D3- Down and Dirty in the 'Ville (Louisville that is)

The past week has been a blast working with a group of the high school students from FBC. Starting Monday and running until Thursday, we took a group to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky for the D3 Youth Conference put on by their college (Boyce College). The conference used the facilities of the seminary campus and operated like a conference-camp hybrid.

The name D3 stands for the basis on how the teaching sessions work. We had general sessions every day involving everyone, but there were also three different track sessions that met 4 times for one hour sessions. These were three areas of discipleship, hence the name D3, and they were Missions, Spiritual Leadership, and finally Worldview. Students, along with adult leaders, were able to choose what track they wanted to take, and our group was mainly split by Spiritual Leadership and Missions.

This was honestly the first youth event that I have witnessed in a long time that was

immediately all about scripture. We checked in, took our stuff to the dorms they had us staying in, and right after that we dove into the first general session. Everything from the worship and teaching was deep in scripture and truth, lacking the surface teaching and concert worship I have become accustomed to seeing at youth events, and as the Conference Pastor Eric Bancroft started speaking we immediately started dissecting the truths of scripture on what discipleship is truly all about. He used The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20, and talked about how Jesus commanded the Disciples to take what he had taught them and take that to the nations. So it should be with us that to instruct others in the way of the faith, we must know the word of Christ ourselves.

There was even an intense game of Underground Church that we played to bring awareness of the persecuted Church to the students, using almost the entire seminary grounds where Jeff, Kyle, and I somehow found our way into the office of Dr. Russell Moore, the Dean of the School of Theology at SBTS, as well as a teacher of the word I greatly respect and look up to. We didn't touch anything, I promise...

So much more was discussed throughout the week and many great men and servants of the Lord came to teach (Jeff Struecker, Al Mohler) and lead in worship (The Hoffmans). We also had a "concert", which was more like another sermon through music, from the Christian Rap artist FLAME. I can't help but be amazed by these men and their hearts for the Lord and discipleship, as well as all of the others behind this conference, seeking to love on and teach these students.

Being Who God Calls Us to Be- Are you up for it?

The idea presented in this video by Darrin Patrick is on that needs to be heard by many people in our churches today. Over the years churches have risen and died because of a lacking in discipleship. Granted there are always a couple of people here and there that take discipleship of younger generations seriously, but that number gets fewer and fewer as time rolls on. I can remember in my own childhood, after I publicly professed my salvation that I had a severe sense of being lost. In my mind I was saying, "I'm saved, now what do I do?" but the answer never seem to come. See, there were a wealth of great men in my church, many that came through later on, but there at the very start I had no one who told where to go from there. As a result, my spiritual life was stunted. I searched for a role model in other areas, like my older brother and his friends, and then people older than me in school. Time and time again they all failed me, and it led me down a path opposite of where God has called me, ending with me feeling completely lost in life. I won't continue to harp on my own experiences, but as always feel free to ask if you would like further detail.

Luckily, I was fortunate to find strong Christian leadership, but the problem is that many people have not or will not find that if trends continue. That is why one of my biggest passions in life is discipleship. Without that we end up with generations of men and women who have no idea how to carry on their faith, or as the video said, have no interest in doing so. As Darrin Patrick discusses in the video, we need leaders and pastors in the church who are up to the task of being an adult, not ones who are trying to prolong their adolescence. It is far from "lightly" that I say this... We need strong leadership from generation to generation, to teach, lead, and bring up the younger generations in the truth of God's word, so they may learn how to be the men and women God calls them to be. We are to follow the example of Christ, bringing people up in his teachings.

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."- (Ephesians 4:11-16 ESV)

I echo the final words of the video, this comes from me just as much as it came from Darrin Patrick in the video, "I don't want anyone to have a bigger dream for my church, and my city, than I do."

If we fail to do this, our churches will stand only as a testament to what they once were.