Archives For prayer

Saddleback Church Needs Your Prayers

April 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

If you have not heard already, tragedy has hit my pastor and our church this last week. It really is awesome to see the love poured our to Rick and Kay Warren over the passing of their son last week. Rick sent this out to our whole church and I would love if you would join us in prayer for the Warren’s during this difficult time.

 

To my dear Saddleback Family,
 
Over the past 33 years we’ve been together through every kind of crisis. Kay and I’ve been privileged to hold your hands as you faced a crisis or loss, stand with you at gravesides, and prayed for you when ill. Today, we need your prayer for us.
 
No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now. Our youngest son, Matthew, age 27, and a lifelong member of Saddleback, died today.
 
You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man. He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He’d then make a beeline to that person to engage and encourage them.
 
 But only those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.
 
Kay and I often marveled at his courage to keep moving in spite of relentless pain. I’ll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said, “Dad, I know I’m going to heaven. Why can’t I just die and end this pain?” but he kept going for another decade.
 
Thank you for your love and prayers.  We love you back.

Pastor Rick

In Uncategorized , , , , ,
permalink

21 Day Prayer Challenge for Students

February 12, 2013 — 1 Comment

21DayPrayerChallenge_Title_web

I am really excited to share this with you today. Over the past few months I have been talking to my small group guys about prayer. What it seems is they WANT to pray more, but they don’t know what to pray for exactly. So it got me thinking, what if they had a prayer guide to help them direct their thoughts on certain prayers so they can become more focused and not have the random thoughts we all tend to get while trying to pray. So I came up with the “21 Day Prayer Chalenge” for students and its only $5 on Download Youth Ministry.

If you want to check out a version of what a day looks like, check it out HERE.

Below is the description and you can click HERE to go check it out:

“It’s been said that 21-days makes a habit. Most students say they want prayer to more of a habit in their lives. The only problem with that is they don’t know how to make that happen and what the in the world do you pray for 21 days straight? This booklet is 21 days of guided prayers for students in hopes that at the end of reading this, students would 1) have made prayer a significant part of their day 2) have an idea on how to direct their prayers on certain topics per day and 3) get to know God closer than they have ever before. Each day has a different topic to pray about, a 3-minute devotional, some Scripture to reflect on, and a guided prayer list to help them make prayer a real, authentic, directed, part of their everyday life.

The list of topics cover: your heart, faith, hope, love seeing God’s glory, obedience, trust, family and friends, sharing your faith, living sacrifice, change, over coming fear, compassion, empathy, worship, kindness, evangelism, surrender, serving, self-control, and the power of prayer.

As you can see, there is a ton of topics in which students can be praying in their lives, and having them take this 21-day challenge will help them make prayer a habit in their lives and help them know what to pray for and how to pray it.”

My hope is that students will be able to make prayer a daily and meaning part of their lives. If you get it, let me know what you think!

In God, high school ministry, Leadership, Prayer, student ministry, Uncategorized , ,
permalink

Overcoming Fear

January 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

erasing-fear

There are two types of fear. One is good and is encouraged and the other is a fear that is to be overcome. The first one is the fear of the Lord. This doesn’t mean to be afraid of God; rather it is being in awe of God realizing all of His power and glory. It is having respect for His wrath and anger. This type of fear is total acknowledgment of all that God is, which comes through knowing and studying Him and His attributes.

This is not the fear I want to talk about. The other type of fear is “the spirit of fear”.  This type of fear is mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, ““For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”. A spirit of fearfulness and timidity does not come from God.

I’m not going to lie. There are times when I’m afraid. I don’t care how old you are, when you are by yourself you hear weird noises at home and you freak out a little bit. There are things in our lives that scare us, whether it’s a conversation we have to have, something we need to overcome, or a sin we need to deal with and confess. The “spirit of fear” takes us over and it’s in this time we need to trust God completely. No one is perfect, and God knows this. I believe this is why He intentionally put verses about overcoming fear, encouraging verses, throughout the entire Bible. From Geneses to Revelation, God tell us to “fear not”.

God tells us not to be afraid of being too weak. God tells us not to be afraid of being alone. God tells us not to be afraid of not being heard by Him. God tells us not to be afraid of lacking physical necessities. We all do at times if we are honest about it. Trusting in God is refusal to give into fear. It is us turning to God in the darkest of times and trusting Him to make things right.

Once we have learned put our trust in God we will be able to overcome anything that stands in our way that we once were fearful of.

1 John 4:18- There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Isaiah 41:10- Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Psalm 56:11- In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

Psalm 5:11- But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.

Romans 8:31-32- What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Pray:

  • For God to give you a healthy fear of Him acknowledging all His power.
  • Because you acknowledge His power, that he will take away that “spirit of fear” inside you.
  • For what ever you are afraid of, to be given to God to place all your trust in Him.
  • Pray that God’s spirit come near you and over take any fear of what you need to do or what you are facing.
In Devotional, God, Prayer, Small Groups, Youth Ministry , , , , , ,
permalink

Helping Students Pray for Friends and Family

January 14, 2013 — 2 Comments

praying3_web

Below is a little project I’m working on. I’ll explain more in a few weeks but I thought I would share a little excerpt from it. This particular section is talking about how we can walk students through praying for their friends and family who do not know who God is. Hope it’s useful:

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to my friends and family, there are no other people on this planet that I would rather spend a majority of my time with. Now we all know no family or friend group is perfect, they all have their shortcomings and annoyances, but for the most part they are people you love and respect. Also if you are anything like me, you have friends and family that do not know how much God loves them and they do not know Jesus the way you do.

One of the greatest things you can do for your friends and family is pray for them. We have 4 ways in which we can pray for our family and friends:

  1. Pray for an opportunity to talk about Jesus (Colossians 4:3). Ask God to give you an opportunity to tell others about Christ and to invite them to your small group. God will take you seriously and answer your prayer!
  2. Pray for God to prepare hearts. Pastor Rick sometimes says, “Do you know how God softens hearts? He sends the rain!” Anytime you see someone going through a storm in life, you can know God is softening a heart.
  3. Pray for God to burden your heart. Ask God to make your heart tender toward a specific person or group of people.
  4. Pray that God’s Word will simply take off. Pray that the words of Jesus “will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response” (2 Thessalonians 3:1 MSG), just as they did among the early Christians.

It is important to know that God loves your family more than you do. He is a good God. It says like a basic thing but it really is profound. We need to remember to pray these things in faith. Faith energizes us; it allows us to be close to God continuously. We have to remember to be patient and allow God to work. Change could happen tomorrow, it could take twenty years. We need to allow God to work.

Take time, right now, to go over the 4 ways to pray for friends and family. Remember to pray with a humble and repentant heart. We first need to be right with God, because in my life, I saw people start to change when I changed myself first. Pray for your friends and family today that God would move in their lives.

*Some material from our Saddleback outreach materials.

In Devotional, God, Prayer, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry , , , ,
permalink

Can You Join Me In Prayer For…

September 3, 2012 — 2 Comments

This week is going to be a pretty exciting week. It’s going to epic for a couple of reasons. A couple of reasons in which I would love and appreciate some prayers.

1. This week is Saddleback HSM’s Fall Kick Off. This is our service going into the school year in which students are encouraged and invite their friends who normally do not come to church. This is a service where we go a little bigger than usual, but the message is full of hope. There are going to be hundreds of students who have not been been to our church before and prayer for them to know Jesus and keep coming back to see who He is.

2. This week is also the Ignite Conference. If you don’t know what that is, check it out HERE, but it is just a little something I got the privilege to be asked to be apart of. Basically, some pastor friends of mine put together these nights in which we invite all of the youth groups and young adult groups in the area in hopes to try and break down walls between ministries, trying to show our students that they are not the only group doing what they are doing. Trying to get all of them under one roof to worship together, get some great teaching and encouragement. This whole night is free, it’s fun, and powerful. We are working with as many pastors and worship leaders from different churches to put this night on. The Ignite team would love prayer for 1) for there to be a ridiculous amount of groups and people there and 2) pray for the hundreds and hundreds of people who have already told us they are coming. I won’t be able to be there because we have our Fall Kick Off at Saddleback, but the rest of the team will kill it that night.

 

If you can join me for the hundreds of people who will hear the Gospel for the first time and for both nights to go amazingly smooth, both Saddleback HSM and the Ignite teams would appreciate it so much. Thank you and love and pray for you all.

In creativity, Free Stuff, God, high school ministry, Ignite, Ministry Idea, service programing, worship, Youth Ministry , , , , ,
permalink

Forgiveness…Is More Than Saying Sorry

August 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

Forgiveness is not an easy thing at times. Forgiveness is not a lot of things, but there are 3 things that forgiveness is.

1.  Forgiveness is a choice. When has being mad every fixed anything?  When has getting even ever changed the situation?  When has getting even ever really made things even?

We can choose to hold a grudge or we can CHOSE to forgive. I like to think of it like this, for every time that someone has hurt us, we probably have hurt someone else at one time by things we either have said or things we have done. We are the same.  We have done the same things.  When does holding a grudge really change our views of someone, or their view of us?  When does holding onto hurt ever make us feel better. Gandhi’s said “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

2. Forgiveness is a command. Forgiveness would be simple if we only had to grant it to those who come asking for it in sorrow and repentance. The Bible tells us that we are to forgive, without condition, those who sin against us. Refusing to truly forgive a person demonstrates resentment, bitterness, and anger, none of which are the traits of a true Christian. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” In light of other Scriptures that speak of God’s forgiveness, Matthew 6:14-15 is best understood to be saying that people who refuse to forgive others have not truly experienced God’s forgiveness themselves.

 3. Given to us everyday. Whenever we disobey one of God’s commands, we sin against Him. Whenever we wrong another person, we not only sin against that person, but also against God. When we consider the extent to which God forgives all our transgressions, we realize that we do not have the right to withhold this grace from others. We have sinned against God infinitely more than any person can sin against us.

God promises that when we come to Him asking for forgiveness, He freely grants it.1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The forgiveness we extend should know no limits, in the same way that God’s forgiveness is limitless.

When you are forgiven by someone, don’t we feel so much better? That worry about what that person thinks of us? Wondering if we are ok with them and our relationship will be ok? Once we are forgiven by them, we then do everything in our power to make sure our relationship is restored and we try to rekindle it and strengthen it. Same thing from God. God has already forgiven us. Not only from our huge mistakes from also from our little ones. The everyday ones. We then too need to go on with our relationship with God in the same way. We are forgiven. We now need to be thankful and rekindle our relationship with him. That because we are forgiven every single day from every single sin, we need to realize that and strengthen that relationship with God. It doesn’t matter if we have done a huge boo boo, or just a million small little everyday ones, we HAVE to remember and allow that to shape our lives and actions as forgiven people.

*This is just a section from my workshop from our HSM Summer Camp that I got to teach at. I hope this helps!

In Devotional, God, Leadership, organization, student ministry, Youth Ministry , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Would You Recognize Jesus?

July 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

I just finished going through the Gospel of Mark. I have read it many times before but something struck me a little bit differently as I was reading the last few verses.

Jesus rose from the dead. He revealed Himself to two people, they didn’t say a word because they were scared to do so. Jesus then revealed Himself to two more. They did the same. They didn’t tell anyone because they were scared. Then Jesus came and revealed Himself to his disciples, and rebuked them for not believing the others that He was alive. I couldn’t imagine being rebuked the first time I saw Jesus from the dead.

It got me thinking. Is that how I am living? Jesus has clearly shown Himself to me in my life. Am I afraid to tell others? Am I like the disciples who were sitting in a room acting as if Jesus was not really alive and living? Because if they really knew, then they would not have been in hiding and wondering what to do next. Same with us, if we REALLY believed that He was alive and moving we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing and start telling others about this amazing God that loves us.

Read Mark 16:8-20

In Devotional, God, Leadership, personal growth, student ministry, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Service Programming: Creative/Brainstorm Meetings 201

June 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

Last week I posted on the first part of our creative process for Saddleback Church high school ministry. If you missed it, click HERE and you can check it out and catch up.

From our big brain storm meeting where everyone is involved, we have a smaller meeting the following week with Josh (high school pastor), Parker (creative master, video extraordinary), Travis (mind can think of anything funny/can literally build anything) and myself (the guy who tries to reign everyone in on one point). This meeting is to take all of the ideas from the big meeting and start the conversations of putting feet to some of the ideas that the students had and make them happen in the services. This is where we talk about what ideas go best in certain services, what sermon illustrations can actually happen, and what videos we think we can actually do make service just that much more fun.

How I process this meeting:

Dont be too specific – This meeting is not to hammer out exactly what we are doing for each service. The previous meeting was to get ALL ideas come to the board for the entire month of services. This meeting is to start to place some ideas (which not all ideas will be used) into the service we feel will best fit for the topic of teaching. This is just to get a basic over view, and a generic plan of action of who, what, and why we want this idea into the service. The specifics will be hashed out in one more meeting (which I will post next week).

Let it soak in – Coming from the previous big meeting, there are a ton of ideas that are being thrown left and right. It can be a lot to take in all at once. I know for me, I let all of the ideas come, and I just sit back and help navigate to make sure they don’t stop. I do better when I have all the ideas and I can look them over and have a few days to process them. then I can come up with a better way of implementing them into our services. That is why I dont like to have a meeting the next day. Give it a week.

Make it intimate - I don’t mean have a dimly lit room and candles everywhere. I mean this meeting needs to be intentionally smaller than the main idea one. I want just a few people, the people who will actually be making the ideas into reality for services. Instead of the bombarding of ideas, this is where you take the existing ideas and talk about what is actually possible. You need to be able to discuss and be able to banter back and forth. This is how amazing ideas come out of good ideas.

Allow discussion and disagreement – A lot of the time, we are left to thinking we are limited on what we can do because we have not tried something before. If one person feels strong for one idea, and I dont feel like I can pull it off, there is aback and forth and a push of encouragement to pull it off. We all push each other to do things we never have done before, or things that have never been done before ever. I’m excited as we keep on pushing each other for the fall. Big things coming out of Saddleback HSM.

Be strategic – At this point, we are a month out. During this meeting we talk about what ideas should go to what service and how we should do them. We know how much time we have and this is the meeting we talk about what it will take to get the idea done. We dont hash out the specifics, but just the general idea for what needs to happen and how much time this will take us. We need to be up on our game and know when to start moving.

Are you a slow processor? A fast processor? Is there anything you think I am missing? Would love to hear your input!

In creativity, Devotional, God, high school ministry, Leadership, personal growth, service programing, student ministry, sweet articles , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Leo and the Titanic Vs. Noah and the Ark

June 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

Noah built the ark because he was being obedient to God.

Man built the Titanic to show off.

Look what gave and sustained life and look what sank and took down others.

Pride comes before the fall. Something we all have heard. The Titanic was deemed the “unsinkable” ship, the most magnificant ships built at that time. It became famous not for sailing across the sea successfully but because it sank in the middle of the ocean. Man was trying to be bigger and better than ever before. Noah built the Ark because He was doing what God instructed him to do, even if it made no sense. Think about it, building an ark in the middle of the dessert in the dry season. Noah, because he was obedient to God gave life to the world while the Titanic who was all about the glory of man sank in the dead of night.

When we build ourselves up, when we let our pride set in and get the best of us, when we glorify ourselves and not God, we fall hard and take others down with us because we cannot build on ourselves. We are not stable. Just like the Titanic. When we build upon God, when we look to bring Him glory in our actions, we can change the world and give it new life just like Noah and the Ark.

Be the Ark not the Titanic.

In creativity, Devotional, God, high school ministry, Leadership, personal growth, student ministry, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Service Programing vs. Relationships: Can You Do Both? (Part 2)

May 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

Like I said in part 1, I am a pastor first. That is what I feel like I have been called to do. I love talking with people, about Jesus, and genuinely hanging out with students before and after service. One of my favorite times on the weekends is the 5-10 minutes before service starts as students are sitting down and just going around meeting and talking to people. I love it. Being a pastor, it would be obvious that I am relational.

I think this is the number one thing when it comes to student ministry. Being relational and being authentic in that relationship is the number one thing students’ want/need. If you do not have the relationship side down, there would be no kids to put on a service for.

Jesus led in a way that was relational lead ministry and we can take after Him in that. For people who are all about programming services and that is their main focus and we are supposed to model after Jesus in our leadership and we see Jesus being relational, how do we answer that? We simply cannot just ignore the fact that the entirety of Jesus’ time on this earth was for a relationship with all of us. Jesus just hung out with people, eating, drinking and talking. Much like so many of our students do after service. At least with us, In-N-Out and Chick-fil-a are flooded with students simply just sitting, eating, and hanging out. In Matthew 9:10 (ESV) Jesus is reclining at the table with people, it doesn’t say using Planning Center Online to sort out the next time he was preaching, but just reclining and hanging out.

We need to be able to do this as well. If Jesus took the time to just hang out with some intentional relational ministry, we for sure need too.

The service itself is important yes, but it means nothing if we don’t have relationships to go with it. “Real ministry” happens the 15 minutes before and after the service, and the service is just helping them sit and focus on the area you are speaking about so you can then do the “real ministry” (the prayer, the hanging out, the conversation about what stood out to them, etc.) afterwards.

For some students, they will bring their friends just because they know you are the person they need to talk to about something. The relationship got them there, kept them there, and got them to Jesus. For some students, this wont be enough, they are stand offish and they are only there because the service is exciting and is a cool place to be on a Saturday Night. This is fine too, because if the service is getting them coming, if we are doing our jobs right, that will ultimately turn into a relationship which will turn to trust and then will turn to prayer.

Without relationships, we are missing the purpose that Jesus came to earth for us…to have a relationship with us.

But what about the service? If we have a boring service, then they wont bring their friends? They will be bored to death and won’t come back! These are real questions that I have thought myself. I fall into this way of thinking, but it also is my job to run a successful service. This is something I want to unpack next post.

What do you do on the relational side? Where are some of the best places you hang out and have those “real talks”? 

In creativity, God, high school ministry, Leadership, Ministry Idea, personal growth, student ministry, Uncategorized, worship , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink