Top 10 Spiritual Growth Acitivities for Students on Winter Break

1) Discuss how you’ve grown spiritually with one family member over the break

2) Take one day to be alone with Jesus

3) Pray through your course and activity schedule for next semester and ask God if there is anything you should change.

4) Pray through your college ministry involvement. What needs to change?

5) Contact the person that disciples you or leads your small group and let them know how you’re doing and how they can pray for you.

6) Call friends and help each other stay on track spiritually.

7) Read one book of the Bible you haven’t read before.

8) Pray for your upcoming professors this semester

9) Take at least 3 days in a row to fully rest

10) Go to Winter Conference (ok, ok…I know that one is a shameless plug)

By the way I stole all these idea from Benson Hines, he has a great blog http://exploringcollegeministry.com/ . You should check it out.

Serving Christ with Enthusiasm

If you want your people to bleed, you have to hemorrhage. – Howard Hendricks

One roadblock to influencing others for Christ is a lack of joy and enthusiasm for those of us who follow him, especially in ministry. If I have been given new life, saved from death and eternity with God because of Jesus’ death on the cross, that should be a big deal. Shouldn’t I be excited about that? Shouldn’t I have unquenchable joy? Easy answer: yes. Does my life and ministry reflect that? Honest answer: Not enough, sometimes very little.

Now I don’t mean putting on a mask and pretending I don’t have problems and struggles. We all do. But if this life is temporary and eternity is…well…eternal, it seems like my joy in Christ and my enthusiasm to follow Him would override any troubles I face.

I think there are a few mistakes we make that rob us of our enthusiasm in following Christ.

1) We think there are better options. I think that following Jesus is the best thing I could do, but life would be better or easier if I didn’t. I think that I’m making some great sacrifice, and although there are sacrifices we make when following Christ, they pale in comparison to what we receive. Not only is following Jesus worth it, it’s the best option. The other options will leave me with so much less.

2) We get lost in the mundane. As I go through the day, I am guilty of just breaking it down into the tasks that must get done before I can watch TV that night. Whether its discipleship with a student or putting my kids to bed, I don’t realize the impact it can have. I just think this is something I need to do. It’s just part of my routine. These tasks that I think of as routine can have an eternal impact. I may actually say something Biblical or intelligent during a discipleship appointment or my kids may remember books we read or something we prayed for when I put them to bed. God works through the small things in life we take for granted.

3) Peter writes in his second letter of the New Testament that he hopes to stir up those he is writing to by way of reminder. Sometimes we just forget. We get frustrated, we get bored, or in the last point, we just get into the routine. I pray God would remind me that I should be excited about all I have been given because of His grace and mercy shown to me on the cross.

What would be different if I woke up each morning and thought, “How amazing is God’s love for me?” “I wonder what He has in store for me today.” I can just imagine the joy and enthusiasm that would overflow into the lives of those around me.

Serving Christ Through Adversity

Here at SFA, our movement is growing. We are seeing students trust Christ, they are taking steps of faith as they walk with God. God has given us opportunities in the Greek system and with athletes to share our faith and disciple students we had no connection with a few years ago. More students are attending our weekly meeting and small groups, but it wasn’t this way just a few years ago.

In 2006, I was ready to give up, throw in the towel, jump off a bridge. Okay maybe that last one was too far, but I was considering a career change. Our ministry at SFA almost seemed non-existent. We had very few students involved, no money, and very little enthusiasm for the future.

Through prayer and continuing to trust God at SFA, we have seen God bring us through some very lean times. I stop short of using the word commitment for our part because we were ready to quit. We just stuck around long enough to be able to see God change our situation. Maybe it’s more like standing outside in the middle of winter. If you don’t die from the cold, the weather will eventually get warmer. That may sound like I’m taking God out of it, that if you just hang in there long enough, you will see results. That’s really not what I’m saying, because there are followers of Christ that labor for long periods of time but may never really see any tangible fruit from their effort.

What really frustrates me is when believers compare that person to others who are seeing great tangible results. I use the word tangible because I know God is always at work, we just don’t always see or know what he’s doing. We are in the wrong if we see a ministry, missionary, or church that is not seeing the same results as others and assume they are doing something wrong, or not putting forth enough effort, or maybe even living in sin. Now, sometimes, that may be the case, the group or person in question could be in need of change. However, I have seen in our ministry, times that we have prepared well, prayed fervently, and worked hard and then seen miserable failure. But we have also seen ministry poorly planned, hardly a prayer whispered, and thrown together at the last second yield incredible results.
I don’t want to judge someone else’s ministry by the numbers and statistics they report whether those numbers are increasing or decreasing. Instead, I would rather know if those involved are growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So I guess I wrote this for those who are experiencing adversity in ministry, not seeing what you had hoped; and for those who would criticize them for that. Press on. Maybe God is doing something in your life through this adversity and dry time in ministry, I know He did in mine. Hopefully soon, the weather where you are will get warmer because our movement here at SFA is a lot more fun now. No matter what, continue to trust and follow God, He sees that which takes place in secret (Matt 6:6)

And yes, I know the picture doesn't fit the blog, but I'm just too excited about the game this Saturday. Axe'em Jacks!