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    Monday, November 24, 2008

    Ministering with Your MIND

    The Great Get-Away Pt. 3:
    *These next posts are simply interacting with Youth Ministry concepts given by Jason Ostrander*

    Last "Great Get-Away" post, we talked about ministering to students with your heart, today is about your mind. Again, this weekend was transformational in how I approach ministry. Jason when he got to this segment really hammered us.
    The main thing I got out of this session was how much am I personally in the Word of God? Jason challenged us with this question. If the Word of God is not prevalent in our ministries, what is?
    We can put together some amazing games, sweet curriculum or even use some good material...but is it surrounded, bathed and soaked in the Word of God? Is our talk time 5 minutes of the Word and 35 minutes of video clips? Is our study quick glances in the Word to fit our "monthly topic" or is our study time soaked in the Word of God and the talk that comes forth from dripping with the dew of the Lord?
    I had to honestly answer these questions and realized I've fallen way short of the mark. This wasn't a time to shame us into "reading our Bibles more" but a time to authentically look at how we've been doing ministry. What has our "mind" been focusing on? When we sit at our desks as Youth Pastors, or have lunch with a teen is our counsel/study/lesson that comes from our mind soaked in the Word of God? If not...why not?
    I was SUPER convicted. I knew I slapped "monthly topics" together (sometimes the day of) simply placing funny stories (or not so funny stories) into my lesson with a peppering of the Word of God. I wasn't dripping with the scent of God...in fact if you smelled closely you would only smell a faint hint of Him. However, we should have our minds so IMMERSED in the Word that we have the fragrance of God just coming forth ahead of us...that way too everyone knows its not us, but God.
    Am I now amazingly perfect with this, now that I had a "weekend high" on Jesus? NO. However, now that I see what I've been doing I want to re-direct myself. I want to be dedicated to taking a shower in God's Word...

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