Author: revkevjr

I was just sent my video introduction for Shelter Rock Church‘s website. Here’s why I love youth ministry.

Tonight we didn’t have our student small groups, so we took advantage of the night and went out as a family and enjoyed crepes and conversations about Jesus. We have been walking through 99 Thoughts on Jesus-Centered Living by Rick Lawrence.

Last week I was out with a couple of students. One of them was from a church that incorporated traditional elements in their worship services, such as readings and formal prayers and responses. The other was from a church that was more modern in expression. When the young man from the more traditional church mentioned that his church all recited the Apostles’ Creed, the other guy said, “What is the Apostles’ Creed?” Honestly, I would have been asking the same question 20 years ago. I had never heard of this rich and very important piece of Church history, which I now have tremendous respect for. 

The Apostles’ Creed was not written by the Apostles, but embodies the essential doctrines they taught, and is the oldest summary we have of the core beliefs of the Christian faith. The Creed was created as a statement of faith to be used in worship, and first appears in history in the 4th century (390AD).

1. I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
4. Under Pontius Pilate, He was crucified, died, and was buried.
5. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.
6. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
7. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
8. I believe in the Holy Spirit,
9. the holy catholic (universal) Church, the communion of saints,
10. the forgiveness of sins,
11. the resurrection of the body,
12. and the life everlasting.
Amen.

We would do well to memorize this tremendous declaration. Perhaps you would consider taking one line a day over the next two weeks to meditate on.

Natalia got her top braces on today. She will get the bottom ones in a few months. When they were done putting them in, after comments about how weird they felt, she said, “That didn’t hurt at all.”

 

On Friday night our SRCStudent Jr. Highers went to Queens to work with La Jornada Ministries preparing food for distribution to those in need. They made over 500 bags of sweet potatoes (6,000 lbs!), and hundreds of bags of other kinds of food. We are so thankful for our amazing adult youth leaders and so proud for our awesome students who worked hard serving others in Jesus’ name.

Last night when I got home at 12:30am I received one of the best Tweets ever …

In the words of the great Paul Harvey: “And now … the rest of the story.”

A couple of days ago I got a call from a friend asking me if I wanted three tickets to the Knicks game. Seeing an opportunity to spend time with a couple of boys from our youth ministry, I said “yes” and invited Nathaniel and Connor to the game. Although the Knicks lost, we had a good time together. One of the things we will remember about the game is the drunk guy behind us who was just ranting the whole game.

As we were getting off the train, I grabbed Nathaniel’s sweatshirt from the overhead rack for him and it was wet. I asked him what happened, and he said Drunk Dude spilled his beer and it ran down onto his sweatshirt. I smelled my hand, and yep, it smelled like beer! We joked and said he should wear it into the house and see what his mom said. As we were driving away from his house, Connor and I saw Nathaniel putting on his sweatshirt. “Is he really doing that?” Connor asked. When I got home, I received the Tweet from his mom and just died laughing!

O yeah, and Drunk Dude was kind enough to photo-bomb us so we would have the night indelibly marked in our memories. To me, this is youth ministry at it’s finest. Building memories with students. Years from now we’ll get together and say, “Hey, remember when …?” I hope the conversation will also include “I remember the conversation we had on the way home,” but no matter what, I hope they remember that a caring adult who loves Jesus spent time with them.