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WHAT A GREAT NIGHT
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[THIS POST IS BACKLOGGED FROM LAST WEEK, FORGIVE MY TARDINESS]
Last week was an amazing night with our students (for my words to the students, click here). It was one of those nights as a pastor I'm proud of. It's not the kind of night where I felt like I knocked the sermon out of the park. There wasn't anything exceptional about the presentation or the medium. It was one of those nights where I could see in the face of the students they were owning the content. I could tell as I was speaking that there was something in each of them that was really stirring. I've been reading this book Do Hard Things : A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations and it became a great catalyst for what I was looking to share with our students. In the years I have been a part of theBURN, we have had very limited standards or goals set for them. In fact, like most of our society, the one thing we were expecting is that they don't go to jail, do drugs or get pregnant. Other than that, nothing more was expected. Though that was never presented, by not setting active benchmarks we all can achieve, existence and presence was the only required part of the equation. I found myself regretting how little we had done because of how low I had set the bar. Yet as I read through 1 Timothy 4:12 again, I found the bar that God has set for students is still just as high as the day when it was spoken.
1 Timothy 4:12,16 (NKJV)
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity...Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
As we began to lay out in this year that we were expecting things and that there was more to living life within theBURN than showing up and being here, it seemed to make sense to the students (of which I could completely be missing the mark). God is expecting much more out of us this year. Raising the bar seems to be present in nearly every conversation I have. It seems like God has begun to think we are capable of something as His body and it's high time we start making it happen. Existence and presence doesn't cut it in the Kingdom. There is more you and I (and they) are capable of. Now it's time to dream and to expect and find the extent to which God cares to use us. (You can listen to the material and what was presented by clicking on "We Believe in You : Low Expectations" in the MiniPlayer. Thanks for reading.)
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Now playing: Hillsong - Saviour King
Last week was an amazing night with our students (for my words to the students, click here). It was one of those nights as a pastor I'm proud of. It's not the kind of night where I felt like I knocked the sermon out of the park. There wasn't anything exceptional about the presentation or the medium. It was one of those nights where I could see in the face of the students they were owning the content. I could tell as I was speaking that there was something in each of them that was really stirring. I've been reading this book Do Hard Things : A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations and it became a great catalyst for what I was looking to share with our students. In the years I have been a part of theBURN, we have had very limited standards or goals set for them. In fact, like most of our society, the one thing we were expecting is that they don't go to jail, do drugs or get pregnant. Other than that, nothing more was expected. Though that was never presented, by not setting active benchmarks we all can achieve, existence and presence was the only required part of the equation. I found myself regretting how little we had done because of how low I had set the bar. Yet as I read through 1 Timothy 4:12 again, I found the bar that God has set for students is still just as high as the day when it was spoken.
1 Timothy 4:12,16 (NKJV)
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity...Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
As we began to lay out in this year that we were expecting things and that there was more to living life within theBURN than showing up and being here, it seemed to make sense to the students (of which I could completely be missing the mark). God is expecting much more out of us this year. Raising the bar seems to be present in nearly every conversation I have. It seems like God has begun to think we are capable of something as His body and it's high time we start making it happen. Existence and presence doesn't cut it in the Kingdom. There is more you and I (and they) are capable of. Now it's time to dream and to expect and find the extent to which God cares to use us. (You can listen to the material and what was presented by clicking on "We Believe in You : Low Expectations" in the MiniPlayer. Thanks for reading.)
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Now playing: Hillsong - Saviour King
