by ChaseSnyder | Feb 28, 2017 | Discipleship, Ministry
It doesn’t matter if you are a 7-year-old heading to your first summer camp or a senior adult – camps, retreats, conferences, and events can leave a lasting spiritual impact in your life.
Retreats come in all shapes and sizes. There are week-long camps, weekend retreats, one-day events, and conferences. While they vary in nature they all have one thing in common – they allow the attendees to step away from their normal day-to-day routines and focus on Jesus.
God has used my time at camps to wake me up spiritually and provided a place to grow spiritually. I became a Christian, committed my life to ministry, and even met my wife while I was at various retreats.
While you may not meet your future wife at a retreat, here are some other reasons that you should consider joining the next retreat that your church offers (or sending your student).
5 Ways Retreats Can Draw You Closer To Jesus
Retreats remove you from your day-to-day habits.
Have you been in a rut? We all get to points where we need a break from the demands of life. High school relationships may have you stressed to the max. Your kids schedules can wear on your stamina. Retreats, camps, conferences, and events are just that – a retreat! Taking a retreat will allow you to catch your breath, both physically and spiritually.
Retreats allow you to refocus on Jesus.
Our minds can be cluttered with deadlines, activities, relationships, and commitments. Retreats are the perfect place to give your brain a chance to reset and refocus on Jesus. The priorities of your day can interfere with your worship of Jesus. Retreats are designed to remove the distractions and sins that bog you down so that you can worship Jesus.
[Tweet “Retreats are the perfect place to give your brain a chance to reset and refocus on Jesus.”]
Retreats remove you from negative influences.
Most of the people who surround you in school or at work are negative influences. A spiritual retreat gives you an avenue to remove yourself, even for a weekend, from the negative relationships, horrible advice, and complainers that push your spirit down.
Retreats cause us to anticipate the power of God.
Going on a retreat with your church means that you have cleared your calendars, turned in your forms, paid the registration fees, and packed up your bags for the event. A retreat allows your mind to anticipate a move of God in your own life. It is something that you can look forward to with a longing to meet with Jesus.
Retreats lead you to a fresh movement of God’s Spirit.
A retreat will not only remove you from negative influences — it will draw you into God’s Word. Whether it is the guest speaker, worship set, or small group time, you will start to experience God like never before. His Spirit moves in incredible ways when we humble ourselves and turn our gaze onto Him.
by ChaseSnyder | Feb 1, 2017 | Discipleship, Leadership, Ministry
How was your energy level after serving at church on Sunday?
Every volunteer, staff member, and pastor walks through passionless seasons of ministry. We feel frustrated, burned out, under-appreciated, and we spiritually disengage months (maybe years) before we actually transition out of our role.
[bctt tweet=”Every volunteer, staff member, and pastor walks through passionless seasons of ministry.” username=”chasesnyder12″]
If you are experiencing a passionless season of ministry the cause may reside with you more than your organization or leadership. Granted, I do not know your situation. I have served in incredible organizations and some that had extreme cultural issues. But I know that our initial reaction is to blame everyone else when we are dissatisfied.
Yes, there may be sizable changes that your organization may need to make, but if you are leading from a place of spiritual passion (the zeal mentioned in Romans 12:11) you can be a spark God uses to usher in a new wave of ministry within your church.
3 Signs You Are Losing Your Passion For Serving Your Church
You Are Avoiding Relationships
Are you late showing up to serve? Are you looking to travel the quickest route to and from your car to avoid extra conversations? Without relationships, ministry fails. Avoiding others is one of the first signs that you are losing your passion for serving others.
[bctt tweet=”Without relationships, ministry fails.” username=”chasesnyder12″]
You Are Avoiding Spiritual Disciplines
How are your spiritual disciplines going? Personal study, worship, prayer, confession, and solitude are key pillars of your spiritual life. These disciplines align our heart and mind to do passionate ministry in the first place.
You Are Cynical of The Leadership
Do you find yourself questioning every decision the leadership team makes for your specific area of service? It is one thing to ask questions, seek clarity, and present potential pitfalls, but it is another to reject their leadership or, even worse, undermine their authority. Having a cynical view of the leadership is a sign that your service is more obligatory instead of an overflow of your passion.
Now What?
Questions to wrestle with and pray through:
Is there a broken family, work, or church relationship that you need to mend? Humans are relational people. Ministry is based on our relationship with Jesus and others. Unvoiced frustrations, emotional pains, and rejection will cause us to withdraw from the people we are called to serve.
How is your personal, family, and corporate worship? Are you walking with Jesus each day? Do the truths that you teach on Sunday transform your Monday? If you fail to be invested in God’s Word, prayer, and in a small group of others your energy, passion, knowledge, and creativity will run dry. It is impossible to point others to Jesus if you are not orienting your life toward Him.
Has your passion for the specific areas you are serving in shifted toward another group, phase, or area? Seasons of life often shift our desires to serve. It’s easy to confuse frustration with our current role and frustration with the organization as a whole. Perhaps you need to meet with your church’s leadership and discuss how you are gifted and see what other areas you can get involved in.
by ChaseSnyder | Sep 14, 2016 | Discipleship, Ministry
What would your answer be if I asked you what the win is for small groups? What are the essentials that must happen each week to ensure that people are growing closer to Jesus?
With my vantage point as a pastor I continually hear about what we “need” to do for kids and families.
One of the best ones in recent conversation was when I was told that I need to teach teenagers how to drive in the parking lots using the golf carts!
It is easy for us to lose focus on the main essentials in ministry, especially when we have been leading groups for a few years.
At the end of the day here are the three essentials for the small groups.
3 Small Group Essentials
1. Introduce them to Jesus.
Every disciple has a responsibility to share the gospel of Jesus with everyone they come in contact with. How often are we presenting the gospel in our Sunday school classes, small groups, and weekly worship services? This must be a foundational aspect of our weekly preparation and prayer.
2. Teach them how to use the Bible.
Notice I didn’t say “Teach them the Bible.” Teaching the Bible is a foundational part of a church’s makeup, but teaching people how to use the Bible on their own is of utmost importance. Every Christian needs to know how the Bible applies to their life, how to open the book, memorize Scriptures, and know the God who is moving in the biblical stories. If we fail at this, high schoolers and college students will walk away from the church.
3. Teach them how to pray.
Hebrews teaches us the “Priesthood of all Believers” which means that ALL Christians have the same access to God, through Jesus, as the rest of us do. Pastors are not priest. Our small groups must focus on teaching prayer. When life happens our small group leaders are not sitting in our living rooms 24/7 to comfort us, but Jesus is. It is our responsibility to encourage students and families to develop a personal practice of prayer.
Now What?
As you prepare for your lesson how can you make sure that you are connecting kids to Jesus, teaching them how to use the Bible and teaching them how to pray?
When every teacher and leader in our churches focus on these three areas our kids, students and families will grow deeper in Jesus!
by ChaseSnyder | Sep 6, 2016 | Discipleship, Ministry
Your lesson is prepared. The environment is inviting. Food has been set out.
Now, it’s time to get your students to talk during small group…
Building a culture of dialogue during small groups can be one of the most frustrating parts of leading a small group of teenagers.
It seems that the students you want to talk aren’t talking and the ones that need to stop talking continue to talk!
Every week, you must be intentional about asking quality questions that will engage YOUR students. Remember, Bible study curriculum has been written to engage teenagers in general — not your group specifically.
[[bctt tweet=”Every week you must be intentional about asking quality questions that will engage YOUR students.” username=”chasesnyder12″]
The most well-written Bible study can still feel stilted, impersonal, and distant if a small group leader doesn’t prepare for his or her specific group.
Here are a few questions that are specific enough to drive home a point but open enough to spark conversations.
4 Engaging Questions Small Group Leaders Must Ask Each Week
“What Is Happening In YOUR Life This Week?”
In my opinion, this is a better question than asking for prayer requests. When you ask for prayer requests, people give impersonal responses about everyone else’s problems. Students need a space to talk about the highs and lows of their week. If you ask students what is happening in their lives this week you will know how you can pray for and encourage your students … without the requests to pray for their granny’s pet cat. After they talk about what is happening, offer to pray for that situation, event, or opportunity.
[bctt tweet=”Students need a space to talk about the highs and lows of their week. ” username=”chasesnyder12″]
“What Questions Came Up As You Read The Bible Last Week?”
People struggle with spending time reading their Bibles, and asking about their devotional lives can come off as condescending. To most people, there is an extremely fine line between being concerned and condescending. Remember to be encouraging and full of grace as you disciple your students. Trust me, students feel like failures when they don’t read their Bibles. Encourage them to share what questions and frustrations they have as they approach God’s Word.
[bctt tweet=”Remember to be encouraging and full of grace as you disciple your students.” username=”chasesnyder12″]
“How Can We Help You Live Out The Truth Of This Passage This Week?”
Sunday Bible study should transform Monday morning conversations. As a small group leader, you must help students bridge the gap between merely listening to lessons on Sunday morning and doing what has been taught. (For more about creating a student ministry of doers, head here: Create A Student Ministry Of Doers.) Use the last few minutes of your time tossing around ideas to get students engaged in God’s mission. Some of the ideas presented will be ones you can help your students plan and organize, while other ideas will only need your affirmation that the students are gifted enough to accomplish them.
“Are You Ready To Start Following Jesus?”
Small groups and Sunday School both started because of an emphasis to share the Gospel of Jesus to those outside the church. You don’t have to be pushy in your invitation, but the question needs to be asked each week. All Scripture (and most curriculums) point to Jesus. Make sure that you are connecting students to Him. Don’t rely only on midweek worship services to extend an invitation to follow Jesus. Many students who attend small groups are unable to attend midweek services.
What Questions Do You Ask?
Some of you seasoned youth veterans have incredible questions you ask on a weekly basis. I would love to hear some of them!
What questions do you ask during Bible study groups?
by ChaseSnyder | Jul 26, 2016 | Discipleship, Top Posts
Do you ever feel like you are failing as a parent?
Maybe if I had asked, “Have you breathed in air today?” you would have had the same answer as above!
As parents, we all feel ill equipped, under-encouraged, and dog-tired most of the time! There is nothing harder and nothing more rewarding than raising kids.
Raising kids is hard, but raising them to follow Jesus is harder.
[bctt tweet=”Raising kids is hard, but raising them to follow Jesus is harder.” username=”chasesnyder12″]
That is one of the reasons why I wrote the book, Doer.
James reminds the early Christians in James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (ESV)
Parents must ensure that their kids are engaging God’s Word and doing what it says. You know that this isn’t an easy task. It takes years of prayer, intentionality, and opportunities for kids to figure out how God has wired them to engage culture and their communities.
Here are 5 simple steps you can take to start becoming a family that is a does what God’s Word says.
Becoming A Family That Acts In A Passive Culture
- Embrace Your Role As A Spiritual Leader
It is your God-given responsibility to lead your family. No one else can raise your children for you. The church can assist you and encourage you to spiritually lead your kids, but it cannot be the sole provider of spiritual teaching. This is why biblical community is so valuable. When you are losing hope or feel stuck, other Jesus followers can speak into your life to encourage you as your raise your kids.
- Live As A Positive Example As A Jesus Follower
As parents, we should prayerfully raise our children in such a way that they love Jesus. If parents coast through their own personal relationship with Jesus, the kids are the first to notice and the ones most affected. This is why many students leave the church once they get into college – they have never seen how following Jesus affects their day-to-day lives because it wasn’t modeled in their homes.
- Study God’s Word Together
You must make time to study the Bible together with your family. You don’t have to walk through a commentary to discuss deep theological truths. You need to come up with simple ways to help your kids read Scripture, pray, and apply their faith in a day-to-day context.
- Serve Together
One of the best ways to solidify lessons is to let your children live them out! Some of the biggest blessings you can experience happen when your kids serve others with you. Don’t think about this in terms of large service projects – the simpler the service opportunity the better. Allow your son to help you bake a dish for a friend who is about to have a baby. Encourage your kids to write thank you cards to their teachers. Try to serve in smaller ways more frequently so your kids understand how to serve God in their day-to-day activities instead of through once-a-year events.
[bctt tweet=”One of the best ways to solidify lessons is to let your children live them out!” username=”chasesnyder12″]
- Allow Your Kids To Fail
Do you remember teaching your kids how to eat with a spoon? For months you had to clean up small messes after each meal because your child was still shaky with the new utensil. It would be absurd to pull the spoon away from them and decide that you would spoon-feed them for the rest of their lives! The same is true with developing character, confidence, and faith. You cannot live their lives for them. You must allow your kids to take risks, seize opportunities, and walk by faith. It is the only way you will raise doers.
Becoming a doer of God’s Word is no easy task.
In no way do I pretend that I have perfected the art of obedience to God – I just realize the importance of us starting the conversation, living life on mission, and extending the grace of Jesus to our communities and culture.
by ChaseSnyder | Apr 25, 2016 | Discipleship
One of the most dangerous traps a church can fall into is a state of apathy. How does a body of believers who gather each week to celebrate the risen Savior get sucked into a state of apathy? Maybe it is because of stress. Perhaps it stems from years of pain that has happened within the organization. Or it might emanate from the congregation’s comfort.
Regardless of the source, apathy causes churches and individuals to lose interest, concern, emotion, passion, and excitement for obeying God. Apathy removes our urgency for the Gospel and replaces it with indifference.
[bctt tweet=”Apathy removes our urgency for the Gospel and replaces it with indifference” username=”chasesnyder12″]
It keeps us content with that we are doing, when we do it, and how we have always done it. Many see the opportunity for growth, depth, and new disciplines but that realization doesn’t translate into motivation.
Apathy is often the root of our lack of service.
But the truth is that we are plenty busy. Our calendars are jammed with appointments, ball games, deadlines, and meetings. Apathy, as it relates to serving, if often a reflection of misaligned priorities. Gandhi said, “Action expresses priorities.” He is right. You can say serving God is important to you, but your actions will prove if it really is a priority.
How do we make the things of God important to us?
Apathy is a spiritual problem that needs to be addressed by prayer. Praying for God to remove our apathy and give us the faith to take steps of obedience brings us out of the passionless existence.
[bctt tweet=”Apathy is a spiritual problem that needs to be addressed by prayer.” username=”chasesnyder12″]
Here are 5 Ways Prayer Removes Apathy
Prayer Gives Us Hope
We need to rest in God’s provision. This isn’t merely financial provisions, but His promises to love, correct, empower, and equip us.
Prayer Mends Your Brokenness
The Holy Spirit helps us communicate our needs with God. God is not absent from our lives.
Prayer Creates Excitement when God Answers Prayer
When God moves in and around our lives it causes us to celebrate Him!
Prayer Shifts Our Priorities
As we commit ourselves to prayer we often see that our priorities are not the priorities God would have for our day.
Prayer Emboldens Us To Move
Seeing God’s faithfulness builds our own faith in Him. When we commit ourselves to journey with Jesus, the Holy Spirit will embolden us for what lies ahead.
You must be logged in to post a comment.