Jamaica :: Day Two

  We have made it here safely and are having a wonderful time!  We had a few snags getting here (passport left on plane . . . some car sickness . . . Keith Jones getting here today . . .) but we are now finally here and doing great. 

Harmons is as we remember and it is so refreshing to come back to a place we all love.  We know that our “first time students” are still taking it all in, but going to love it just the same.

Yesterday night we unloaded and sorted all of the donated items we brought down and we are SO excited to say that we have brought the MOST stuff down of all the groups this summer!  (Last year, we did not have this same result. : ) 

Today, we worked on three house sites, two “pit digs”, a marl haul, and sorting the goods donated for the store.  Tomorrow, we will continue these sites and some students will actually be able to teach in the local school.  Know that we are all doing well and still covet your prayers.

– Student Staff

(And PS- there was a LOT of dancing going down tonight with all the people of Harmons.  We are still a little sweaty, actually.)

Fee Update

Last night our student ministry hosted a night of worship led by Steve Fee. We invited a few smaller smaller churches in our area and had an incredible night. It looks like we may have broken the 500 mark for the first time in the Carmel Student Ministry. The best part of the night for me was watching my little girl get excited about worship. I wonder if my students have any idea how blessed they are to be able to have someone with the talent and heart for worship like Steve Fee to come to our Wed. night service? What a great night.

Steve Fee Coming to Carmel

We just got some great news …. Steve Fee will be coming to lead worship for our students on Oct. 17th. We were able to piggy back off of Charlotte One bringing Steve in the night before and the deal was just too great to pass up. If you know me I am always hesitant about bringing in Christian Artist but everything I have come across tells me that Steve Fee is the real deal.  Without a doubt he is my favorite new artist. His latest CD Burn For You has so many great songs. It is always tops on my ipod play-list. Our plans are to offer a free concert for our students and then focus on inviting smaller churches to bring in their student groups. Carmel Baptist is now in a place where we can take the next step in being a support to the many quality smaller churches in our area. I think we may do an offering that night to go to Won by One to Jamaica . This money would help meet the needs in Jamaica that were caused by the latest rounds of Hurricanes. Please let me know of some smaller churches in our area that would benefit from bringing their student group to this event.

Love the Gap

Our family just got back in from doing a speaking event at Windy Gap for our church school. Going to windy Gap for this event is one of the best trips our family gets to do in ministry. I love it that in this environment I can give my children more freedom than they are allowed to have back home. In fact, Windy Gap has to be one of my personal favorite spots. This past thursday night 10 students gave their lives to the Lord…did I say how much I love Windy Gap.

State of Emergency

My friend Steven Wright lays down some sobering stats on the condition of the church in regards to student ministry.

• Josh McDowell estimates, “Over 69% of youth are leaving traditional church after high school.
• David Wheaton, states that “as many as 50 percent of Christain students say they have lost their faith after four years of collge.”
• Ron Luce estimates, “Eighty-eight (88%) of kids raised in Christain homes do not continue to folllow the Lord after they graduate from high school.”

I have been in minitsry long enough to know that no stat can tell the complete story but it is obvious that we are in a state of emerrgency. A change needs to take place becasue young lives are haning in the balance. I have always been taughty that if we keep doing the same things the same way that we will keep getting the same results. Our methods have stayed the same while the statistics are becoming omnious. Parents and Student Pastors have to recognize that it is time to Rethink some of the things we do. Ultimately that will mean that we have to make some difficult changes in order to ignite a passion in the lives of students for Christ. Without quyestiuon some of those things that need to be changed will be things that we loved as a student in the church and maybe some things that our  child loves. We can no longer keep our head in the sand and do things the same way year in and year out. It is time to identify the elephant in the room…we are losing ground and the way we do things need to change to reach this generation of students.

Ignite-A Lot on Fire

Tonight was our third week of Ignite and God is blowing us away. The numbers have been growing each week at a rapid pace and the students are worshiping like I have never seen them before.

• Week 1   160
• Week 2   240
• Week 3   280

As the speaker I felt like I was off of my game but God did some amazing things despite the speaker. The altar literally was covered with students going back at least 2-3 deep. I can’t wait to see the cards to find out how many made life changing decisions. I am so blessed to have such a great team to help me pull off these incredible nights.

Ready to Ignite

It’s 4:50pm and I’m supposed to be doing some last minute message prep but I am just too excited. Tonight we launch our new series called Ignite. The goal is to ignitea passion for Christ in our worship and our lives. In fact this is actually another lion that we are chasing. We have been praying that God would bring in 300 students to hear the message. The band Se7enmiles is here for the next four weeks and let me just say I don’t know how we landed guys with this type of talent and quality. The last thing that I wanted to say as to why I am so excited is because of the spiritual battles that have been ragging around our lives again this week. In fact Ian my Associate just got into a wreck just a few minutes ago as he was going out to run errands. Fortunately he is okay but the enemy is definitely trying to get in the way for tonight. God please do somehting big tonight in our lives.

Everything is Bigger in Texas

Just like I thought Ed Young was not at FC today but you would have never have known it because the video image of him was so good. The vision that the FC church has for worship is huge. The entire service was seamless. Once again I realize that their is no comparison to the video venue that we offer at Carmel compared to what took place today at FC. The difference is like watching a movie at the best theatre in town compared to watching it on a Wal-mart security video. When they talk about excellence they follow up their words with action. I hope we can begin to catch that vision for excellence in worship at Carmel. I believe we are making some steps in the right direction but have a long way to go.