Week 1 of Faith Underground

Week One of Faith Underground is in the books and it got off to a great start.  It was pulled together a little last minute but all in all the message was getting through.  With this new message series we are talking about the early church (taking them through Acts of the Apostles) to show them how the early church was feared yet respected.  One of the other things emerging from this series is how church just like our personal relationship with Christ needs to be authentic.  Because when church can be authentic it can be engaging and better yet relevant.
I shared with the students in my message that the biggest fear I have as their youth pastor is letting them look back at their teenage days in church only to remember church being fun and nothing else…mind you it would stink if they didn’t have any good memories of student ministry but I don’t want Ascent, Resurrection and Uprising to just be fun.  I told the students I want Upward Ministries (the name of our student ministry) at Nativity to be a place where they either found a personal relationship with Christ, deepened that commitment or were inspired to set the world on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit because of how God spoke through them in worship, small groups or one of our many other opportunities.
I know these are huge expectations on my part but to tell you the truth you can never be too big with God.  I want the students to feel loved and accepted when they walk in the doors, I want them to have fun memories of their evenings spent at Nativity; however, I want them to feel that this was one of the steps or this place was a launching pad that took them to the next level of spiritual faith formation.