Foolish Things

About a month ago one of my good friends followed the call of God and moved to Austin, TX to begin a new chapter in his life. He used to serve as the worship leader and associate pastor of the church that I currently attend. He also started a high school youth ministry while he was here. I had volunteered to be a part of the team back in late September, simply to help out where I could and possibly gain some experience in the field of ministry. I had never lead a group of high school teens before, and would never claim to be well-versed in the area of ministry by any means.  I would consider myself to be a fairly "new" Christian, considering that I spent the first nineteen years of my life faking my way through religion. I have never read the entire Bible, I don't have many verses memorized, and I haven't lead anyone to Christ since I was in the second grade. It's clear that I don't have the experience or the expertise anywhere near what is required of a youth leader.

But ever since the youth leadership role was given to me in mid February, things have started to change.

Technically, I've only lead a group of three rowdy and easily distracted teenage boys for two weeks, partially due to scheduling conflict and a case of the flu, but let me tell you what He has done in such a short amount of time.

Two and a half weeks ago I began a series about the mission and purpose of our group. It is the same as our church's mission: to love God and to love people. Within these two elements lie three equally important practices: Communion, Community, and Mission. All three are necessary in order to be able to lead a truly balanced and effective faith-walk.

The practice of Communion (or, oneness with God) involves pursing an interactive relationship with Jesus by reading the Word, praying, listening to His voice, and spending time in worship. Community (togetherness) involves pursuing deep, loving relationships with each other that go beyond the surface. Connecting to others is crucial, as God created us to grow in relationships with each other. This means praying for each other, playing together, eating together, and encouraging each other in the faith. Mission is the practice of reaching others for the Kingdom -- sharing our life and faith as we love and serve people beyond our walls.

We spoke about Communion during the first week of the series, and I encouraged each of the guys to pray as we ended group. It went a lot better than I had expected, which was pretty encouraging for me, and I walked away that night feeling hopeful of what was to come.

The second week we dove into the practices of Community and Mission. Group went fairly well, but the guys were extremely distracted, and it was difficult to maintain their attention or encourage them to contribute. I was about ready to wrap up the talk when the topic of eternal life came up unexpectedly. Someone mentioned that they thought that 'good deeds' were the only thing necessary to earn one's way into heaven.

Suddenly everything stopped.

I was explaining the concepts of pursuing a deep relationship with the Creator, but these teens didn't even understand the foundation upon which our faith is built. It was about to get intense.

I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the gospel, using several verses out of Romans to illustrate the depth of His love for us and the depth of our iniquity. I began with Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."; 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death..."; 9:16, "It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy."; and ended with Romans 10, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." I spoke about the effect that God's love and mercy have had on my life and used the cross illustration to further explain the gravity of the situation. I explained that our sin separates us from God and that nothing that we can do -- absolutely nothing on our own effort -- will save us from our sin. We cannot reach God on our own power. "Good deeds" cannot affect the eternal destination of your soul, regardless of what you do. It is only through Jesus Christ -- believing in your heart that He is who He says He is -- that you can be saved. I had begun to notice that Gabe, though he had initially been distracted and unengaged, suddenly became very serious and focused on what we were talking about. I could feel the Spirit moving and directing my thoughts and words. I was depending so much on the Spirit and allowing it to lead me in such a complete way that I actually have a difficult time remembering everything that I said that night. The words that I spoke were not my words but His.

A short time after I had finished speaking, Gabe said something. 

"I think I'm ready," he said.

"Ready for what?" I said.

"I think I'm ready to follow Jesus."

"Are you sure? It's not going to be easy."

"Yeah... I'm ready."

I felt a wave of excitement and nervousness drown me as I stood and walked over to where he was sitting. I had never lead anyone into the Kingdom before (at least, I don't think second grade really counts). What was I supposed to say?

I remembered reading through a pamphlet that I had received from a Campus Crusade for Christ leader that was entitled "Do you want to know God personally?" that explained the gospel and also included a prayer that was supposed to be used in leading someone to Christ. I couldn't even remember what it said. I was getting nervous.

I was silently praying like crazy as I placed my hand on Gabe's shoulder, watching as Alex and Will placed their hands on him and bowed their heads, excited to see their friend become their brother in Christ. I had to let Him lead me, so I opened my mouth and let the words flow. 

I'm still not sure what all I said that night. I watched as Alex and Will prayed for Gabe, and listened as Gabe prayed his first prayer as a new believer. The feeling of true satisfaction and pure excitement inundated me. Gabe and I exchanged a hug before I left for home, but all I could think about was how truly amazing it felt to be used by God.

I'm not experienced. I have a stutter. I get nervous and I have a difficult time organizing thoughts in my head. I don't have chapters of the Bible memorized, and I don't even know how to effectively explain Christian theology to someone that doesn't already understand it.

But God used me.

I am growing ever closer to Him at an amazing rate, and I cannot explain how excited I am to see Him move even more in my life. In fact, He has been moving in such a visible way in just the past two weeks that it's slightly ridiculous. The one thing that I learned from the night of March 6, is that God can use anyone, regardless of their 'qualifications'. I have a heart for God and a willingness to do His will, and that is all that I need.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27