Disciples Who Hear God's Voice

One of the most meaningful parts of my young Christian life was the youth group that I was a part of. It was not a part of a big-budget church, and it didn’t grow by hype or excitement. I believe God was doing something real in that youth group in the late 90s.  I’ve told the church a few times that I think something is happening in our own youth group at Wellspring. I’ve gotten to hear some of the testimonies of the kids hearing from God. We’ve all seen some of the baptisms, and if you’re at the 11am service on Sundays, you have seen our youth worshipping passionately. Many of you may even have heard that our youth teamed up with some other young believers to put on a youth-planned, youth-led worship event at the end of last school year! This Sunday, I want to highlight the youth group in a special way and give the youth a chance to take a little more ownership in the Sunday service. That is why we hatched a plan called Youth Takeover Sunday. The youth group already does a youth t...

It has been a week and a half since Charlie Kirk was killed. Probably, by now you have watched enough videos and read enough articles to process things. On Sunday, last week, I talked openly about my process of dealing with all of this. Therefore, this post is not going to be more of the same. Instead, I want to use this post to talk through something I've heard from numerous people in the last week and I have thought and felt myself.  This week, I heard at least three people say that their social media consumption was beginning to be a problem for them. Several of the people I heard say this are mature Christians who I would be happy to have leading ministries at the church. Nevertheless, they identified what you call "doom scrolling" as a major waste of their time and dulling agent for their spirits.  I know that dulling power all too well. However, in many cases, the effect of all the doom scrolling is much worse than just dulling. I have also encountered people who ar...

In 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, Paul addresses a problem in the Corinthian church where they were becoming little denominations within their church, following one or another leader. Paul famously describes the development of the Corinthian church when he says that he planted, and another leader came later who “watered,” but it was God all along won made the church grow. I don’t know for sure that what I’m about to say is really how it works, but I’ve always had this loose theory about planting and watering: For years, I’ve gone out to do street evangelism, and all along, this one scenario would often play out. One day, I would share the gospel with a person, but they'ed be closed to it. I’d always feel a bit dissatisfied, wishing I could see a person go from not believing to believing in a snap.  Then some other time, a different person would come along who was ready to give their life to Jesus, so I’d lead them in prayer. Ironically. I’d still feel dissatisfied because it seemed like some...