SURGE In Review: 3/7/2012

GAME:

Tug of War was the game for last night...There were not really any wars...but the team of Katie and Donya took out the Saldaña sisters... 

Worship:

The CYMSURGE worship Band led the students in "Forever", "One Desire", "How Great is Our God", and "You Never Let Go".

Last night we hit the mid-way point in "The Journey".  The focus for last night was preparing our students for meaningful ministry.  Here are the highlights that we learned from the end of Acts 15 and the very beginning of Acts 16 about ministry.

1. In Ministry, Long impact will require Long Commitment (Acts 15:36) - Paul and Baranabas had spent 2 years on the first journey and were talking about taking it again...The longer we commit to a certain ministry...the deeper the impact we will make...for instance in youth ministry we only have around 7 years with each students at the maximum...some churches throw in a different youth leader/youth worker every single year or quarter and sometimes this pattern results is minimal depth, minimal relationships, and minimal impact.

2. Sometimes in ministry there will be intense disagreements (Acts 15:37-40) - We just need to remember that when we disagree it needs to be done respectfully as I believe this disagreement was between Paul and Barnabas.  I believe they still deeply respected each other after the disagreement...There isn't any evidence in Scripture that shows us any negative conversations by Paul about this conversation with Barnabas (and believe me...he had plenty of opportunities).  When we disagree on direction we need to remember to not destroy each other's character.  

3. Sometimes in ministry there will be hard miles (Acts 15:41 and 16:1) - There are only 2 verses here that talk about Paul and Silas's trip from Antioch to Derbe and Lystra...but again we need to honor the mileage and terrain and realize this is a 300-400 mile trek all on foot through a mountainous country side.  In ministry, we will see  some hard miles...some fun miles...more hard miles...we need to remember as Christ followers doing ministry that for how far we've come on our Journey that there probably are still some hard miles ahead of us if we are on the path that Jesus has called us to.

To be continued...next week!