Sermon Leftovers

Thursday night at Camp Barakel, I talked with just the senior high guys. We discussed the direction of their lives by using a metaphor common to camp, the path. Here are the key ideas: 1. The paths you choose in life will determine your destination Every decision you make is a choice to follow a path that is leading you somewhere. Your life's destination will be the culmination of all those decisions. 2. Every path leads to a destination Some may think they can just "enjoy life" for a season and their decisions won't have consequences until they are "grown up". Wrong... If you choose the path of hard work and discipline your destination will be significantly different than he who chooses the path of parties and night life. 3. You may not see the destination, but you can see the path You must be careful about the path you walk as it may lead you somewhere different than you think. We used the youth from Proverbs 7 as an example. The path he chose L

Since I love lists, I often save good ones I find. A few years ago, I came across this one from Mark Waltz . He asked the following ten questions about spiritual formation in the church. Back then, I thought it would be fun to answer the questions from my perspective and then get feedback from you as to whether or not you see things like this? Looking back at my answers several years ago, I am at once encouraged because I still very much believe what I wrote then. However, I am also a bit frustrated because I'm not sure we've done an effective job in accomplishing some of the things I wrote about then. What do you think? Were these good answers then? Are they good answers now? Do we need to re-look at some of this stuff? 10 Questions to Ask about the Spiritual Transformation Process in Your Church 1. How is spiritual transformation defined in our church? The work of the Holy Spirit in transforming us to the image of Christ who is the perfect representation of the Father.