My Testimony

I wanted to put my testimony out there online because I never have. My story is not radical or extremely cool but I think that it is probably more in line with what most people who actually come to faith in Christ. I grew up in the Catholic Church going each Sunday with my mom and grandma. I always knew there was a God but when I came to Bethesda Baptist Church for the first time with my friend Brandon Overcash, I learned that God loved me and wanted to have a personal relationship with me. The problem with having a relationship with God is that we can not because of sin. Sin by its definition is making something (either ourselves and something in our lives) other than God ultimate in our lives. Jesus Christ saves us from sin and restores our relationship with God because He died as our substitute on the cross so that if we repent from our sins and ask God for forgiveness then by God's grace through faith we will be saved.

I was saved when I was in middle school at Snowbird Camp with the youth under Jonge Tate. I knew that I needed Jesus Christ to save me from my sins and to be my Lord and Savior. At Bethesda in high school, Steve Brown began teaching me theology. When I began to understand who God was and what that meant for this life then I began to really be on fire and live for God. I went to college with no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I continued going to church, serving the youth and starting a college Sunday School class at Gorman Baptist Church and spending time learning God’s word. I also became involved with Campus Crusade on Thursday nights at NC State and going to a guy’s bible study on Monday nights. One day, I felt like God had answered that question by placing a calling to ministry on my life.

He called me specifically to use my time, gifts, talents, and training to reach the next generation. Teaching and preaching God’s word impacts people and brings change in their lives so that is what I plan to spend the rest of my life doing. I have been doing ministry in some capacity at a local church or para-church organization to prepare for full-time ministry ever since that day halfway through freshman year of college. I currently teach or preach anywhere I am given the opportunity and prepare by going to school at Southeastern studying under some great men of God. The question I want to ask you today is has there ever been a time in your life where you realized your inadequacies, your short-comings, that you do tell lies and think bad thoughts, and have come to understand that when you stand before God at the end of your life that you won't measure up on your own? Has there ever been a moment when you confessed that you really need Jesus to be your Savior and Lord? If you have not, then I hope you will. That's my testimony, what's yours?

Choose Wisely

The topic of today's post is youth curriculum. I think two things are important when it comes to this topic. The first is choosing what to teach the kids, choosing the actual curriculum but perhaps more importantly is what I like to call the curriculum map. With kids learning subjects in school ranging from calculus and geometry to chemistry and computer science. I believe it is well past time to adjust our student ministries curriculum to challenge our students on what they believe and why they believe it. They are longing for the truth that can be applied to their lives and they are being pushed in school to achieve great things academically so why not challenge them at church by teaching things like theology and apologetics. When it comes to choosing curriculum there are lots of good ones to choose from. The Fuel Series by Lifeway would take a couple years to complete. Also there is LXVI and Explore the Bible by Lifeway. InQuest ministries also provides a number of studies. Then there is Student Life which offers six awesome studies for students and the Reverb series in particular has been recommended to me more than once. NavPress would be the other resource that I would look at to disciple students.

Choosing what students will study week in and week out is important but the best way to do it, I would argue is to develop a curriculum map that shows what your students will be studying from the time they enter student ministry in 6th grade until they graduate from high school. The concept was shown to me by Matt Lawson at FBC Woodstock and you can find his curriculum map at:

http://revolutionspeaks.wordpress.com/resources/

The curriculum map covers books of the Bible and topics like Spiritual Disciplines or World Religions. The map should also be evaluated and changed to best fit the needs of your students but the age old proverb says, "Failure to plan is a plan to fail." Know what your going to study and why, then develop a plan and get to work. God Bless!