I was thinking back over 2007 and realized that I have a lot of really neat ministry stories from this past year. Of course there’s been a lot of stretching times and growing experiences personally as my wife and I moved to this church in Minnesota last February, but it’s also been a year of seeing incredible life change in some of the most unexpected places. I had an encouraging story about a student last June, but another incredible story took place about two months ago that I’m still excited to share with anyone I can.

One of my stories
Two unchurched middle school girls were invited by a friend to come to our Wednesday night small group discipleship class. The discipleship small groups are pretty intense and dig fairly deep into the Word as they cover the entire Old Testament in one year and the entire New Testament the next year. By the time our jr. highers enter high school, they’re decently grounded in scripture and it’s interaction with daily life, which is incredible for our church kids, but not really the entry point you’d normally expect for unbelievers. Even so, these two girls started attending on a regular basis to listen to their small group’s discussion of Christ and the Bible. Soon they started asking questions (“You mean Mary had a kid without doing anything nasty?!”) and before long they even grew interested in the sermon notes the other jr. highers were taking as part of the discipleship program. On one Sunday morning, one of the girls tried to wake up her mom to get a ride to church, but her mom refused and went back to sleep. So, the girl called her small group leader instead and asked if she would pick her and her friend up and take them to church. Of course the small group leader was excited to do so and has been bringing them to church every Sunday since then. No formal profession of faith has taken place yet, but I’m confident that the interest these girls express for God and His Word will continue to grow and soon they’ll make decisions to trust Christ. It’s stories like this that keep me energized and passionate about youth ministry!

Your turn!
I’d love to hear your stories about how you’ve seen God work in students’ lives this past year or how God has worked in your life through them. Post in the comments below and share your stories with all of us. What did God do in your students during 2007? How did God use students to change YOU?

Posted on January 22, 2008