Month: October 2012

There’s nothing like FREE stuff!

On Friday, October 19th I’ll be giving away a FREE copy of Darren Sutton‘s brand new book Everyone’s Called to Youth Ministry … They Just Don’t Know It.

Here’s how YOU can win …

I’m looking for great stories about the impact of volunteers in youth ministry.

• Leave a comment with your best story about a volunteer investing in a student and how that impacted the student’s life in a positive way. (What did they do that was meaningful? How did they establish and build the relationship? etc.) 
• Include your e-mail address to be contacted should you win.
• Bonus entries for each Tweet and Facebook share of this contest link.

The 2013 Simply Youth Ministry Conference is right around the corner! Get in on the early-bird rate until October 31st. Register here.

This weekend at Southwest Community Church we had 35 people signed up to be baptized. I had met with 5 middle school girls during the week and was all ready to lead them in this great step of faith and obedience. Awesome! Pastor Gerald, however, asked us to be praying that 100 people would be baptized. He did a brief teaching on baptism then invited anyone who wanted to be baptized to make their way to the baptismals. I loved what he said next: “This is a no-excuses Sunday. You might say, ‘I didn’t come prepared.’ That’s OK. We came prepared for you! We’ve got t-shirts, shorts, towels, and even garbage bags for you to put on the seats in your cars.”

So, how many people got baptized? 299! That’s right … two-hundred-and-ninety-nine people! We ran out of t-shirts after 100 and there was a mad scramble for more towels. What an incredible day in the kingdom of God!

One back story … my daughter Claudia came up to me with tears in her eyes, excited because her friend Julia Lamper, whom she invited to church this past year had accepted Christ and was baptized today! Invest and invite! God will use you!

Pray with me that fruit will remain!