Treasuring Christ in the Home

Steve Wright, author of ReTHINK, Founder of InQuest Ministries, and a close personal friend in ministry, has become one of the foremost national leaders in connecting churches & families in a partnership where families are empowered to be the primary disciplers of their own children. It has had a revolutionary impact on churches around the nation. He has taken the helm on providing biblical, practical, and reproducible tools for equipping families to thrive, which in turn causes churches to thrive.

I have included a statement from Steve below, explaining a powerful tool he is offering to all of us who serve in the student ministry arena, and when we get involved...it will bless the nations for FREE! If you’re serious about Kingdom impact in the student world, you better read this and get on board!


...For the past 25 years I have had a front-row seat as a youth and family pastor serving in the local church, and God has placed a great burden on my heart for both the church and the family. My heart breaks as I see crumbling families in our churches and a disconnect that has developed between church and home. Parents often have no idea what their children are being taught and are seldom resourced to be primary disciplers of them. Anyone would have to admit that our strategy of reaching the next generation for Christ is simply not working.

I have also been increasingly burdened with what our youth and children are being taught. Four years ago, a national curriculum provider sent us a letter stating that they would not be covering the crucifixion because they felt it was too graphic. Christian Smith and other researchers have also clearly articulated how “therapeutic moralism” has creeped into our theology and teaching. Gen 6 was not written as a moral lesson for us to make better decisions, and John 6 wasn’t written so we would be reminded to share. Passages like these teach big truths about God and the Gospel, and these are the truths this next generation must hear.

Over the last couple of years, Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC has been working with other local church pastors and ministry leaders across the nation to develop a Gospel-centered curriculum that addresses the disconnect that is purposeful to connect the church and home. There are five distinctives that have guided us every step of this process.

·         Our content driver is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
·         We intentionally connect the church and the home.
·         The curriculum is unified, so all ages are learning the same stories and truths each week.
·         Teacher-friendly lesson plans include games, original songs, creative ideas, and even devotionals for your teachers.
·         We share our curriculum for free to nations, church plants and missionaries.

So how can you help?

1) Would you consider partnering with us by using this curriculum? Your church will find a savings of around 70% for K-12th grade by using Treasuring Christ Curriculum. Our curriculum was written for Providence Baptist and so we desire to share this resource with other local churches at as low of a price as possible. All purchases then allow us to give this resource away to the nations. We plan to begin translations in 2012.

2) Help us spread the word. If you would forward this email to several of your friends it would be a great help. We are 100% dependent on the power of the Gospel to move this message forward. You can read here what ministry leaders around the world are saying about Treasuring Christ.

3) If you have any question regarding Treasuring Christ curriculum please contact me personally.

It is a privilege to partner with you in ministry.

Family Discipleship,

Steve Wright
WWW.TreasuringChristonline.com


Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.

Until Every Nation Knows! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President/Founder
Mobilizing Students


LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN SERVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS IN 2011.


MISSION TRIPS:  7 LOCATIONS ON 5 CONTINENTS
(Puerto Rico, Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, Romania, Kenya, Philippines)

SHARING CHRIST - the only answer for the human condition
PLANTING CHURCHES - gathering converts around the Word of God to begin weekly Bible Studies
SERVING THE POOR - meeting physical needs

* All-inclusive, fully-staffed, you serve with your students & we handle all logistics,
pre & post trip devos/training, daily pics/blogs uploaded for trip reports, etc.

REGISTER FOR A MISSION TRIP TODAY


TREK-X:   A 4-YEAR JOURNEY FOR THE MISSIONAL STUDENT (18-25 year olds)

COLLEGE - completing bachelors/masters/seminary at the online university of your choice
DISCIPLESHIP - foundations, bible/theology, missions/worldview, personal evangelism/servant
leadership & spiritual disciplines
MISSIONS - travel the world on mission as a team.  (2 years in Nashville / 2 years international)

* Give your students a launching pad to change the world as they leave your ministry - - - TREK-X.
* Scholarships are available to students from ministries that are formally partnered with Trek-X.

APPLY FOR TREK-X 2011 (Apply early, but you must be 18-25 years old upon entry)
DISCOVER WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR MINISTRY TO BECOME A TREK-X PARTNER


WAYS TO CONNECT OR STAY INVOLVED:

www.mobilizingstudents.com
Trek-X
Chris White Band

Missional Student Ministry & The Family

So much of what I have shared in my last 2 blogs have been on the need to change the way we do student ministry, moving from Attractional-driven ministries to Missional-driven ministries. However, in my attempt to prod us to shift paradigms to a more biblical strategy, I neglected to mention the most important foundational principle that should guide our approach to any model of ministry...THE FAMILY. There are only 2 institutions in all the Bible that are ordained by God....marriage (the family), and the church.

Everything began with God. He created man in the garden, and said it wasn’t good for him to be alone (Gen 2:18). So, he creates a wife for Adam. God performs the very first marriage ceremony in the garden and blesses them with this command...”Be fruitful and multiply”. Family is God’s idea!

He designed family to be the basic common institution through which every individual would experience the love of God, share community, and be discipled to repeat this same experience with their future family....on down through the generations. Therefore, family is the basic fabric of all communities & civilizations worldwide. That’s why when the family is destroyed through sin (premarital sex, divorce, addictions, bad theology, etc.) the culture begins to fall apart. I believe everything negative that ends up on the nightly news is a result of people not having the Gospel, which trickles down to families falling apart. Then, when people don’t experience family the way God intended it, life just doesn’t work, and all types of distortions are birthed (homosexuality, same-sex marriages, shacking up, etc.) Most charities, social justice projects, entitlement programs, and humanitarian aid efforts, other than natural disaster relief, are built to meet the needs of the fallout from broken families.

We need to also remember, when God does something, he starts at the micro level and moves to the macro level. [ie: A baby is born & grows into an adult. Our skin replaces itself every 30 days, not in sheets of skin, but from the cell level. God started with a man (Abraham), built a family (Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob), and formed a nation (Israel), in order to reach all the NATIONS. Salvation starts at the heart and works itself outward, ultimately changing our entire lives.] God is always working from small to large, or inside to out (which was my point about being missional rather than attractional in our ministries) Man, to marriage, to family, to the church, to community, to civilization, to the nations. This is what makes the Attractional model non-biblical. It tries to grow from the outside in, rather than the inside out.

Anyway, the family makes up the basic DNA of all our churches and is God’s design for passing on life at its fullest under the leadership of the Lord Himself. That being said, our student ministries must set our families up to succeed.

SOME THOUGHTS TO CONSIDER:
Biblically, God intends for parents to be the primary disciplers of their own children, not the youth pastor.
(Gen. 18:18-19; Deut. 4:9-10; 6:6-9; all of Proverbs; Mal. 4:6; Luke 1:17; Eph. 6:4; etc.)
We are not going to be connected to our students forever, their parents will.
All that we’ve taught or invested in students has little impact if it’s not modeled at home by their parents.
All statistics show that parents still rank as the highest influencer of their teens, over friends and culture.
Student pastors haven’t always existed. They are a recent phenomenon within the last 50 years.
So, we must consider that our role is secondary as a student pastor. We are not the all in all to the student. We should be equipping the parents to disciple their own students while we provide the secondary support and encouragement needed for true discipleship. Truth be told, if parents discipled their own students, our roles would diminish greatly. Maybe that’s a threat to you, but have you ever considered the total impact you could have & what your role might be with a super healthy, highly functional family structure in the homes of your students?

For further info on how to help parents succeed in discipling their own students, I’ve listed one of my very close friends and colleagues who has served the church for over 20 years. Their church has restructured their entire existence around total family impact. He is a forerunning leader in helping parents succeed as the primary disciplers of their own students. Feel free to connect with him for further Q&A.

STEVE WRIGHT
Author of “ReThink”, and Pastor of Parent & Family Discipleship
Providence Baptist Church; Raleigh, NC
CLICK TO CONNECT

May the Lord give you wisdom as you continue serving students & their families. Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.

Until Every Nation Knows! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President/Founder
Mobilizing Students

Student Ministry Must Change or Die! (PART 2)

Continuing from my last blog, I want to finish speaking on the process of “Moving from an ATTRACTIONAL driven student ministry to a MISSIONAL driven student ministry”. Since this is a topic very dear to my heart, as well as a touchy subject, I’ll try my best to be to the point in my explanation. Feel free to email or FaceBook me for personal dialogue. There was an overwhelming response to PART 1.


chriswhite@mobilizingstudents.com

I have broken this part into 3 sections which describe the process a person goes through when they come to faith in Christ and are discipled correctly. The Call, the Command, and the Commission. I want to use this process to help us in structuring a Missional Student Ministry.

1. THE CALL (Mt. 4:19, NIV)
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

JESUS IS ALWAYS THE INITIATOR IN SALVATION - He always seeks us. We don’t seek him. He came to earth to reach us, we didn’t beg him to come down & help us. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.” (John 15:16) We too should follow His example and go after the lost, rather than begging them to come to our stuff. That’s like going fishing and begging the fish to jump into the boat. Ridiculous! You just put the bait where the fish are...in the water. Pretty simple when you think about it. So we too must take the Gospel into dark places by training our students to share their faith with their friends...”where their friends are”. That leads us to the school campus.

As a student pastor, you can’t say you’re serious about reaching students unless you are heavily invested on your local area campuses, training your students how to reach their friends through clubs, personal evangelism, etc......BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE THE STUDENTS ARE!! Not all students will go to church, but all students go to school. So, the real question for us student pastors is...will you continue to be a keeper of the aquarium, or transition to a fisher of men? Because ultimately we teach by what we do, not what we say.

If we don’t teach students how to fish where they are, then not only are we not discipling them to become more like Christ (who said He would make them fishers of men), but we are crippling them spiritually by training them to become event junkies. This is unbiblical, unsustainable, and not reproducible by students. It should be no surprise to us that when our students graduate high school and leave our ministries for college, they tend to gravitate to the best event planners on their new campus...the Frat/Sorority House! (Free Pizza & Beer, Loud music, crazy games, and even co-ed lock-ins with JELL-O skits.....sound familiar? Except for the beer)

Points to Consider on the Call:
a. The “call is personal. Every believer is called to follow Christ. Our jobs, roles, tasks or careers may change over our lifetime, but our call never does. We are always called to follow, and that call is to a person....JESUS.

b. It’s the role of the Holy Spirit to draw the lost (John 6:44), not our events or free stuff. Let’s just take the Gospel to the lost, and let the Holy Spirit do the drawing through the gospel. We’ll be amazed at the results.

c. If the end result of following Jesus is that He will make us fishers of men, then why aren’t our ministries structured to train students how to fish? It’s time to change.


2. THE COMMAND (Mt. 22:36-40)
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

You’ve heard my heart on this for years. When we come to faith in Christ, we are called to deny ourselves daily and follow Him. The Great Commandment tells us HOW to follow. Loving God with all our heart is what we call worship. It’s our vertical pursuit of Him. Loving others as ourselves comes from the overflow of the first command of worship, resulting in loving our neighbor as ourselves. This is missions. When we follow Christ (our worship), we love others (our missions). Our worship fuels our missions. This commandment summed up the original Ten Commandments because the first 4 are vertical (love God/worship), and the last 6 are horizontal (love others/missions). This was the bomb God dropped on me as a student pastor that led me to begin Mobilizing Students and to begin leading worship in 2001. I am forever changed.

Points to Consider on the Command:
a. If effective evangelism or missions is lacking in our ministries, it’s evidence that our worship is not vertical but has turned horizontal, which becomes idolatry. When worship is vertical, we are fueled toward missions.

b. Missions is the heart of God. Christ was the greatest missionary ever. He left heaven, came to a foreign land, took on flesh, walked among a people who despised & rejected him, shared Truth, and they persecuted Him by nailing Him to a cross. He has modeled missions for us, and says that if we are following him, we will do the same...fish for the lost!

c. Loving others is not a duty. It becomes a love when it’s out of the overflow of our Christ worship. It becomes spiritually natural to give our lives away...just like Jesus did.

3. THE COMMISSION (Mt. 28:18-20, NIV)
"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

At the end of discipling His 12 chosen followers, Jesus gave them this commission. Although the language of the Great Commission is very familiar to us, revisiting the true meaning of the commission is helpful ...

ALL AUTHORITY
He possesses ALL authority, and if He lives in us, His authority is in us. Therefore, we are empowered with Kingdom authority to penetrate dark places with the Gospel.

THEREFORE GO
The action verb is to “GO”, not come and hear. We’ve reversed the great commission over the last 100 years in our evangelism efforts without even knowing it in our current models. We are to GO! We should train OUR disciples (students) the same way...to GO. Remember, a football coach never steps on the field, he just runs practice and then sends the team out on the field to play the game. Student pastors are head coaches who are to equip the players for works of service.

MAKE DISCIPLES
He says MAKE disciples, not converts. Our mode of stadium/event evangelism may produce converts, but not disciples. Disciples are harder to make in our current ministry structures because we’re built for events. Discipleship can’t happen in an hour on Sunday. It just doesn’t. It requires life on life investment, but once it starts reproducing, it’s exponential.

ALL NATIONS
That’s international missions. The best way to jump-start your students to live missionally in your local area is to expose them to global missions encounters worldwide. Mission trips creates a controlled crisis where students are out of their comfort zones, requiring them to depend on Christ for everything. Our 6-12th graders went overseas constantly and were never the same. Neither was I. If you’re not engaging your students in global missions but want to, let me know. We can make that a no-brainer process for you. If you have no desire to engage them overseas, then pray for discernment as to whether you truly know Christ. Furthermore, the reasoning that says “we don’t deserve to go over there until we’re doing it in our own backyard” is not valid. The Great Commission is a both and, not an either or, nor a successive pattern. We must go to our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost....ALL at the same time. Going international will jumpstart the desire to do missions locally & create vision for what can be done back home.

TEACH THEM EVERYTHING
This is the discipleship part of reaching the world. It requires engaging new believers in the process of reaching the lost. The best way to train someone to fish is to take them fishing. The best way to teach someone to shoot free-throws is to shoot free-throws with them. The best way to disciple a new believer is to take them fishing and help them do what you did with them. They will simply do what was done to them. That’s why our model must be to worship & fish, worship & fish, worship & fish. (Love God/Love Others).

I AM WITH YOU
This is Jesus’ promise to be engaged in the process with us, working in peoples’ lives, encouraging us when we grow weary. We must never give up. We are not alone! It is He who draws, He who saves, and He who keeps. He is Immanuel.

Points to Consider on the Commission:
a. The Commission is not a suggestion or even a great idea. It’s Christ’s final words, and is a command. Yet it is what we naturally want to do when our worship is vertical. If loving the world feels like a duty to you or your students, then there’s a worship problem, because true worship will naturally fuel a heart for the world.

b. We can’t follow Christ sitting still. He’s always moving, working, drawing, convicting, saving, sharing, blessing, and He wants to use each of our students in that process. The joy of knowing Christ is in the journey watching Him do His thing....transforming lives. If you’re truly following - you’re fishing.

c. We are commanded to GO. Stop begging the world to come to church. Train your students to GO to the world!


PRACTICAL ACTION STEPS FOR CREATING A MISSIONAL DRIVEN STUDENT MINISTRY:

1. IT BEGINS WITH YOU!
You must model missional living in your personal life. You have no credibility as a fitness trainer if you’re 50 pounds overweight because of the contradiction in lifestyle. It begins with us. Get alone with God and your student staff and pray for God to renew your passion for abiding in Him, and for the lost world. Ask Him to give you wisdom to restructure your ministry in a way that is biblical, simple, practical, and reproducible. All true growth takes place from the inside out, not outside in. (Worship/inside - Missions/outside)

2. CREATE PURE STUDENT ENVIRONMENTS
Don’t pollute your weekly time with your students by piling several purposes into one gathering.

- Create a WORSHIP environment for believers to go deep in the Word, where they
can be fueled by the Holy Spirit. (side note)...In our world of over-polished entertainment driven student ministry, let this time be a raw, un-produced time of authentic worship where Bible study, scripture memorization, personal testimonies, and celebrating friends who’ve come to Christ are enjoyed. It should feel like a family reunion.

- Then Create a MISSIONS TRAINING/DISCIPLING mechanism for students to be equipped & encouraged to live for Christ. Be strategic in helping them reach their campus. Map out their schools, identify the school population, place students in groups based on their school, make a list of all students at school & pray over them, help students find ways to serve the school, train them to run a campus club that shares the Gospel with students regularly. It’s really pretty easy.

3. EMBRACE THE SCHOOL CAMPUS
Regardless of your past experiences or current barriers, the campus should be your ministry focus if your serious about truly affecting and reaching students with the Gospel. I personally believe there is simply no better, more effective campus strategy in the world than First Priority. It is the only campus ministry in existence that doesn’t bypass the local church to get to students. It starts with the local churches, trains the student pastors, who then train their students to reach their campus. At one of my first churches as student pastor, several other student pastors and I started FP on 6 campuses in a small town in South Carolina. Each campus averaged over 30 students/month coming to Christ. That’s 180 students per month being saved x 9 months of the school year. We witnessed over 1600 students saved that year, all by students we trained to share on their campuses. It’s amazing what happens when you fish where the fish are.

4. THOUGH OUR MINDS MUST CHANGE IMMEDIATELY, BE PATIENT WHEN TRANSITIONING YOUR MINISTRY.

5. GOD IS SOVEREIGN AND WORKS IN SPITE OF OUR MODELS OF MINISTRY BECAUSE HE HONORS HIS WORD &
HIS SERVANTS.

6. I DON'T EXPECT ALL OF YOU TO AGREE WITH ME, BUT I LOVE YOU ANYWAY. :)

If you’re really interested in moving toward a missional-driven student ministry and just need to flesh it out or talk it through, please feel free to contact me via email or FaceBook. I would love to help any way possible.

chriswhite@mobilizingstudents.com
FaceBook Me


Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.

Until Every Nation Knows! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President/Founder
Mobilizing Students


LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN SERVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS IN 2011.


MISSION TRIPS: 7 LOCATIONS ON 5 CONTINENTS
(Puerto Rico, Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, Romania, Kenya, Philippines)

SHARING CHRIST - the only answer for the human condition
PLANTING CHURCHES - gathering converts around the Word of God to begin weekly Bible Studies
SERVING THE POOR - meeting physical needs

* All-inclusive, fully-staffed, you serve with your students & we handle all logistics,
pre & post trip devos/training, daily pics/blogs uploaded for trip reports, etc.

REGISTER FOR A MISSION TRIP TODAY at www.mobilizingstudents.com


TREK-X: A 4-YEAR JOURNEY FOR THE MISSIONAL STUDENT (18-25 year olds)

COLLEGE - completing bachelors/masters/seminary at the online university of your choice
DISCIPLESHIP - foundations, bible/theology, missions/worldview, personal evangelism/servant
leadership & spiritual disciplines
MISSIONS - travel the world on mission as a team. (2 years in Nashville / 2 years international)

* Give your students a launching pad to change the world as they leave your ministry - - - TREK-X.
* Scholarships are available to students from ministries that are formally partnered with Trek-X.

APPLY FOR TREK-X 2011 (Apply early, but you must be 18-25 years old upon entry)
www.trek-x.com


WAYS TO CONNECT OR STAY INVOLVED:

Facebook
Email - chriswhite@mobilizingstudents.com
Twitter - www.twitter.com/ChrisWhite_X

Read more…

Student Ministry Must Change or Die! (PART 1)

As I begin this blog entry, let me first lay out some disclaimers to all who will read this.

I was raised in ministry as a preacher’s kid & I’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly from within the church; therefore, I’m somewhat jaded.
I love the church, Christ’s body...but I have zero tolerance for religion.
I speak from 20 years of student ministry experience as a student pastor, worship leader, and missionary.
I was a part of the problem for a long time by repeating what I saw others doing.
Spending time on several continents among the church has convinced me that American Christianity doesn’t work in the rest of the world.
I refuse to remain silent any longer about this issue. I believe we need a 2nd Reformation within the church in the western world....and quick.
I have an intense sense of urgency to sound the call to change, so we can engage the Kingdom Dream of Christ’s agenda to redeem the lost from every nation, tribe, & language.

So....with these precursors, I begin my rant.

There are roughly 30 million teenagers in the US. All evangelical churches, youth groups, Christian concerts, retreats, events, Disciple Nows, crusades, conferences, camps, etc. reach only 12% of them (3.6 million). According to Barna Research Group, out of the 12% that we do reach, 88% of those who spend 6 years in our student ministry never come back to church after graduating high school. That means that of the 30 million teens in America, we are reaching & discipling only 432,000 students nationwide. That’s a mere .014% (not even half of 1%). Pretty pitiful. Ironically, we have larger churches, larger budgets, greater technology, highly trained & paid staff, multi-million dollar buildings to house all our programs, and free give-aways to entice them to show up....Yet, less and less are showing up. We are actually reaching less students per capita than ever before. I say it’s way past time for Student Ministry in America to change! Enough is enough! Students, by a vote of their lack of presence, have declared student ministry a waste of their time.

With these kind of numbers, I’m declaring that we put a death nail in the coffin of our current models of student ministry. It’s simply NOT WORKING!!!! We wouldn’t stand for this type of return on our investment in any other area of our lives. We must move from a a worldly, non-bibilical “ATTRACTIONAL” model, to a biblical “MISSIONAL” model of ministry. Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men.” (Mt. 4:19). He DID NOT say, “come with me to my church and I’ll give you free pizza and an Xbox 360 for coming.”

The “Do whatever it takes to fill the room, so we can share Jesus with the lost” mentality is a worldly, non-biblical model adopted by an affluent, entertainment-driven culture. And it doesn’t work anywhere else in the entire world except America. I believe our current model is really a reversal of the Great Commission from “Go Tell” to “Come and Hear” and therefore, costly & ineffective in producing disciples that make disciples.

On top of this, many student pastors are killing themselves to get all the church programs done to perfection, while their own families are struggling for time together, their own children go neglected, and the busyness can open doors to isolation, private addictions & ultimately burn-out. I can’t tell you the number of student pastors that pull me aside when I’m leading worship for their events, to tell me they are dying inside, but they don’t know how to get out off the merry-go-round.

There is a better way, which is less expensive, takes less effort, and produces exponential growth & global impact. I will explain how we can make this change in my next blog. I’ll leave you to brew until then, but know this...STUDENT MINISTRY MUST CHANGE OR DIE!

Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.

Until Every Nation Knows! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President/Founder
Mobilizing Students
WWW.MOBILIZINGSTUDENTS.COM


LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN SERVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS IN 2011.


MISSION TRIPS:  7 LOCATIONS ON 5 CONTINENTS
(Puerto Rico, Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, Romania, Kenya, Philippines)

SHARING CHRIST - the only answer for the human condition
PLANTING CHURCHES - gathering converts around the Word of God to begin weekly Bible Studies
SERVING THE POOR - meeting physical needs

* All-inclusive, fully-staffed, you serve with your students & we handle all logistics,
pre & post trip devos/training, daily pics/blogs uploaded for trip reports, etc.

REGISTER FOR A MISSION TRIP TODAY


TREK-X:   A 4-YEAR JOURNEY FOR THE MISSIONAL STUDENT (18-25 year olds)

COLLEGE - completing bachelors/masters/seminary at the online university of your choice
DISCIPLESHIP - foundations, bible/theology, missions/worldview, personal evangelism/servant
leadership & spiritual disciplines
MISSIONS - travel the world on mission as a team.  (2 years in Nashville / 2 years international)

* Give your students a launching pad to change the world as they leave your ministry - - - TREK-X.
* Scholarships are available to students from ministries that are formally partnered with Trek-X.  

APPLY FOR TREK-X 2011 (Apply early, but you must be 18-25 years old upon entry)
DISCOVER WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR MINISTRY TO BECOME A TREK-X PARTNER


WAYS TO CONNECT OR STAY INVOLVED:

FaceBook Pages (MOBILIZING STUDENTS / TREK-X / CHRIS WHITE BAND)
PURCHASE the new live album by the CHRISWHITEBAND called “Stronger”.(WWW.CHRISWHITEBAND.COM)

Welcome to the Fall?

Today is a beautiful day! Crisp mornings, changing leaves, football & hot chili by the fire...which all serve to welcome in a new season we call “Fall”. This time of year is so wonderful, and reminds me that we are no longer living on the surface of the sun as we did this summer. It’s also a reminder that many things go into dormancy (like my grass & flowers), or they simply die altogether (leaves on the trees).

As I’ve journeyed through the scriptures the past few months with our Trek-Xers, I have been so reminded of the seriousness of the “Fall” of man. How at that very point, many things died with such absolute completeness, never to return until Christ returns. Sin in the garden plunged mankind into deep separation and isolation from a perfect relationship with God. It ruptured the God-created order of the universe and birthed a fatal cancer that is still plaguing the human race. It’s called sin! A topic that many pastors, including Joel O’steen himself refuses to preach. But that sin, is what makes Christ’s coming in the flesh such incredible news!! If he came just to help us live our best life now, then he is nothing more than a motivational guru or personal fitness trainer. However, He came to destroy the works of the devil, and set captives free from the bondage of sin and the curse handed down to us from our original parents in the garden...because SIN IS REAL. Sin kills, it steals, and it destroys our lives.

We see it in the more than 50% of marriages that end in divorce in America. It’s why 2 out of 3 students grow up in America without a dad in the home. It’s why we have gated communities, locks on the doors of our homes & cars, and why we have passwords on our computers. It what makes the evening news, and why bad things happen to supposed good people. It’s what keeps entire countries, towns, and villages around the world in grinding poverty. It’s even why we wear clothes. It’s all around us, yet we grow very comfortable with our sin. We manage it. We embrace it. We make excuses for it.

However, our God is greater than all our sin and offers freedom from it’s condemning effect, as well as it’s grip upon our very lives. It is also why we as believer’s and true disciples of Christ must proclaim the Gospel to the nations, bringing light to dark places, and offering the Gospel to those held captive by sin. We are His ambassadors.

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1John 3:7-10)

I pray that we may be marked for Christ as the children of God, throwing off everything and the sin that so easily entangles, so we can live unashamed lives for the Name of Christ...and ultimately be the bearer of good news. That Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, who has come to set men free and destroy the works of the devil. Sin has lost it’s power, death has lost it’s sting!

I pray we all evaluate our lives as the psalmist did when he said,

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting."

So, this Fall...enjoy the changing of the seasons like I plan to, but I pray it reminds us all of a bigger theme in our world. Man has fallen, and he can’t get up! Will you join Christ in his work of redeeming lost humanity for the glory of God?

Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.



- - - - - - LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN SERVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS IN 2011 - - - - -

MISSION TRIPS: 7 LOCATIONS ON 5 CONTINENTS
(Puerto Rico, Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, Romania, Kenya, Philippines)

SHARING CHRIST - the only answer for the human condition
PLANTING CHURCHES - gathering converts around the Word of God to begin weekly Bible Studies
SERVING THE POOR - meeting physical needs

* All-inclusive, fully-staffed, you serve with your students & we handle all logistics,
pre & post trip devos/training, daily pics/blogs uploaded for trip reports, etc.


TREK-X: A 4-YEAR JOURNEY FOR THE MISSIONAL STUDENT (18-25 year olds)

COLLEGE - completing bachelors/masters/seminary at the online university of your choice
DISCIPLESHIP - foundations, bible/theology, missions/worldview, personal evangelism/servant
leadership & spiritual disciplines
MISSIONS - travel the world on mission as a team. (2 years in Nashville / 2 years international)

* Give your students a launching pad to change the world as they leave your ministry - TREK-X.
* Scholarships are available to students from ministries who are formally partnered with Trek-X.

APPLY FOR TREK-X 2011 (Apply early, but you must be 18-25 years old upon entry)
DISCOVER WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR MINISTRY TO BECOME A TREK-X PARTNER

VISIT WWW.MOBILIZINGSTUDENTS.COM


Until Every Nation Knows!! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President
Mobilizing Students, Inc.
www.mobilizingstudents.com
404.428.8152
FaceBook Pages: Chris White, Mobilizing Students, Trek-X, and Chris White Band

SUBSCRIBE TO CHRIS' BLOG AT:
feed://www.mobilizingstudents.com/ms/Mobilizing_Students/blogs/rss.xml

2011 Mission Trips & Trek-X Opportunities

Do you crave to see your students “get it” spiritually? Do you wish they had a passion for things that matter eternally? Engage them in missions in 2011, and watch the climate & core of your student ministry change before your very eyes. Nothing jolts students out of their self-absorbed American Dream and towards compassionate, missional living like MISSIONS EXPERIENCES. Think about it! Pray about it! And then...

LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN SERVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS IN 2011.


MISSION TRIPS:  7 LOCATIONS ON 5 CONTINENTS
(Puerto Rico, Haiti, Guatemala, Brazil, Romania, Kenya, Philippines)

SHARING CHRIST - the only answer for the human condition

PLANTING CHURCHES - gathering new believers around the Word of God to begin
weekly Bible Studies that will morph into house churches

SERVING THE POOR - meeting physical needs

* All-inclusive, fully-staffed, you serve with your students & we handle all
logistics, pre & post trip devos/training, daily pics/blogs uploaded for trip
reports, etc.

REGISTER YOUR GROUP TODAY


TREK-X:   A 4-YEAR JOURNEY FOR THE MISSIONAL STUDENT (18-25 year olds)

COLLEGE - completing bachelors/masters/seminary at the online university of your choice
DISCIPLESHIP - foundations, bible/theology, missions/worldview, personal evangelism/servant leadership & spiritual disciplines
MISSIONS - travel the world on mission as a team. (2 yrs in US / 2 yrs Abroad)

* Give your students a launching pad to change the world as they leave your
ministry - - - TREK-X.
* Scholarships are available to students who are from ministries that are formally
partnered with Trek-X.  

BECOME A TREK-X PARTNER
APPLY FOR TREK-X 2011 (You can apply early, but you must be 18-25 years old upon entry)


Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.

Until Every Nation Knows! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President/Founder
Mobilizing Students
trekx@mobilizingstudents.com

Trek-X: The Journey Begins!

The last 2 mornings of Trek-X have been sweetly clothed with the presence of Christ as we have met to read the Bible, pray, and memorize scriptures. Exercising these basic spiritual disciplines will help build a strong, solid spiritual DNA in each students' heart.

We have also been challenged by stories of the persecuted church in various countries, which serves to sober our minds to the war we are engaged in daily. The war for souls, for our purity, for our sanity, for our families, for our time/schedule, and for our witness. As we read these stories of men, women, & students who are beheaded, hung, burned alive, decapitated, shot, or tortured relentlessly, we are reminded that the world and it's system is directly opposed to the message of the Cross...to Christ...and to us! Yet, within each story we see a common denominator of unnatural boldness (like Peter & John in Acts 4), an unusual devotion to the person of Christ, and an unwavering faith that He is the only thing True, Real, and Lasting.

As we continue this Trek-X journey together with our very first students, I am excited to see where the Lord will take us. In my heart, all I want is to make disciples who are deeply rooted in the Truth, hungry for only that which lasts in this world, devoted to Christ with increasing faith & servitude, equipped to effectively share their faith in any environment, and willing to lay it all on the line for the sake of the Gospel...all over the world.

Pray with us that God will guide each of their journeys to a fulfillment of these things. It is risky, costly, and self-denying, but isn't that supposed to be the basic norm as a believer?

Pray with us that God will awaken this generation of students to a higher aim for their lives. A call to a life like no other. Something bigger than them, and more rewarding that settling into the American Dreams and processes that leave us empty.

We are praying for students to join us on this journey in 2011. Anyone interested can apply at www.trek-x.com. NO WIMPS ALLOWED!