From The Acts of The Apostles
Reading the Book of Acts a clear contrast surfaces between the early church and the American church of today. There is an exception that proves every rule, they say, so this opinion of mine is not meant to include every single church in the land, but I do believe it true of the lion’s share. The early church, as it existed before committees and business meetings, cantatas and 5th Sundays, steeples and Robert’s Rules of Order was motivated by two things: the discipleship of current believers and the evangelism of those who were not. The same holds true of today’s church (universal), on paper at least.
From the Gospel of Luke
Reading the Gospel According to Luke, my attention was captured by Jesus’ words in chapter 6. I will focus on those verses 27-36 and 37-42 here.
Jesus Paid It All
It is critical to understand that Jesus’ death on the cross was a voluntary surrender to redeem you and I. The willful self-sacrifice of Jesus is representative of how we must come to accept that salvation. That does not make it easy, mind you. Jesus knew why he had come, to do the will of his Father who sent him. Jesus alluded to his death, burial, and resurrection repeatedly during his ministry, but as the hour drew close he prayed that God would, if it were His will, take that cup from him. We do the same, you know. Only we are not facing our own execution for crimes of which we are innocent. We say, “God, please this.” and “God, I can’t do that. Something else, please!” Or worse, “God, I refuse.” I do not believe it wrong to ask God for another way, place, or time. Jesus did. We cannot ignore the remaining fact, however. Jesus asked if there might be another way, and then displayed plainly his motive when he prayed, “Not my will but yours be done.” Jesus told his Father that if there was another way he would be glad to hear it, but also stood resolute that whatever God’s will was, that is what he would do. When God again affirmed that the sacrifice of the cross was the only means to save mankind, Jesus willingly accepted. To understand that is to understand the salvation available to you and I. We must WILLINGLY accept what Jesus offers through his WILLING sacrifice. Jesus knew God’s will, but could have chosen to ignore it. (Aren’t I glad he did not…) We can know the facts of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, but if we chose to ignore it we have not salvation. We must willingly respond by, in light of his choice to redeem us with his own life accepting Jesus’ gift of salvation by making him Lord of our lives.
From the Gospel of Matthew
This was not my first time to read the Gospel of Matthew. Nor my second. It was not my third or fourth. It was not even my first time to read it this year, but as I read it this time I was struck by a message I had not previously focused my attention upon. I have long been aware that Jesus combatted the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day, but this time it became most conspicuous, and perhaps for a different reason.
Student Ministry Outreach Strategies
We are gearing up to launch a student outreach program within our student ministry. We will be having converstations with other ministries that have been successfully doing student outreach for some time, and are eager to hear what has worked for them and what has not. Do you have a formal outreach strategy in your church or student ministry? What has worked for you?
Keeping track of our student ministry
FOR MY FIRST FEW YEARS IN STUDENT MINISTRY I admittedly struggled with keeping up with student data. How long has it been since we’ve seen so and so? Do we have a current address on this kid? Did anyone get a head-count at tonight’s service? I brainstormed this strategy and that, but nothing ever worked really well…
PLEASE WELCOME TO THE STAGE YOUTHTRACKER.NET. This is a completely web-based service which allows tracking of student data in ways that I could never accomplish on my own. Because it is web-based, there is no software to install, and your data can be accessed via any computer with an internet connection. I have even taken attendance with my iPhone at remote events!
youthtracker.net
For years I have toggled between contact information on hand-written “hard copies” of student info cards and data entered in address book on my Mac. It’s amazing how many times someone’s handwriting has rendered an address illegible. “Is that a seven?” “What is that street name?” No more! With YOUTHTRACKER.NET students simply type in their information, and there it is. No more deciphering. Also great is the fact that all my student data is virtually always at my fingertips. Let’s be honest, there is no such thing as 9 to 5 ministry, and every pastor I know finds himself working here and there in what was intended to be “off time.” No more late night trips to the office to grab addresses for mailers that must go out tomorrow. Granted, many people are successfully using Outlook or Address Book or some other resource, but in YOUTHTRACKER.NET everything is contained in one page for each student: family names, emergency contacts, dad’s cell number, t-shirt size, facebook, email, event attendance, recent spiritual decisions, event account balances. This service will even allow students to make payments for event registrations online!
youthtracker.net sign in screen
Perhaps one of my favorite features of YOUTHTRACKER.NET is the student sign-in feature. We have a “check-in” table as students enter our youth room, complete with a computer logged into YOUTHTRACKER.NET. Kids just type their name, and they are signed into the event, or if they are a new student, they are prompted to enter their info to create a new account. We have another computer in our sound booth that we use to send YOUTHTRACKER.NET to the screen onstage, and we use another cool feature which will randomly select a student who is signed in to the current event. Game contestants made simple! This also has an ulterior motivation to encourage kids to sign in. They always sign in because they want to play the game!
What about cost? When I was shopping around for a software resource to help me on the administrative end of youth ministry, I saw several price tags in the few hundred dollars neighborhood. YOUTHTRACKER.NET is a subscription, and we are currently paying just $19.99 a month. I know, in a year or so the pay-once software is eventually cheaper, but for me, $19.99 a month is a much easier sell than a $400.00 upfront cost. Plus I love the flexibility of knowing I can change services if this no longer suits our needs, although I really expect to be using YOUTHTRACKER.NET for years to come.
delighted to share. 