God did a big thing this week. Coming into July I truly had no idea where to go. Just as a people without a vision perish, so too a youth ministry without a vision soon finds itself perishing. I knew that it was going to start getting rough rather quickly if something didn't happen.

For this reason, I began to pray. I don't care to do what I feel like or what I think will be good. I truly don't have a good enough sense of youth culture, the ways of God or the things to come to presume that I'll have the wherewithal to plan out my steps. The weeks of July thus far have been in prayer for God to reveal what He would want us to do. And wouldn't you know....He answered.

Beginning last Monday, the vision for the rest of the year and where our youth ministry was to go was laid out before me and it's big. In conjunction with some other events later this year, God is going to do a big thing in theBURN. Coming out of Monday I was hyped! Knowing God was going to do a huge thing. Then I began to hear stories of how students were accepting Christ in homes, on the way home and on their own time. This put a different kind of fire in me. For years I have been walking out what I felt was a responsible way of doing ministry. Allowing students to make decisions on their own separate from emotional manipulation or hype in a moment. This is all fine and dandy except when people aren't accepting Christ. Yet this past week confirmed that what we were doing was right. And further confirmed that nothing gives me more passion in ministry than seeing students accept Christ.

Coming out of this week, Rachel and I made our first ministry training trip together to Desperation. It was further fuel to what had happened the week before. With a combination of good food (Cheesecake Factory, Five Guys, Wahoo's, Pei Wei, California Pizza Kitchen and Del Taco), opportunities to chat and connect with new found friends / comrades (Mark Pettus, Joe Couch, Jared Newman, Brent Parsley, Steve Harmon, Tyrel Koenes and David Perkins) and GREAT sessions / seminars, what God was doing in my heart the week before became bigger and grander.

The theme of Desperation this year was "Light Up the World." Throughout the Gospels you find many instances in which Jesus refers to His followers as light. In so being, we are called to "Light Up the World." A city on a hill cannot be hidden. No one takes a light and puts it under a basket. Light puts away the darkness. In every one of these passages, you find that in being light our call is in the world and not to ourselves. To keep our light within the church is to do exactly what Jesus commanded us not to. Yet, when our light enters the world, it lights up the world and through us the world sees Christ.

In the lives of my friends, God is doing HUGE things. As we were able to get together and talk, God was giving the same vision to each of us in our parts of the world. Though we are all in different stages of the vision, there is nothing like having close friends / comrades in ministry who are feeling the same things you are and each of us building the fire inside.

As I look ahead to the remainder of this year (and now into next), what God has in store for theBURN is big and what He has planned for Springfield is even greater. I can feel "the weight of glory" as C.S. Lewis described it and can't help but feel humbled to be at the helm. My prayer for you and for us is that through us, we light up the world. In true Desperation fashion: LIGHT IT UP!




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