Our Blog

March 2017 Student Ministry

Dear Church Family,

         I want to share with you a little of my heart and philosophy for student ministry. It is quite similar to how I view adult ministry or ministry of any kind really. What I want to share with you has to do with how to reach the lost. Much of student ministry has to do with how to reach out to lost students who don’t know Jesus. This is what drives much of what many student ministries do. This is obviously a very correct motive that drives youth ministers. I have that same drive. The Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) is one of the most important motivating factors for how and why I do ministry. No one would disagree with the fact that we must be reaching out to the lost students in our community. The question is: how do we go about doing that?

Many student ministry philosophies take the approach that the best way to reach students is to get them into our building and around Christians so we can share the gospel with them. We must figure out ways to attract students to us so that we can give them what they need. This is not an altogether ineffective method of ministry. There are very many churches who attract hundreds of students to their facilities and then share the gospel with them. There has been fruit from these ministries, as to be expected any time we share the gospel. We have, and will continue to have, events that bring students into our sphere of influence! But I wonder if the Bible leads us to make that our entire focus for ministry? My argument is simply that you never see Jesus and His disciples attracting people to them with anything other than Jesus Himself. I think that we tend to forget that Jesus is attractive to a world that is lost and suffering. I just wonder if we are sometimes too focused on attracting people to us, or if we are focused on taking the attractive gospel to them?

In scripture, I see the early disciples taking the gospel to the people they knew, sharing their faith with those in need. My hope is that our students would be people who would go and share their faith with their friends and families. My goal with our students is to make them “fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). I want to equip them for ministry for the rest of their lives (Eph. 4:11-13). I want them to be the catalyst for reaching the lost. That is what I see in scripture. God uses His people to reach those in need. I want to show the students how to be used by God to make an impact on this world.

There may be some who will disagree with this ministry philosophy. “What student wants to come to church when it’s not all about having fun together??” someone might say. Be encouraged! Students who love Jesus will come. They will also go and make disciples of their friends who will then come too. Lost students want to come to church only when it no longer looks or feels like church. That is why we must be equipped to go to them and share with them where they are. If only 20 of our students shared the gospel with only 5 people each year, and only 1 of those 5 got saved each year and repeated the
process, then in three years 140 people would get radically saved. 140 people… My prayer is for the Student Ministry at Oakhill to be used by God to make an impact on Evansville like never before! But for this to happen, we will need to be patient, faithful to the Lord’s way, and prayerful. Would you please pray with me for our students and their friends who need the gospel?

Sincerely,
Brian Van Doren

March 2017 Spare Change

Discipleship is hard work.  It is difficult and not fun.  Yep, I said it.  Discipleship is not fun and it is work; however, it is a worthy cause that should not be abandoned, but leaned into like never before.  When I say discipleship, I mean the process of becoming like Christ through worship, prayer, obedience to God’s Word, and living a spirit filled life.  These are widely accepted parts of discipleship; however, the one that matters the most usually doesn’t come to mind first, that is reproduction.  Disciples must have knowledge of God’s Word and have a strong prayer life, but they also must be seeking to make other disciples.  All of the components of discipleship are hard work.  Paul acknowledges this in 1 Timothy 4:7 when he says to train for godliness.  He is encouraging 

Timothy to study God’s Word so he will have sound doctrine and then encourages him to live in godly way as to be an example to the church.

It is interesting that Paul uses the word “train” along with the imagery of someone training for a physical contest.  Think about an athlete that trains to be the best in his or her sport.  They work night and day to get better.  They examine the things they eat.  They disregard social activities so they can spend that time preparing.  They hope if they can work hard and perfect their craft then they can win the prize.  Paul says in 1 Cor. 9:25 that they do all of this for a temporary prize, but we work and strive for eternal glory.  This everlasting prize should be esteemed much more in our hearts than a trophy or medal.

It is not by accident that Paul uses illustrations of athletes and the hard work it takes to compete.  He is trying to show us that becoming a fully surrendered disciple is not easy.  Not only are there external things like busyness, family, work, etc., there are limitless distractions that we can entertain ourselves with, such as television, social media, hobbies, etc.  We are drawn to them and obsess over them because that is what the flesh wants.  It is much more enjoyable to binge watch shows on Netflix than it is to have a deep prayer life.  It is much easier to work on our golf swing than is it to spend that time going through the Word with a new believer.  It is easier to remain at arm’s length with our neighbors than to invite them into our home and let them see the gospel lived out in our lives.  This all takes hard work.

Paul says in 1 Cor. 9 that he disciples or beats his body to make it obedient.  This is most likely hyperbole; however, he is driving home a point.  The flesh wants the enjoyable easy thing; it wants to deny the spirit of it nourishment and power.  We must fight against this flesh, we must make war on the flesh, and we must beat it into submission.  We must do the hard work of discipleship.

When we don’t want to read the Word that is when we must force ourselves to read it.  When we don’t want to get on our knees and pray we must make our flesh bend.  When we aren’t bold enough to share or selfless enough to disciple someone else, we must press on do it anyway.  The only way to push past the flesh is to force ourselves to move, but then after a while something amazing happens.  After you beat back your desires a little bit, your desires begin to change.  You start to long for God’s Word, you start to enjoy prayer, and you share with boldness, and on and on.  But remember, discipleship is not natural, sin wants to continue to reign in your body, and you have to refuse to let it set up camp.  You have been redeemed, you are a new creation free from the hold of sin, so make war with the flesh and live by the spirit that is the only way we will become the followers of Jesus we need to be.

Think of discipleship as training for your spiritual muscles; you must go back to the gym day in and day out, even if you are tired or sore.  And over time you begin to see amazing results as you simply persevere through the ups and down.  Don’t give up, do the hard word of discipleship, it is worth it!