Disciple Now

February 4, 2010

superstippy Youth Ministry , Leave a comment

Disciple Now. What is there to say about it? It is a blast of a weekend, but it takes a lot out of you.

For those of you who don’t know what a Disciple Now is, here is a quick explanation:

Our kids sign up to go stay in a home with their friends for a weekend. People from the church open up their homes for students to be able to do this. This year we have 39 homes. People from the church offer up their cars to cart kids around all weekend. This year we had need for 330 seats. People volunteer to cook/deliver food to all of the 39 homes. We bring in a leader for each home to lead the students through a Bible study through the course of the weekend. They come from all over the state, and we even have a young lady flying in at midnight tonight just to hang out with some 6th grade girls for the weekend. There is a group of ladies who coordinate all of this so that it is not mass chaos. They are awesome. And funny. Many people donate money to scholarship some kids to be able to go, and to help with food.

Like I said…that’s a very brief overview. There are probably a lot of people, and a lot of jobs I left out…but you get the gist…

So tonight we had our Thursday night kick-off, and it went really well. One of our senior girls put every guy in our youth ministry to shame by eating some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen. I met with my guys to talk about the weekend, and they all seem really excited for the weekend. I know I am.

So anyway. I’m writing this tonight to ask you to be praying for this weekend. For the students. For the leaders. For the host homes. For the transportation. For food coordinators. For the many people who make things happen administratively. For the worship leader and speaker for Saturday night. And anyone and anything I’m leaving off. This is a big weekend in the lives of our students that can have a huge impact on them.

Thanks so much guys! Have a great weekend!

-Stippick

Jesus is on my dance card

February 4, 2010

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A dance card was used by women way back in the day at a formal ball, and she listed there the men she intended to dance with, and in what order. The first usually being the person she had the most interest in, and then going down from there…I think you get the idea.

So. Jesus is on my dance card. He literally makes me want to dance sometimes. Sometimes it’s a jig (like when I listen to “Wake Up, Oh Sleeper” by Bear Rinehart, Jason Crabb, and Jonathan Shelton), and sometimes I’d like to have a slow dance. With Him (like when I heard the song “Here I am to Worship” tonight).

That thing about the jig dancing has been around for a while. When I got the second Glory Revealed cd, I heard that song, and it put a little something extra in my step…so I put it on a speaker for my roommates, and Jacob, Braxton and I danced our hearts out. To Jesus. So, rest assured, if you ever see me with headphones and I look like I’m having a spaz attack, I’m actually listening to that song, and Jesus and I are having a party. Or, if you hear the fiddle music coming from my speaker…that’s probably it…

So tonight, I’m at Shockwave (our youth service here at First Baptist Georgetown), and we sang the song “Here I Am To Worship”. I like that song a lot. But tonight, a certain line caught me. The one where it says

You’re altogether lovely…

There was just something about it that caught my ear, and made me want to do a waltz, or something with Jesus. The word lovely is one I imagine a man using to describe the woman he is with (wife/girlfriend/date…whatever the case may be) at some formal event where there is formal dancing.

Jesus is lovely. So lovely.

So I’m sitting there thinking how nice it would be to dance with Jesus, and I had to physically stop myself from dancing by myself right there in the back of the Shockwave room. Because. That’d be weird. Right? That was what I thought. But then I thought of 2 Samuel 6:14. (Something you should know: Sometimes I say “…and then I thought of (insert Bible verse here)…”, 9.9 times out of 10, I did not really think of that verse right off the top of my head. I more than likely thought of a story, and went searching for the verse.)

So. I thought of that time David was dancing (I’ve always heard that he was dancing naked. But both of the translations I looked at (NASB, and ESV), said that he had on a linen ephod. I have no idea what an ephod is.) when they brought the ark into Jerusalem. This just happens to be in chapter 6, verse 14.

Long story short, they are finally bringing the ark of God to the City of David, and this one guy touches it, and God kills him, and David gets upset, so he doesn’t take it all the way to theCity of David, but when it blessed the place he left it, he brought it to the City of David, and he danced a jig. That’s what I got out of it…

David was a man after God’s own heart. He was all kinds of screwed up, and sinned a ton (me too…), but he was always trying to figure out how he could best love the Lord. So. When he brings the ark into Jerusalem…he is so stinkin’ happy and overcome with love and joy…that he dances.

So. Even though it will probably look funny, I think you should expect to see me dancing more in the near future. When I get over the fact that it will be socially looked down upon.

And. I can’t wait until I get to dance with Jesus. Forever.

-Stippick

No Words…

August 26, 2008

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That’s how I’ve felt about this post as I’ve been thinking about how to write it over the past couple. Obviously, there are some words…I just don’t feel like they do justice to what I want to say. So yes, there are words…I just really liked that tile…Hold on, I’ve got to catch this rabbit REAL quick…

In all seriousness though. This past Sunday was my first Sunday back at First Baptist Georgetown (FBCgT), and it was great to see some people that I had not seen in a long time. The new bulletins were cool, and they had added some new intelligent lighing All very cool stuff.

During the worship music time, we sang two songs off of the God of this City  cd from the Passion movement, the title track “God of This City”, and “Hosanna”. I bought this cd back when it first came out a couple months ago, and it is worth every cent. These guys know how to lead people in singing worship to our savior! So anyway…I walked away with something very cool from these two songs, after the service.

As most of you know, I have been working with the youth there for the past two years (minus this summer when I took an internship at Austin Baptist Church), and it has been a great experience. I love all of those kids, an it has been great to see a lot of them grow over the past few years. In the song “Hosanna”(as made famous by Hillsong), there is a line that says “I see a generation, rising up to take their place, with selfless faith”, and when that line came accross I was just kind of watching some of the youth worship, and five or six names of youth who are doing that, just popped into my head, and I lifted up a prayer of thanks for those students. A lot of people feel as though my “generation” and some younger are only interested in themselves, and that we’re going to the dogs. I myself sometimes get frustrated with the students I work with knowing that they know better than some decisions that they make. When I heard that though, it was just a really cool thing to experience.

The last song we did was God of This City (as made famous by Chris Tomlin who got it from this band Bluetree). I heart this song. I think it is an incredible anthem for this generation believers. They started singing it in Shockwave (the Wednesday night youth sevice at FBCgT) a while back, and the students love it. I don’t know how often (if at all) they have done it in the Sunday morning service, but from what I could see it did not look like many people knew it. Then out of no where, students bgan to stand up singing the song, and lifting their hands in praise to God. It was an AWESOME sight! Because they knew it, they were able to worship with abandon, and really basically lead the cngregation in terms of worship without thought to anyone else but themself anf their Jesus.

I atribute this to the series they just wrapped up “The Shockwave Worship Experience” which I was not there for, but have heard A LOT of great things about what it has done for those stdents in the way they view worship. Anyway though…I just really wanted to share that (and yes, honsetly, kind of brag on these sutdents) because it was a cool thing for me to experience right before I take off).

 

Still being amazed,

David

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