Lets Live Together Before Getting Married?

This is from my bosses blog over at www.TreadingGrain.com it links to a great article that debunks the myth of this "good idea".

"How wise of an idea is cohabitation? Is there a track record to examine? These are critical questions to ask because many millions of people are doing it and in dramatically increasing numbers.

Well, the good news is we don’t have to wonder about strong, reliable answers to those questions. An absolute wealth of social science research by leading sociologists and demographers of the family are telling us much about the consequences of living together before marriage. Here are some of the most startling findings:
Read it all. "

God Unboxed

This year at the Impact Fall Retreat we'll be talking about how no matter how hard you try you can't put God in a box.

For more information and to sign up please visit www.tinyurl.com/ImpactRetreat11

Resolve for Monday

Every Monday I'm going to post one of Jonathan Edwards resolutions. He
penned these while still a very young man and used them to guide
his life. What am I using to guide me, my family, my ministry??

66. Resolved, that I will endeavor always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.

• Benign : to be gently or kind.
• This has to do with relationships.  What kind of person do people see you as? Aggressive, truthful, kind?
• Edwards resolved to act kindly (much different then the Hell fire preacher history depicts him as) "in all places." How do you act?

Impact Fall Retreat 2011

 It's finally ready for launch. We're excited about this years high school retreat. For more information and to register  Click Here .

Ministry Update

It's been really busy in my life over the past few weeks and my lack of posting on the ol blog has reflected it. We've had a great launch to our weekly program in the student ministry. It's been exciting to see how things have shaped up. Here are some highlights...

• Our annual Father Son Surf Trip was earlier this month.

•  Also we started High School Alpha back up. This is a weekly gathering for 10 weeks on Monday nights. We do dinner together, listen to a talk, and then have some great small group discussion. It's in the context of open, honest, small groups that we often really grow.

• Finally we started back our weekly high school and middle school programs. Coming back from a summer away has given us some great momentum as a group and with some fresh faces we expect God to continue doing great things in our midst. Last week we started looking at a new series titled "When People Meet Jesus" 

We've got our big fall retreat on the horizon as well as some other great things we're looking forward to.

Resource for Students: Looking for a Way to Stay In God's Word?

I came across this online as we were walking through a series at Impact on owning your faith. It's a listing of devotionals. (Little snippets of God's word that you read on a regular basis. It usually has a little paragraph that helps explain it too. ) This list allows you to sign up for one and it will be delivered to your email address. Don't check your email? There's a way you can email things directly to your facebook account. You'd need to click on messages and look near the top of your screen for your @facebook email.

Just another way to "Plug In" to God's word....

Be sure to check out the "Insights for Students" devotional which is located about halfway down the list.

http://www.biblegateway.com/newsletters/

Judges and Leadership Part 5: Communication and Hair

Right now I'm working through the book of Judges and pulling out leadership principles. The theme throughout the book is that left to their own devices the people of ancient Israel continually turn away from God and to their own fallen nature. They, like we, are a people in need of a savior. God raised up leaders to shepherd his people through these times and point them to the coming of the eternal shepherd in Jesus the Christ.

As I mentioned in my last post on this subject Israel had just overcome a powerful enemy. Debroah and Barrak were two leaders whom God had raised up to take the lead.

www.Twitter.com/DLibbon

Principle 11: Tell The Story I had a trusted friend tell me once that there are three things that will get a leader fired in ministry. 1. Is moral failure 2. Is mishandling of money 3. Is not communicating what is going on in their area.  In this section of Judges Debroah and Barrak retell the events in song form of the previous chapter.  In a culture where there were no printing presses or even twitter telling the story orally became very important. What stories are being told about the things that I lead? Am I the one telling them? In an age where there are an incredible amount of ways to communicate how many am I using? Should I be using a bunch or just a few? Who are the people I need to communicate to?  All of these are great questions that come in to play when we try to communicate what God is doing in our ministries to a wider body.

Principle 12: Let down your hair. The fifth chapter of Judges starts like this..  

Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day:
    “That the leaders took the lead in Israel,
        that the people offered themselves willingly,
        bless the LORD!
(Judges 5:1-2 ESV)

I want to focus on that middle phrase. "Leaders" translated here literally means "those with long hair" and "took the lead" is translated "let down their hair" So if we were to literally translate this verse it would say..."Those with long hair let down their hair in Israel..." No, I don't believe that God calls all leaders to have long hair but I do believe that those who God calls need to live into that calling. The second phrase there is interesting also. "...that the people offered themselves willingly,..." Every leader needs to look like a follower to someone. We'll address accountability later but for now who are you offering yourself to willingly?

Life Groups @ Impact

Here's the video we played at Impact last Sunday. Really excited at how our High School Life groups are shaping up this fall.

Resolve for Monday

Every Monday I'm going to post one of Jonathan Edwards resolutions. He
penned these while still a very young man and used them to guide
his life. What am I using to guide me, my family, my ministry??


65. Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance; according to Dr. Manton’s 27th Sermon on Psalm 119. July 26, and Aug.10 1723.

• When was the last time you laid your soul bare before God? All of it? 
• God, in his omnipotence, knows all. He knows the depths of our depravity, our greatest fears, our greatest triumphs. Why is it hard to go to our loving father with all? 
• Edwards penned this resolution after being moved by a sermon her heard by Dr. Manton. When have you been motivated by hearing God's word preached? How did you respond? What changed? 

Fathers and Sons at the Mayport Poles

Rutledge Godley as captured by a local photographer.

I know the blog's been quiet lately here's why... One of my favorite times of the year is when we load up a bunch of dad's, sons, guys, and teenagers and head to Mayport Fl. to camp and surf for the weekend. This year I had to head back early to be at Impact (High School worship gathering) on Sunday morning. It was hard to leave. Great surf and time hanging out with some great guys. It's really amazing to see a group of guys together who have much in common but are defined by their love for Jesus as king and savior.

When Tuesday Feels Like Monday.

Welcome to the Team: Drew Miller

I'm a big fan of teams in ministry. Going it alone is not only counter-intuitive it's dangerous to our own souls. From that mindset we'd like to welcome Drew Miller on as part of our team.

With a lot of the changes we've been making in the ministry I'm a part of we found ourselves in need of someone to lead musical worship at our high school service. So we started praying. Me personally, as a team, as a ministry. We even launched our program without having anyone in place. It was a great lesson in trusting that God will provide.

I've known Drew as an acquaintance for years. Mostly through his involvement at a local summer camp. He's a talented worship leader who's musical abilities are trumped by his love for Christ and the gospel. I'm excited to see how the musical aspect of our high school gathering grows this year as Drew brings his gifts, passions, and talents.

Resolve for Monday

Every Monday I'm going to post one of Jonathan Edwards resolutions. He
penned these while still a very young man and used them to guide
his life. What am I using to guide me, my family, my ministry?? 


64. Resolved, when I find those “groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), of which the Apostle speaks, and those “breakings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 119:20, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be wear’, of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness. July 23, and August 10, 1723.

• When was the last time your soul groaned? What was going on in your life at that moment? 
• When have you experienced that sweet longing for the Lord?
• Both of these are experiential, which isn't bad. We after all are created with emotions and experiences, however important these are we must be careful not to put all our eggs in one basket. If we lump the sum resolve of our faith into experiences then we go from mountain top to mountain top and suffer dearly in the valley. Rich Nathan in his book "Empowered Evangelicals" does a great job of exploring this notion. Let us base our faith on truth as shown to us in scripture and accent it with the pallet of experience.

Impact Teaching: Show Up

Here's a copy of my notes from last Sunday's kick off for our high school youth group. It was great seeing everyone. Can't wait for next Sunday.

Impact AM

Welcome glad you’re hear. For those of you who are new maybe you’re a freshman just checking us out or this is something you heard about and you wanted to see it to believe it or maybe you heard about our tower of doughnuts. We’re glad you’re here.

Welcome to Impact

Do you ever go through cycles of favorite shows?

            Lost??

            Lisa and Mine for a while was Extreme Home Make Over?

·      Anyone ever see Extreme Home Make Over?

o   Anyone ever cry while watching it?

o   For me the tear jerking point comes when they hand over the keys to the house.

§  They built this great home, super tricked out, and then say … Move that Bus… this is yours and they hand the keys over.

o   5 years ago Lisa and I camped out in a chic fil a parking lot…

§  Handed the keys over and he was really emotional.

·      I’d be too if someone just gave me a chic fil a restaurant.

·      This year at Impact we want to hand you the keys. Not to some tricked out house or a restaurant but to your faith. This is yours.

·      We want Impact to be yours.

o   A place where you can grow in your faith weather you’ve been following Jesus for years or just for a few days.

o   We want it to be a place where you can connect with others who are living this out too.

o   We want to laugh a lot because the Holy Spirit has given us joy!

o   We want it to be a place where Jesus transforms lives as we turn to him.

o   We want to see 2 Cor 3:17-18.  Play out in your life…

§              “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

·      Let’s break that down for a second because it can be confusing. If you’d like to you can take notes on the hanger please do…

o   The Lord is the Spirit.

§  We worship 1 God in three persons one of the Trinity is the Spirit. The Spirit is God. Notice the S is capitalized because it’s a proper noun (little bit of grammar for ya)

o   Freedom

§  Where the Spirit is there is freedom because of what Jesus did on the cross. When he in a sense bought us back from slavery. We want Impact to be a place of freedom.

o   As the Spirit makes this freedom real in us…

§  Freedom from criticism because Jesus bore our judgment

§  Freedom from performance because Jesus lived a perfect life in our place.

§  Freedom from law that says we have to be good enough, smart enough, do the right things and don’t do the wrong things.

·      As we live in that freedom are “transformed”.

o   Christians are a transformed and transforming people.

·      So how does that happen?

o   What’s the process to seeing your life transformed, your foundation strengthened. Your life and the lives of those around you (Their eternal lives) changed. We’ve spent all summer praying about and working through this and we’ve found three little keys that you can hold onto. We’re only going to hit one of those today …

·      Key 1. Show up

o   I know this is simple.

o   However, seriously, showing up is one of the hardest tasks we face.

o   Don’t believe me?

§  Example 1. I watched facebook and saw a ton of students talking about hurricane Irene and wanted it to come Thursday so they could have Thursday and Friday off of school.

§  Yes Major Natural disaster so I don’t have to show up at school!!

o   It’s one reason we moved Impact to Sunday morning because we want to remove anything that is preventing you from “showing up” 

o   Example 2. I know in my life one of the biggest hurdles to me showing up isn’t schedules, isn’t things out there, it’s things in here.

§  Dentist

·      What’s stopping me from going to the dentist? ME! !

o   Do you know what’s at the center of those examples…. Let’s call it the “Me” mentality

o   (Me Linebacker 2)

·       That “Me” hurdle can be hard to get over. So how do you do it?

o   Ask question to group.

·      If my tooth starts hurting you better believe that I’m going to the dentist.

o   Often it’s when our lives start hurting that we turn to God.

·      We want you turning to him long before the storm comes. Step one is simply showing up.

o   Where?

§  At Impact

·      Yes, that’s a great place to start.

·      Showing up as we lift our voices together singing praises back to God. Yes!

·      Showing up when the Spirit nudges your heart? Yes

·      Showing up next Sunday morning, Showing up the Sunday after that and after that and after that. Not knowing how but knowing that Jesus wants to draw you deeper to himself. To make you more like him. To answer your prayers Not because He has to but because he loves you. Into worship with invitation.

·      Key 1 Show up.

A Good Reminder

As I read this my heart hurt and a pit grew in my stomach. This is a context of ministry that very rarely makes it into the suburbs where most of American youth ministry resides.

color coding won’t fix this.

"I love organizational systems. I love them even more when they are color coded. I can remember when I got excited about going back to school because it meant that I could color code my folders, binders and tabs and make a color coded schedule. Even now my calendar at work is a mosaic of appointments and tasks, each with it’s own color and sub color.  I’m even crazy enough that the binder I keep for New Hope stuff (lesson plans and outlines for YES Kids, youth group, Sunday school and Sweet Night planning) has the tabs color matched to their calendar color. I feel better and more in control of my life if it’s well organized.

But there’s a type of color coding that is going on in my neighborhood that isn’t helping anyone be more in control… It’s based on the color of your skin and more so the color of your shirt.  The last six nights in a row shots have rung out, last night not even that late. Texts and facebook messages start flying around as we try to figure out if anyone got hit this time. There is no bigger lack of control then waiting to hear if it was one of our kids who got hit at the playground in front of an abandoned school at 9:30 on a Wednesday night...."

You can read the rest here.