Opened Eyes

I'm not a blogger. All my life I have always had a hard time expressing my feelings to others. But here lately God has been speaking to my heart more than ever. I just can't contain this feeling any longer. He has blessed me beyond measure. What I am writing is literally just flowing out of me, so if it makes no sense, it's because it was not premeditated. Jesus has filled a void in my heart that I have had for a long time. Although I have always "believed" in Him, I always tended to keep the good news to myself thinking that as long as I know Him, it'll all be ok. NO! Jesus said to go into all the world making disciples for Him. He has kicked me in the butt and told me that my former thinking was crap. I realize now more than ever that I'm not here for me. I am sick and tired of living a selfish life that only glorified myself, and I am sick and tired of other "pew" sitters doing the exact same thing. I AM NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR LOVE JESUS. I AM NOTHING! I'm done keeping Jesus to myself. Jackie and I have been teaching the students about this - about the importance of staying positive when, not if, we go through hard times, serving each other, and just loving each other. Remember what Jesus said: Love each other. Call it the golden rule or whatever you want, but that is what we are to do. Do you like being treated like crap? Then don't do it to others! I'm am nearly in tears writing this blog. These words are not my own. Like I mentioned earlier, they are literally flowing out of me. I have no idea why I decided to blog for the first time in 6 months. I just know God is wanting me to express how powerful He is and what He has done for me. I am grateful for His Grace. I deserve death...Hell, but He had something else in store for me. I REFUSE TO STAND BEFORE HIM ONE DAY AND TELL HIM I DIDN'T DO ALL I COULD BECAUSE I WAS TOO DAMN SCARED. Yeah, I said damn. No idea why. I just did. That's how serious I am about reaching others. My absolute favorite verse in all of the bible is Acts 20:24. Paul said these words: "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Testifying to the gospel of God's grace...what exactly does that mean? It means telling others about the wonderful grace of God - how He forgives, how He loves! How is it that we as Christians are able to avoid Hell, a.k.a. eternal seperation from the presence of God? Because of His Grace! Again, I am nothing. He is everything. If you get offended from reading this, I could not care less. Stop and think about why you are offended. Because of my use of the word "Damn"? Quit lying to yourself. It's called conviction. What are we, as a church (the Body of Christ!), doing to reach the lost. I'm not talking about the GBC. I'm talking about the big picture. Easter is coming soon. In fact, we are meeting at Gibson Southern Monday to get things in order. Who have you invited? Who will you invite? If your answer is no one, then you're stupid. We WILL be held accountable to what we did to bring others to Christ. I'm just tired of the church sitting on it's butt getting spiritually fed week in and week out but doing no feeding. Look people, we know the word! We know the good news! We have Christ in our lives! What about the rest of the world?! What about our own community?! You are NOT too good to tell others about Christ. Is it uncomfortable? You better believe it is! Sorry for the novel of a rant, but I want to see us rise up as His body and move. Let's move! We are nothing. Jesus, You are everything. We give You glory. Thank you for putting up with all our crap and loving us and wanting us anyway. Let me leave you with one final thought. The first time I heard this, it truly pierced my heart. I have never forgotten it, and it speaks so loudly to me still to this day: God does NOT need us. He wants us! ...every one of us. Let's speak up. Let's speak loud. Let's speak NOW! The world needs Him!

Update

What's up? Wow, I haven't blogged for quite a while. Well, here is what has been, is, and is about to be going on with our youth here at the GBC:

In June, quite a few of us went to Honduras. It was mine and Jackie's first time to go, so we didn't know what to expect. After a week there, we fell in love with the Honduran children and weren't ready to come back home. It truly was a life changing experience for everyone, whether it was their first time or not. We all grew much closer spiritually that week. We made some new friends whom we didn't even really talk to here at church. The trip really opened our eyes to just how magnificent we have it here in the States. Praise God for supplying our financial needs and allowing us all to go.

Lately we have been doing fundraisers for our whitewater rafting trip to Gatlinburg July 23, 24, and 25. We have had cookouts and babysitting. We have found that the cookouts are what brings us in the most money. It's hard to raise a decent amount of money for each student when there are so many working each fundraiser. That's why we have continued the cookouts. As far as babysitting goes, it's not a huge money maker, but it's a blast. The kids we watch apparently have energy on reserve! Other than a fundraiser, we look a the babysitting as kind of a community outreach, in that it allows parents to be able to get away for an evening to themselves and have cheap childcare (It's donation based as well as the cookouts). All of the money from each fundraiser get divided equally among each student who worked. Our next babysitting will be this coming Saturday (July18), and the next cookout is the following day (July 19). So bring your kids Saturday night and go out to eat, to a movie, etc., and grab a burger or hot dog after either service Sunday!

As stated above, we will be going whitewater rafting in Gatlinburg, TN July 23, 24, and 25, but that's not all we'll be doing. We are going to camp, go to Wonder Works, and basically do anything they want to do. It'll be a blast.

The GB Summit is July 27, 28, and 29. Our youth will be helping run the cameras and video. Wednesday night we get to do our "Everything" skit in front of everyone. We thought we were only going to get to do it at one of the many workshops, but now over 1,500 people will get to see it!

Also, I just ordered curriculum for the start of our college ministry. We are very excited about this because currently our church offers nothing for the college age. We just had 5 graduate and are ready to take their descipleship training to the next level. We have also noticed other college aged people within our church who we would love to come. We are hoping to reach others outside our church as well.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to not take so long to blod next time.

Bart Wagner
Youth Minister
Ft. Branch GBC

consumed with Your majesty

As many of you know, we all just got back from the youth convention Acquire The Fire in Indy this past weekend. I, as well as everyone else, feel like it was a much needed event spiritually. We had some rededicate their lives to Jesus. Seriously, I wish everyone could have experienced it. There were around 15,000 youth that attended. Conseco Fieldhouse, for that day, became God's house. It's unexplainable just how powerful that place was that day. I consider events like this as kind of a pep-rally for our soul...and that it certainly was. We all grew much closer to not only God but to each other. We were all crying our eyes out worshiping the Most High. The Holy Spirit was alive in that place. It really is an unexplainable experience just being in a place filled with thousands of Christ followers. I am so proud of the teens. There was zero drama the entire weekend...no whining, griping...at least none out of the ordinary! haha It was the most amazing time. Thanks so much to our chaperones: My (Bart's) mom, Rob and Karen, Kevin and Richelle, and Andy. Thanks to you all for making this experience possible. Our prayer for that weekend and for our everyday lives is: Father, will you come, and open up our eyes, fill us with your heart, renew us with your life, consume us with your majesty. Glory, honor, and power belong to You.

DATE NIGHT FUNDRAISER

We had the "Date Night" fundraiser this past Saturday evening, and it was a blast. I believe we had 18 kids, but it felt like 300! haha It's amazing how much energy young kids have! Everything went great, and the youth had a terrific time. This was an excellent fundraiser for us for two reasons: 1. It gave parents a chance to get away by themselves allowing us to help in our local community (all parents need this - just ask Pastor Steve!) 2: It gave each youth responsibility for the night. I was stoked to see how well they did with everyone's children. And for all you parents who asked if we are going to keep doing this, the answer is yes. We do not currently have another one scheduled, but don't worry, we will! We have a whitewater rafting trip coming up in July, and we are wanting AMPED STUDENT MINISTRIES T-shirts, so we will have more Date Nights for you. The youth that helped got to split the proceeds evenly making it much more affordable to attend Acquire The Fire. Thanks to all the parents that trusted us with your children!

Acquire The Fire fundraisers

So the bakesale fundraiser went over quite well. We sold all but 5 items. I'm glad to see the youth working to help pay their way. This is good for them (not to mention for their parents' checkbooks). After all, that's how it works in the real world. Preparation is vital in my opinion. Does this mean they need to work their teenage years away? No. They need to enjoy that freedom, but responsibility and work are always good to have thrown in every now and then for something they want. I believe, in general, todays teens have too much just handed to them. It hasn't been that long since I was in highschool, and I had friends that got everything handed to them as well. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that I have seen the ramifications - ones that include constant phone calls from debt collectors to parents still bailing them out at the age of 25 and beyond. I believe that if we just help to plant the seed of responsibility now, it could continue to grow without them even realizing it's origin 5, 10, 20 years down the road.

STOKED!!!

HEY YOU GUYS!!! As the title suggests, we are totally stoked to be the new Youth Ministers. We felt God calling us to youth ministry from the very first week we came to check it out. For those of you that are part of our youth, you guys are amazing. For those of you who aren't, our youth are amazing. For those of you who would like to be, our youth are amazing. That's all for now. Did I mention that our youth are amazing? Well, they are.