YOUTHINTHECORNER

The road to hell…

youthinthecorner — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:52:57 +0000

You have heard this quote before I am sure. ”The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

I don’t know if mine will lead me to hell but they will definitely lead me to mediocrity and uselessness to the kingdom of God.

These are some of my stones that I tend to pave with with…

1st Stone – I intend to spend more time with individuals and pour into them because that is how true discipleship and spiritual transformation takes place.

2nd Stone – I intend to intentionally date my wife and play with my kids because they deserve more than my leftovers.

3rd Stone – I intend to exercise more because my body does not need to resemble a temple to be one.

4th Stone – I intend to spend more personal worship time because out of my time with God flows my attitude toward others.

5th Stone – I intend to become more efficient with my calendar and my time because God deserves everything he can get out of me.

6th Stone – I intend to read more and sharpen my leadership skill because bad leadership is a sin.

7th Stone – I intend to share the love of Jesus more and not rely on “lifestyle evangelism” that never leads to evangelism.

8th Stone – I intend on laughing more because who wants to follow an angry person.

9th Stone – I intend on giving more because I am rich.

10th Stone – I intend on helping the needy more because what I can give is needed by someone.

All of those intentions without execution will lead me to be a lazy, ineffective leader that will have little to no impact on the kingdom of God. What are your stones?

Compassionate Calendar

youthinthecorner — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:13:35 +0000

In Luke 9:57-62 Jesus shares the cost of following him. There are 3 men with three distinct excuses. He concludes the teaching by saying “No one who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” When God reveals to you or me an opportunity to serve what is our knee jerk reaction? Is it “Here am I Lord, send me!” or “yeah but I have to do _________.” If we are going to walk out compassion in our lives we must build margin in our calendars.

If you are pegged to the red (even with good things) on your agenda with no room for Holy Interruptions then you are unfit for the service in the kingdom of God. Busy does not equal productive. Before you pan me for preaching, I am talking to myself in this blog and I am working to correct this sin. I schedule everything, including my margin…so that I know where my time goes every day. This blog is able to be written because I allotted time for margin.

Hear my balance, I deplore lazy ministers who spend ALL their time seeking and planning without DOING anything. Our salaries are paid by the tithes of our faithful members and I take nothing more seriously. However, we need to work more efficiently and we need to schedule margin in our day. That margin can be for Holy interruptions and if one doesn’t arise (even though they always do) you can always fill it with planning for you next series, researching to make you message better or even a time to spend in prayer.

It is a cliche but you have to control your calendar or your calendar will control you.

I pray that you develop the compassionate calendar.

Failure as a tool

youthinthecorner — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:24:29 +0000

The pancakes are eaten and the coffee is brewing, the wife is asleep and the kids are glued to Spongebob. It is Saturday morning in the Rheaume home. I am sitting in the sunroom channel surfing and I came across a NASA documentary on NATGEO. After the Apollo 1 caught fire killing 3 astronauts NASA did a bold thing directly after. They declared that they would be the first to put men on the moon that year! They declared that after they just burned 3 of their own alive. They didn’t scrap the program because it was too dangerous. They didn’t postpone for years so they could figure every detail out. They didn’t make the day that those men died the focus, but the vision of what they died for became the focus.

When we fail in ministry, (or in life for that matter) we tend to focus on the failure. Why it happened? How can I keep it from happening? Who was to blame? Instead, how refreshing would it be to just get up, dust yourself off and keep plugging away at your purpose. The goal should always be the focus. The goal of our ministry is to bring people closer to Jesus. We will sometimes fail. We will at times make it about us. We will fall flat on our faces. In the future I hope we will not spend our time analyzing our failures but will get up and continue forward towards the audacious goal of influencing our community for Jesus.

Summer Breakaway 2010

youthinthecorner — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:14:12 +0000

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

Half 2.0

youthinthecorner — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:17:39 +0000

In May of 2007 Alive Youth Ministries began a growth campaign called Half. Our goal was to reach half the students in our area in 5 years. We would do this by doubling every year and pouring into their lives and investing in souls. That campaign has led to amazing highs and lows. We have seen some amazing moves of God and have been heart broken by students who just wouldn’t get it. However in May of 2007 we were a youth ministry running about 75 students. Last night we had over 370 students. That is amazing. In that time we had to go to 2 services on Wednesday night. We offer now a Middle School service and a High School service on the same night. We have seen amazing volunteers come and go but some have remained the same. It has been amazing…

However, god has revealed to me that in our growth and concentration on reaching souls we have not done an adequate job of discipling souls. During much prayer and agony the Holy spirit revealed to me the following.

HALF 2.0

Like most new editions of a product the spirit of the product remains the same yet, there are some changes that make it more appealing.

For the duration of our campaign while we seek to reach HALF of the students in our area we will also see that…

HALF of all students bring their Bibles
HALF of all students are in BIBLE STUDY (Triage, Pulse or Small Groups)
HALF of all students parents are plugged into Pointe North
HALF of our students at Summer Breakaway

I am praying/preparing for this campaign as I did the first by a 20 day fast. Why 20 days…it is HALF of 40.

Pray for me as God strengthens me to lead this ministry.

Pray for the students.

Pray for the families.

Pray.

Intern Position needed

youthinthecorner — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:16:33 +0000

I am looking for a Youth Ministry Intern who is preferably a college student and interested in entering Youth Ministry. This position has flexible hours except Wednesdays and weekends. It is paid but it is intern money not staff money. The intern needs to have a love for Jesus, a hunger to see teens come to Jesus and a desire to learn. Funny is a plus too, it goes a long way with me. As a youth ministry veteran of 17 years I wish I would have begun serving as an intern in a large ministry as opposed to having my “own” group in a smaller setting. If you are interested contact me with a resume. I look forward to hearing from you.

The Awakening

youthinthecorner — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:44:56 +0000

There are times to act and there are times to pray and there are times to fast. These are the rare times where it is incumbent upon us to do all three. 2010 presents many challenges for our Church, Community and our Country. This is not a year that we can simply sit back and coast as a body of believers. We need to act but like so many times before the church has acted based upon emotion rather than the move of God so we must also pray. However, scripture shows that there are times too important for prayer alone and for that you must fast and pray. I began to feel this urging in my spirit several weeks ago and then last week I came across this campaign (more of a collection of like-minded churches) to call us to 21 days of fasting called “The Awakening”. I will be going on a Juice Fast from January 10 – 30. I am not asking all of you to equal that sacrifice. Maybe for you it is a Daniel Fast, maybe a media fast or a coffee fast…whatever it is raise your level of sacrifice as we enter into this new season of ministry and impact. I love you and want to see Jesus name Glorified.

I will be posting on this site urgings in my spirit that will assist you in what to pray for. For more info on The Awakening and resources about the details of fasting go to www.awake21.org.

Also Tuesday night of Prayer returns this Tuesday and this is a great opportunity to take your prayer life to the next level. This Monday night I will relaunch my small group and we will concentrate on Prayer and going through some of the new book Primal, by Mark Batterson.

Sean-Thomas

youthinthecorner — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:31:57 +0000

We discovered a little over a week ago that we were going to have a boy. This is the first opportunity I have had to blog on the subject. When the tech told us that it was going to be a boy…we were a bit surprised and elated and admittedly I began to tear up. When the tech walked out I broke down and cried like a baby. Not out of joy but out of a bit of fear. I am now going to be the father or a son. That has a deep meaning to me. Not that being a father to 2 beautiful daughters is something to be taken lightly but to raise a boy who will become a man that will lead a family of his own is a completely different thing.

You see Rheaumes are not that great at raising sons. My father was abusive. His father was abusive towards him and on down the line it went. I still carry a lot of STUFF because of the sins of my father. I know that I am a new creation in Christ however, the fear remains.

HOWEVER, Audra reminded me of a story I told her once about a conversation I had with my mother. I was about 11 years old and my mother was telling me about how I was going to do great things with my life…I teared up and told her that I had a feeling deep within me that it was not me who would do great things but my son. So, Audra always knew one day we would have a son because she feels (as do I ) that was a word from God spoken into my spirit. So I go into this with great humility and awe. Knowing that God has blessed me with a son to give him glory that one day he will do great things for the glory of God.

Anyway, with all of that…at the core I am simply a happy daddy. I have a wonderful wife who is a wonderful mother. I have 2 amazing daughters and I have a son on the way…Sean-Thomas…son I can’t wait to meet you.

Cut it out.

youthinthecorner — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:03:22 +0000

Matthew 18:8-9

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Jesus didn’t intend for all of us to wander the earth blind and crippled. He uses the hyperbole here to instruct just how important lifestyle management can be. This past week I did a sermon entitled The Spirit that Rescues and in it I laid out that we are not to carry the burden of our sin struggle on our own. That it is a burden that is spiritual thus should be left to the Holy Spirit to battle. However, as it says in Romans 8, we will still have the limitations of sin. That takes me to this blog today. What are you doing proactively to live a life that honors Christ.

1) EVALUATE – We need to evaluate ourselves regularly. We need to be checking ourselves against the fruit of the Spirit found in Gal 5:22. How is your walk with God? How is your relationship with others?

2) ESTABLISH – What in your life needs adjusting/cut away. Are you watching too much TV? Are you surrounding yourself with those who gossip? Are you eating the WHOLE bag of chips?

3) EXCISE – Have the courage to cut it out. Get rid of it.

4) ENGAGE – Now with the new time/energy/resources you have engage God with more of your time/energy /resources.

The Pointe North Family Ministry Staff

youthinthecorner — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:44:39 +0000

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.