Back From BELIEVE

We had a good weekend at BELIEVE last weekend.  We were with a HUGE crowd…close to 5,000 junior high students and adults.  The last few years I have come away with how well the program is put together.  Not so much in the entertainment aspect, although it really engages junior high students.  The way they are able to weave all the different elements together to reinforce the theme for the weekend is very well done.  The team incorporates music, teaching, art, videos, humor, discussion questions and hands-on opportunities that keep pointing back to the focus of the weekend.

This year, we looked at the life of Esther and how God used her in her unique circumstances to speak for Him.  The challenge to the students (and adults) was to identify our NOW moment.  Esther’s moment was to stand before King Xerxes and plead for the lives of the Israelites.  We were left to think about what our NOW moment might be.  It was cool to hear our students talk about what God may be showing them is their NOW moment. Those are great conversations to have with students.

Pictures from the weekend will be up soon.  You can view them at the church website.

The weekend also made the news in Kentucky.  Check out this brief article from a Kentucky paper.

3 Temptations of the Emerging Generation

Before you get too far into this post, I don’t have a real clear handle on how to describe generations and changes.  Some people talk about the emerging church and sometimes our labels can lead to more confusion than clarity.  By emerging, simply think of the generation that is currently in their teens, twenties and even early thirties.  At some point in all our lives, we were the emerging generation.  At some point, too, we just get called “old.”

Back on point…I have been listening to podcasts from Craig Groeschel who is senior pastor at lifechurch.tv.  I’m in the midst of his third message, but have been thinking about what he talked about in his first message of this series.  He spoke primarily to the emerging generation and identified three temptations he believes apply to this generation of teens, twenties and early thirties.  He did say that these are his opinion, but I think he is on target and would like others thoughts on it.

Briefly, here are the three temptations as he sees them:

1. Temptation to Feel Entitled. We have a lot of “stuff” and one thing the emerging generation faces is the sense of entitlement.  In a world where everything is new, it creates an expectation of having that same standard of living throughout life.

Great thought on this:  we have a good life and feel like we deserve it.  When things go bad, we blame God because we feel we deserve it.  God doesn’t get the glory when things are good, but gets the blame when things are bad.

2. Temptation to Define Truth as We See It. We have been taught that there is no thing as absolute truth, so truth is defined by whatever makes me happy.

Love this illustration on this idea of judging things on how we feel.  Sin is like a sneeze.  It feels good coming out, but then there is snot everywhere. Great picture, wouldn’t you say?

3. Temptation to Postpone Adulthood. He referred to one person’s research on when people consider themselves as adults.  The primary answer was when they had a child.  So, until someone actually has children, he or she is not considered an adult.  Postponing adult can lead to postponing the roles and responsibilities that we equate with adults, in life, in the workforce and in the church.

That is a brief overview of his thoughts, but I have seen all three at work where I live.  Would be interested in other thoughts on this as well.

He is not bashing the emerging generation, but rather pointing out some obstacles young believers will face.  What is great is that he then challenges every generation to rise up and be the people God has created us to be.