Loving Students!

One of the perks of leading teenagers are the special relationships you make along the way. Each year, I shed tears as that special group of seniors leaves the nest of Student Ministry to find their place in the world. The cool thing is they come back and share the ups and downs of young adult life. About 6 years ago, at a summer camp, I met a group of teenage girls that the most important thing in their life at the time was how they wanted to stay up all night and talk about guys, prank their roomies, and decide what outfits they would wear each day at camp. As 10th grade turned into 12th grade, the group of girls grew as they lived out their walk with God at school and invited their friends to Student Ministry. These girls are all now in their junior year of college. Most have gone away to school, some are close to home. We try and hook up each Christmas and Summer break to get together, share memories, laugh, touch base with how they each are doing. We are still trying to get everyone together at the same time, hopefully one day we will have that reunion. I am really proud of all of them and the choices they are making to follow Christ with their talents, their choices, their lives.
This weekend, I was given the privilege of speaking to the High School students with the first lesson in our "Me, Myself, and I" series. The topic, "It's All About Me!". I asked some of the girls that would be in town this weekend to share. At first they were like, what can we share. I expressed to them how I have seen in their lives how they have matured and their world is not just all about them. I wanted them to share how God has taught them that living for Him, is less about what can they get from this world, and more about what can they give to this world.
We are all in the battle of selfish flesh versus an unselfish heart. What better way to learn than from one another. Teenagers listen more to their peers, than they do to adults. And tonight was awesome. Jenna and Patti, I am very proud of you. I know you may have been nervous, but it did not show, I believe because you made it more about Him and less about you. You were transparent and true leaders to teenagers trying to find their way in this journey we call Christianity. The students in our ministry each have a special gift God has given them, a special calling. But many of them struggle with whether it is "cool" enough to step out and use that gift. Right now it may just be kindness to a hurting friend, a smile to a lonely person, standing for what is right in the midst of peer pressure, finding a way to meet a need. I pray that tonight a high school student is thinking about how they can live out the Christian walk, not by a set of do's and don'ts, but by making a sacrifice for someone else, even if it means coming out of their comfort zone, to greet a stranger, to invite a friend to church, to....whatever it is that God is nudging them to do. :-)


Come check out the rest of the 4 week series, Student Service times at Cooper City campus are: Middle School - Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 9:30am, 11am and 12:30pm
High School - Saturday at 6:30pm and Sunday at 11am
Check out www.therd.org for the other student services at our multi-sites!