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We Need Adults

Greg Stier is evangelist, author, speaker, and founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries.  Greg wrote a blog post in 2018 titled, 5 Reasons you Should Keep your Teens Involved in Youth Group. The number one reason listed by Greg was, teenagers need models and mentors. Carey Nieuwhof is another bestselling leadership author, speaker, and podcaster.  Carey wrote an article for Parent Cue that was titled Why Your Kids Need Five Other Adults in Their Lives. In this article, he made the case for teenagers having five other adults they can confide in, seek out for advice, and trust.  

I have been in student ministry in some capacity for almost 20 years and in my experience, I can confirm the truths that both Carey Nieuwhof and Greg Stier write about. I want to be clear that I absolutely believe that parents are the primary disciple maker in the life of their children. I also wholeheartedly believe that parents have the greatest impact and influence on the way kids see and view religion and faith. The point of this article is not to diminish the role parents play but to make a case for teenagers needing other voices in their life outside of parents. Voices of trusted, Godly adults who care about the eternity of teenagers.  

I hope by now as you read this you know that this Sunday at Eastern Hills, we will have our first ever SERVEXPO. In order to be the church, we need you!! Many areas need help to operate so we can be the church to our community and our city. I want to take what little space I have left in this article to make the case for why we need you in the student ministry at Eastern Hills.

The idea that teenagers need models and mentors and other Godly adults speaking into their lives is an idea that I absolutely agree with. What better place to get that than in the church? Our student ministry provides an opportunity to have a mentor/role model relationship with a teenager. One of the biggest selling points I have tried to make for serving with student ministry is that this ministry can thrive by you simply just being present. That’s it!! Can you be present? Can you care for students? Then you can serve in student ministry.  Now, if you have gifts and abilities that you want to use to do more than just show up, I would love for you to use those gifts!!  

If you can drive a bus, cook a meal, teach a small group, or encourage a teenager — then there is a place for you to serve!! I look forward to seeing you and talking with you this Sunday at the SERVEXPO! Stop by the student ministry table and let’s talk!!        

Pastor Jeff  

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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