On Monday, a group of TeenRock students headed to South Padre Island for Student Life Camp.
Today marks the end of Day 2 and it’s been a good and restorative past couple of days. Leaving on Monday, the weight of the summer months came upon me and I looked back to see that our high schoolers in particular have been busy. The rate of ministry in the summer is always fast and rather breakneck but 2009 more than any other summer has been especially grueling.
With that in mind, I asked our students to adopt a spirit of rest and find restoration this week. It is no accident that the Lord has us at a beach with a very loose schedule of activities, so why not capitalize?
The students have responded well. Additionally, unity is strong and the teachings of Wes Hamilton and the worship leading of Jeremy Riddle are being well-received.
I’ve been most impressed this week by the maturity of our students. I’ve intentionally taken an almost hands-off approach in leading them to see how they would respond. Also I just needed to know, have we trained them to feed themselves? Have we impressed upon them the value of content over context?
The answer is yes.
One student exemplified this with a simple suggestion. “Hey Tyson, for devotion time tonight, would it be cool if we all rather than starting out together on the beach in one big group spread out individually or in smaller groups and reflected on the message ourselves and then came together?”
That sounds a lot like church to me. [KEEP READING]
This month in grade school, we are studying forgiveness for 3 weeks and then we will start FX (family experience). I am excited to teach the kids about forgiveness. I am hoping that they will grasp not the behavior of forgiveness, but the love the of Christ in forgiveness. I want them to see that when they forgive, they get to love others as Jesus does. It is a great follow up to faith and obedience. If we really trust the Lord and have faith, we will let go of our need to hold sin over someone. We are all just as in need of the gospel and of grace as even the worst offender we can think of. Only the sinless can sit on the judgment throne. Do we see ourselves as in need of forgiveness and grace too? Or do we minimize our sin and justify it as not as bad as someone else’s? The Lord commands us to forgive as many times as needed, so if we trust him and obey his authority, we can forgive. Do we trust that he is truly just and that vengence really is His? The indicator is if we are willing to start the forgiveness process. If we are not, then we need the Lord to change our hearts because we do not believe some part of the gospel. Here is an overview for the month:
Memory Verse: Psalm 23 (we will do this all the way through august)
Virtue: Forgiveness—deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn’t have to pay.
July 5th
Bible Story: No Mercy (The parable of the unmerciful servant) • Matthew 18:21-35
Bottom Line: Since God forgives you, you should forgive others.
July12th
Bible [KEEP READING]
Guest post by Vicki Lancaster.
A while ago (6-8 months), before this blog post was even a remote thought, I believe God had a plan. Well, I know God had a plan. I was having a pity-party time in my life. Ever had those days? Months? I don’t really think I was depressed but mostly hormonal. If you are a mother, or woman for that matter, you know what I am talking about! During this time I wrote a list of “THINGS I DID WRONG AS A MOTHER”. I intended to share some of those but it seems this is going a different direction today.
Here is the scoop….. my husband was not working due to an injury/surgery/recovery, so life was topsy-turvey, as was my “schedule”. You would think that after being around for awhile I would handle these situations with strength and dignity, but I can’t say that I did. Financially, I had experienced God’s provision for our family in crisis times in the past, so that was not such a big struggle as we had been down this road before and knew we could trust Him to provide what we needed. However, I did not do so well with my husband being around all the time! I was also fearful of something I could not put my finger on… permanent injury/disability, depression… I guess it could have been a multitude of different scenarios. Added to the mix was the fact that we were doing some premarital counseling and reading tons of material on marriage, problem solving, etc. Most people would think that would be helpful during a stressful time but I was [KEEP READING]
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I have a dad.
My dad was always there. He never missed a game. He was at every concert. He bragged about me at work. He did everything in his power to set me up for success and catch me in the event that I somehow refused his efforts to not let me fail.
I have a dad.
At the same time, he was a tough dad, and while his toughness on me was mystifying to the 17-year-old version of me, the semi-grown up me loves him for it and would honestly have it no other way.
I have a dad. I have a dad.
It bears repeating.
With Total City Sports Camp in full swing, it seems that this thought continues to ping-pong around in my brain not because I’m still riding the fumes off Father’s Day, but because I believe the Lord is opening up my eyes to the harsh reality that my having a dad, is a rarity, and thus is not something that many of the campers can boast.
This harsh reality was brought to my immediate attention today, as I had the blessing of having a long conversation with one of the football players.
Let me start by saying, the initial terror of starting a conversation with a high school student doesn’t go away even after 5 years of student ministry. You still find yourself fishing, but the benefit of having done this for 5 years is you know where to fish and more importantly, you know how to pray for fish.
The Lord was faithful to my prayer, and out of nowhere, I heard a young man quote a line from the movie, “Tombstone.”
First of all, you don’t generally [KEEP READING]
As the end of summer approaches, you'll be hearing more and more about our summer family worship series, KidStuff FX. (The FX stands for Family eXperience.) For four Sundays - July 26 through August 16 - we are going to have a special worship service designed for parents and kids to experience TOGETHER. KidStuff FX is going to be unique in the life of our church, because it is the only place in our church where we say "families go here." In addition to creating a great environment for kids and a great environment for adults, we are working to create a great worship environment designed for the whole family.
I recently went to see the movie Up by Pixar, and realized that the mainstream culture in America has already figured this out. I was in a theater full of a wide range of people, from young children to grandparents. As I watched everyone leaving the theater after the show, I could tell by the smiles and the conversation that everyone had a great time. Everyone had laughed. Everyone had been emotionally touched. And everyone left talking about their favorite parts, their favorite jokes, and what they learned from the show.
Those kinds of conversations among parents and kids is what we as a ministry want to help foster in your homes. We always say that what happens at home is far more important than what happens at church. But sometimes it is hard to start up a good conversation about what happened on Sunday, because what Mom and Dad learned in church is [KEEP READING]
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Guest post by Kimberly Stewart.
On May 4th, there was a fire in our neighborhood and it was b/c of that fire that we met Alessia and her two daughters, Adreanna and Angelina. They came in our home that night and lived with us for a week and a half as they got things back in order....or should i say, God provided things in order above and beyond any of our expectations.
There are many details, but what happened in short is that God had been pursuing Alessia since she was born in Germany 23 years ago. As she shared her life with us, i noticed this. As we shared our life with her, God began to fit the pieces together for all of us. Alessia believed their was a God...but had no idea about the good news the Bible spoke of. We and many others shared this good news with her and on Mother's day, May 10th, God called her to Himself and she was saved b/c of the great work of Jesus! a Glorious day for so many of us...and the next Tuesday we baptized her in our yard! see post below. Alessia is in her own apartment now and they have become a regular part of our family.
One thing I wanted to post about is what has happened with our children in the midst of this. Two little girls have quickly become like our "nieces" and become our children's "cousins". The kids were away from them for an extended time as we traveled to Memphis last week and missed the girls. We have an endless supply of girls clothes, shoes and toys as sally and the girls constantly swap them back and forth [KEEP READING]
It's summertime - a time for families to be together and to spends time with others. We have highlighted some Austin-area events for us all to attend, creating opportunities for people and families in our church to connect and build friendships. This is also a great chance to invite your neighbors to come hang out as well. There is one event per week from now through the end of summer. Check out the list of events below.
When you arrive for the event, look for a family or a person holding a bunch of blue balloons. That will be the sign that you're in the right place. Then, be bold, walk up, and introduce yourself! Also, for updates during the week and specific location information, follow our special Twitter account for this event series - ascc_summerfun. That will help you remember what the event is each week, as well as help you find us at the event.
Friday, June 26 - Kung Fu Panda at Old Settler's Park in Round Rock. Pre-movie activities begin at 7:30pm and the movie begins at dusk. Bring a lawn chair and picnic blankets for seating. Concessions will be available.
Saturday, July 4 - HEB Austin Symphony July 4th Concert and Fireworks. The orchestra will begin performing at 8:30pm and the fireworks will begin at 9:30pm. Come early to claim a spot. Concessions will be available.
Saturday, July 11 - Austin Aztex FC Game vs the Portland Timbers. Game begins at 7:30pm at Nelson Field in East Austin.
July 14-16 - Regal Theatre's Free Family [KEEP READING]
This weekend at our Summer Conference, a question was raised at one of the breakouts that asked “How do moms disciple others when they have a family?” Lots of discussion happened on this with one of the women on the panel and a few moms. I got to sit in on this conversation and wanted to share what was discussed and tell you from a personal standpoint that I have seen it work.So how does a mom disciple someone when her time is so limited? First, it is important to realize that discipling your children is your first call to discipleship as a parent. You get the chance to invest in the lives and entrust faithful things to your kid for 18 years! Do not discount that!! It is HUGE!! Be a faithful parent and you are making disciples.
But it is also possible to invest into the lives of someone else. I think many parents think that discipleship has to happen in some formal setting. Thursday mornings at 6:00am at Starbucks, for example. This model works for some, but for others, it simply is not the most efficient model. Your life is crazy and revolves around your little ones and your time alone is already limited, how can you give up more time to invest in the lives of others? Also, many moms think they do not have all this knowledge to offer, they don’t have theological training.I want to write to moms and dads and encourage them to look at a different way of discipleship. This was how I was invested in for a few years and my life was changed. If someone wants to be [KEEP READING]
On our second day in the Dominican Republic, our team had the afternoon alone while the Makarios staff was spending some time getting acquainted with their new interns. With us was only our driver Juan who drove us to a great restaurant called El Campito for lunch.
As the meal began to wind down and it seemed like everyone was finished eating, in typical American fashion, I stood up and everyone with me, ready to move on to the next part of our day. As I stood, Juan, who had also finished eating and was now sitting off to the side of the restaurant, shook his head at me and motioned for me to sit down. He then proceeded to rub his belly and gave a hand motion as if to say, "Let it settle."
I slowly sat back down and the rest of the group with me.
First of all, we're making Juan T-shirts. Second of all, Juan's gesture opened up my eyes to my tendencies - to always be in a hurry, rushing to the next thing, before letting it all settle. Truth is, Juan may have saved my trip. If I had rushed through every single experience and blazed over every conversation on this trip, I would have missed Jesus. I would have missed the stillness in which He spoke profoundly and moved mightily in exchange for a list of accomplishments.
Coming back from a trip, it is always difficult to quantify and formulate an appropriate and extensive response to "How was it?" I feel as though, for me, that is simply because I didn't take the moment to experience the moments [KEEP READING]
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