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Category : Youth

I’ve been reading this book by Mark Miller entitled, Experiential Storytelling. It is about (Re)Discovering Narrative to Communicate God’s Message. It is honestly changing my entire view on preaching. I found this quote by a gentlemen named Kong Fu Tzu a.k.a Confucius and this is what he had to say. ” What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.” Young people, especially, nowadays want to feel something. Our society has become one of experiencing things. When you go to coffee shops, the $1 that you would normally spend on coffee now turns to $2, $3, $4 because you are not only paying for the coffee anymore; you are paying for the atmosphere that they’ve created with the rock music, the nice furniture or whatever other artsy creations that maybe displayed. Even the whole movie industry has caught on. People don’t seem to want to go watch regular movies at the theatre anymore, so they started to come out with all of these 3D movies in order to spike up the interest again and it is working. Due to the society in which we now live in, regular normal life and entertainment just doesn’t cut it anymore. It has to be more, more music, more colourful, more stuff, more interaction, more, more, more.

This is now the reality of the society in which we live in.  As teachers of the Word of God, we can either fight this or ride the wave. Personally I chose to ride the wave and to utilize this to reach to as many kids as possible. We need to realize that the world is changing and unless the church takes the time to realize these changes, we are going to lose our effectiveness. Mark Miller puts it this way: “Today’s Church leaders must see themselves as missionaries who are setting sail from the land of modernity to the uncharted waters of post-modernity, and the first rule of any missionary is to understand the language and culture of his or her community.”

Let’s be a people that effectively communicate the Greatest story ever recorded!

Back To School Round-Up Party

How much do you truly know about your faith?

Copy this questionnaire into the comment box and answer each one as if someone was asking you that question and truly wanted to know the answer to it. Answer as though this person knows very little about God or Christianity. I am interested in finding out how some of you would answer some of these. Have fun :)

#1 Who is God and what is He like?

#2 What is the Trinity?

#3 Who is Jesus?

#4 Why did He die on the Cross?

#5 How do I know He really rose from the dead?

#6 Who is the Holy Spirit and what does He do?

#7 How do I get plugged in to the power of the Holy Spirit?

#8 Is the Bible really God’s Word and does it relate to my life?

#9 What is truth and can I know it with certainty?

#10 What is sin and how does it impact me life and my relationship with others?

#11 Why does God allow evil in the world?

#12 What is a Christian and how does a person become one?

#13 If Jesus is the only way to Heaven, are all other religions wrong?

#14 What about the people who have never heard about the Gospel?

#15 what is The Great Commission and how does it relate to me?

#16 Is there a real Heaven and hell and what about they like?

#17 Is there a judgement day and what difference should it make in my life?

#18 Can I really be forgiven for all my sins, even the really bad ones?

#19 Will God ever leave me or forsake me?

#20 Who are satan and his demons?

#21 How do I engage in spiritual warfare?

#22 What is the Church and why should I be involved?

#23 What are Spiritual Gifts and how do I discover mine?

#24 How should the return of Christ impact my life?

#25 What is prayer and how do I do it?

#26 Why should I study my Bible and how do I do it?

#27 How do I defend my faith?

#28 Who am I, where did I come from, and what is my purpose?

#29 Which is true, creation or evolution, and why does it matter?

#30 How can I worship God in everything I do?

The Good Samaritan

This is honestly the best illustration i’ve ever seen. Enjoy!

So tonight, i am starting this new message series entitled, “Effective Growth”. I am super excited about this because we are going to be hitting a few different areas in each of our lives in which growth is required.

 

  • Growth is required in our spiritual lives.
  • Growth is required in our social lives.
  • Growth is required in our relationships.
  • Growth is required in our professional lives.

 

Our personal lives are not the only thing that needs growth, we are also going to be look at

 

  • How to effectively grow our influence.
  • How to effectively grow as a ministry.
  • How to effectively grow as a small group or life group.

 

Hope you come pumped and ready to receive tonight. All of our messages are all downloadable, streamable and also posted on podcasts which can all be found at www.getagripministries.ca

Hey Everyone,

Well today i am going out to hang out fliers to our nearby school on their lunch times. I will be leaving the church at 11 am until 12:30 and again at 6pm until 7pm If any of you want to join me, just show up :) I hope to get a few people helping out to be able to share the task. The more people we have the more we can impact. Let’s invite everyone we know to think conference, we only have 37 people paid and we need at least a 100. If you have not paid yourself yet, PLEASE call Maxine at 905-725-5946 or email me to let me know you are planning to come. If you want to come in sometimes during this week to drop off your money, you are more then welcome to. our office hours are Tuesday – Friday 9am – 4pm. If it starts to rain, we might cancel the handing of the fliers but call Maxine to double check. If the rain is not too bad we will still go. Hope to see many of you here in a little while :) God Bless!

Our 2009 Generation Conference, entitled Testify, will be happening May 1-3 and it is approaching fast. We are so excited to see what God has in store this year for our generation. Pastor Mark Schilling and Pastor Mike Servello from Mount Zion Ministries, Utica New York are coming back to minister to us. The cost for this year’s conference will be $15/person in advance or $20/person at the door. Make sure to drop in to the welcome center on Sunday morning or Friday nights to register. You can also call Maxine at 905-725-5946 for reservations. God bless and hope to see you all there!

Testify Front

Testify Back

We had an AWESOME time this past Friday. The word, the worship and the ministry time was phenomenal. A Lot of people were blessed and a lot of people were moved and touched by the Spirit of God. I heard a lot of good things from a few people but please let me know YOUR thoughts regarding last night’s service! If you can also share a little something that God spoke to you about, that would be awesome. It doesn’t need to be something personal, in fact please refrain from sharing if it’s personal. That should stay between you God and maybe your life group leader! Can’t wait to hear from all of you.

A Love Story

Last friday, i delivered my second message from my new message series called The Hot Pursuit. I talked about God’s love and love in general. I explained our need FOR love, TO love and TO BE loved. In order to try to explain the love story that God wrote to us know as the Bible, i wrote a little story my self and was told i need to put it on my blog. So here it is. Enjoy!

Once there was a man named Joe. He was in love with this one girl. Her name was Tina. His whole entire life he was trying to get her attention. One day she noticed him but she didn’t think much about him. He really loved her. He would buy her flowers, bring her chocolate, take her to the movies but she wouldn’t change how she felt about him. On the other hand though, she really liked the attention so she kept going to the movies with him. She always loved that he would bring her flowers but still, she wouldn’t give in. Soon enough, you could say that she was just flat out using Joe. Joe felt really hurt because he knew what she was doing but his love for her was so grand that he just couldn’t help it. He did everything he could to try to make her happy and to be there for her even if he knew that she didn’t want anything to do with him.

One day, Tina got really sick and she had to be hospitalized as there was something wrong with her heart. Everyday Joe would come and see her. He would buy her gifts and write her poems and cards to try to make her feel better. All this time, Tina was wondering why Joe was doing all this, but she never said anything. The doctors said that Tina needed a heart transplant but because of her rare blood type and heart tissue, it would be nearly impossible to find a match. It was as if she was already dead; there was no hope. Tina started to cry. The next time that Joe came by, she told him everything. A few days had gone by since Joe’s last visit. though she didn’t love him the same way he loved her, she started to wonder where he had been but she didn’t think much about it after that. Later on that same day the doctors stormed in to Tina’s room saying “Ma’m We have found you a new heart. It’s a miracle.”

A few short days after that, the surgery went on as planned and was a success. Tina came out of the operation as healthy as before. On her way out, the doctor stoped her and said that there was a note that came in for her. He said it was from a man named Joe. Tina quickly opened the note and began to read. By the time she got to the end, she was crying uncontrollably. The note went as follow.
Tina, How should I begin? My whole life, all I wanted was you. You meant more to me then you will probably ever know. I know that in your heart, you did not feel the same way as I did, but all the things I did for you, was in hope that one day you might. My love was never along the lines of, “as long as you love me, I will love you”. My love for you was unconditional. When I came in that day to your room and I saw the grief, pain and hurt on your face when you told me what was going on, I knew what I had to do. I left your room and got tested for my blood type and heart tissue to see if it was compatible and it was. After much thinking, I knew I had to do it. Your life meant a lot more to me than my own. I truly hope that you live a life with as much love as i currently feel for you. Hope you like your new heart!

In hope that we meet again one day,

Joe

My conclusion of the whole night is that the card game Apples to Apples is better played at 5am haha.

On a more serious note, it was awesome. More awesome then having a bunch of our own kids come out, was the fact that a few unchurched, unsaved kids showed up! It was really awesome to talk to them and hang out with them. Relationships were built meaning they will come for more :) We played laser xtreme, Halo, Worshiped, Played board & card games, DDR, Man Hunt, watched movies had devotions in the morning and of course ate tons of food. We had a blast. Some clips will be put together soon for all to see. If you missed out this year, you missed out big! I am already pumped for next year’s all-nighter!