President Obama @ The National Prayer Breakfast February 5, 2009, Thursday
Posted by Kyle Black in Evangelism, Life.2 comments
You might have heard or even watched President Obama speak at the national prayer breakfast this morning. I thought he delivered a good speech like he always does. One thing he centered on was the fact that all world religions teach putting people first, that all religions have a golden rule. He even quoted Jesus saying “love your neighbor as yourself”.
I know that people feel that he shouldn’t share his faith because of his position, but should President Obama being a self-proclaimed, born-again follower of Christ share more of his faith? Should he forget the political correctness of the office of president and openly share his faith in the one true living God? Should he also quote Jesus telling us that “He is the way, and the truth, and the life”?
What do you think? Is there a point when “politically correct” is incorrect?
Make A Parachute For Colombia January 7, 2009, Wednesday
Posted by Kyle Black in Community, Evangelism, Life.add a comment
I recently started receiving The Voice of Martyrs newsletter and in the October issue I came across an opportunity that I knew I had to do. They sent a pattern to make small parachutes that are then used to drop christian literature and shortwave radios to the FARC (leftist) guerillas in Colombia.
For 9.00 dollars you can get the kit that includes the pattern in it and then start making parachutes yourself (there may be a way to get the pattern for free but I don’t know about it.) You can find the kit here.
All it takes is some white material, nylon cord, a marker, sewing machine, and some time. The small group that I lead as well as my youth group are going to make some. Will you make one? Or should I say how many will you make?
You can find out more information about VOM on their website (see link above) or on their blog persecutionblog.com
If you have heard of any other cool ideas like this please let me know.
Perry Noble Helped Me Out January 3, 2009, Saturday
Posted by Kyle Black in Evangelism, Youth.add a comment
While attending a conference last spring at Saddle Back church I heard Perry Noble speak on a panel about small groups. It was refreshing to hear his honesty about his frustrations with small groups. But what really stuck with me was how he talked about using technology in ministry.
After returning home I decided to look him up and see what was going on at New Spring. I quickly noticed how laid back and easy going his church seemed to be. Allthough I only spoke to him for about 45 seconds in California I could tell that this atmosphere was a direct reflection of his personality and leadership.
I found his blog (see link above) and decided to follow it for a while and see what he had to say, and have never left. One day while reading his blog I came across this post 1k (notice #2) I focused on the part about writing the names on their walls. I thought it was a cool idea. We had recently started building a new youth room for our group and I felt this was something we had to do.
I knew that this was more than a cool activity to do but a commitment to pray for and bring our friends who don’t know Christ into a relationship with Him. I then stared praying that God would give me the timing for this powerful moment in our groups history. About 3 weeks ago I finally felt like the timing was right. The day that I had planned for our students to do this I had lunch with another youth pastor in our community, and he told me that he had tried a similar thing and his students refused to put any names down. I was discouraged but knew I had to press on. That night we had 52 students (a record attendance) and I explained that if we truly love God the way we say than we should want all our friends to have a relationship with him. To my surprise at least 45 of our students got up without hesitation and wrote names on the wall of our new youth hallway. We ended up with 157 names of fellow students as well as 4 names of their teachers and coaches. It was amazing to see our students respond to God and desire their friends to come to know him.
As of right now 1 of those people have accepted Jesus as the savior and 5 are regularly attending.
Thanks for the idea Perry.
