The Church outside the Building

I have worked with students for nine years now at Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant. I love my church and I love what I get to do full-time as a minister of God. Over the last 9 months, God has revolutionized the way that he has called me to do ministry.

For some reason, I have always operated from the standpoint to be ready to present the Gospel when the students come into the church. My work schedule, my priorities, my philosophy of youth ministry have always been centered around doing ministry inside the church building. I would tell the students to go and get their friends and bring them to the church. Guess what? It wasn’t working!
I went into a depression second guessing my calling and my ability to pastor students. Our youth group attendance was low and we were scrambling just to keep from going under. We started new programs to try to jumpstart the ministry and all that did was add more work to our schedule without really producing results – Followers of Christ.
Last January we began a pruning process in our ministry and really began seeking God for his direction. There were several life-changing and ministry-changing behaviors that God revealed to us in this process but there was one that stood out the most for me.

In March I attended the Youth Pastor Summit in Orlando, Florida. There I heard a message from Ed Stetzer and the one line that God wanted me to hear.
“If you are not in student’s places then you are not in student’s ministry.”
This quote hit me like a ton of bricks! Sure, I have gone to school lunches before in the past, but honestly I dreaded being there. I had no purpose being there. I was only begging them to come to youth group. I would do an occasional FCA meeting now and then at the school. I would go to a football game or basketball game. But was I really making a difference!
As the new school year approached my goal was not to just show up every now and then at the school but allow God to open doors to reach students at their schools. Little did I know that when I started praying this, God was already opening doors. Here is just a few of the doors he has opened:
1. Every morning before school starts a group of 40+ of our students are praying in front of the school at the flagpole, in front of every person entering the school. I come every monday to lead a devotion for them but my role in this group is to encourage and challenge the students.
2. I attend lunch every Wednesday and instead of begging students to come to church, I get to know the students and the friends they introduce me to. It begins with a relationship, then an invitation.
3. Myself, along with another Pastor at our church and the FCA representative for our area are Chaplains for the B team, JV, and Varsity Football teams at our PUBLIC high school. We provide meals for them every Thursday and Friday as well as PREACH the Gospel.
4. I lead a leadership small group for all the Seniors of the Varsity Football Team. A group of 40+ members.
5. I am speaking chapels for our local Christian schools.
6. We have reached out to the teachers in the public school by serving 180 of them before Open House by serving them dinner.
7. I have committed to praying for the Faculty and Administration at all of the schools in our area. I will occasionally send them encouraging emails.

What has resulted in this?
A GROWING and THRIVING Youth Ministry. Kids can forget about a once a week service but they don’t forget it when they see you four-five times a week!  I don’t say these things to brag about myself or my church. Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19 to GO and tell people about the Message. That is why we are experiencing a harvest in the Youth Group at my church. 28 students have accepting Christ in the last 3 weeks! We have almost doubles in attendance!  60% of our students are in small groups (we just started 3 weeks ago)! We are baptizing 9 students tonight!HOW is this HAPPENING? Because we are GOING. It begins with the leadership of the church. If we are not going, but only staying, then how are we to teach others to do the same thing!

Let me challenge you to look at your schedule this week and determine where most of your time is spent. Is it spent more in the church, waiting for people to come to you. Or is it spent outside the church, GOING to people who need the Gospel!

I would love to hear feedback, comments, stories of what God is doing in your life and how you are GOING into the world to share the GOOD NEWS!

Going to Togo, Africa

I leave tomorrow with a team from Seacoast Student Ministries to the Land of Togo, Africa.  To follow along our journey visit http://togostudents.wordpress.com.

Seacoast Lift 2009 Winter Retreat

Seacoast Lift 2009 Winter Retreat
February 14-16

This past weekend we loaded up over 200 students from five different seacoast campuses and headed to the mountains of North Carolina for an incredible weekend with God.  The theme of the retreat centered around Worship being the main focus of our lives.  We stayed at a beautiful retreat center surrounded by mountains that provided amazing views of some of God’s most beautiful creation.  Throughout history people have journeyed to the mountains to be with God.  Moses met with God on Mount Sinai to receive instruction for the people of Israel.  Elijah went up the mountain to hear God’s voice in the silence.  Jesus withdrew to the mountains often for prayer.  Seacoast Students went to the mountain top this weekend to experience God like they never had before.

We learned that we must put away distractions in our life, ask for forgiveness for the sins in our life, and be willing to obey God’s will for our lives if we want to have an incredible worship experience with God.  We learned that we have to take time to sit silently before God if we want to listen to Him.  We also learned that we can use our mountain top experience to share the love of God with others back in the valley.  The weekend was filled with incredible worship led by West Ashley Campus worship leader, Ryan Bailey and band.  God spoke through Brandon Hair, Seacoast Summerville Youth Director, and Josh Ray, Seacoast Long Point High School Minister, each night to students who are desperate for God.  We had an incredible team of youth group leaders sharing their stories and leading the students through small group sessions.  The students had the opportunity to surrender themselves completely to God this weekend.

One of our students came to me after I spoke the first night and broke down because of the sin in his life that he is addicted to and how he felt so ashamed.  It was hard for him to worship God because he could not accept forgiveness for his sins.  We had an incredible time of prayer and seeking God for forgiveness and we both truly felt the presence of God.  One young girl had been struggling with her self image and feeling loved by anyone.  She approached one of our female leaders wanting to feel loved by God.  By the end of their conversation, she knew that God loved her and she had felt loved by many of the other girls on the trip.  Another student was so inspired by God, she wrote a worship song that night expressing her love for Jesus.  We had even more students letting go of past mistakes that were hindering them from pursuing God.  We had students forgiving their parents for getting a divorce and wanting to figure out how to better love and honor them.  For some students, this was the first time they truly met with God and felt His presence in their lives.   

Did I also mention that we had a blast!  The students had an amazing time Skiing, Snowboarding, and Tubing.  We even saw some real snow on Sunday night, something some Charleston students have never seen before.  I know the stories will keep coming in about how God met with us on the mountain top this past weekend.  I want to thank all of the parents for trusting us with your children over the weekend and for our church who wants to see this generation become fully devoted to Christ.

Thank you God for the Opportunity to Reach this Generation!
Joshua Ray

United

October 29th marked a huge moment in the history of Seacoast Student Ministries. It was the day that we decided to no longer be a youth group. Don’t get me wrong, I like youth group. It’s the weekly thing you do when you get a bunch of teenagers together and you play games, have a worship band play the good ole songs and hope that you give a message that students can understand. We decided that Groundswell was going to be much more than that.
We are more than a youth group. We are a movement. The word Groundswell actually denotes movement. We want to sweep across our church, communities, our state, nation and even our world with the Truth of Jesus Christ and see a Groundswell of response from this Generation to see people no longer bound by sin but are living in the Freedom of Christ Jesus! This, my friends, is much more than youth group.
Last Wednesday a few hundred students took that charge. I am so proud that this generation doesn’t want to be known for what they did for themselves, but what they did for God! I am blessed to be apart of it.

History

Everyone always says that history is one of the most important areas to study in your lifetime. I have always love studying history and in particular Biblical history. Right now I am currently enrolled in a New Testament class at Liberty University that focuses on the Jewish background and culture during the writing of the New Testament. I am a week in so far and my mind is racing. This week I spent most of my time learning about the Intertestamental Period between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Many people do not just how much turmoil the Jewish People went through during this time. Ruler after ruler invaded Israel during this time and infused their ideologies on the Jewish people. No wonder they were anticipating the coming Messiah. They were waiting on God to send them a King who was going to restore the nation to them. I can understand a little bit more why it was so hard for them to consider that their coming messiah was born of a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem. God has an incredible way for executing His will and I think it is funny how we try to predict or tell Him how the story should be written. My prayer is that everyone who believes that God should accomadate them and their desires would place their trust in Him knowing that He already has written the story and everything works out great. History teaches us that God is always faithful!

Seeing the Bigger Picture

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how enormous God is.  I mean seriously, He created the Universe, and that is pretty big!  This generation has been labeled a “me” generation.  We put ourselves first and then once we are okay we start to be concerned about others.  I think this generation wants to break free from that stereotype.  I have talked with way too many teenagers who are concerned with helping the world become a better place.  I believe we are starting to see the bigger picture.  We know that God is at work in Africa just like he is at work here in the U.S.A.  So the challenge to us is seeing past our own little perspective and try to catch a glimpse of God’s perspective on things.  When we operate from that mindset, we live healthier and more purposed lives.

Prayer at School

My time in High School were some of the roughest years in my life.  I had every temptation thrown at me and it was hard to live the life that God called me to lead.  I never expressed my faith publically in school and you wouldn’t have known that I was a Christian unless you went to my church.  I regret those days because I missed out on so many opportunities to Share the Love of Jesus to so many hurting students.

There was one day a year that I would make an effort for God which came in September when students from around the world would gather at the Flagpole to pray for their school, government, and the military.  To be honest with you, most years I forgot about the event and just kind of showed up at the end of it.

Praying in school is one of the most bravest acts of worship that a Christ Follower can do to honor God.  It says that you are not ashamed of the Gospel and you stand for something bigger and better than yourself.  This year, students from Seacoast decided that they were going to make prayer a priority at their school.  Since the beginning of the school year there has been a dedicated group of students praying at the Flagpole every single day.  They don’t care who sees them.  They are making a stand for their faith and praying that God would infiltrate their classrooms.  They have a huge heart for seeing every student come to know Jesus and they are actively pursiung the Great Commission that Jesus has called them to. 

Last week the school printed an article about the group because of the growing curiousity from students.  God is doing great things through these students and I am so proud to be their Youth Pastor!

Click below to read the article!
wando-prayer

A Sheep, A Coin, and a Lost Son

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke a message at Groundswell, the weekly High School Service of Seacoast Church, about the unending grace of God.  This wasn’t just the usual message about grace.  This was coming out of the conviction of my heart.  I guess if you want to be a powerful communicator you have to let your heart (God’s heart) lead the message.  So I spent hours upon hours digesting this message before the time came to present at Groundswell.  The cenral theme of the talk surrounded around Grace and The Parables Jesus told in Luke 15 (You know the one about the lost sheep, coin and son).  I got to tell you that as I was speaking I think I had an “out-of-body” experience.  Suddenly it was as if God took over and I got out of the way.  It was so amazing. 

I kept speaking to the teens but I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying.  It was pretty scary because I had no idea if I was even making sense or forming complete sentences.  But the look on the teens’ faces told me they were engaged and God was working.  As I was wrapping up the message I saw that these teens are going through so much crap in their lives and they need a release and want desperately for God to love them.  That night I had to make sure they knew just how much God loves them.  After the message we responded to God and the teens went to the cross and gave up sin in their lives keeping them from God and then they went to the front of the stage and just knelt before God and enjoyed His company.

If this wasn’t just about the coolest thing ever, it got even cooler when our leaders personally prayed for everything single student that was kneeling before God.  We all experienced God’s Grace that night in a whole new and exciting way.  All of heaven was rejoicing and so was my heart.

Check out the Groundswell Video Podcast to Watch the Message!

I Have Decided to Join the Blogging Nation

I need a good avenue to get all those random thoughts out of my head and into something where maybe those random thoughts might come together to actually make sense.  I guess we will see if blogging actually helps that.