God is moving...and we're beginning to listen.

Growing up in the church, I've heard many expressions to describe a great worship service. Descriptions like; "Whoa, the glory came down today," or "God truly moved among His people today." Hearing descriptions like these as a small child prompted my mind to think about the nature of God. I would think to myself, "Do we serve a God who only moves among his people every now and then or only when a certain song is played with just the right key change?" As a child I thought the answers to questions like these must be "yes" since it is only once or twice a month that I would hear people make comments like, "God moved among us today." I found myself profoundly confused because in the sciptures I read about a faithful and consistant God is unwavering in His love and devotion to His creation, but yet, I still heard remarks from others like, "God really spoke to me today," that were sometimes few and far between.

I finally came to the conclusion that it was not God who was sporadic and inconsistant. In fact, it was us, the people of God, who were sporadic and inconsistant in our listening. We fill our lives with so much noise that it is hard for us to listen out for the voice of God. God is always speaking and moving, but are we always listening and moving? John 10:26-27 says, "but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." I want to be one of his sheep.

All that to say this. The last few weeks I've witnessed students really begin to listen out for the voice of God. I am currently witnessing students who are eagerly moving towards God to seek and do His will. These students are not perfect by no means, they are still american teenagers, but something has clicked inside and is prompting them towards this move towards the voice of God. Last night during The Foundation, conversation and discussion was alive as we continued our study entitled, "Why Jesus?" Last night we were exploring, "Is Jesus the only way to heaven?" Together, we talked about the passion of our Christ and just why he had to die. We realized that it was because Jesus died and was raised again 3 days later that we have salvation, and in fact, he truly is the only way to heaven.

Tomorrow night at Xperience we'll be looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as I believe the Apostle Paul paints a clear picture to the Thessalonians on what Christian maturity and holiness is. I believe if we can place ourselves within this Biblical narrative and allow God to speak to us we'll understand Christian holiness and its relevance to our world today.

A few of the keyword we'll be looking at tomorrow night are; Set Apart, Genuine, Guarantee and Earned.

I look forward to seeing everyone there tomorrow night...it's going to be a great night of community and worship.

Overcoming the fear of risk...the risk of service.

My phone rang Monday afternoon. It was a familiar voice from our local food bank, Harvest Hope, and they were letting me know that they were doing a food drive at several Chick-Fil-A locations in the midlands and could use some more hands. I sent out a text letting everyone know the details and that I needed 10 volunteers for this project...within about 30 min I had amount volunteers needed! I truly believe God places opportunities of service in front of us everyday, some more subtle than others, but all-in-all if we are viewing life through lenses of Faith I don't think we can miss these opportunities. Some days opportunities are as obvious as a phone call and other days they can come quitely like a gentle breeze.

Today, July 29th. Chick-Fil-A in Lexington off of 378 in front of Wal-Mart. Havest Hope Food Bank food drive... We'll be there helping collect donations... I would encourage everyone to come by and donate. If you do, you will get a coupon for Chick-Fil-A!

HHFB project_0001_mpeg1video.mpg

"The Fear Of Risk"

What are we scared of? Clowns, falling, being buried alive, etc... Sure, those are all scary situations, but I believe there is another fear out there for middle and high school students. It's called the fear of risk. I believe in this God life God calls us to take risk, to step in to uncertain areas in life and be a light for him, to be salt and light to a dark and un-salty world.

Last night (7/8/10) at Xperience we explored how God can help us get over the fear of risk and enable us to go even deeper in our walk with him. I believe the biggest risk for any Christian is "risking" going deeper in our walk with Christ. Sometimes, going deeper with Christ means we "risk" losing friends or laying down a certain way of life that has been comfortable to us and this can be scary. Perhaps our fear is engaging in that ministry at church that God has been calling us to. Whether it's joining the choir, becoming a children's church volunteer or another ministry in the church, God is calling us to become an active member of His Kingdom, but just like with anything else there is risk. Risk of "our" schedule being interrupted or risk of losing "our" comfort.

Here's How we can allow God to help us:
1. Identify my personal fear
2. Confess my fear of risk to someone
3. Take one risk at an opportunity that will challenge my fear - then take another soon after
4. Feel the pleasure of God in my risk

Check out Acts chapters 3&4 and see how Peter took the risk.

The opportunity for service and going deeper with Christ is all around us...are you ready to take the risk?

A month of service

This week (June 14-18th)is Vacation Bible School at Central Church and many students from CSM are spending their evening serving in many areas.

June 25th - We will be volunteering at Harvest Hope Food Bank warehouse in Cayce... we'll meet at the church at 8:00AM and will work until 10:30AM. More details coming soon.

More summer event details coming soon...

Good night at Xperience tonight...not our biggest gathering, but God was present and we had a great worship Xperience. We're in the middle of series entitled, "Crossroads," and we're exploring how to make the tough choices in life when we come to a crossroads in life. Sometimes daily, we're faced with the choice of God's way or the world's way and there may be road blocks that keeps us from choosing God's way.

Week 1 we looked at how are past can be a roadblock if we allow it. Tonight we looked at how conflict can be a roadblock and the best way move around the roadblock of conflict.

Don't forget: Next week is VBS and we need all available students working... next Wednesday we won't have and kind of student event as everyone will be helping out and serving with VBS.

A new chapter for two CSM students

Yesterday morning we celebrated with Brett and Reece as they will begin a new journey soon. On June 5th they will graduate from Lexington High School and begin the whole "college life." I've recognized graduates before, but this was different as Brett has been a part of our student ministry throughout all of his middle and high school years. Reece just started coming back in the Fall on 2009, but I've had a change to get to know and hang out with him in this short amount of time. Both these guys were on my district basketball team that we took to Trevecca, in fact, Brett was on it the past two years.

I look forward to these guys being apart of our college ministry.

Here is a video I put together for yesterday's presentation. It's not much and I don't claim to be a video editing guru, but I think it turned out okay.

Great Night at Xperience ...

Since this is a new blog I'll explain first what Xperience is. On Wednesdays, students from middle and high schools all over Lexington county gather at Central Church of the Nazarene and Xperience life in the Christian community. You can usually expect a good laugh, good music and most importantly to Xperience an encounter with Christ.

Tonight I started a new series called, "crossroads." We're exploring how to handle those times when we're faced with two choices; God's way or the world's way. In relationships, God's way or the world's way? In the hallways of our schools, God's way or the world's way? Everyday we're faced wit these decisions. Tonight we looked at how sometimes our past keeps us from choosing God's way, in fact, it's like our past is road block in our Faith journey. God has promised to forget our past that is full of sin and offer us grace and mercy so we can move forward, but sometimes it's hard for us to forget the past. Get past the past, God already has.

Camp is here

Click here for forms.

Welcome!

Man, summer 2010 is almost here and already there is so much planned. We've created this new site for several reasons: 1) We wanted to create a site that was free! 2) We wanted a site where students and parents could come and keep up with all the important dates and events that will be going on this summer and throughout the rest of the year. 3) Finally, we wanted an online presence that would be encouraging and challenging to middle and high school students here in Lexington County. This blog site will accomplish all of that. Whether you need event details, forms or times this will be the place for you.

At least once a week you'll be able to find articles on here that will challenge who you are as a christian and as a person. Our hope is you'll be comfortable enough to comment and ask the tough questions.

There are some big changes that will be rolling out this summer. First of all, you've probably already noticed, but the CSM logo has under gone a huge transformation. A couple things you need to know about this logo. It's not just some random logo that looks cool, while it does look cool, it carries with it some meaning. You'll notice the cross is in the center of the "C" in Central. Our goal at CSM is to help students realize the importance of keeping Christ in the middle of our lives, in everything we do Christ should be at the center. When Christ is at the center of who we are, I think we'll be surprised the kind of influence and impact we can have in our schools, on our friends and in our community.