What a difference God has made in only one year!

Just over a year ago I started a consulting contract at Westside Kings Church in Calgary. I was tasked with building a healthy, well balanced and sustainable youth ministry and building a team to make that happen. At that time I could identify about 30 - 35 students and 3.5 volunteers.

This past weekend I spoke at a retreat with the students from Westside Kings Church. We had an awesome weekend. This past weekend we had 64 students and 12 leaders at the retreat. God did some great stuff in students hearts and some broken relationships were mended. A number of students who have been on the edge of the group were sucked right into the middle and the sense of community and unity grew by leaps and bounds. The cabin discussion times were great and God challenged some students to go beyond just being Sunday Christians and instead become sold out Jesus followers. Some students are beginning to face some areas of deep brokenness and addictions in their lives. The volunteers are absolutely fantastic. They were fully engaged with the students and are carrying on building relationships with the students that have the potential to be life changing for both the leader and the students. It was a fantastic, beyond all we could ask or think weekend.

Here is part of an email one parent wrote after the retreat...
We just want to send a big thank you to you and the leaders who made the road trip something that our daughter and son looked forward to as well as came back from changed. You are challenging them to be more as followers of Jesus Christ and I think they see their world differently for this reason. This community is important to them and I think they feel a connection to be a part of it more than any other.

The work at Westside Kings is not complete by a long shot but God has allowed us to see amazing growth in both numbers and in spiritual depth in the students. They are building a great foundation to a healthy, well balanced and sustainable youth ministry planted in that church.

Live Out Loud

Camp Qwanoes had 404 Jr. High campers at the week I spoke this summer. They always have a large variety of students at their camp and there are always kids who desperately need the hope and healing Jesus offers. As the week went on I could see God softening student’s hearts. About mid-week I gave an opportunity for students to surrender their lives to Jesus. At the end of my talk I invited students to pray a prayer a line at a time after me. I started “Dear God”. When I paused, a slightly hesitant chorus of Jr. High students repeated out loud “Dear God”. I have never had a group of students spontaneously pray to accept Jesus’ forgiveness out loud. I was a little taken aback and even said “you don’t need to pray out loud, but if you want to, that’s cool.” I continued “I know I have done things that are wrong, and that makes me a sinner”. The chorus grew a little bolder and louder!

It continued growing with each phrase! By the time I said “amen” tears were sneaking down my cheeks and the place broke into applause and hoots for those who had just publically become Jesus’ kids. In all, that week 48 students prayed to accept Jesus and are finding hope and healing!

In Mark 4 Jesus told a parable that indicated that not all who make the commitment to walk with Jesus will follow through with that commitment. BUT a number of them will, and their lives have been changed forever. I know many people who met Jesus at a summer camp and are still following Him today. Some of those people are Pastors, having a significant influence on others.

It is possible that God has planted the seeds of a spiritual revolution in the hearts of a bunch of Jr. High students whose hearts He got ahold of at summer camp this year!

The really cool thing to me is we got to play a part in what God is doing in those students’ hearts!

Extreme Make-Over—Camp Edition

Summer camps are unique places where God does amazing work in students’ lives. It is always interesting to watch how the week unfolds and how God works in students’ hearts.

Most urban Canadian students tend to be pressurized and distracted. They are pressurized by school, sports, part-time jobs, and parental demands. (Can you imagine? Some parents expect their kids to clean their rooms, do their homework, and even sit down with the family for meals!) They live with lots of distractions, many of them electronic: iPods, TV, Facebook, video games, and cell phones. Just yesterday I was speaking with a dad who told me that his daughter is sending 9000 text messages a month! Do the math. That is 300 texts a day. If she sleeps 8 hours a night that is 18.75 texts an hour or one every 3.2 minutes. Talk about distracted!

Weekend retreats can accomplish so much in a student’s life because they take breaks from those pressures and distractions for a couple of days. Students are given space to decompress, have fun, and think about important matters of their souls. The awesome thing about summer camp is students experience that release for a whole week and as the week goes by you can almost see God at work.

This summer was no exception! The first week of the summer I spoke at Camp Qwanoes on Vancouver Island. It is one of the premier camps in Canada and I have had the privilege of speaking at that camp for the past ten summers. Every year that I go back I run into students who were present one of the previous years. Some take the time to let me know what God did in their lives the last week we were together. This year it was Sarah*. I remembered her as a deeply depressed young lady. She’d worn a long sleeve hoodie which she kept pulled over her jet black hair, hiding her face. She walked with her head down and if she spoke with you she rarely would look up to make eye contact. Half-way through the week I made a point of connecting with her. As we talked I asked some gentle, but difficult-to-evade questions. She admitted that she wore the hoodie to cover up the scars and wounds she had up and down her arms from cutting, so people would leave her alone. She was like an abused puppy, and it made me weep for her. But Sarah* accepted Jesus the last day of camp!

I was stunned when I saw Sarah this year. She looked radically different. The hoodie was gone. She was wearing a short sleeve shirt. Her hair was no longer dyed jet black. She walked with her head held high and she was looking people in the eye when they spoke to her! It was an amazing transformation from the inside out! She was back at camp in the leader training program! Her year had not been perfect but Jesus had been healing her heart.

Sarah is a great example of what we are about at Straight Talk. We believe when a person’s heart is changed by encountering the living Jesus, their whole life is changed too. Thank you for giving so that we can continue to be a part of God changing hearts and lives!

*Name has been changed

What a great Sunday!

This past Sunday I was asked to speak to the Jr. & Sr. Highs at Westside Kings Church. They have been doing a series on the life of Jesus with their students. They wanted me to talk about Jesus death. Thanksgiving is a perfect weekend to talk about Jesus sacrifice for us. As we planned how the morning would take place we decided we would finish with a video that would beautifully transition from the talk to a communion time. There was an amazing sense of awe and God's presence. The best part is just before communion the students were given a chance to invite Jesus to be the forgiver and leader of their lives, one student responded and gave his life to Jesus!

I love that I get to do what I get to do!

This could change everything!

This past weekend I was speaking to a group of students from Bethany Chapel. It was a fantastic weekend. The plan was to camp out in tents. (Thank you God for a very comfortable trailer!) There were 45 Jr. High and Sr. High students attendance.

I met with their youth pastor a week before the event to talk about where his students were spiritually and what kinds of things he was thinking he would like to see addressed. Most of his students are believers and one of the things he was hoping they would gain from of the weekend was a desire to see their friends become Jesus followers too.

On Saturday night I spoke about the need to talk to our friends about our faith and give them opportunities to discover the grace of Jesus for themselves.

Before the weekend was over two students spoke with me independently about their desire to share their relationship with Jesus with their friends.

Some might think "Big deal!" But I say “That is a huge deal, in fact this could change everything.” Statistics indicate that more than 80% of people come to faith in Jesus before their 18th birthday! Students are living in one of the most spiritually fertile parts of our culture.

I know of a fantastic pastor who, if it were not for two friends who worked with him in Canadian Tire back when he was in High School, would never have come to faith. He grew up in a family that had no faith at all. He had been watching their lives for some time and was just wishing they would invite him to one of the youth events at their church. Because they took a risk and invited him, he is a believer and is influencing many others to follow Jesus.

God spoke to a number of students about a bunch of things but for me the most exciting is reaching out to our friends with their faith. With their new-found desire to see their friends come to know Jesus, only God knows whose lives will be changed for eternity and how far the ripple of their little act of obedience will go!

Does size matter?

This past weekend I was with a group of Jr. High students from Evangelical Missionary Churches from Alberta. This is the first time they have done this event they call JR Pitch in Alberta. They do a similar event in Ontario and get close to 1200 students to attend. They were hoping they would get between 150 and 200 students. When I arrived Friday night they only had about 50 students in attendance all from small rural churches. This was a bit discouraging for the organizers but they were committed to carrying on with what they had planned. The great thing was that the students did seem to care there were only 50 of them there they entered into what was planned with good enthusiasm! When it came time for sessions they were all ears.

A couple of leaders told me that my talks generated some awesome discussions in the small group times that were scheduled for after each session. Some students made a point of letting me know that they had sensed God speaking to them about various issues. Apparently size does not matter!

What would happen if...?

I was once told that the biggest barrier to students following God's call on their lives to be a missionary is parental disapproval. I remember thinking "There is no way, not in the kinds of churches I am a part of." Then I began to see it for myself. Parents, good church people, getting in the way of their students believe God is calling them to do and be in this world.

What would happen if a large group of parents publicly released their kids to follow God's call. And what if those parents made a commitment to help them pursue that call no mater what it is or where it would lead them? I don't know for sure but I suspect God would have an open door to move people to make a significant impact in his world.

This past weekend I was speaking at Sunwest Church about following God's call on your life. At the end of all three services parents were invited to publicly release their students to follow God's call on their lives and commit to do everything they can to support their children as they follow God's call. Students were also invited to publicly declare their desire to follow God's call on their lives. I don't know exactly how many people responded but many people came forward to publicly make their declaration.

About 2000 years ago there was a relatively small group of people who were willing to radically follow Jesus' invitation to "follow me". Look what God has done with that small band of fully devoted Jesus followers! Can you imagine what God might do with a significant group of students who have their church and family behind them as they radically follow God? Only time will tell but I suspect now God has that opening to move people to make a significant impact in His world!