Last night in our student ministry, we did not have anyone available to lead worship for our student worship service.  This is not a good situation to be in.  I was glad that a friend of mine let me know about a great resource for just such situations.  It is LifeChurch.tv’s open resources.  I have been amazed at the heart of LifeChurch.tv.  They truly want to help out fellow believers around the world.  They have created many great tools that are free for churches who might not be able to get those resources if they were charged the normal value.  This open resource page of LifeChurch.tv has so many tools that you can use: messages (for kids, youth, and adults), small group studies, worship sets, and more.

As I was saying, last night we had no one to lead our group in musical worship.  We actually used one of the worship sets (which you can download as a .mov or .wmv file) and just played it on the screen.  It was like a live simulcast of a worship service.  The leaders made it seem as if our group was right there in the room with them.  Not to mention that the talent of these worship leaders is off the charts.

Next time you get in a bind and need a little help, check out LifeChurch.tv’s open resources that are available to churches around the globe… for free!

I now sit at home finding myself recouping from our student ministry’s summer camp.  It was an amazing 4 days of fun and worship with the students of First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama.  We went to a camp in East Tennessee called Whitewater Express.  If you are looking for a great camp to get away with your students that will treat you right and provide some great activities, I highly suggest you check out Whitewater Express.  Some of the fun activities that we did was rafting on the Nantahala and Ocoee, paintball, high ropes course, and more.  The staff at this camp is awesome. 

We brought in Ryan John to lead us in worship through music.  I had met this young man about 6 years ago as I had him lead worship for a summer camp for another church I was with.  Ryan is one of the best worship leaders that I have ever used.  He has some amazing talent in singing and guitar.  More importantly, he has a great heart for the Lord and students.  He hung out with our students all week and participated in most of the activities.  I knew that our kids would love Ryan and that God would use him in a great way to minister to our students… and that is exactly what happened.

Gary Permenter was our camp pastor.  If you’ve never heard Gary speak, you are truly missing a blessing.  God has His hand on Gary in a very special way.  I have found few people who will put so much time into building relationships with people as Gary does.  Gary brought some great messages about the life of Joseph in the Old Testament and challenged us all with how to position ourselves to be used greatly by God.  If you are looking for a speaker for camp, retreats, special nights, or whatever, you really need to check out Gary.

As I reflect on this summer camp, I am thinking about a couple of things…

1. Forgiveness is a vital part of the Christian’s life.  It is the number one need of every person because of sin in our lives, but also something that we need to be sure that we’re dishing out to others.
2. Times away from the normal routine are vital.  The past 4 days have been great to get away from the hustle and bustle of life to focus on some key things that God is wanting to do in my life and ministry.  Sometimes you have to remove yourself from the noise to hear God clearly.
3. Great adults are a must in student ministry.  I had a couple who have 3 teens in our student ministry (all who were at camp).  This camp would not have been possible if they would not have gone.  Their loving on the students and helping them (and me) out made this a week that will not soon be forgotten.  (Big thanks, Mike & Joyce!)
4. God will use anyone that will make themselves available.  This was the theme of our last service at camp, and it is so true.  The only special thing about Joseph was that he had made himself available by decisions that he made to be used in great ways by God. 

I look forward to seeing the fruit of this summer camp.  God was definitely doing some work on people’s lives (not just the students either). 

June 7-12, 2010 marked a new adventure for me and our student ministry.  We participated in PowerPlant, a mission trip experience put on by NAMB to help church plants and teach students about church planting.  It was the first time that I had been part of this ministry.  I had heard about this ministry before but not had any friends who had actually tried it out.  After much prayer, I felt led to take our group on this adventure.

Here are some thoughts that I had from this mission trip…

• Church planting is important. I had not heard a whole lot about church planting as a ministry of local churches.  The only churches that I knew of growing up that newly started were those that consisted of a group of people who were tired of the way things were going at one church and decided to start something new (that suited their own tastes).  What I seen in Indianapolis (and been seeing a lot more of in other areas) was amazing.  There is truly an understanding that no one church can be “all things to all people.”  We got to see churches working together as teams to reach entire cities instead of them competing with one another over the same 100 sheep.
• Church planting is not the only way to reach the world. I know that the emphasis of this week was the importance of church planting, but I was reminded that if the current established churches would step up and be what God desires them to be (Great Commission and Great Commandment focused people), then the need for new fellowships wouldn’t be as needed.  (Note: new fellowships are still needed, but in some areas they wouldn’t be if the current ones stepped up.)
• Students will shine when given the chance. Okay, I had known this already, but hadn’t had much of an opportunity with this group of students to see it happen.  I was blown away at how these students took the reigns and stepped out into unknown territory.  It was encouraging to see this generation of students step up to the plate and knock it out of the park.

The past two weeks have been crazy and non-stop.  We were blessed with the birth of our second child, Samuel Taylor Stephens, on Friday, June 4th.  Three days later, I boarded a van with 7 students and 2 other adults and headed to Indianapolis for PowerPlant Mission Trip.  If you’ve been in student ministry for any time, you know that there’s not a lot of sleep that goes into those trips.  I returned from the mission trip to a house with a newborn and the sleep schedule of that.  With all that said, it has been wild for the past two weeks but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

I am going to look to put out some posts about some things that stood out to me from our mission trip to Indianapolis with PowerPlant.  It was an amazing trip.  God did many great things.

For those who are wondering, our second son (Samuel Taylor Stephens) was born on Friday, June 4, 2010 at 9:24am.  He was 6lbs 3oz and 19″ long.

The student ministry of First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama is hosting a fundraiser on Father’s Day.  We are doing a “Father’s Day Brunch” featuring the cooking of our own Chef Bob Vaningan.  The meal will go from 11:30am – 1:30pm.  It is a come & go event with all-you-can-eat pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, pot roast, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and desserts.  This great event will take place in the fellowship hall of First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama.

You will have to have a ticket to get in.  Tickets are $10 per person and available in the First Baptist Church offices or by contacting me.  Proceeds from this event will go to help the student ministry fund some of its bigger events (mission trip, summer camp, and others). The deadline to purchase your tickets is Sunday, June 13th.

I invite you to come and check out some of Birmingham’s best food and support a great student ministry as they try to reach out to our community and around with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here is the video that we made for our graduates on Graduate Recognition this past Sunday.

Yesterday was a great day at our local fellowship.  It was a crazy day in that it was Graduate Recognition Sunday.  Even through all of the craziness that comes with recognizing graduates, it was an awesome day.  Here are some things that stood out to me…

• Graduate Recognition is always an emotional time. It doesn’t matter how many times you do it, it never gets old.  To watch the students that you’ve poured in to reach that pinnacle and step on to the next phase is always a great thing.
• Students never cease to amaze me. We had one high school graduate lined up to just say a short word of thanks to the church family for being there for him and supporting him through the years.  He was almost to the point of backing out and not saying anything (not much of an upfront guy).  He did step up though and shared from his heart.  I was left sitting there in utter amazement… God is doing some great stuff through our students.
• The meaning of “graduate”. Our pastor brought an awesome message about the meaning of graduate – which from the Latin is “to step”.  We all have a step to take in our lives.  What step are we trusting God with right now.  (You can hear the message for yourself here.)
• Salvation doesn’t just deal with our past. In our student worship service, we talked about the present-tense part of our salvation (sanctification).  We got some really great students who are eager to learn about God.

Check out this video that First Priority put out about students reaching their schools… pretty cool stuff.

Today I did something that I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I’ve thought about it a few times but never gotten around to it. What did I do? I took my pastor to lunch.

Some might think, “what’s the big deal?” I would say just ask my pastor. Have you ever thought of how many times someone has just out of the blue taken your pastor to a meal just to spend some time with them? As a student pastor myself, I’m taking those of my flock out all the time. Not many times do those I minister to take me out. It is special when it does happen.

I know the stresses of student ministry. I truly don’t know all the stresses of a senior pastor. It is very important for my pastor to know that I support and appreciate him. The team approach is key.

I would strongly encourage every believer to reach out and encourage your leaders. Don’t just assume that they are good and know that you’re behind them. As a leader, I can say that when those moments of support come, they greatly encourage us and mean the world to us. If you a student pastor or other support minister, remove all doubt from your pastor’s mind and encourage them. Put a boost in your leadership by letting them know what they mean to you.

Wednesday nights during the school year are a time of discipleship and bible study in our student ministry.  We have been going over how to study the Bible for yourself with the students.  It has been a good course.  It is basically what is taught in some Bible colleges and seminaries as “hermeneutics”.  Here’s a little of what we’ve covered…

• The difference between the various translations (word-for-word & thought-for-thought)
• The importance of context
• Literary genres in the Bible
• Tools to use (Bible handbooks, concordances, topical Bibles, commentaries, etc)

We split the group into three teams and let each team choose a passage.  They were given 3 weeks to dissect it and then they had to share their learning with the rest of the whole group.  I must say that I knew we had some great students, but I was blown away by what they shared.  It was very encouraging as a student pastor to watch students do what many ministers do every day.  You could see also in many of them that the light bulbs were coming on.

I’m anxious to see what the future holds if these students will apply these tools that we’ve given to them.  I think that it could radically change the course of this area.  I encourage all that work with students to see that they are ready and want to grasp the great truths of Scriptures.  Do everything you can to equip them for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12).