Student Ministry - June 2021
Dear Church Family,
We are just at the beginning of our Summer Calendar, and if you know much about what Summer looks like for the Student Ministry, then you know we have a lot to look forward to! Thankfully, this year we are able to do much of what we have done in the past as a church family. Last year was certainly challenging (to say the least), so I’m very thankful we will be able to pursue intentional, relational discipleship at a much higher capacity than in 2020. But as we are thinking about the Summer and doing relational discipleship, that begs the question; what is intentional, relational discipleship?
I think we all understand what it means to be intentional. Simply stated, when we are being intentional, we are doing something with purpose. It isn’t an accident or an unforeseen by-product of something else. We are doing something with a goal in mind, and everything we are doing is done on purpose. So if that is how we want to approach relational discipleship, we need to know what relational discipleship is. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 gives us a crystal clear picture of what this means. It says:
4 “Hear, O Israel:The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
This text gives us the greatest commandment, on which the Law rests, to which the gospel restores us. And in v7 we see that formal teaching is vital to the lives of our students. But it goes way beyond formal teaching and also describes what we often call relational discipleship. Notice how it moves into the realm of normal daily life. It describes our need to talk about things of the Lord in four all-inclusive ways. While walking, while sitting, while laying down, and while rising up. This is saying that while you are active and doing things together whether it is work or play, you are to be discussing godly things. As you are relaxing, eating food together, or just chilling, you are to be discussing godly things. As you prepare for bed or lay down to rest, you should end the day discussing godly things. And the first thing we should do in the morning is start the day off making mention of God and His work in our lives. There is never really a time during the day when we shouldn’t be purposefully bringing God into the conversation.
This can be incredibly simple. It doesn’t require singing hymns and quoting scripture four times a day in some kind of unnatural and forced sort of way. It can just look like asking questions about God and talking about what the Bible says regarding those questions. When I was a young boy my grandfather used to always ask me while we were fishing, hunting, washing the car, etc. “Brian, who's your hero?!” To which I would respond, “Jesus!” We used to have some of the best conversations about God doing some of the most normal and mundane things you can imagine. I learned so much in those times.
That is what intentional relational discipleship looks like. And that is what we are going for this Summer in the Student Ministry. There are going to be so many purposeful, gospel-centered conversations as we hang out this Summer! I hope our students, and maybe even their parents, will come out and partake in all that God wants to do!