About Me
- Joe Garrison
- Fishers, IN, United States
Director of Contemporary Worship and Assistant Director of Student Ministries at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapols, IN. Husband,Guitarist,and Drummer
Showing posts with label Youth Ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Youth Ministry. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Your Will Be Done...
A lot of us have been in a church worship service and recited the Lord's prayer in unison with the congregation. I grew up my entire life reciting this prayer in church, most of the time in a monotone, uninterested manner. I always made fun of it because we all sounded like a bunch of mindless zombies as we recited, "Our Father, who art in heaven...".
I taught on this prayer a few weeks ago at our high school Bible study. One section that has been particularly convicting for me, and I think (maybe hope) for the students, has been the "your will be done" line. Here is the entire prayer (ESV)...
As I was studying this prayer the line "your will be done" struck me particularly hard. As I thought about Jesus' example of prayer for my life I realized how often I bark orders at God and completely ignore His will.Our father, in heavenHallowed be your nameYour kingdom comeyour will be doneOn earth as it is in heavenGive us this day our daily breadand forgive us our debtsas we also have forgiven our debtorsAnd lead us not into temptationbut deliver us from evil.
As I prayed for things in my life whether for myself, or others I often told God what I wanted to happen and ignored his specific will for events and circumstances in my life and others.
One thought that particularly struck me was that God's will for my life, or yours, may not include us having a long life. Sometimes our death, or another's death, is God's will and is something he will use or the advancement of His kingdom.
Often when someone gets deathly sick we pray for a miracle or their healing (which in itself is completely appropriate, God works miracles!), what we don't pray is "God, please work a miracle and heal this person...but if Your will is their death for the benefit of Your kingdom...not my will but Your own."
Praying "Your will be done" can be terrifying at times. It takes all the control out of our hands (as if we had any in the first place).
How often do you pray "Your will be done"? What thoughts and fears keep you from praying that prayer?
Monday, December 20, 2010
Do "M" rated video games like Halo and Call of Duty have a place in a Youth Ministry?
Every Wednesday I have a group of students that come over to the church after school to hang out and play video games. Most of the time they play Madden 2010 or Halo.I am not your typical youth pastor. I almost never play video games. Seems that most youth ministries have a huge focus on video games; having multiple game consoles and TVs to play them on. I'm just not that interested.
Over the last four months or so I have been watching these students play Halo on Wednesday afternoons. At first it didn't bother me that much (I'm not sure it does even now), but as I watch them I wonder if M rated video games that rely heavily on violence as entertainment have a place in a youth ministry.
I can't really say I'm leaning one way or the other right now. It's just something that I have been thinking about and praying about lately as well as discussing with our other youth pastor. I'm sure I will get a few students pleading their case for why it is absolutely vital to our youth ministry to have these games once I post this...and who's to say they are wrong.
I have always been someone that holds the belief that we should use whatever we have to use to get people of all ages into the Church. Video games seem to be an easy way to get, specifically teen guys, into the Church.
What do you think? Should M rated video games like Halo and Black Ops have a place in a youth ministry? Why or why not? What positive and/or negative effects do you think they have on a youth ministry?
Friday, July 9, 2010
A New Beginning
Those of you that have been following my blog or Twitter posts know that I have long felt called to work at a church doing something in the areas of either Contemporary Worship or Youth Ministry. Both are areas of ministry I have had a passion for and been working toward since just after high school.I am happy to say that beginning on August 1, 2010 I will have a chance to do BOTH full time! Next month I begin working at Castleton United Methodist Church splitting my time between contemporary worship and youth ministry.
I will spend part of my time working with the worship teams and contemporary worship services, much like I have been for a while, just more of the same. I will spend the rest of my time working along side Castleton's new Director of Student Ministries.
While I'm not entirely sure what exactly my role will be within student ministries, I am excited to get started. The new Director of Student Min starts the same day I do and will likely decide what she wants my role to be.
While I have enjoyed my jobs for the most part the past couple of years working at The Elms Holiday Inn and Garrison Law Firm , neither were what I wanted to do or felt called to do. It will be a great change of pace to do something that I have worked hard to get and actually went to school for.
I'm sure there will be many posts to come covering my adventures in music and ministry.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Laying a Foundation
As I pray over the opportunity to go into youth ministry this verse comes to mind as what it means to be a youth pastor.
In this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is calling out the Corinthians for being prideful about who they are following, who they are a disciples of. Paul condemns this thought noting that no one, not himself nor Apollo are anything apart from Christ. They each have different jobs to do in building the kingdom and ministering to God's people. One may lay the foundation, but the other will build on it.
Paul makes it a point to say that there is no foundation other than Christ. He can only lay the foundation that Christ already laid in Himself. It is by God's grace that He allows Paul to lay the foundation of Christ in the lives of the people he encounters in his ministry.
This is what I see myself doing in ministry, especially in regard to youth ministry. Many of these kids will not have a solid foundational faith built when they enter into a youth group setting. It is my job and privilege, by the grace of God, to lay the foundation of Christ in their lives. They will only be with me for a short period of time. Once they leave the youth program and head to college they will have to rely on someone else to build on their foundation. By Christ working in me, and through me, I can have the chance to lay that solid foundation in them that they will always have the rest of their lives. I can help them come to Christ and show them what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of their lives. Only through Christ can I be used as an "expert builder." Apart from Him I have no expertise.
I pray that I always acknowledge that it is Christ building the foundation, and Christ that is the foundation. It is nothing that I can do apart from Christ. I pray that I am always able to be an example of what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of life.
By the GRACE God has given me, I laid the foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it. 1 Corinthians 3:10
In this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is calling out the Corinthians for being prideful about who they are following, who they are a disciples of. Paul condemns this thought noting that no one, not himself nor Apollo are anything apart from Christ. They each have different jobs to do in building the kingdom and ministering to God's people. One may lay the foundation, but the other will build on it.
Paul makes it a point to say that there is no foundation other than Christ. He can only lay the foundation that Christ already laid in Himself. It is by God's grace that He allows Paul to lay the foundation of Christ in the lives of the people he encounters in his ministry.
This is what I see myself doing in ministry, especially in regard to youth ministry. Many of these kids will not have a solid foundational faith built when they enter into a youth group setting. It is my job and privilege, by the grace of God, to lay the foundation of Christ in their lives. They will only be with me for a short period of time. Once they leave the youth program and head to college they will have to rely on someone else to build on their foundation. By Christ working in me, and through me, I can have the chance to lay that solid foundation in them that they will always have the rest of their lives. I can help them come to Christ and show them what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of their lives. Only through Christ can I be used as an "expert builder." Apart from Him I have no expertise.
I pray that I always acknowledge that it is Christ building the foundation, and Christ that is the foundation. It is nothing that I can do apart from Christ. I pray that I am always able to be an example of what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
