I want to challenge everyone to start making an effort to get the word out about what's going in our youth group. Start inviting your friends. No excuses - I know you guys know people you can invite. And everyone is welcome. Don't assume someone doesn't belong at our church. Ridding ourselves of that attitude is one of the keys to building our youth group into what God wants it to be.
Now, just to be clear - this is not about numbers. It's about getting excited about what God is doing and wanting to share it with others. For things to really start taking off, we have to get excited. If our friends don't know how much this youth group means to us, we're not exited enough. If people aren't taking notice of us, we're not excited enough.
Most of you don't remember when Jon McClure was the youth pastor. When I was a freshman, believe it or not, we had the biggest, most talked-about youth group in town. People talked about what was going on in our group with their friends at school. We can have that again. In fact, we can have something more - we can have a youth group that is playing a huge part in an awesome youth revival. But it's going to be up to you guys to make sure that happens. So start praying about what God will have you do towards this.
And keep up the discussion on the "Newcomers" post. There's still some important issues to be discussed there.
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
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2 comments:
I've been inviting my neighbour for a long time now. She's been in some not-so-great youth groups before, and I keep encouraging her to come with me on Wednesdays. She knows Gary too, so I had hoped that she would come, but I haven't had much luck yet.
I've talked with others about what we do, they seemed excited about it. Though they're all from other Churches, and I feel bad if I invite them. It's like taking them from their own youth group. So I don't really know what to do about that, but they all know that they're welcome is they ever feel like coming. :)
It can be hard to get people to come, and taking people away from other youth groups probably isn't good unless that youth group is in bad shape (we can't be hypocrites after all - I know I get tired of seeing people leave our church for Unity).
But like I said, the important thing is that we get excited enough that we make it a big priority to share it with others. That's how youth groups grow. Even if we invite some people and it doesn't work out, if we're so excited about what God is doing that telling people is a natural reaction, then we're on the right track and things will start to happen as a result.
I know that for me, too many Wednesday nights go by that just feel like a chore. I go, I do my thing, I leave. A lot of times I feel tired and just don't feel like putting forth the effort to really embrace what God is doing. I know there are things I need to do, people I need to talk to, prayers I need to pray, habits I need to develop, a personality I need to project, but I just don't. This needs to end. As far as I'm concerned, every Wednesday needs to be more impacting than the last. That's what growing is all about. Sure, there will always be downtime. But it should not be a constant thing. And I feel that God is leading us to some very important UPtime, so we need to be seeking that.
So keep it up. Let the people at your school and in your life know you are a proud member of the Calvary Baptist Church youth group and God is leading us to do amazing things.
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