Thursday, October 27, 2011

"More is Caught Than Taught Ministry"

This line was shared with me early when I got into ministry: "More is Caught Than Taught".  For the last couple years I have thought about how true this statement is.  I have invested the last eight and a half years of my life into spreading the Gospel; mainly to students.  Over these years I have seen hundreds of students come and go through the doors of our church.  As I think back to my internship and the hundreds of students at Eastlake Church that we ministered to there is only one student I keep in contact with.

After Eastlake Church I helped out with a church plant just north is a cool city called Encinitas.  I have to say that I have loosely kept in contact with one family from that church.  Being at South Hills Church for the last, almost, seven years I have had a chance to share the truth of the Bible with lots of people.  I think about these last seven years and I have a hard time believing that any of them can remember more than ten messages that I have shared.  Ok, lets be honest, I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who remembers more than five of the messages I have preached here.  To be honest, I would be stoked if there were a handful of people that remember one of the messages I have preached at our church.

(Indoor Skydiving with Spencer, Travis and Nick)
If there are a few people that remember one of the messages that I have preached and have acted on that truth of God I would be very excited.  I would more excited to hear about students who have changed the direction of their life because we have spent time with them.  I really do think that preaching on Sunday is super important but I think that people are more prone to remember the things we do off the stage.  See I think that if you spoke with some of the students in our church they would share that they learned more from me on a road trip to snowboard or out on the lake.  They could probably tell you how I acted at Hume Lake when we played paintball or a conversation we had at the lunch table.

I guess what I am trying to say is our lives are an example for Christ and people are watching our every move.  I want to be known for how I lived my life off stage.  I want people to remember how I acted in tough situations because I chose the high road.

1 comment: