I just finished reading the book Miles to the Cross: A Spiritual Journey on the Open Road by Mike Howerton. The book is a collection of journal entries by Howerton over a number of years during four different pilgrimages throughout Europe, America, Britain, and Central America. It was fascinating reading of his adventures and his journey from a college student seeking for truth to a young man who concluded that Jesus is Who He says He is, and the moment he realizes that he has indeed embraced Jesus as His leader. This is the second book I have read in recent months which is comprised of journal entries of people on pilgrimages, and I have absolutely loved them both. Raw. Real. Honest. Authentic. Neither had that “Wow! Now that’s profound, intense truth that I have never considered.” Rather, the joy for me was in observing their daily grinds, their simple reminders and discoveries of what is truly important in life, their struggle to live well each day, and the inherent invitation for us to do the same.
The 2009 baseball season has begun. Which means that all of the great athletes get to play the game for us to enjoy, and all of the non-athletic government officials get invited to entertain us before the games. You’ll love this!
Wednesday night for our youth service I decided to do something that focussed attention on the last days and hours in the earthly life of Jesus in a special and memorable way. I used a Youth Specialties resource called Journey to the Cross. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, and I almost passed on it again this year because it is designed as a prayer station experience. I absolutely love prayer station experiences, but our meeting room is not conducive to such a setup. However, I decided to adapt the presentation for our room. I created a beautiful slide show with the Scriptures, thoughts, and pictures of the scenes that would have been created at the stations. As each person entered the room they were given a bag with the items they would have normally gathered at individual stations. (Note: My one mistake (I’m sure there were more, but this one was really obvious): I used paper bags. I failed to consider that every time they went to get an item out it was like a hail storm in the midst of a quiet and reflective night. Oops! They did well at getting past it though, so I was proud of them for handling it with some maturity. If you do it this way, definitely go with plastic baggies.) I also had candles lining the stage which they had to come forward and extinguish at one point, as well as a table with communion elements on it which they also came forward to partake of during the journey. I then led them through the experience by just clicking through the slides. For added affect I played some background music (used a good movie soundtrack (ex. Braveheart)) and read the Scripture portions that were projected on the screen (other than that, I just let them read the slides and respond accordingly). After the experience I closed in prayer and invited students to further digest it and post comments on our blog, which I was glad to see a few of them did. It was different than our usual structure, but it was by far one of our best services of the year! I mean that! It was totally awesome! If you want to try the Journey to the Cross yourself, you can download it here.
So I vented to my senior pastor about a month or so ago about my #1 frustration in ministry being apathy among students toward the things of God. We have really been seeking the Lord for a breakthrough in the hearts of our kids. Last week I had lunch with a fellow youth pastor from the Island. I asked him: What is your biggest challenge/frustration in youth ministry? His response, totally unsolicited (I had not shared mine with him) … apathy. Today I had lunch with another fellow youth pastor from the Island and asked him the same question. His response? Once again, totally unsolicited … apathy. Over and over again I am hearing things like …
I just don’t understand kids these days.
It didn’t used to be like this.
What do they want? What are they looking for?
How can we capture their hearts?
I have been working hard, as have lots of my friends, to love and lead students to the cross. It is not easy. I don’t have all of the answers. I just know we need to love Jesus. We need to build relationships with students. And most of all, we need to depend on God without whom nothing is possible. So, here’s a prayer from my heart today …
Lord, there is a heavy, wet blanket of apathy over this generation in our area. Many of us are dealing with it, but we know it’s going to take way more than creativity and hard work on our part. It’s going to take a mighty move of your Holy Spirit. God, we know that you love these students even more than we do. We are depending on you to do what only you can do. Break through hearts of stone and lives filled with passivity and laziness, and let the rivers of your Spirit flow in the lives of our students. Fill them with passion and fervor and vision and mission. Lord, help your churches to unite as never before to embrace the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
VideoTeaching.com will be an easy-access, online library full of high-quality video messages from gifted Christian communicators. Churches or individuals will log in, select sermons or series that are a good fit for their church, and download them for free! Check it out here.
REVKEVJR.COM 
