Out of the Mouth of Babes
Weekly, I work with Jr. High girls at my church. Over the years some people have commented at my patience and bravery to boldly go into that hormone charged arena! I counter back that I am the fortunate one in this equation. I get to learn from these amazingly insightful young women.
For forty days, my church is doing a study on 1 Samuel 14 when Jonathan and his armor bearer go to pick a fight with an entire garrison of Philistines. I have always loved this Bible story. I have always most admired the Armor Bearer’s faith to be willing to tell Jonathan in verse 7, “Do all that you have in mind, go ahead, I am with you heart and soul”. What faith and trust he had in Jonathan and the God he served.
Last night, I met with my girls and we were looking at verses 9-12. When Jonathan says the his Armor Bearer, “if they tell us to go up, we will go up and if they tell us to stay there were will wait for them to come to us”. The Philistines tell them to, “come up and we’ll teach you a lesson” that is the sign that God has delivered them into Jonathan and his Armor Bearer’s hands. Jonathan says to his Armor Bearer “climb up after me”. I’ve never noticed that as anything profound and I cannot remember reading or hearing anything about it being unusual…
That moment, one of my girls named Aubree sheepishly put her hand up and said, “What is really cool about this passage is that Jonathan told his Armor Bearer to follow him. The Armor Bearer always preceded him in battle, not followed. Jonathan must have trusted that God would shield him!” I picked my jaw up off the table and sat in awe. Out of the mouth of Babes… ok, Teens!
Instantly in the back of my mind I thought, this is why I love working with these girls. They amaze me. There is an occasional moment when I think I could be doing something else. But then there are many more moments like these where I am so humbled and honored to be in the presence if such wisdom and I know there is no better thing to do with a few hours on a Sunday evening.
Jenni Reiling
Fusion Leader for 8th Grade Girls
Every Step Counts…
Last night I was giving some of my guys a call to see how they were doing this week. Now, calling 6th grade boys tends to be a brief activity. Like me at their age, being verbal is not their gift. If I called girls, I would probably have 20 minute conversations, but with guys it’s just different and shorter.
So I called Zack M last night and it was really cool. After we caught up a bit, I heard about his Boy Scout outing last weekend and how well he did shooting arrows in his archery. It was fun to hear about this side of his life. I asked him for anything to pray about and he said all was good and that he didn’t have any requests. I wanted to chat with one of his parents and invite them to our Fusion parent night so I talked to his Mom.
It was neat because his mom was listening to his side of the conversation so when I started chatting with her, she shared a cool story. She said that I could pray for Zack’s scouting troop. She said that it’s hard because the older scouts don’t want to have the younger scouts along anymore since they get bored helping them and feel like they hold them back. She said that Zack tries really hard to encourage the younger ones and teach them what he has already learned. This stuck out to me because Zack is a quiet kid who doesn’t call attention to himself or point out the ways he is stepping out as a leader. I loved hearing that Zack cares about the younger scouts. I love seeing his heart for mentoring and reproducing himself. Although he wouldn’t use these words, he is discipling younger scouts in the way of scouting. And another key thing I know to be true is that Zack is serious about his faith and serious about obeying Jesus. He obviously learned this from his parents way before I had the privilege of being his Fusion leader, but now I can affirm his leadership and support him as he continues to take steps of leadership and faith in the future.
This is why I love these students! I hear these stories and I know the Spirit is moving and shaping lives, young and old, and God gets all the credit.
Pastor Mark
Risky
I spoke this past Sunday at Elevation on Risk. I chatted with everyone about taking a step of faith/risk when you know God is prompting you. But, I must tell you that I am not a person that would generally be classified as a “risk taker.” I used to be risky when I was a jr. high student. I used to be the first person to jump off of cliffs when we went houseboating at Lake Powell. I was the first to go on any ride at an amusement park no matter how high it was. But, I would never jump off a cliff now, and I get totally freaked out by those rides that drop you 12 stories in mere seconds. I guess my mortality has gotten the best of me and caused me to be more cautious.
But, I want to be a risk taker. A risk taker for God. I want to get outside of myself. I want to live for something bigger than myself. So as I wake up each day I am confronted with a question, do I live for myself or do I live for Christ? Do I seek my own selfish gain, or do I seek to honor Christ through my actions, words, and attitude? But I must say, this is hard! It is not the easy road. I have to daily surrender my agenda at the throne of God and seek Him wholeheartedly. It is hard, but so rewarding.
So I guess I am ready to be a risk taker…I know that last statement lacked self-confidence, but I have no confidence in myself, only in God. Confidence in the Almighty God who took a risk on me. He is the God who believes in me when I do not believe in myself. The God, who doesn’t need me, but wants to use me to represent His Name each day.
What a risk I take when I begin to surrender control to God. But, what an honor it is.
I am ready to practice what I preach…I am ready to take risks.
Jen
We Need You And You Need Us
Yesterday morning I was thinking about the relationship between the parent and the small group leader. It’s a unique relationship with a certain kind of mutual dependency. For instance, family relationships can be easily taken for granted. We know from countless surveys that children look up to parents in most cases. They often count them as the most influential people in their lives. But when they start to take them for granted, as often happens more frequently when they hit adolescence, that influence can diminish quite a bit. Enter the Fusion leader.
If I have an ongoing relationship with my child’s Fusion leader, I can let them know some of the relational dynamics that are happening in the home. This gives the leader insights that help them to know how to ask for prayer requests or how to counsel them when the child brings things up in a group time. Without these insights, the leader is often flying with blinders on, only working with the portions of their life which the student shares. Although over time students tend to share more of their lives with their leader, a way to speed that process up is for parents to have a personal relationship with the Fusion leader.
Another benefit of the Fusion leader is the reinforcement of family values that can happen. When parents see a disciplemaking ministry like Fusion as a frill or bonus for good behavior, we all lose. Our greatest desire should be to do all we can to help children come to faith and live that faith for life. Jesus said we should let the little children come to him and that those who hinder them from coming would be better off having a millstone hung around their necks and dropped into the ocean. Pretty strong words, eh? Isn’t the point that we need to put a priority on making disciples, and in particular, making disciples of our kids. This is the call of our Fusion leaders. And, according to Deuteronomy 6, it is also the call of our parents.
Every parent and leader is left with a choice: To have a partnership in disciplemaking or to ignore each other. In the Junior High, we are going to do everything possible to help leaders partner with Fusion leaders. Until the day comes when every parent knows every leader, our work will not be finished. We are committed to keep striving, failing forward and celebrating every situation where this partnership happens until Jesus comes again or God takes us home to be with him.
This Sunday, October 26th, we are having one of two Parent Visit Nights at Fusion from 6:30-8:30pm. This visit will be like a combination of bring your parent to Fusion and a Back To School night. You will get a taste of what our Fusion ministry looks like, hear from our leadership about the kinds of things kids are learning and what we are doing to support you, and find out the resources we are making available to you as parents. At the last 40 minutes or so, you will have a chance to meet your student’s Fusion leader and apprentices. As you meet them, start the process of being interested in them. They will want to get to know a different side of their students from your insights. Let them help you by sharing appropriate challenges that you are facing with your child as well as the victories you are seeing happen in their personal lives. We are doing two parent visits so one parent can come to one and the other can come to the one in January.
I hope you will prayerfully consider this important night and be part of a changing of direction for the best in building faith that lasts a lifetime in your son or daughter’s life.
See you there,
Pastor Mark
Does Respect Really Matter?
Yesterday I was helping out in a classroom at a local middle school and I was amazed at what I saw. Apathy was a rampant. Although through no fault of the teacher, the inmates were certainly running the asylum. While trying to help a few students do the simplest of math calculations, I could feel the anger rising up in my body as student after student just didn’t care. Now, I know math isn’t the most exciting subject and a person is usually only into it if they are good at it, but I’ll tell you. Only a handful of students in that class cared about getting their work done or even putting a dent into it.
It’s funny, but what matters most to those students was anything but what they were there for at that school. We could have had volunteers who helped each student personally and still they would have fought the help every step of the way. It confirmed to me the importance of having something worth living for that is beyond what we are right now. These students live by their appetites. Not their food appetites literally, but the appetites of their desires. Some desire the spotlight and will do anything to stay in it. Others want to power of control and will physically or socially brutalize others to get it. While others want satisfaction in self-oriented pleasure seeking on numerous levels.
How do you compete with these competing agendas? How do you show students who have given up on their dreams that there is a dream that is worth giving your all for? You see, respect can be demanded, but vision has to be caught. Control and discipline can by enforced, but a life enthralled with Jesus cannot be caged. I’m seeing this each week as more and more students fall in love with the idea and reality of following Jesus in the rest of their life.
What is the hope for these lost students? What is the vision worth catching? What is the dream that can only be lived outside of yourself? It is the students we are unleashing on these campuses each week. We need to pray them into greater degrees of influence. We need to celebrate and encourage the smallest steps for changing their schools. We need our families to be the place where they are affirmed in the quest to walk the Jesus life. Why don’t we together commit to trusting the changing of our school cultures to the ones who Christ saved and put there for such a time as this?
Pastor Mark
Take One Down, Pass It Around…
So here is a little known fact about me. I really enjoy reading, but finishing what I start is always harder for me than picking up the book initially. But I don’t get distracted by lack of interest, but by picking up another book and starting that one. My night table next to my bed slowing has a tower of books growing on it with books I have started and need to finish.
One thing I love about working with the staff here in the student ministries, we also read books together as a staff and discuss and process what we read and how it manifests itself in our ministries and our day to day life. So needless to say, between reading for fun and reading books with our team, that “stack” on my night stand grows taller before smaller.
I’m really excited about some of the books that I am “in process” with right and now and wanted to pass them along to you if you’re looking for a good book to chew on for awhile.
1. Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile
Rob Bell, Pastor of Mars Hill out Michigan, writes another compelling message that not only encourages us as the reader, but it challenges us in many areas in our hearts and mind and really makes us ask the hard questions about what being a Christ follower looks like in this day and age. One thing I love about Rob and his writing, he does not sugar coat Christ’s teachings and he lays it out the way it’s laid out in Scripture. Here is an excerpt from the back of the book that gives you a taste of how he calls us to be the Church today in our culture:
It’s a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity. It’s about empty empires and the truth that everybody’s a priest, it’s about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from. It’s about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.
2. Chasing Daylight: Seize The Power Of Every Moment
This is the book that our current all-church series is based upon (in case you haven’t been to church in the last 4 weeks). Erwin McManus, Pastor of Mosaic from Southern California, calls the church to take a step back and examine their daily lives and to look at our daily routines with a new set of “eyes”. It’s a great book that talks about taking advantage of every moment in our daily day of routines and using them as windows of opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ. For anyone who deals with the fears of uncertainty, taking risk, being assertive and taking initiative, and ultimately being some one who influences people to Christ, this book will serve as a great encouragement for you.
3. The Irresistible Revolution: Living As An Ordinary Radical
Shane Claiborne shares in his book about the tension we live in between being the stereotypical evangelical christian and the completely sold out radical for Christ. His book is more of a narrative testimony of his life from his inner city ministry involvement during college to working with Mother Teresa in India. The book is described on the back cover as “This book will comfort the distrubed, disturb the comfortable, and invite believers to change the world with Christ’s radical love”.
I’d love to hear if there are other books out there that you (parents, students, or whoever else is reading this) are reading and are being challenged in your walk with Christ. Any good ones out there that I should add to my night stand?
Tyler
Serving Together
On Sunday we had our very first night of Fusion Small Groups. And it was so fun for me to step back and watch the leaders greet the students as they entered. We have incredible small group leaders this year. I get the privilege to see them in action each week, and it makes my heart happy. This leadership team really cares deeply for each student and it shows in their actions, conversations, group times, and they dedication.
Pure Teen also started last week. Pure Teen is a 6-week class for 6th and 7th grade students to learn what God’s Word says about staying pure in your heart, mind and body and how to make choices that glorify God. And again, the leaders amaze me. Monte and Melinda care so much for each student in their class. Their passion for helping students understand and apply God’s Word to their lives is apparent.
I am amazed at the opportunity I have to serve alongside of these high school students and adults. They truly love Jesus and desire to follow him, and that inspires me. They come each week and spend time with the students, and that makes me so grateful. They realize this is such a critical time to pour into students, and they want to make every moment count.
My prayer is that my daughter will someday have a great leader in jr. high like the leaders we have this year. That she can continue on the faith journey with other mentors in her life that can encourage her not to give up. To have other Christ followers speaking into her life, when she doesn’t always want to listen to mom and dad. Leaders who inspire, encourage, and help her grow in her faith.
There is an old African saying, “It take a village to raise a child.” But I think, “It takes The Church to raise a child.” Are we not in this together? Isn’t it our role to care for one another and spur one another to seek Christ in all we do? Because after all, when we function in unity and live life together for Christ isn’t that being The Church? I love seeing a leadership team function in this capacity, and I count it a privilege to serve alongside each one of them.
What a privilege.
Jen
Taking The Time To Pray
In the last couple of decades in the church in general (not just Rolling Hills), we have seen that many guys have a hard time standing up and being the leaders God calls them to be. They are reluctant to take responsibility and they easily default to a place of minimal to no impact for Christ whatsoever. But I want you to know that things are changing. I’m seeing some daylight start to shine in the Junior High.
I love it when God speaks and our students listen to His voice. Two such students, Jacob M. and Maxx H, are stepping out and listening to God’s voice. These two prayer warriors heard God tell them to start a prayer ministry for needs in the Jr High and the church. So they started an email prayer ministry called “Prayer Services For You”. If you have anything you need prayer for, just email Jacob and Maxx at m.j.pray4you@gmail.com. They would love to pray for you and I assure you that they believe in the power of prayer.
I’m so proud of these guys and my hope is that they inspire others who may have a similar passion to pray and seek God’s face while they intercede for people like you with real needs.
Mark
Something Bigger
Fall is here. I was so ready for it. There is nothing like an Oregon Fall: cold, windy, rainy and a spectacular array of fall leaves. With the fall, comes my family’s yearly jaunt to the pumpkin patch. This past Friday we went to the Roloff Farm out in Helvetia.
We had such a great time. This was the first year Malena picked out her pumpkin and carried it to the cart. I was a proud mama. And I took a bunch of pictures to prove it.
When I was looking at our pictures, I was amazed that these pumpkins start as seeds and then months later end up as huge fruit. When you scatter the seeds and take care of the field that they grow in, your product will be plentiful.
This picture causes me to remember the very familiar Bible story in Matthew 13:3 – 8 about the sewer who scatters his seeds, and what happens to the seeds that land on good soil. This visual is a real picture of what we want to see happen in the lives of jr. high students. We want to create an environment at Fusion and Elevation that students can be themselves and grow up in Christ. We also want to come alongside each one of them to help them produce actions that show Christ is daily transforming them.
So like the sea of orange pumpkins that were everywhere in that huge patch I saw on Friday, we want to see a sea of jr. high students all over the surrounding areas making an impact on each one of their campuses, sports teams, neighborhoods, and their homes.
And it is taking place. Each week we get the opportunity to see students take steps of faith. They believe God is calling them to something bigger then themselves. They are allowing the seed of God’s Word to transform the way they live.
It all starts as a seed, but it is truly growing into something so much bigger.
Jen
Just Doing It!
As we are in the midst of Chasing Daylight, don’t ever discount what God is doing through our students. I have some great stories to relay to you.
This week our student-led study at Hazelbrook was forced outside the building while permission was gained to meet in a classroom before school. Even though they were removed, they met anyway and had a good meeting. God never said we would not face opposition. Pray for Konnor and Nicole as they persevere and lead even when circumstances are against them.
After we met for Fusion last week Adria and Nicole and another friend talked to me about forming a group of students who pray before Fusion and then greet everyone who comes. This was an initiative they had themselves. I am looking forward to what comes of it.
Elora started a prayer group for China a few weeks ago. She is feeling God call her to one day go to China so it made perfect sense to her to start praying for the people she will one day be reaching for Christ. It’s quite amazing how much she knows about Chinese culture and information already which allows her to gain more of a heart for their nation.
Spencer, a student in my group, told me he wants to start a Bible study on Sunday afternoons for friends who don’t go to church. One is an atheist according to Spencer and he just wants to have these guys over and read the Bible and help them hear from God. Taking the initiative…
Joel decided to reach out to a person at his school who no one befriends. It was hard, but he was doing it this week.
Caleb wanted to invite a friend to come to Fusion who doesn’t go to church. Pray that he comes tomorrow night.
God is moving. Spread the word. Listen to His voice. Start a little fire for God and we are destined for a wildfire of impact. It is going to happen. Will you be part?
Pastor Mark
I Love It!
On Sunday mornings it can be so hard to wake up and get going. But, this past Sunday was different; I woke up and was ready to see what God had in store for us.
After years of praying and wrestling through where God was leading our small group ministry, the Jr. High Staff finally felt we had a clear direction. We then spent the summer continuing to pray and plan, as we got ready to see Fusion in action.
Fusion is all about “fusing” life and faith. Helping students understand that Christ wants to be a part of every aspect of their life, not just when they walk into the church building.
So when 6:30 PM arrived on Sunday night I was ready. There was a buzz and the students seemed ready to see what Fusion was all about. We had a frenzy of getting students into groups, eating pizza together, and then playing some ridiculous games.
But, the part that amazed me the most was after Mark Began spoke. He shared from Chapter 2 of the Chasing Daylight Workbook. At the end of his message he challenged them to be “Jonathans” when they walked out of the doors. Mark challenged them to step out in faith. The ones who decided to take the challenge seriously raised their hands, as a sign that they were willing to be a “Jonathan” and that they wanted their leader to pray for them. It was incredible to see.
But, it gets better. When the evening was over I walked out of the Fellowship Center and a girl asked me if I had an extra Bible to give away because she didn’t have one. So I ran back to get her one. She then proceeded to tell me she needed it because she and 2 other girls were going to start a Bible Study on their school campus. They felt God calling them be like “Jonathan” and step out in faith.
I love it! What an amazing opportunity I have to be on this faith journey with them. All I can say is, I love my job!
Jen
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