BSM

wow… things have been kinda nuts lately, but it’s all been good.  things around here for BSM are going really well, at least i think so.  i guess you’d have to check around to see what other people think.

for theWell:hs we started something new this fall.  we are studying straight through books of the Bible.  it’s been amazing so far.  we are in Genesis right now and have been for months and are still only in chapter 24.  but it’s been really great.  for a while now we’ve been studying the life of Abraham, which has been real interesting.

Abraham and his family belong on Jerry Springer’s show.  This guy loves God and follows God, but repeatedly messes up.  He sleeps w/ the family maidservant Hagar (who ends up being the

SYATP @ PVHS (1of5 highs schools we have students attending)

grandmother of the Islam religion), and he essentially pimps out his wife, not once but TWICE!, b/c he was afraid for his own skin.  This guy has some trust issues.  Even after God time and time again promises that he’ll father many nations, Abraham asks God why Ishmael (the bastard child from Hagar) can’t be the fruit of that promise.  So ya… studying Abraham and his experiences with God has been real interesting.

@ Higher Grounds we’ve been going through this series titled ‘The Experience’ and it focuses on how we should experience a relationship with God.  Some of the topics we’ve discussed include Sovereignty, Truth, Justice, (and about 6 others).  This week we talk about Forgiveness, which is a perfect followup for Justice.

Other things that have gone on…

Had some hangout time after some of the local football games.  We were supposed to go down to the fire pit after the PV home games, but the rain would not cooperate with us.

SYATP happened a while ago.  hundreds of students in the QCA gathered around the flag poles at their schools to pray for their friends, teachers, schools, and nation.  It was really cool.

Our student ministry hosted a ‘Family Fun Night’ where we raised over $3,000 for Blood:Water Mission.  That’s enough to cover the complete cost of drilling a well for a community in Africa where fresh clean water is needed.  That was real awesome to see the students respond in such an impacting way.

And then our two jr high leaders got married… to each other!  Woo hoo!  Congrats again Todd and Emily!

We also have been able to celebrate the baptisms of Taylor, Emily, and Danny! I love it when people, especially students, fall in love with Jesus.  I’m proud of you guys!

So it’s been crazy, but crazy cool!  This fall has been a blast and it’s been really cool to see how God is working.  My prayer is that God continues to change lives in this place and that through everything, especially the hard times, that we would be obedient to Him and worship Him with all we have.

our core volunteer group praying before Blood:Water Mission event

Hey y’all! This is intern John, and Bryan told me to give blogging a shot.

So it is now August and looking forward, Rock the River is about to go down, school is about to start and my time in Iowa is growing short. Looking back, Summer in the Son, Jr. High Hot Summer Nights, QC Mission Trip, and the completely random things of life that happen when Christians are in fellowship with one another, have filled the last month and a half of summer with great memories and more importantly great things for Jesus.

Because I grew up in this church, I am a SITS veteran having spent a week in Kentucky more times than not in the past decade, both as a student and a sponsor. There was something different this year that was so different that I was a bit taken back. So often at big youth conference events you see students having these big “mountain top” experiences where they encounter God and you see wave after wave of students rededicating themselves to Christ, many of them have done the exact same thing the year before. I am quite familiar with this because through most of my time in high school I was that guy. I can’t even recall how many times I did it before Jesus gave me a new heart at SITS the summer before my senior year of high school. Yet, this time something was different and I had great difficultly figuring it out. Eventually, two things stuck out as being the difference.

First, the BCC crew that we took this year had quite a few students that had, in the last year, really engaged Jesus in their lives and while still working out their faith, they already had Jesus as the number one. The amazing consequence of this was that many took on the attitude instead of saying “Jesus, you need to be my number one,” said “Jesus, you are my number one, so what can I do for you now.” The second thing that really struck me was that the SITS team truly was very deliberate in the way they presented Jesus. While musical worship was as powerful as ever, it was clearly focused on the reality of Christ and the truth that he spoke rather than relying on a few exciting songs that pump people up the same way going to any rock concert would. Also, the two men that taught did a fantastic job of communicating what it means to follow Christ and did not merely declare “come to Jesus so you don’t go to hell.” This made it such a powerful week that our students came back from ready to boldly live out the gospel and be willing to deal with the messy for Jesus.

Speaking of dealing with the messy, one day after church a bunch of the students decided that the gospel at its root is Jesus taking on our crap and cleansing us, so they decided that cleaning peoples toilets would be a good illustration of this. Also they wanted be a blessing to the people who would otherwise have to do that. Lets just say that day, they found out what its like to deal with what the bible calls skuvbalon… (Philippians 3:8, oh and by the way, rubbish is MUCH! to tame of word to translate skuvbalon to. The church probably wouldn’t like it if I used the modern day equivalent on here…)

The High Schoolers didn’t get to have all of the fun this summer. For a week in July, our Jr. High students got to have a blast with “Hot Summer Nights.” For thi, students gathered to experience the awesomeness that is punk rock worship from a loud three-piece band (dubbed The Hooligans or Mitch 182…), learn what we do to grow closer with Jesus, (prayer, bible, and fellowship. Think a three-legged stool. If you take out one leg it collapses, as we found out when the band became the legs. If you take out the bible (Jacob) fellowship (Mitch) and prayer (Gavin) fall down (on top of each other, and prayer gets hurt…) Additionally, we all enjoyed bowling, movies, and putt putt. (I owned btw). But it was a great time of shenanigans and Jesus…

School starts soon and my time of employment is almost over. As I look at this group of students in particular and BSM as a whole, I can’t help but be excited for what God has in store. Rock the River has such great potential to raise the spiritual climate of our community and bring kids that don’t know Jesus to him. Additionally, when you look at how God has been teaching us about what it means to “Love God & Others,” I see such an opportunity within this student ministry. I have seen over the course of this summer eyes opened to the fact that messy people are in fact first and foremost people. People who hurt, (me too), people who screw up, (me too), and people who know that they’re a mess and don’t need another person to tell them that, (me too). People need to know that Jesus loves them and wants to reach down to the muck and mire that is their lives and take a hold of them and it is our job as the church to be the love of Christ.

So what does this look like? How will what was learned this summer translate into Higher Grounds this fall? The Well this fall? Our schools this fall? Our lives this fall? I haven’t the slightest clue to what exactly God wants to do in BSM this fall, but I know that God has given so many of us transformed hearts to love him and others. So what are we going to do about it? Are we willing to deal with skuvbalon for Jesus? Will we make BSM a place where people FEEL the love of Jesus?

It’s go time.

normal mission trips for churches and, even more specifically, student ministries, involve going away for mission work.  some go to inner-city locations within the US and some go overseas to areas such as, mexico, dominican republic, haiti, ukraine, etc.  what we are doing is out of the norm and i have heard of very few ministries doing this and am wondering if i’m just not talking to the right people or is this as rare as it seems.

we live in a smaller, but still metropolitan, area known as the Quad Cities.  4 cities (2 on the west side of the river and 2 on the east; 2 in iowa and 2 in illinois) that compose this 1 community.  within our community are several locations and organizations that need help.

so instead of going away this year, we will stay and be a part of our city serving our city.  we are excited about the potential of this and are geared to impact our city.  what are you doing for your city?