Pray for your Pastor

You know what I love? I love going to birthday parties, backyard get togethers, and anything that is a group of people getting together to just spend time together.

Do you know what I don't love? When the party, or get together is at my house. Then I have to organize it, setup for it, spend money on it, entertain, plant it out, and clean up after it.

When I show up to Church its easy to just walk through the door and enjoy the fact that everything is already setup, planned out, organized and put together just for me. Then afterwards I can walk out without a worry in the world.

So how does a Pastor do it? I gained an even higher respect for my Pastor (Tim Estes) lastnight when I had "one of those nights". My worship leader was planning to do an acoustic service then he was scheduled to speak. Around 2pm I got a call from him that his heart was giving him trouble. My first concern obviously was his health, but then I realized I have 90+ people to take care of and to make sure they have a good experience. So I show up to Church at 6:25 and now have 20 minutes to put together the service, and a sermon for these students. When it was all said and done it was a horrible flop and it didn't go the way I wanted at all. I put a lot of time, prayer and energy into Wed nights. I realize some of those students may never be in an environment to experience God the rest of their lives so I take it very serious. After service it hit me how much harder it must be on somebody who is Pastoring a Church. How often I just expect him to show up with a big time sermon and it to go perfect, and more importantly I realized how rarely I spend time praying for him and that he will stay encouraged.

From now on when you organize a get together just let that be a little taste of what it is like to pastor a Church... but keep in mind the Pastor gets to do 2 and 3 times a week.

Pray for your Pastor... and Youth Pastor :)

PB

Jesus Cooties

Yes my title last night was really "Jesus Cooties"... God gave me that title when I was praying... ok not really but it is a title students will at least remember. We talked about the need for us as Christians to be contagious with our "Christ Like" behavior. When everybody around you is happy and loving God, you will be happy and love God. We talked about the symptoms of somebody who might have "Jesus Cooties". Things like Daily bible reading, daily prayer time, faithfulness to the Church. I am thankful for the changes that are taking place in the lives of element students, but now its a time where we must become contagious of what God has blessed us with. Have you ever been in a church where the same 50 people you started with are still there? Somebody needs to infect that kind of Church with the "Jesus Cooties" :)
We need to show the world what we have, and not by forcing it on them but by being a walking testimony of what God had done in your life. I would like to share a video with you of some students who were recently infected with the "Jesus Cooties" (You know you love saying Jesus Cooties)



God Bless,
Pastor Brad

Why it matters...

Do you think about Church a lot? I sure do. I am one of those guys who "over thinks" or "over analyzes" things. I am always thinking things through and how to better them. In student ministry I change things ALL the time. So why is it that I focus so much time on being a "youth specialist"? I think the best answer is that I want to be my very best. What if I don't think it over and give it my best? What if I don't think long and hard about my message for that week? What if I don't pray enough about the service? What if I don't get the service organized very well and I don't have help in the proper positions? What if I don't spend time training leaders? What if I don't take the time to connect with students and staff?

Let me answer my own question with a question... confusing I know... bare with me...

I have at least one first time visitor each week. What if that is the only opportunity that student will have to hear about what God can do in his/her life? What if they are looking for answers to God's existence and I fail to give it my all or to listen to the direction of God? What if a current student came in with a broken life but a fake smile and I fail to connect with them to open myself up to council them?

What im saying is many times we have just one shot. I want to make sure everything is at it's best and as perfect as it can humanly be. Then I want to make sure things are spiritually correct as well. You just never know who might show up to Church.

Now I am going to wrap it all up with this - We must give God our very very Best and in return he will give us more than we can imagine.

Don't Limit God!

PB

Why I love student ministry...

When I hear 2 students last week tell me they are having some issues with faith...this week one said the sign he asked God for was given... the other said God is making changes in his life and increasing his faith.

When a student will come to me and trusts me with situations they are facing and ask for advice and prayer.

When students call me when they are in a compromising situation and ask for help.

When students come to church for fun, but then experience God and start coming for other reasons.

When students tell me my sermon was exactly what they needed.

When students just keep showing up week after week and bringing new friends.

All of the above went on tonight or this week! There is no place I would rather be than loving, and working with New Life Tabernacle...

My prayer "God thank you for the opportunity to lead and work with so many awesome students, I love them so much and I look forward to every opportunity I have with them. I thank you for finding favor in this ministry. I thank you for what your doing and I just ask you continue to work in my life and keep opening the door for more students to be reached"

Thank you for reading and please pray for New Life Tabernacle and Element Student Ministry.

Pastor B

90+!!!

What a service! We had 93 or 94 people in the house last night and what a great service it was. Brad Redding is one of the best worship leaders out there. He had those kids tuned in from the start. The anointing on his life is so real and so powerful. Once he got going it was just like always... AWESOME! We had a lot of first time visitors in the house...I love visitors.

Towards the end I invited the students to come of to one of our 6 staff members if they wanted to get out of situations they are in. We have been talking about "A Season of Change" based on James 5:16. I offered them the chance to step out and come to the front to find a leader they trust. At that point I asked them to confess the sin to the leader so they could pray from them for healing! Once this started they just lined up 4 and 5 deep per leader. I was so encouraged that these students want a real change from the world they live in. Some of the face things that seem so unfair and others face the same temptations all teenagers and young adults do. Now each leader has a hand full of students they can keep accountable and check up on throughout the week. In order for us to reach others and help others we first have to help ourselves. We have to get out of the filth of sin and addiction so our hearts can be focused on God. When we do that we give it our all. Brad mad a great point last night. He said Good is the enemy of Great! That we say "that was a good service" when God is just waiting for you to receive what he has that will change a good service to a great service.

I'm ready to give and receive God's best so from now on I'm looking for Greatness!

PB

Season of Change

So another Wed. Night and another great showing of students. This week we had a staff meeting to discuss everything from events to individual student progress. We started talking about how we are tired of seeing students battle and struggle with the same old sin. So I decided to take some time to really look in the word about change. I am not talking about the change you get from week to week... I'm talking about a change that is... well a CHANGE! I discovered many students look for a clean conscious from week to week but not a true change. I found in Numbers where God told Moses tell the Israelites to confess sin to those sinned against then to pay it back as well as an additional 20%. Then of course in James it says to "Confess your sins one to another that you might be HEALED!" See I never really thought about the healing part. If you are healed of something then it is GONE! To be healed of drug addiction means you don't come back a week later asking God for a change again... and again... and again!

So it hit me... students confess sin, but they only confess it to God. So God is hanging out and all the sudden Student "X" says "God I have a confession to make.... I went out and got drunk over the weekend" and God is saying "I KNOW!" So the student goes home feeling good because they have a clean conscious... but no true change or healing has taken place. So lastnight we talked about "Season of Change" This doesn't mean a season in your life where you change, but a season where God is truly going to help you make a change of healing. We discussed confession to God but also confession to one another. Finding a friend that will love you, that will pray with you, that you trust, and that will kick you if you do the same sin again and again... ok maybe not kick you but at least make you think twice before you partake of the same junk again.

So this next Wednesday night we are going to have a time of worship, a time of praise, and a time of change. I know God is going to show mercy and grace in that little room upstairs and I know there will be HEALING not just a clean conscious. So if your reading this please pray for our service. I am hoping my good buddy Brad Redding will be able to do a acoustic worship night. They love when he comes and every time he does its AWESOME!

Till next time,

Brad

Old

So I just played in a basketball tournament I have played in for the last 10 years. Out of those 10 years I have been on a team that won the whole thing 3 times, second place twice, and third place a few times. This year we didn't do so well. My shin splints are about to kill me from playing so much in a short amount of time... old age? My brother told me its about time to give the game up... NO WAY! I wont be doing that for a very long time. It was good to see old friends but it won't be so good when I try to get up in the morning and get to Church.