So, this is something I just thought of about an hour ago….

I am going to write a book about How To Mess Up.  Now, I am not saying I am going to start this bad boy yet (simply b/c I feel like I have plenty more messing up to do, which could make for more good illustrations in the book.) but I am saying this on this blog so that you friendly faithful readers (all 10 of you) would hold me accountable to at least STARTING this book before this year is over.

I don’t have a whole lot of good things to say, BUT I do have a whole lot of insights on how to mess up all the good things in your life. Seriously.

Here are a couple of book title ideas:

• How To Mess Up: A Book About Doing Things The Wrong Way and How To Fix Them Before It’s Too Late
• Oops I did it again: A Book About How To Mess Things Up.
• How To Mess Up

So what do you guys think???

Write it down!

In Exodus 34:27 God instructs Moses to write down a covenant they had just made because it was so important. It’s the first time in the Bible that God commands such a thing as writing something down. Obviously it was important. What do you think Moses did? HE WROTE IT DOWN!!!

I think this is an important concept for Christians.  God is doing HUGE things for His kingdom right now.  This is one of those “for such a time as this” moments.  I believe the kingdom work that is happening now is going to go down in the history books!!! God is making covenants with His people and we should be writing them down.  When God answers a prayer we’ve been praying about…WRITE IT DOWN.  When God blesses you unexpectedly….WRITE IT DOWN!  When you see a lost person get saved…WRITE IT DOWN!  Not only can we rejoice when these things happen but one day when things are not going our way we can pick up one of these “write it down” moments and Thank Jesus for it.

Like I said…I believe this is a crucial time for all Christians.  Let us all rejoice together when God moves.

WRITE IT DOWN!

What If?

What if The Western Church began facing issues with the government about Public Worship?

What if churches began fostering discipleship more than leadership?

What if churches took away the lights? the bands? the media? the vibe? Would Jesus be found?

What if Christians stopped being so judgemental of non-christians?

What if Christ followers decided to ACTUALLY follow Christ and not what everyone else is doing/thinking?

What if?

Undone

God is turning my heart right now. I am learning so much.  I am a broken man who God has called up to lead people from where they are to where God wants them to be.  I am an unfinished piece of work that God is stretching and growing every day.  I am a regular man that is craving more of Jesus every day. I do not know what lies next on the path He has for me but what I do know is that I will do whatever it is.  I am willing to be made new. I am willing to learn and gain wisdom from those He surrounds me with.  I am so thankful that God has called me…an ugly, forgetful, lazy, irresponsible, people-pleaser of a man, to do HIS WORK. Thank you Father God.

I am undone.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!       __2 Corinthians 5:17

I’m Excited…

Here are a few things I am excited about that are coming up pretty soon.

• FUEL ski trip is this weekend. It’s from Friday, Febuary 13 until Monday, Febuary 16. It’s going to be sick! We are taking a little over 20 students and they have left me in charge! I’m also getting the opportunity to speak to our students there too! I can’t wait! This is going to be so much fun!
• My girlfriend’s birthday is Febuary 20. I have some cool stuff planned and she will be turning 20 on the 20th! You should follow her on twitter if you don’t already!
• Every single Wednesday night. FUEL is going strong and God is doing so much! He is stretching me and I can’t wait to see what happens every week! Check whereisfuel.com from Sunday nights at 8 p.m until Monday nights at 8 p.m. to find out the location for that week’s FUEL. You can also follow us on twitter.
• I am speaking again at FUEL on March 4 and again on April 29. I’m pretty pumped about it!
• I am going to be a groomsman in Matt Moody’s wedding on June 20. He has become a best friend to me and can’t wait to see Sara and him married.
• Attending the Orange Conference on April 29-May 1. This is going to be a GREAT conference.
• Attending UNLEASH at Newspring Church on March 12. Went to this last year and it is INSANE! Love it!

A couple of other things that are happening just not sure when yet…

• Speaking at Cartersville High School’s FCA.
• Leading an elementary and middle/high chapel for Excel Christian Academy.
• Speaking at McPow which is a weekend conference for several churches in McMinnville, Tennessee.

Needless to say God is teaching me a lot, I am learning a lot and getting some cool opportunities all in the middle of it!

Identity Confession

Sometimes I find myself placing my identity on things that are really not my identity.  For example: I like to check my grade on twittergrader.com and see my ranking for tweets in Cartersville.  I also like to see how many blog views I have (which has been down recently due to the inactivity on my blog.)

Sometimes, I let the stats define my mood and define how “cool” I think I am to the small world around me.

I have to check myself often on this…seriously. I once heard Ergun Caner speak about identity and he totally changed my view on this topic.  He liked to call these outside stats and sterotypes “flavors.”  He talked about how we, as Christians, sometimes like to pay attention to the people that separate us as white or black, short or tall, fat or skinny, hot or ugly, and smart or dumb when really these things shouldn’t matter because they DO NOT define our identities.

Our identity is simply found in who Christ Jesus says that we are.  That’s good to know seeing as how some people like to judge me because of something they observe from the outside.

Really, though, all that matters is what is going on in my heart.  And let me tell you, my heart is on FIRE!  Luckily that’s all that God pays attention to because that’s what really matters.  The condition of my heart.

My identity is found in knowing that I want to reach thousands of students for Jesus.  My identity is found by seeing my passion for serving others. My identity is found in only worshiping Jesus with my WHOLE heart.  My identity is found in simply loving God first and loving people second.

That’s my identity.

So, in saying that…bring on the heat you naysayers and gossipers. Bring on the words those who doubt what I am about and what my intentions are because I have one thing to tell you…My identity is not found in what you say that I am or who you say that I should be.  I am the Lord’s and he says who I am…

It’s not about me…

I learned something from a great man this week.  I was having a very good conversation about ministry with him and he taught me something that I will never forget…

I won’t go into all the details about what the conversation was about and how it stemmed but I will tell what I walked away from the conversation acknowledging.  I realized that if I ever do something and expect something back in return…then I have done it wrong from the start anyway.  

I hope I never do anything for the sake of getting credit for it.  I don’t want what I do to be about me…because it’s no about me. It’s about Jesus Christ.

whereisfuel.com

FUEL is the student ministry of Oak Leaf Church. It is for high schoolers and middle schoolers. We meet on Wednesday nights in Cartersville, Georgia from 6:30-8…

If you can find us.

We do “youth group” a little differently here at Oak Leaf Church. We want our students to OWN their student ministry…SO WE DON’T TELL THEM WHERE WE ARE MEETING EVERY WEEK.

Here is how it works: 1.) A post will be made on whereisfuel.com on Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. and will tell them where FUEL is happening that Wednesday night. The message will stay there until Monday evening at 8 p.m. That’s 24 hours. 2.) We will send out text messages to every student in our database at 8 p.m on Sunday nights. 3.) We will send out an email, a message to our Facebook friends and a Myspace bulletin on Sunday evenings at 8 p.m.

It’s like a rave.

There will be pizza.

There will be music.

There will be worship.

There will be teaching.

There will be Jesus.

We will share the love of God to all of Cartersville.

This is a movement that YOU need to be a part of. Join it. Follow us on TWITTER.

whereisfuel.com