I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about our student ministry. God is good! It seems like we break an attendance record every week! When I first came to Union Grove, we had about 22 students in attendance. 22 falls within the normal attendance rates for youth of a church our size. I saw great potential in the group that we had. I set what I thought to be a giant goal........50 students on a Wednesday night. After a little work, we hit our goal. Awesome! Every good leaders knows that if you set a goal and reach it, you have to set a bigger goal. I thought it would be a challenge to hit 75. Last week week we had around 81 people in attendance. If you asked me how we made this happen, I couldn't give you an answer. If you asked me about our magic formula for getting teens to show up, I would have to disappoint you. We're not sure what we've done. Someone described it as a "God-Thing." I must say I agree. There is no other answer for this. If I could give tips for a service, I would say make them organized, have fun, put the right people in charge, have great volunteers, play outrageous games, be transparent, be honest, be bold, preach the word without fear. But none of these things translate into the kind of growth that we have seen in the past months. This really is a "God-Thing." Our group could drop back to 40 or even 22 kids overnight. That doesn't change anything. In the end, our student ministry is just a tool in the hand of God to reach a broken world. We're not the greatest student ministry on the market, we're not the next big thing. We're just a tool. We will continue to preach to gospel with passion. Our next immediate goal is 100 students. Can it happen? Maybe. I don't want to sell this thing short. I don't want to have small dreams. I'm tired of praying "safe" prayers. I want to see 150 students in the Student Worship Center on Wed. night. Many of you will say, "It's not about the numbers." What does that even mean? I want every student I can get to be in a local church service so they can hear the gospel. How can they believe unless they first hear? I've got a bigger prayer, I want to see every single student in our county involved in a local church, having their lives changed by the gospel. We won't rest until it happens. You may think that sounds crazy. You may think there is no way we can change the world. One man, the God-man, set out on a journey that would change everything. He left 12 nobodies to carry on his work, they changed the world. The same God sends you & I. Let's not pray small prayers. If we continue to carry on, laboring as if there were no tomorrow, we will reap a harvest. Do not grow weary of doing good! We have witnessed much fruit in our student group. We have witnessed a huge increase in attendance, but we have also witnessed many come to know Christ. Be encouraged to know that lives are being changed. God is good!
-Daniel
follow me on twitter @danielbeckworth
