What Will “Uprising” Look Like?

In organizing the student outreach on Friday nights, a consistent goal has been to avoid an entertainment-centric style of “ministry.” We’ve deliberately wanted to focus on the Word as the only guide for showing us how to go about a youth outreach. So, as I said last Sunday, we’re not doing this to entertain the students, or give them a “positive social atmosphere.” We’re doing this to proclaim the truths of Scripture into their lives. They’ll make friends, so I guess it’ll be social. Hopefully they’ll be interested, so in a way it will be entertaining. But those are by-products of a greater goal.

In this post I’ll summarize what the Friday night outreach will look like.

Worship/Singing

Michael Cassinari and Nate Cornett will be starting out our time each evening with a set of prepared and corporate music. The design of this is two-fold 1) to help the Christian students to see God as He is, so that they might worship Him in truth each evening. 2) For the non-Christian, we want to show them through the lyrics in each song why God alone is worthy of their worship. The prepared music is not designed to be merely performed for the audience’s appreciation; as Mike and Nate sing their prepared music, their desire is that the students would seriously consider the content of each song and the truth conveyed therein.

Introduction to Teaching

After the worship is done, Jeff and I will be introducing the topic for each evening. There will be much question asking and discussion, so come prepared to ask good questions and answer ours. We’ll also be complimenting the teaching with photos/videos/whatever seems useful. For instance, tonight we’ll have several photos showing different examples of worship in our society. You might be surprised at how universal worship really is!

The intention during this time is to show Christians and non-Christians the truths of the Word in such a way that its applicable to the way they think, feel, and act in their everyday lives. Obviously what the Word says to a believer will be different than a non-believer. Our intent is to address both; not ignore one or the other.

Discussion

After about 10-15 minutes of introductory teaching and large group discussion, we’ll break out into small groups. Kevin Zylka, Danny Cornett, and Judith Miller will be leading the junior high small group. Jeff Cornett will be leading the students in high school, and Natalie and I will be leading the college students. The intent of this time is to reinforce the main teaching in each age group; the way a junior high student views worship is different from a college student. Their circumstances are different. As such, we’ll be aiming to contextualize the teaching in the discussion time, as well as address any questions and concerns the students have.

Final Teaching

Finally, all of the groups will join back together for a final teaching time, where Jeff and I will continue the teaching. For instance, tonight I want to make a strong argument for the universality of worship (everyone does it), and then who or what should be given worship. This will lead into a time of Q&A where the students will be able to ask questions verbally or text questions into a number that will be displayed on the projector screen. Any and all questions texted to that number will be answered over the weekend, and certain ones will be chosen to be displayed and answered in front of the students.

Fellowship/Games

Following the Q&A time, we’ll have food for everyone and games for anyone that wants to participate. We’ll be around to talk and answer any more questions that the students have… I personally will be there probably an hour or two after the event ends to answer questions and just to chat.

Discipleship

The larger goal is not to have good events every other week, but rather to create a culture of discipleship among the students whereby they are encouraged to pursue Christ for themselves based on their own motivation and joy in Him. For the non-Christian, we want to be able to maintain contact throughout the week, form friendships, and answer any and all questions they might have about Christianity. A lot of this will involve Jeff and I texting like never before; hopefully we’ll get a chance to spend time with the students during the week, so that discipleship can continue.

We’re excited about this. And we realize that this is just as much for us as it is for any of the students. We will learn from the student’s questions, our own study, and our friendships beginning and growing deeper as time goes on. At a fundamental level, this is for everyone, both volunteers, students, adults that want to come and observe… everyone. Because the whole body needs to be encouraged and strengthened. We’re looking forward to serving the Lord Christ faithfully to be made into better disciples and help others do the same!

Posted on 10/09/2009 under Daniel Viezbicke's Blog. Comments RSS feed.
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