A Fight For Margin

Courtney and I are out of town for a little vacation. A time to rest, refocus, and be restored. God is so smart. When we scheduled this trip, we knew we needed it, but now we know how bad. We are both exhausted. I have just come off back to back weekend retreats and I am in the middle of finalizing the details for six student trips we have in the next 5 months. To top it off...I am 20 days away from a trip to Kenya. It is time to slow down and find the margin.
Ah....it always comes back to margin. I have found one thing to be true these past two days....you have to fight for it. No one is giving Margin away and the enemy loves to keep us buried under the urgent and while we pass on the important. I will not. I will not carry the pressures, concerns, plans, or problems that come with student ministry on this vacation. That is exactly what the enemy wants and a fight He will lose.
Has it happened to your before? You missed out on opportunities for margin because you couldn't let go of the urgent? I hope that you will fight for the important and let the urgent go. Next time you have the opportunity to find the margin...go after it with all you have and don't let anything get in the way of finding it.

The Story

This past weekend, I took the juniors and seniors away on a retreat in the Ozark Mountains. The trip was amazing. We played football in the sleet, sat around the fire and sang, ate great food, told stories, played mafia (a game we love), went on an amazing hike and I am pretty sure I had a couple of heart attacks during the climb.
The trip was great, but my favorite part came the last night. As we sat around the fire, I began to ask the students some questions. What are your greatest fears, greatest talents, dreams, and so on? Their answers were amazing. The last question was incredible. I asked them why they started coming to Rock Creek, and what made them stay. One by one, they pointed out each other as the reason they were here. Because another friend in the room went, they came. The relationships had gone beyond a self-serving friendship into something that changed another’s life.
It was a top five moment for me as a student pastor. To see where we have come from in the past two years in our understanding of relationships and their importance is incredible. I am so excited to be a part of this senior and junior class. They've got it. They understand what this is all about. They have embraced the truth that is so clearly laid out in Psalms 33.... God is up to something.... and he wants us to be a part of the story.
I am more excited than I have ever been as a student pastor. I am more relaxed, focused, in the margin, determined, and passionate than ever. I can't wait to see how this next chapter reads.

GO.07

The vision for Rock Creek Students in 2007 is very simple... GO! Whether it is to a friend at your school or to an orphan in Kenya....We as Christians are all called to GO!
The truth is, we are all going somewhere. We are either going towards God and His purposes or we are going our own way, and pursuing our own plan. Our Heart as a Student Ministry is that we will see students GO like never before.
As God continues to push our students to dream big and GO, we know this vision will bring a new level of dependency...and in turn a new level of intimacy with God. We can't wait to see what story God will write with these students.
The plan is simple...Jesus is better than anything this world has to offer...too many have not tasted and seen how good He is...we must GO!

A New Viewpoint!

One of the seniors in our student ministry wrote this next entry. It is better than anything i have ever written...enjoy!

"Have you ever heard the stereotype "I'm not going to church because it's full of hypocrites.." ? It breaks my heart to hear it come from the mouths of people I care for and want to experience God's love.. This view is a wise deception.. It reminds me of the twisted lies the devil snares people with in The Screwtape Letters.

I used to use the same excuse, an umbrella of selfishness and fear to reside under.. It's easy to blame 'the others' for not being perfect so you have an excuse not to be.. During the time I believed the lie that I was above the 'self-righteous liars that called themselves Christians', I was extremely angry.. I was bitter at the world and the fake people in it..

I was also scared. So caught up in the comfort of my false independence, I didn't even realize I was the fakest person I knew. I was a phony. My hatred towards the people that 'were so wrong' was revealed as a hatred for myself and the fabricated beliefs that held me back from truly experiencing love with my Lord. .

Every human is a hypocrite in some way, form, or fashion.. As humans, we are flawed.. Thank God for grace. . We are called by God while we are still sinners.. and not, as I've realized, after we transform to perfection..

The church is full of broken people.. Broken people with their eyes looking to God.. No one is perfect and everyone falls..

It's up to all of us to help each other to our feet again.. Instead of pointing disdainfully in each others faces, while wearing the garments of a fake."
http://abbyalyssa.blogspot.com/

Go!

It is good to be back! I hope everyone had a great break. Tomorrow night will be the first time that we have met together as a student ministry in quite a while. I am so excited. I feel as though the team and I have a crystal clear view of the vision that God has laid out for us at Rock Creek.
I am extremely excited about 2007 and about the potential for great things. I am praying for God to push the students to places they have never dreamed to go. I am praying that God will wreck the idea of the American Dream for these students. Monday I am going to put a map in my office. I am going to chart the global impact from here on out. Wherever our students go when they leave, we are going to put it on the map…I am excited to see it fill up. It is time to dream big.
I wonder where you fit into the big story of God in 2007? I believe that God is calling the American Church to dream bigger than ever before. I don’t know if the generation before us can catch it but I know ours can…who will go?