Church Family,
I have spent the past few days reflecting on Dr. Ross’s message to our church body last weekend. For our Family Connection Sunday, Dr. Ross come up from Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth and he gave a challenging message about how to best raise the next generation to follow Christ.
What I found both encouraging and challenging was his simple exhortation. He pointed out that the best way to make sure the next generation is following Jesus is to search our own hearts and make sure we want to live for God’s glory above our own. He challenged us to all make sure we were disciples of Jesus, not converts. In Dr. Ross’s words, converts are people who attend church and follow God for their benefit, not His. Disciples, on the other hand, live for God and care about bringing Him glory over their own comfort.
It was a pretty simple message, but I know it was convicting to me. So often, we worry about our kids and grandkids following the Lord. However, Dr. Ross made sure that we all understood that it starts with our own hearts! We need to passionately live for Jesus and make sure that we share that truth with the next generation! I wanted to challenge you with a couple of different ways to passionately live for Jesus and serve the church in the days ahead.
First, you can volunteer with our First Impressions team. With Andrew leaving to go and serve at the Food Bank, we are bringing on Logan Mills as our Interim Director of College and Outreach. Logan is in need of some volunteers to serve on our First Impressions team and greet guests and members as they come on campus each Sunday.
Second, we need volunteers to help pick up donations from St. Louis Bread Co. on Saturday evenings. Every Saturday evening, we have volunteers that pick up bread from Bread Co. that we distribute through Meals on Wheels and also give away on Sunday mornings. If you would be willing to pick up this bread on Saturday evenings, please reach out to Donna Potts. We love serving our community through Meals on Wheels and this weekly donation from St. Louis Bread Co. really helps!
Finally, when it comes to instilling the truth in our next generation, we need more volunteers for our youth and children’s ministries! From serving in the nursery to listening to kids share their verses during AWANA, there are a lot of ways that you can volunteer and help disciple the next generation. Please talk with Kathy or Kyle to learn more about ways you can volunteer and serve the next generation!
I hope you were challenged and encouraged by Dr. Ross. Please join me in praying that we will be a church that lives out our faith!
In Him,
Pastor Zach Crook