Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A Lesson from Mac Users
This week I'm switching from a PC to a Mac. It's been interesting because almost every Mac user swears it's like the the best decision I could have ever made in life barely finishing in 2nd behind accepting Jesus Christ as my savior, lol. On the other hand not one PC supporter was even close to being as adamant about how amazing PC's are. Just by asking a few people it was unanimous "switch to mac!!!" while all the PC supporters where kind of ho hum or all they did was talk about how Mac's are over priced which led to me to believe if they had enough money they would get a Mac. They were supporters and it wasn't a big deal but the Mac people were supporters and it was a big deal. After talking to Mac users I felt compelled to switch to Mac and I would be making a huge mistake if I didn't! On a spiritual note, if we were as excited about sharing with people how amazing Jesus is as Mac users are sharing how amazing Mac's are, how many more people would feel compelled to turn to Christ like I did to going with the Mac? From our excitement and passion for Christ how many would feel like they would be making a huge mistake if they didn't give there heart to Jesus Christ? That they would be missing out on an amazing, life changing experience? I don't ever want to be ho hum about Jesus so my goal is to be like a Mac user when I'm sharing and talking about Jesus!
Monday, August 24, 2009
New Jr. High Experience
On August 16, 2009 we started a brand new Jr. High Experience during our Adults Experience at 10:30 am in our new Jr. High Room. Our first experience I was hoping for 40-50 students and we had 62 our first week and 67 yesterday!!! We've also seen over 20 students commit their lives to Christ in the last two weeks. Thank You Jesus!!! The Jr. High Experience has been a huge success and a great opportunity for our jr. high students to connect with each other, worship together and learn about God together. The messages are catered to them and I have a group of amazing leaders to love on them and serve them. This new experience has also allowed us to use Wednesday to do a High School Experience and Jr. High Small Groups. I'm loving the way we are doing student ministry and so thankful for Pastor Herbert's vision and support to reach this generation. This is a very exciting time at Epic Student Ministries.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Epic was Awesome Tonight
Tonight we launched our High School Experience and Jr. High Small groups and they went great. We had 73 high school students and 50 jr. high. The students loved the new game room and I heard many positive comments from parents and leaders. One parent told me her son hates coming to church and bible study and he absolutley loved Epic and will be back. We also had 3 salvations. I'm excited for the changed lives and the future of Epic. Between our new jr. high experience and Wed night we are now reaching over 180 students!!!! Thank you Jesus and it's only the beginning of the school year. Next week we are looking to hit over 200 students and in the next few weeks we may have to start a 2nd Jr. High Experience on Sunday morning. Whoohoo!!!!!!! I love my job and so thankful I get to do this for a living. It can be tough at times but it is also very rewarding!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Huge Week!!!
A lot of changes are happening this week and all of them are so we can reach more students who are far from God in OKC. Our new youth room is finished and because of that here are a few transitions we are making that will allow us to be more effective:
1. This past Sunday we launched our first ever Jr. High Experience at 10:30 am in our new jr. high room. I was praying for 40-50 students and we had 62, thank you Jesus! The room was packed and I know this new experience is gonna allow us to reach many more Jr. High students. We will probably have to rock two experiences soon. This is exciting stuff.
2. Tomorrow night we launch our high school experience, previously we had high school and jr. high in the same experience on Wed night and our room was getting full but now we will be able to fill it with all high school students. I'm praying for a huge turn out and love the fact I get to preach to high school and jr. highers on their level. Again we are trying to reach every student in OKC that needs Jesus.
3. Tommorrow night we will also be launching our 68 teams which is our new jr. high small groups. With our new facility we are able to have two rooms, one for high school and one for jr. high. The 68 teams will feature fellowship, games and a discussion. This will be a great opportunity to disciple jr. high students. All of these transitions are very exciting and again they will allow us to reach many more students that are far from God.
4. Every Wednesday night our jr. high room will be changed into a game room. It features 12 game systems, a ping pong table, air hockey table, bistro tables and couches. This will be a huge tool to help us reach students and make a difference in OKC.
I love being a part of a church whose focus is those who are far from God, we are doing everything we can to reach one more student and some more pieces were put into place this week. This is a HUGE week for Epic and this is going to be a very exciting fall.
1. This past Sunday we launched our first ever Jr. High Experience at 10:30 am in our new jr. high room. I was praying for 40-50 students and we had 62, thank you Jesus! The room was packed and I know this new experience is gonna allow us to reach many more Jr. High students. We will probably have to rock two experiences soon. This is exciting stuff.
2. Tomorrow night we launch our high school experience, previously we had high school and jr. high in the same experience on Wed night and our room was getting full but now we will be able to fill it with all high school students. I'm praying for a huge turn out and love the fact I get to preach to high school and jr. highers on their level. Again we are trying to reach every student in OKC that needs Jesus.
3. Tommorrow night we will also be launching our 68 teams which is our new jr. high small groups. With our new facility we are able to have two rooms, one for high school and one for jr. high. The 68 teams will feature fellowship, games and a discussion. This will be a great opportunity to disciple jr. high students. All of these transitions are very exciting and again they will allow us to reach many more students that are far from God.
4. Every Wednesday night our jr. high room will be changed into a game room. It features 12 game systems, a ping pong table, air hockey table, bistro tables and couches. This will be a huge tool to help us reach students and make a difference in OKC.
I love being a part of a church whose focus is those who are far from God, we are doing everything we can to reach one more student and some more pieces were put into place this week. This is a HUGE week for Epic and this is going to be a very exciting fall.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
What's been going on?
Man I haven't blogged in a week so here is an update of all that has been going on and maybe a little insight to my lack of blogging:
1. Most of my time has been focused on starting a brand new Jr. High Ministry for People's Church. This includes a new experience on Sundays at 10:30 am in our new Jr. High Room that starts this Sunday, Aug. 16th and a new small groups ministry called 68 teams on Wednesday night that starts Aug. 19th. With these two new ministries I have been building leadership teams, a worship team and working out a lot of details. I'm super pumped for our new jr. high ministry.
2. Speaking of our new jr. high room I have been doing a lot of ordering, researching prices, hitting up craig's list and setting up new equipment. This has also kept me busy and is very exciting!!! Currently our new stage was built last Saturday by some great guys from People's Church, we have a ping pong table, air hockey table and today set up eight 37 inch flat screen tv's on stands and set up new game systems. Yeah! We are going all out for our students and to reach many more students! We are only about 70% finished setting up the room but it will be 100% done for our jr. high students this Sunday at 10:30 at People's Church.
3. I also had the priveledge of speaking at People's Church this past Sunday. I love preaching and am honored every time I get a chance to speak on Sunday's. I'm definitely more nervous but I do enjoy it. This last sermon I probably used one of the best illustrations I have ever used in a sermon. To sum it up we can't carry the cross if our arms (lives) are filled with other stuff. We must pick up the cross first (put Christ first) and then whatever else we can pick up, we pick up, but the cross always comes first. Check it out on www.peopleschurch.tv.
That's it for now, it's been busy but fun. I love what I do and wouldn't trade my job for the world. We are going to reach tons of students for Christ and this has been a very exciting season of ministry! The most exciting part is the best has yet to come!!!
1. Most of my time has been focused on starting a brand new Jr. High Ministry for People's Church. This includes a new experience on Sundays at 10:30 am in our new Jr. High Room that starts this Sunday, Aug. 16th and a new small groups ministry called 68 teams on Wednesday night that starts Aug. 19th. With these two new ministries I have been building leadership teams, a worship team and working out a lot of details. I'm super pumped for our new jr. high ministry.
2. Speaking of our new jr. high room I have been doing a lot of ordering, researching prices, hitting up craig's list and setting up new equipment. This has also kept me busy and is very exciting!!! Currently our new stage was built last Saturday by some great guys from People's Church, we have a ping pong table, air hockey table and today set up eight 37 inch flat screen tv's on stands and set up new game systems. Yeah! We are going all out for our students and to reach many more students! We are only about 70% finished setting up the room but it will be 100% done for our jr. high students this Sunday at 10:30 at People's Church.
3. I also had the priveledge of speaking at People's Church this past Sunday. I love preaching and am honored every time I get a chance to speak on Sunday's. I'm definitely more nervous but I do enjoy it. This last sermon I probably used one of the best illustrations I have ever used in a sermon. To sum it up we can't carry the cross if our arms (lives) are filled with other stuff. We must pick up the cross first (put Christ first) and then whatever else we can pick up, we pick up, but the cross always comes first. Check it out on www.peopleschurch.tv.
That's it for now, it's been busy but fun. I love what I do and wouldn't trade my job for the world. We are going to reach tons of students for Christ and this has been a very exciting season of ministry! The most exciting part is the best has yet to come!!!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Epic Summer Retreat
Last week was our Epic Summer Retreat and it was amazing. There were 3 things I really loved about the retreat:
1. The retreat was free. During these tough economic times I'm glad we were able to bless our church families. It also allowed us to have a lot of students participate. We had 122 students attend the retreat and Wednesday night we allowed regular Epic attendees to come and we had 171 students! We have some huge momentum right now and it's only gonna get better!
2. The retreat was at People's Church. Every night service was in our youth room which gave the 40-50% of students who don't attend Epic and great taste of what we do on Wednesday night. I expect to see most of them back this Wednesday! They also were exposed to 100% of People's Church. I have taken students to camps with multiple churches and some of the times kids will make new friends and hang with them the whole time and never build relationships with students from their church. At our retreat every student had community with our leaders, our students, our pastor and our church which gives us a much better chance to retain students after the retreat.
3. We had 3 different speakers. I'm a huge fan of this because of the diversity, variety and each night brings something new. Our speakers were Pastor Herbert, my friend Andy Estrella and myself. I think we all did a great job and the students responded to every message in the altars. It was amazing! The best part was whether it was the 1st night or the 3rd night every student responded to an altar time, God touched lives in a powerful way and the best is yet to come.
Tomorrow I will share some more about our summer retreat.
1. The retreat was free. During these tough economic times I'm glad we were able to bless our church families. It also allowed us to have a lot of students participate. We had 122 students attend the retreat and Wednesday night we allowed regular Epic attendees to come and we had 171 students! We have some huge momentum right now and it's only gonna get better!
2. The retreat was at People's Church. Every night service was in our youth room which gave the 40-50% of students who don't attend Epic and great taste of what we do on Wednesday night. I expect to see most of them back this Wednesday! They also were exposed to 100% of People's Church. I have taken students to camps with multiple churches and some of the times kids will make new friends and hang with them the whole time and never build relationships with students from their church. At our retreat every student had community with our leaders, our students, our pastor and our church which gives us a much better chance to retain students after the retreat.
3. We had 3 different speakers. I'm a huge fan of this because of the diversity, variety and each night brings something new. Our speakers were Pastor Herbert, my friend Andy Estrella and myself. I think we all did a great job and the students responded to every message in the altars. It was amazing! The best part was whether it was the 1st night or the 3rd night every student responded to an altar time, God touched lives in a powerful way and the best is yet to come.
Tomorrow I will share some more about our summer retreat.
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