The Conspiracy Begins

There have been a lot of breaks in my speaking and there will be a few more. Outside Ascent I’ll only be speaking once between now and our Christmas break. I feel more pressure than usual to make the one message I give communicate everything this series encompasses. Our goal for the series Advent Conspiracy, is to help the teens focus less on the Christmas mayhem, busyness and presents, instead we want the to focus more on the presence of Christ and the true story behind this time of year.
But I really shouldn’t be feeling any more pressure than I usually do because I have help with this series. I have a great team helping me convey the message in different ways.
In week one we will Worship Fully through Eucharistic Adoration. Our hopes is to provide an atmosphere where the students can plug in, listen and praise God. In week two we will be learning how to Spend Less and Give More…this week is our usual format, I’ll be giving a message, there will be music, activities and discussion, but in the end it’s important to help students stay focused on what we did in week one…spend time with God. In week three we will be focusing on the Love All aspect; however, instead of a message we will have a panel of people who went to Nigeria (Our Advent project is to help build wells there). My hopes is that they learn that true love is not from the gift you buy, but the gift you give. When we send people to Nigeria it’s not just to build a home, play with children and heal the sick, it’s to spread the love of Jesus Christ.
For this series I need to abandon the thought that it’s all on my shoulders and really allow the ministers that have been empowered to shine God’s light. After all the love of one person is good but the love of a community is even brighter.