-I told students that I believe that their life would be far less complicated when they submit to their parents authority.

-I believe students after tonight made some decision that will affect their life for ever. 

-Student’s have to come under their parents authority, but parents have to give students something to look up to also.

-Some parents suck and it makes me mad.

-I can’t wait to see how this series on authority changes our student ministry.

-Yes I told guys tonight in high school they probably didn’t have a gf because girls see how they treat their moms and don’t want to have anything to do with them. 

-I had an awesome time hanging out with Canaan and Scott at Waffle House. Love those guys and our convos.

Thats all for tonight.  I’m beat and I am going to go lay and look at the ceiling because I won’t be able to sleep. 

]]> http://www.chrishollomon.org/2008/11/19/wii-2/feed/ http://www.chrishollomon.org/2008/11/19/wii/ http://www.chrishollomon.org/2008/11/19/wii/#comments Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:40:15 +0000 Chris http://www.chrishollomon.org/2008/11/19/wii/

1. You grow more when you serve others: High school students will have a retreat this February called Collision I know they will grow closer to God.  But I guarantee when they get older they won’t remember most of what was said that weekend, but will forever remember pouring their life this weekend into a middle school student.

2. It’s Our Job: Our job as the church is to grow disciples.  It’s to train the saints to do the work.  I believe this weekend we began the process of identifying future interns, future volunteers, and future ministers on our team.

3. They can give a perspective no adult ever can:  Why?  Because they live it now.  Nothing is more rewarding as a student pastor than to see the generational gap bridged when you see an adult and student serving together.

What is your church doing to raise up leaders?

This weekend was amazing!  We had close to 100 middle school students at The Plunge.  Everything I saw and heard would make me make the statement this was the best retreat we have ever done for middle school students.

I am so lucky to have a job where I can be apart of something like this.  Thanks to our adults who poured into these students this weekend.  I can’t wait to see what happens after this.

This week I got to see this in motion.  I leave in about 20 minutes for “The Plunge” our middle school retreat.  Over the past week it has been amazing to see our staff pitch in to get what needs to be done done.  Yesterday afternoon we packed our U-Haul full of our equipment.  Both the student ministry interns had classes yesterday so Micah and David C. (worship programming) Nathaniel Hale (administration), Allen Bishop (children’s), David Mac and myself loaded all our equipment.  That is team!

If your church isn’t creating an environment of team for your staff then you must look at how to do so.  I can honestly say that not only do I work with some of the greatest guys and gals around, but they are also some of my best friends.  Thanks FBC Smyrna for creating an environment of team!

I have posted time after time how I love small groups.  I recieved this email from a mom of a 6th grade boy this week and wanted to share it with you.  I have taken out the name of the student because I forgot to ask permission to share this.  Check out this email from a parent.

 I must applaud the small groups and leaders at FBC Smyrna. 
My son is a 6th grader in Marcus Mister’s Wed. small group.  He loves the small group and is growing and learning so much from this time.
I wanted to share how you are making a difference… 
My son accepted Christ when he was younger and has had a heart for the Lord.  He is a great student, great son, and great athlete.  This year we signed up for the Smyrna rec ball (which he has played in the years before).  Two Saturdays ago, we got the call that practice would be on Wed. night at 7:30 at a school nearby.  This was not a problem… we could pull him out 5 min. early and everything would be fine.  We got a call the following Mon. that practice had been changed to 7:00 at a school that was 15-20 min. away.  Now we had a problem.
We told our son what his choices were… either small group on Wed. night or basketball.  We let him make the decision with no influence from us (we knew this was something that he had to do).  He called his grandparents and they told him they could not make the decision, but to think about what could he live without for 12-16 weeks.  My son said he prayed about it and he had made the decision to give up basketball.  He said he could live his whole life without basketball, but not 12-16 weeks without his small group.
THANK-YOU!!!

This is why we do small groups.  Any student can come in to a large worship gathering and then leave and no one know he was there.  When a students knows he will be missed he is more committed the group!  Thank you FBC Smyrna for allowing students to be known, cared for, and loved in small groups! 

Friday I was setting up all our stuff that people donated for this sale.  As I was setting up I was just praying and asking God that he would provide once again during this sale.  It was cool to see God work so quickly with people showing up as I was setting up and we made money before we even started!

This is really cool though!  We were about to sit down for dinner and our door bell rang.  I answered the door and it was neighbor from down the street.  He said my wife and I were talking about your adoption tonight, and we haven’t been able to come to any of your garage sales or your car wash, but we wanted to help out.  He reached out his hand and gave me a check! Wow! 

God is so good!  We are praying that people come tomorrow and buy all of our stuff.  I am praying that God brings generous people this way who want to buy things and who might also bring generous donations our way. 

Thank you Jesus for being so faithful and providing.