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This morning David Cox said, “It would be different if we were dealing with robots and computers, but we are dealing with people.” Now let me explain.  This morning was one of our big pushes in student ministry for students to be baptized.  We had planned on baptizing 9 students this morning.  If you work with students you know normal is not really an option and to always have a plan B, but more than likely you will end up with plan C or D.  Wednesday evening is crazy for us, I mean crazy.  Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle, its happened to me a million times.  Well our team lost a card of a student who was wanting to get baptized.  Her video was not edited before the service, her name was not on the list, and we were not prepared for her in the service. 

This is where the quote comes in.  “It would be different if we were dealing with robots or computers, but we are dealing with people.”  Our production team this morning showed why they are simply THE BEST.  Not only in a 10 min time did they find her baptism video, but they edited, dropped it into the service, ran the sound and lights on the fly, and had her ready to be baptized, but it was incredible.   

Her baptism video was strong.  Her story was incredible.  What she said about our church, student ministry, and small group was life changing.  Thank you to our video crew for making sure we are always about people.  Thank you for making these things happen on the fly.  Thank you for helping us convey the life change our students are experiencing. 

You should check out these videos and baptism.  www.fbcsmyrna.org/baptism

I love this series of post I am doing about the next generation.  This year has been so rewarding for me with our Max Impact students in Service U.  First let me say this, these students have been successful because of incredible lead teachers we have this year, giving students the opportunity to lead out and teach. 

Let me brag on April Kirby!  I meet April as a shy high schooler a couple years ago.  I have seen her serving the past several years in pre school ministry and knocking it in the mouth in that ministry area.  This summer April shared with me that she felt like God was calling her to pour into middle school students.  This was a big step for her, moving from preshoolers to middle school students.   I was very excited to have her be apart of our team.

Let me pause a minute and say this, I believe that many of our ministry areas in our church prepare our students to the next area they will serve.  April would have had a hard time moving to middle school ministry without her experience and success in preschool ministry.  We remind ourself a lot in our Next Gen area, that we are all on the same team.  I have many incredible adult leaders because of the training of preschool ministry! 

This past week April’s lead teachers (The Tanner’s) gave April the opportunity to lead her class.  Jim told me that April did a great job!  He even asked, are you sure this is the first time she has done this?  Wow.  God uses teenagers to do amazing things doesn’t He?  Way to go April I am so glad to have you part of the team!

I love when you see someone begin to hit their stride of where God has placed them in ministry.  I have seen that the past couple weeks with one of our high school students named Jared.  Jared is a student who has been around ministry all his life.  His dad is an incredible minister and Jared has seen God do some amazing things through his dad’s ministry.  I love how I am seeing God doing the same thing through Jared’s ministry. 

I have been so impressed this fall with Jared and the way he has made a commitment to serving alongside us in Service U, our middle Sunday morning environment.  Jared has always had a passion for God’s word and to know more of it.  I love the enthusiasm he brings in wanting middle school students know God’s word more.  Nothing fires me up more than when one of our “adult” leaders comes up to me and brags on one of our high school students.  This happened this Wednesday when I was talking with Mark.  Mark and Jared team together to present God’s word to 7th grade students.  To hear Mark talk about how much Jared brings to their class is so encouraging  to know making the move to see high school students serving on Sunday morning was the right thing to do. 

Thank you Jared for stepping and serving and bringing your passion for God’s word to our middle school students.  I can’t wait for the day that I am handing you a Max Impact student to mentor.  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for you this year.  

Today was a huge day!  No not because we had over 400 students on campus last night.  That was big.  But this is Big BIG, at least for Dawn and I.  Today we officially went on the waiting list for Gladney’s Ethiopia Program.  Now we are beginning the waiting for our referral.  Should be a fun wait :) 

I have heard since we decided to adopt that you are automatically accepted into a community of others who have or are in the process of adopting.  I thought that was nice, but never really thought anything else about it.  Of course you have an instant connection to others who have adopted and maybe an even closer connection to others who are adopting from the same country you are, but today I experienced genuine community. 

Today could of possibly been one of the most frustrating days for me in our adoption process.  Yesterday we received our final document that we have been waiting on, so that we can send everything off and go on the waiting list.  I won’t bore you with all the details.  Anyways, I went to The Rutherford County Clerk, so that could authenticate that our notary was legit.  Upon arrival I was told that it was $7.00 dollars a document.  Even the lady behind the counter felt bad charging me $126.00 dollars to print 18 pieces of paper and sign them.  Once I completed this task, I then went to downtown Nashville for the to authenticate that Rutherford County could authenticate our notary.  Are you serious?  Their fee was a nominal $2.00 a paper.  I had more here to authenticate.  But here is where community happened. 

When the lady took my papers she asked if I was paying by check or cash, I promptly said, debit card, in which she promptly replied we don’t take those.  I said well I guess I will be going to an ATM huh, since my wife doesn’t allow me to carry a check book :)  A gentleman who was also their authenticating said how much do you need?  As I opened my wallet to look to see how much cash I had, he handed me a ten dollar bill.  He said hopefully you won’t have to leave, where are you adopting from.  I told him Ethiopia, and he told me he was adopting also.  The lady said it will be $44 dollars, and I looked in my wallet and smiled at him and said yeah I gotta run to the ATM, and proceeded to give him his $10 dollars back.  He refused and said hey we are here to help each other out right, God bless you, and walked off.

Community happens when people come together for a common cause.  God continues to blow me away with how people are so willing to be apart of this adoption!  Pray for us this weekend as we scan everything and send it off.  Wow God is so good. 

That is the question that was just asked to me when I opened my front door.  I then proceeded to tell him no, but he lived in Knoxville, that I lived here.  He then told me he was looking for the pastor.  I then again told him that was me.  I guess I am not getting as old as I feel sometimes. 

I meet part of his family at our garage sale.  They just moved here from Germany.  He is going to be coming to our college ministry on Wednesday.  I love meeting new neighbors. 

We are in a series as a church called Dare You To Move.  Here is what I contributed to the series!

Chris Hollomon from FBCSmyrna on Vimeo.

So it finally happened today.  Something I have been praying to happen for a while now.  We finally got our approval to bring an orphan into the United States of America!  Dawn called me this afternoon to give me the news.  I told her I needed her to bring the paper tonight to church for me to believe her!  It’s TRUE.  From here our paper work goes to Washing DC and we go on the waiting list for our referral.  WOW!  Makes it all so much more real now.  Gotta get some cash together now:)  I’m sure Dawn will post soon our adoption blog with details I have no idea about! 

This morning was one of my proudest moments in ministry.  It didn’t have anything to do with the amount of students we had this morning, the number of students we baptized this morning, or that I taught some life changing message from the stage.  This morning I had the opp0rtunity to release a high school senior into ministry.  Let me give you a little back ground to help you with the story. 

Four years ago our student ministry took a bold step in challenging our high school students to not just learn about their faith but to live out their faith weekly in our Sunday morning environments in what we call MaxImpact.  Each week we see high school students serving all over our campus, from preschool, children, and student ministries, or being the first face many people see as a greeter/usherand in our world cup cafe or to making sure people have an incredible experience in our worship environment for adults by being apart of our tech crew. 

About a year ago I approached a student who was serving in a ministry area where she wasn’t being stretched in her ministry.  Her name was Lauren.  I told Lauren I really believed God could do some amazing things with her in serving middle school students on Sunday morning.  To be honest I think she thought I was crazy because of how quiet and shy she could be at times.  All of last year it was incredible to see Lauren stretch herself by stepping up to help the adult in the room, or by substitute teaching when the teacher would be gone. 

At the end of last school year Lauren challenged me to allow her to take her own class to teach this year.  She told me she knows the material and was ready to teach.  This morning Lauren started just that.  She had her first class of students.  She came up to me this morning telling me what all she had studied and what supplies she needed.  To be honest she was more prepared than many adult workers I have seen before.  Thank you Lauren for stepping up and serving.  I know this year will be amazing for the students you serve, and the example you set for your adult helper in your class room :) 

Thank you to everyone who made our yard sale so successful!  We had a great day today, with a lot of traffic, and made over $1000.00!  Praise God for your generosity, your prayer, and your encouragement!