SIMPLIFY and UNIFY

Last Spring during some time in prayer concerning our student ministry, I felt like God gave me two very clear words that need to be key for this school year. The funny thing is that when I got these words, I wasn't sure exactly what they meant. To be honest, I'm not fully certain what they mean for us still. But here's what my thoughts are...

1. SIMPLIFY - Life is busy for students. Options are so many. Students are coming from many backgrounds. There are tons of voices and opportunities that can push students away from God.
   As a ministry to students, it may seem the logical conclusion is to make sure you are offering a variety of ministry option at a ton of different times. As Craig Groeschel said at Leadership Summit, "A lot of churches say more ministries = better. I would say that better = better."
   We are going to make sure to be our best, yet keep it simple. How?
   Everything goes back to our mission of making fully committed disciples by moving students from religion to relationship to spiritually reproducing. Programatically, we are keeping to four things: Small Groups, Wednesday Nights, Youth Class (Sunday a.m.), trips (winter retreat, summer camp, GO trip, IMPACT missions trip).
   Anything and everything we do will somehow filter through those four things.
   Anything and everything will only be done if it is concluded to accomplish our mission.
   
   
2. UNIFY - Mission drift is easy. Side agendas can easily become main agendas for some. As a larger ministry, we have multiple paid staff working with preteens through Senior High. We want to empower students to lead and minister. The lifeblood of our ministry is our Small Group Leaders. These leaders are volunteers who are coming in with a passion for God and students. Every one of us (staff, students, volunteers) have our own individual passion buttons and desires that are very diverse as we come in to work with these students.
   As I contemplate this word, unify, I believe it is key for us to come in and go at this with a unified front. That unified front... anything and everything we do is all about making fully committed disciples by moving students from religion to relationship to spiritually reproducing. We can have diversity in our unity...
   one small group may be completely prayer focused and another may be all about study apologetics.
   One Wednesday Night we may sing, another Wednesday Night may be all spent in Small Groups, another Wednesday Night may be a panel sharing on sexual purity...
   but they will all be done only if we're convinced they accomplish our mission.

So, here we go this year. It is going to be a great one, I'm absolutely convinced.