In a churched environment there are words that are thrown around a lot and because of the loose way they are used the meaning has been clouded and diminished.  Discipleship and Evangelism are two of those words to me.  Discipleship has been relegated to a series of classes that teach doctrine and lifestyle do’s and don’ts.  Evangelism has been relegated to raise your hand and repeat after me…and oh yeah sign the card.  Now, the terms are fine but it is near impossible to separate the terms from their false meanings, so I am going to switch the terms and I am sure that I am not the first nor brightest to make these observations.

For the purposes of our ministry (and this blog) I am replacing the term “Discipleship” with “Followship” and the term “Evangelism” with “Surrender“.  The apostle Paul made the audacious statement “Follow me as I follow Christ” – 1 Cor 11:1  How many of us live in a way that we can say, “follow me and you will have it figured out.”?  However, as you read about Paul’s ministry he was the ultimate discipler.  Whether it is he and Barnabas or he and Timothy or he and the dude that chained himself to Paul in prison, Paul got it!  To create disciples you have to do life WITH them.  You have to have people to follow and who follow you.  Our youth ministry small group philosophy used to be here are our small groups, go sign up for one of them and go.  Now, I am training our SG leaders to go to the students and pour into the students that naturally gravitate toward them and lead them closer to Jesus…Followship.

I woke up a while back terrified with the thought of all the students that I would be held accountable for because they are walking around with a false sense of salvation because I relegated it to a raised hand, recited prayer and a signature on a card.  God forgive me.  Accepting Christ is not in the Bible however Surrender is.  A life of a student who has surrendered their life to Jesus will be obvious and there will be marked shifts in desires, pursuits and passions.  Why can’t we get people to attend a New Believer’s class?  Could it be that they are NOT a new believer?  I don’t think we have to raise the bar for students to get saved, I don’t think we have to make it harder.  I think we need to allow the Holy Spirit to draw students to himself and cultivate the decision the student has made by providing an environment for a surrendered student can fully express and discover their spiritual journey.

In Matthew 13:1-23 Jesus tells the parable of the sower.  In our context, I am the sower, the SG leader is the waterer and the Holy Spirit causes it to grow.

As disciplers we need to…

Pray – for those who are following you and that you are bringing along in the faith.

Organic Structure – There is no 8 week program and it is not always cookie cutter perfect.  It takes time and is often messy however it is pure.

Utilize Tools – We need to teach how to use the Bible not only read it.  I love what YouVersion.com is doing with their reading plans.

Raise Disciples – When the students are ready, release them into the wild to find their own group to lead.

I recognize that none of this is new or even that cutting edge but maybe just maybe some youth pastor out there is ready for a change.  I hope it helps.

How are you doing “Discipleship” and is it working in your environment?

As I look out my living room window at the snow falling down, I find myself getting excited about Summer Breakaway!  This year we are giving our marquis program a facelift.  We are raising the standards and the excellence this year and I am thrilled to see what team God is putting together this year.  We are believing for 200 students to attend SBX this year and we will take about 40 – 50 adults…that is a lot of people at the beach!  Join me in praying for the students and adults that will attend this year.  If you are not a student or a parent of a student pray about maybe sponsoring a student to go this year.  We had to raise the rates based upon some location changes that were necessary as we grew.  The total cost is $250.  If you would like to chaperone let me or Nancy know asap.  This is going to be a banner year for Alive Youth Ministries and Pointe North Community Church.  I can’t wait…ok, back to the snow.

For more info go to www.aliveym.com

As Pointe North ventures into becoming more focused on Family Ministries I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to our team.  I have the pleasure of guiding these talented people into the next phase of ministry for Pointe North.

I oversee the overall Family ministry and its direction/resource and vision.  I also run Alive Youth Ministries which is comprised of the Alive Worship Experience, Huddle Groups and the discipleship venues, Pulse and Triage.

Hope Murphy is our Children’s pastor and oversees the spiritual development of our K4-5th graders.  She produces Planet Changers, Kids Corner and our Royal Rangers/MPact Girls ministries.

Tiffany Hill is our Nursery director and she oversees Tots Landing our Nursery program at Pointe North.  She directs her team and is growing into a full fledged resource for parents.

Bobby Webster is our Campus pastor for Student Ministries.  He visits area High School and Middle School campuses spending time connecting with students where they are.  Bobby is also vital in our parent connections ministry.

Nancy Webster is the Ministry Assistant for Family Ministries.  She holds the whole thing together.  She is the administrative arm to all of our ministries and makes us look quite honestly much better than we really are.

Coming soon:  Intern for Middle School Ministries.

I am blessed to work with this team and cannot wait to see what God has in store in 2010 for the families in Berkeley County.

• As a youth pastor rather than mentor I/we need to do a better job of teaching parents to mentor
• The best way to get kids involved in their faith is to get their parents involved in their faith
• We need to establish an intentional plan of discipleship for families
• We need to pray for our families…HARD
• When this thing is fleshed out we will 1) Resource = we will provide whatever you need to assist you in being the primary discipler of your kid 2) Train = we will train you in multiple venues, in multiple ways 3) Involve = we want you involved primarily in discipling your kids then, we want you involved in the ministries that are supporting the spiritual development…staffing Alive, KidsPointe and TotsLanding.

I am excited about what God is doing in this ministry and I beg you to pray for me that God grants me wisdom and knowledge and patience.  This is a process that will take years to flesh out and I am not usually a man of patience.

That first year was hell.  I was an emotional mess, struggling with the whole idea of ministry and my place in it.  We had 3 people on the ministry team.  No access to the schools and my solid students went to a school 30 minutes away!  We had no identity, no purpose and no idea where we were going.  We stumbled around into the second year and then our mid week service began to take shape.  The team began to build and I got on at St Johns Academy (the local private school).  That changed the dynamic of the group, we built some solid student leaders.

Year three we began to take off and outgrew every building we went into.  We went after some solid volunteers and PNCC allowed me to hire my first assistant.  God revealed the “Half” campaign to me.

This past year has been monumentally awesome!  God has blown the hinges off the doors of my expectations.

I can’t wait to see what he has in store for the years to come.

I had the priveledge of sitting in on a creative meeting with Ricsha and Hope today finalizing some details for the Christmas Program and I have to tell you it is gonna be pretty exciting.  Get you tickets now!  Yes, this year you will need a tickets!  Some people think that is pretensious but it is actually mathematics.  400 butts cannot fit into 350 seats and overflow will not work in this program.  So, get your tickets…tell your friends to get their tickets and get ready for an experience of a lifetime.  Go to www.pointenorth.org for more info on times and come Sunday or drop by the office to get your tix.  Oh and Merry Christmas.