A time to connect
Each year, through prayer, discernment, and knowing God is ahead of us, we look for a theme or idea for our youth to focus on for the coming year. This year, with the formal adoption of our values statement: “The people called Hillspring Church will pursue our vision of Live, Love, Grow guided by a set of supporting core values (practices and behaviors)." These specific values are identified as follows:
We will Become more like Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit as we:
Connect with the people God has put in our lives; Develop meaningful relationships; Change the world for good,” We felt 2023 would be the "Year of Becoming." We then divided the year into four parts: A time to connect, a time to grow, a time to change, and a time to become.
Currently, we are in our "time to connect" and are looking deeply into what it means to connect with the people God has put in our lives. We have learned a lot, and I wanted to share some key insights to help you "connect" as well.
Therefore, without further ado, if we are going to connect with the people God has put in our lives:
1. We must be willing to risk! The scriptures are examples and stories of God's people stepping out of their comfort zones to connect with others. In fact, I can't think of one place in the Scriptures where God called someone deeper into their comfort zone. I don’t think Jesus was joking when He replied to a teacher of the law who wanted to follow Him, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Risk isn’t easy, and nothing happens without it!
2. We need to find common ground! So much of today's culture focuses on differences and uses them as excuses for many unfortunate things. However, if we connect with the people God places in our lives, common ground is needed. As followers of Jesus, it doesn't get more common than God creating “humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Knowing we are all created in God’s image is a great place for us to start!
3. We must be humble! Humility is best defined as a correct understanding of oneself. For example, God is the creator, and we are created. We are in a good place if we honor God as creator and don't elevate ourselves to God's level. Humility doesn't reduce who we are. It is not self-deprecating. It recognizes who we are and, as the Apostle Paul wrote, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…" If Jesus was willing to die for people who hated him, what should we be willing to do?!
4. We should be intentional and embrace distractions! In the story of Jesus, Jairus, and the bleeding woman, Jesus was on a mission to heal Jairus’ daughter. However, along the way, Jesus stopped and spent time connecting with and healing a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years! I doubt anyone saw that coming. And I am sure Jairus was upset as his daughter died during that encounter. However, Jesus never lost focus. He ended up raising Jairus' daughter from the dead! There is so much in this passage we don't have time for (but you can check it out yourself: Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56). The big idea for us now is to be intentional with our time AND be prepared for whatever detours God has for us.
5. We must be open to people different than us! One of my favorite stories in the Bible involves the Apostle Peter breaking a ton of Jewish customs and traditions to connect with a Roman centurion named Cornelius (see Acts 10:1-11:18). Had Peter refused, there wouldn't be much of a story. Peter didn't, and the result was the realization that the Good News of God's Kingdom through Jesus was open to ALL people, not just the Jews! If we refuse to be open to connecting with people different from us, we run the risk of becoming arrogant, selfish, and ignorant. We end up with an inflated view of ourselves, AND we miss out on all God is doing in the world.
These five points summarize what we have been exploring with our youth over the past month. My hope and prayer are that these points will challenge you as much as they have challenged us in our pursuit to connect with the people God has put in our lives!
Grace & Peace Hillspring,
Pastor Justin