CCSM Weekend Update 6/13/10

Last Sunday was the second week of summer for CCSM.

We started the evening with Sharon Mays and Katie Kavanaugh leading worship. The girls again did a great job.

We continued our summer series on writing a personal testimony (faith story) that we can share.   This week it was Heather Phillips' (AKA: my beautiful wife) turn to share her story.  Her teaching moment was expanding on what I offered them last week (bullet point data listing all the spiritual moments or mile stones).  Heather did a really good job with her testimony.  She started by writing out tons of important spiritual moments (the data list we worked on last week) on the dry-erase board.  She wrote these moments scattered all around the board, as opposed to the linear list I had shown the students.  As Heather gave her testimony she drew lines connecting the important spiritual moments in her life to the center of the board where these words were written: "The Story God Wants Heather To Tell."  When she was finished, there were many moments left on the board that she never spoke about, and she crossed them out one by one, making the point that sometimes important moments don't need to be in your story.  Your story needs flow, and not extra information that could distract from the central point.  Afterwards, she led the students in continuing to find and write out their story.  She asked them to pray about what narrative God wants them to share.  Just because something is very important in your life doesn't mean that you have to mention it in your testimony, and just because you don't mention something in your testimony, doesn't mean that it is unimportant to you.


3 Interesting Comments of the Evening:

• We are God's, so He is in essence writing a story using our lives.  What is the story God is writing with your life?

• At what point did you see God step into your story?

• What is the story God wants you to tell in order to help others see His glory?

The students then took 15-20 minutes to create the narrative they felt God wanted them to tell, using the data list we had them create the week before. 


Although the point of this lesson series is learning to tell your story, it has been a great way to expose some of those students who do not feel they have a story yet.  This opens paths to conversation about who Jesus is, what purpose should any of this serve, why they choose to come to church.  We are in essence giving a discipleship based lesson (sharing your testimony with others), but it also serves as a time to be evangelistic with our students as well.  


Next week our youth leaders will be leading youth group while I am chaperoning the handbell trip. Our work with testimonies will be paused for a while.   We will NOT be canceling youth group during the handbell trip.