If You Could Receive an Hourly Text From God Would You Want It? How to Know and Discern God's Will

I was asked to speak on the topic of Knowing and Discerning God's will for one's life to students at the Momentum Youth Conference this past week!

This is a hot-button topic as teenagers are inquisitive about the future. The amphitheater style room that I was given quickly filled up and there were approximately 100 teenagers that had to sit up and down the stairs along the side of the room because they wanted to hear how to discern God's will for their future! We easily had around 400 teenagers who desperately wanted wisdom in knowing what God wanted them to do in their future's.

Here's How I Presented Information on How to Know God's Will to 400 teenagers

1. Opened up with some fun activities. I told them that they could not use going to this class as a pick-up line for the week: "Hey, I went to this knowing and discerning God's will for my life Powertrax and now that I am an expert I know that God set you aside to date me!"

2. I had the students write out a 140 character tweet that if they were God they would send to themselves. I then had them debate whether or not they would want to receive an hourly text message from God telling them what they should do!

 

After much laughter and debate we dug into God's Word to find answers as to how to know and discern His will!

 

 

Here is the process that God has set-up

 

Step 1: God's Word will NEVER Contradict His Will! We must always follow God's Word. (Psalm 119:9-16)

 

Step 2: Pray about it! (Matthew 7:7; James 1:5)

 

Step 3: Share your situation with trusted individuals who will give you wise counsel! (Proverbs 15:22)

 

Step 4: Pray about it some more!

 

Step 5: Give God Time to Work!

(It took Noah 55-75 years to build the Ark and it took 100 years for Abraham to have a son)

 

Step 6: Trust that God will give you the correct path! (Proverbs 16:9)

 

 

Tidbits to Help You on your Decision Making Journey

 

1. Be prepared for God to lead you where He CHOOSES! (Proverbs 3:5-6)

 

2. Do not blame yourself and get anxious throughout the process! (Philippians 4:6-7)

 

3. We always struggle choosing between what is BEST instead of what is simply good. Use discretion to choose what is BEST!

 

4. God will put you through trials to perfect your faith! Do not try and escape the discernment process as God is refining your faith!

 





Fighting the Spiritual High - Taking Momentum Home in your Youth Group!

I have gone to the Momentum Youth Conference 13 times in my life!

It has always been a refreshing, revitalizing, and challenging week for me. I was asked to present a youth worker lab to youth pastors, youth workers, and staff who wanted to learn how they could use the Momentum Youth Conference to be a catalyst or provide momentum within their youth groups at home. It was a pleasure to speak with, pray with, and rub shoulders with the 30-40 youth workers that showed up.

Think about it: a church spends approximately $500 to get a teenager to Momentum. This is a significant investment. If you spent $500 on an item wouldn't you want to get something back for it?

Here's how to get the most out your investment after the Momentum Youth Conference is over!

 

 

1. Develop ways for students to connect and share about what God is doing/prayer requests toward the end of Momentum and immediately afterwards!

- Develop a Youth Group Facebook page/Twitter page
- Debrief about your Momentum experience (Make sure your students leave prepared for what they will face after the Conference!)

2. Have a big celebration/student ran service soon after Momentum! Get others to buy into your vision for the future.

- Use what you learned at Momentum to kick-off your Fall programming! Have baptisms, testimonies, and all of your students involved.

People only know what they SEE! If you want to get other students, prospective adult youth worker help, and financial help from members in your congregation they must see how your youth ministry and the Momentum Youth Conference is making a difference in student's lives!

3. Recruit adult help for the Fall!

- Your youth ministry is only as good as the adults that are helping with it.
- Adults are the glue to any youth ministry. You can NEVER have enough good adults!

Drop Out Rate of Students Raised in the Church after High-School

Number of Adults making a significant investment in a teen's life between the ages of 15-18 

Zero - 89%, One - 76%, Two - 68%, Three or Four - 59%, Five or Six - 57%, Seven or More - 50%

4. Come up with goals and a GAMEPLAN for the future!

- Use a phrase or a motto for the school year to convey your gameplan.
- Come up with 3 goals (get student input/buy in) about what you want to do in the Fall. Make sure one of them is a numerical goal.

Goals must be S.M.A.R.T

(S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Achievable, R-Relevant, T-Time bound)

We as people have a gameplan for our career, retirement, and for where we want to go. Set-up a gameplan and structure for your youth group/small group/students that helps them get to where they need to go.

 

Every youth group needs a balance of DEPTH (growth) and BREADTH (outreach).

5. Dream BIG and DO equipping and serving tasks with your entire group!

- People UNDERESTIMATE what teenagers can UNDERSTAND and DO.
- Do not do youth ministry for teenagers do youth ministry with and by teenagers.
- We learn most about God and ministry outside the church walls.

6. Develop student leadership and give them tasks to DO!

- Some ideas in which you can help talented young people develop their ministry skills:
Develop an 'internship' program, student leadership team, delegate most of your responsibilities to your teens: sound, greeting, worship, creative arts (dance, parody vidoes), and teaching.

Does your youth group do well in these given areas?

The Five W's of an Effective Small Group/Youth Group

Welcome - Friendly/Greeting people (#1 reason people stay at a church)
Worship - Giving testimonies/Sharing what God has done
Witness - Needs to be sharing Christ with the lost
Word - Discussion always needs to focus on God's Word
Walk - Accountability with other believers

 

Momentum Recap 2014 - How our Teenagers Stuck it to Satan

Have you ever felt like Satan was attacking you or a group of people with everything he had?

 

This past week Satan did not want our teenagers to have a great week at Momentum at Wheaton University! He attacked us in many different ways:

 

1. We had transportation problems. Our trailer with all of our luggage did not make it a full mile before having to go back to the church. One of our buses broke down outside of Chicago. Our 15 passenger van's battery died on a food run on Friday afternoon. Our transportation problems did not stop us though!

 

2. We had illness issues. We had at least 3 students who got the flu and many others who did not feel well throughout the week. Our illness problems did not stop us though!

 

3. We had scheduling issues and logistical nightmares to wade through as transportation, illness, and other factors mounted. We did not allow any of those issues to stop us though!

 

When Satan attacks God's people only have two options. We can pout, become paralyzed, and eventually retreat or we can boldly move forward in the name of Jesus! Our group boldly moved forward!

 

Satan did not want us at Momentum and it was obvious why:

 

1. Half of our teenagers make commitments to be more of a follower of Christ than simply a fan!

 

2. We saw 25 students give up an afternoon of free time to hang out, love on, and share the gospel with elementary aged children that lived in poverty stricken governmental housing areas.

 

3. We saw our group of 81 travel into downtown Chicago to do manual labor at Wicker Park. Afterwards, we spent two hours canvassing the Wicker Park Festival which was loaded with thousands of people packed into nine blocks. We met lesbian rights activists, homeless people, and atheists. We talked to and prayed with a large number of people during our Saturday outreach and did our best to make God look good! Satan had a hold on that area but we did our best to shine the light of the gospel.

 

4. This summer we have sent over 100 teenagers on some type of mission trip experience! Satan did not want us to experience the joy in serving and reaching others because he knows that when the school year begins our teenagers will be motivated to reach their friends at school. I am expecting big things this next year from our teenagers and Satan did whatever he could to thwart our efforts!

 

Even though going through some difficult situations our teenagers responded well and pushed on. We prayed when it was obvious that we were under attack and moved forward. God was glorified, Satan relinquished, and our group's faith become bolder! Way to go Axis teenagers and youth workers!



 

 

Our entire group gave up their Saturday to clean up Wicker Park and encounter and pray with people during the Wicker Festival in downtown Chicago!

These students gave up their afternoon to love on these elementary kids!

Axis teenagers challenged the Winona Lake GBC youth group to a game of dodgeball! We won, of course! #IBelieveThatWeWillWin

Students working hard on Saturday Morning at Wicker Park!

One of the most MEANINGFUL and MEMORABLE Mission Trip Moments

This past week our church sent a group of 12 teens/adults to do mission work in Leslie County, KY. The county has the highest drug abuse rate per populace in the state of Kentucky! 

 

This trip was unique more than any ever mission trip experience that I have ever taken for the following reasons:

 

1. Our teenagers gelled and bonded faster and deeper than any other group I have led. As soon as we got back from our trip a Facebook conversation started that had prayer requests and ideas for how we could continue relationships built with the people we encountered! The best and the deepest relationships are forged in the fires of missional living!

2. Our group did a prayer walk in the nearby town of Hyden which had never happened before. We encountered people, prayed for them, and helped people move groceries into their home.

3. Our group prayed for the entire church and laid hands on them after our Sunday Morning service which no other group had done before. Members of the congregation were in tears as they knew that young people 'had their back.'

 

Our group also accomplished A LOT:

 

- We planted an entire garden, cleaned gutters, hauled dirt, washed walls, and destroyed kudzu with machetes.

- We did a children and teen outreach where we would pick up children in 15 passenger vans every night. We saw 30 different kids walks through our doors and 3 of them made decisions for Jesus!

- We led the congregation during their Sunday Morning worship service experience. Our teens led through worship, testimonies, and watching elementary kids during Jr. Worship. Our summer intern, Chad Wilson, preached and knocked it out of the park.

 



The MOST MEANINGFUL and MEMORABLE part of this mission trip though was none of what I just mentioned.

 

Late on Saturday Night, the pastor and his wife Sam and Betty Baer, invited us into their home which is attached to the church. There we shared stories and sung hymns as a group. The night was a beautiful picture of older and younger generations coming together to sing worship songs, pray, and call upon the Lord for revival. The pastor and his wife did not want us to leave and we stayed almost to midnight. I was touched by the missional and sensitive heart of the pastor and his wife who had labored for 35 years in Kentucky. They were hungry for a revival in their community. I told my wife that when we get that old (which will come sooner than later) I hope I maintain that same spirit. It was a refreshing and memorable night for me!

 

Our group can not wait to go back next year and to continue the work that was started!