Now that our new website, (http://www.windycitycommunitychurch.org/) is LIVE all the staff are jumping to update their blogs. You should check out Pastor Adaline, Pastor Steve, and Pastor Bob's blogs. I am a follower of each of those so you can get to them from my blog, or from http://www.windycitycommunitychurch.org/.
This weekend I am going to be going with the junior high youth group to Phantom Ranch for a winter retreat. I'm really pumped this is a great time for me to get to run around with the kids and play as well as I get to take some time for me to do some check in with myself and where I am in ministry and just life in general. Last year I was dealing with whether or not I should leave for New Orleans on a year long ministry trip. I wrestled with whether or not I really wanted to leave my family and friends. I couldn't hear a clear answer until I was at camp and finally got to a place where I was open to wherever God wanted me to be. It was so clear, I was so happy and at peace.
Phantom Ranch is also owned by Midwest Christian Church, which also owns Midwestern christian Academy which is where I went to grade school. During my time as a 7th and 8th grader we would go for a weekend for "outdoor education" I have lots of memories of my time there, (falling in the swamp, falling in the lake; you can ask for those stories some other time) being up there takes me back to a time when I was younger and the world was way easier. Everything was simplier for me, including in many ways my faith.
In Matthew 18 the disciples ask Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom? Jesus responds by calling over a child and tell his disciples, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
In grade school I had no arguments about Calvin vs. Arminian. I didn't worry about postmillenial vs postmillenial. I didn't care to really try to decipher how the Trinity works. I didn't wrestle with why we don't have any stories about Jesus as a youth. (Sidebar: If anyone reading this does not struggle with these things, you don't need to. If you do I understand where you are coming from and in no way am criticizing it, that's just not how my mind works.) I understood that Jesus was my savior and because of that I was not going to hell. It was simple and easy. Then High school came and I learned about other religions and how they affect me. Then college came and I heard all these different debates about things that I had either never heard of or never really considered. Why is it that as we get older we seem to cloud our minds, and hearts with junk that isn't important? We overstate the importance of your stance on the rapture and undersell John 3:16. Somewhere along the way I think we forget just how simple and easy God has made salvation for us. I think maybe that's why I like doing junior high ministry. It's fun and freeing and simple and the message is the gospel, bare bones.
I told the guys in my bible study (part of Windy City Community Church ministries found at http://www.windycitycommunitychurch.org/) that were going to camp this weekend to write down at least one goal they have for the weekend and to bring it with them. For me, my goals are 1) to have at least one good conversation with a junior high boy. 2) Peace and rest in my mind. 3) Remember and refresh myself in the gospel, and remind myself that Jesus told us to "humble ourselves like a child."
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