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.

I received a copy of this book by Dave and Jon Ferguson from Zondervan in exchange for my honest thoughts about it.  Sweet deal, huh?  I thought so too… until I read this book.  It was then that I realized that it was a VERY sweet deal.  Dave and Jon Ferguson planted a church (Community Christian Church in Chicago), and it has quickly become one of the models for reproducing churches around the world.

In “Exponential”, Dave and Jon Ferguson lay out the principles that they have felt called to in forming reproducing fellowships of believers in Christ.  They break it down into four parts:

1. Movements Start With 1
2. Reproducing Tribes of 10-100
3. Reproducing Communities of 100-1,000
4. Reproducing Movements of 10,000s

I really enjoyed reading this book.  It was great to see the strategies laid out by these men in reproducing communities of faith.  What made it such an easy read was that it had the real-life experiences weaved through it from the life of Community Christian Church.  It’s nice to read something that not only sounds good on paper but comes from a source that has seen it work.

I would highly recommend this book to all leaders in Christian ministry.  This work does a great job of encouraging and challenging us to be faithful to reaching the nations with the Gospel.

Note: I would have had this blog post out a lot earlier, but the birth of our second child kind of took first place in my mind.

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.

As many of you know, we are expecting our second son this summer. We are very excited about the new addition to our family. As we approach the due date ever so quickly, we have began to think about some of the issues that we had with our first son, Drew. I believe that it was about this time during the pregnancy with Drew that Naomi began to have blood pressure issues. She was placed on bed rest for a while to prolong the pregnancy and give Drew a chance to develop properly. The blood pressure issues got to the point that we had to induce early. But all was good because we had a beautiful and healthy baby boy.

Today, we had a checkup and have started to notice a slight raise in Naomi’s blood pressure. The doc wants to keep an eye on it and is starting to put some limits on Naomi (not bed rest yet). I ask that you be in prayer for Naomi & baby Sam that things will be okay with them and they won’t have to go through the bed rest thing. That would be one of the crulest forms of torture for me.

It won’t be terribly long now and our baby Sam will be here (due date is July 1).

Our pastor’s message for the Graduate Recognition service this past Sunday was awesome.  It was what should be in that kind of service: something for everyone but with a hint towards the graduates.  In the message, our pastor made a great point that stuck with me and has me mulling it over.  In Luke 2:41-49, Jesus was left behind by Mary and Joseph after the Feast of Passover in Jerusalem.  Three days later, they found Jesus in the temple talking and questioning the teachers about God.  Jesus’ statement was priceless…

Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

The point that our pastor made was that Jesus was shocked that His earthly parents took so long to find Him.  Didn’t they know who He was and what He was here for?  Where else would Jesus be but other than talking about His Father and making sure people understood the truth about Him?

Then the question gets turned back onto us… Where would we be found if we went missing for three days?  Would the search party find us in a church?  bar?  ditch?  football stadium?  Jesus later taught that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).  Whatever holds our heartstrings is where we’ll find our feet going towards.

Make it a point today to let Jesus be the treasure of your heart and follow Him wherever He leads.

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.

Today, I finished up yet another semester of NOBTS.  To be honest, I really hated to see this one end.  I was taking systematic theology and having way to much fun with it.  I am very grateful to our professor who made something that could easily have been very boring not that at all.  I truly enjoyed going to class every Monday and seeing what the Bible (not just tradition – church’s, denomination’s, or other) had to say about the doctrines that we as Christians hold so dear.  I look forward to the break from required reading and papers.  Now it is time to gear up for what looks to be a very interesting summer with the students of First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama.

We had a great time of worship this past Sunday at First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama. A few things really stood out to me and I thought I’d share them.

• Children are truly a blessing from the Lord. We had a time of dedication for the Flint family with their daughter, Elisabeth Grace.

• Mother’s Day can be very emotional. While many times churches celebrate motherhood on this day, there are many who will not be at the service because they have been trying to have children only to not be able. I was so proud of our pastor in how he handled that situation.

• During times of drought & famine, two things happen: people get desperate and we realize that we really don’t have any power in of ourselves.

• Good friends who will talk to you straight and love you are prize possessons – don’t take them for granted.