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It’s been a couple of weeks, but I wanted to post some pictures from Elevate 2011. We had a great night together with over 90 students in attendance with at least 6 people committing their life to Christ. Here’s a little bit of what we experienced together at this outreach concert hosted by LIFT Youth Ministry:

Thanks to Ammunition Worship Band, BLVDS, Guest Speaker Dave Gottschalk, Christina Trueblood, Joe Hoal, and the  LIFT Leadership Team for making this event one of the best we’ve had!

This past Sunday we began our new teaching series called “Vs. – Dating by God’s Design”. The purpose of this series is to help students understand God’s purpose for relationships and challenge them to honor God in all aspects of their lives. In our first week together we looked at the four types of dating and what the Bible says about them. Here is an overview of what we talked about:

Dating Type #1: Prearranged Marriage

Prearranged marriage is when someone (usually your parents) picks the person that you get to marry. We see this type of dating several times in the Bible (i.e. Genesis 24). Although this does not fit into American culture and very few teenagers would ever consider this, a prearranged marriage can be a very positive form of dating if it is done the way God intended for it to.

Dating Type #2: Courtship

Courtship is when a couple dates under the supervision and mentorship of their parents for the purpose of having a godly relationship that leads to marriage. Parents are commanded by God to raise their children with godly instruction and teach them everything that God has commanded (Duet. 6:7-9). I believe that it is part of God’s command for parents to help their children find a spouse and be a mentor over that relationship (Jeremiah 29:6). Teenagers need to understand that their parents have been their and placing themselves under the authority of their parents will help them have relationships that honor God.

Dating Type #3: Christian Dating

Christian Dating is when two spiritually mature Christians who don’t have the availability of godly parents or mentors to oversee their relationship pursue a godly relationship. Not everyone at the dating age has parents who love the Lord and are able to oversee a courtship. I believe that this type of dating is reserved for men who are ready to support a family (ie. have an education, a job, and doesn’t play video games all day) and for a women who is ready to be a wife. This is not a form of dating for teenagers because it requires a level of spiritual maturity that most teenagers do not have. Both dating partners must have the ability to ignore what society says about dating and pursue a relationship according God’s standards (Romans 12:2).

Dating Type #4: Non-Christian Dating

Non-Christian Dating is when anyone, whether Christian or not, rejects God’s standards (i.e. premarital sex), ignores godly mentors (i.e. does not listen to the advice of their parents or pastor), and develops worldly perspectives in their dating relationships. These relationships are like the people mentioned in Romans 1:25, “They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.” No one should ever date this way. Relationships were not just meant for happiness, but also for holiness. Relationships should bring us closer to God and help us become more holy. Unfortunately, most teenagers choose to date this way and find themselves drifting away from God.

Questions to ask before pursuing a relationship:

1. How is your relationship with Jesus? If you don’t have a healthy relationship with Jesus then He needs to be your priority before you get into a dating relationship. Your relationships will only be as healthy as your relationship with God.

2. Are you believing any cultural lies? (i.e. Do you think it’s okay to “fool around” sexually before marriage? Are you looking at pornography? Are you looking for a godly spouse or just someone to be with?)  The list could go on. The answer to these questions must line up to God’s Word. If they don’t, you aren’t ready to be in a relationship.

3. Do you accept that relationships are not just meant for happiness, but for holiness? It is extremely important to have the right mindset in relationships. Understanding God’s purpose for relationships and applying that principle will protect you from falling into the many traps that Satan will put in your way as you pursue a relationship.

This Saturday our youth ministry is hosting an outreach concert called Elevate 2011. Please be praying for this event as it’s purpose is to share the Gospel with the unsaved and to provide a gateway opportunity to invite the unchurched to church. The concert will highlight two Christian bands (Ammunition and the BLVDS), guest speaker Dave Gottschalk (drummer for Ammunition), and many giveaways (including an ipod Nano). We also have a lighting guy coming in to create a great concert environment. I expect God to do some amazing things through this event and that it will be a lot of fun for all those who attend. If you are a teenager (6th-12th grade) in the Chesapeake area, I hope that you can join us!

It’s been a couple days since our ministry took 21 youth to the Youth Evangelism Conference put on by SBC Studentz, but I wanted to take the opportunity to share a few thoughts on the event and what God did there. The following is a few main highlights that I wanted you to share from the event:

1. Illusionists are Great Evangelists

Part of this conference contained the ministry of Illusionist Brock Gill. At first, I thought that his act was going to be nothing more than simple entertainment to fill some time before Tenth Avenue North or guest speaker Darren Whitehead got on stage. To my surprise, however, Brock was incredibly entertaining, skilled, and provided some amazing illustrations connecting his art of illusion to the Gospel. If you are not familiar with his ministry, I encourage you to check it out on youtube.com sometime. He’s got some pretty good stuff.

2. Tenth Avenue North are Great Worship Leaders

Tenth Avenue North led the worship for the entire conference. They did a great job. What stood out the most was the time of worship we had at the end of the first night. For about 30 minutes they played a number of worship songs without looking at a single sheet of music and every song led into each other making it feel like it was one song. It was worship from the heart and led by the Spirit. It was awesome.

3. God Showed Up

It’s hard to put into words exactly how the Lord showed up, but He showed up in some amazing ways. I saw many of our teenagers worshiping from the heart, many were broken by God, many recommitted their lives to Christ, and many were set on fire to start living for God in ways they never had done before. I was blown away by the experience we had together and I’m very thankful to the Lord for what He allowed us to be a part of.