Off the grid

For a few weeks now Sheldon has had an "off the grid Friday" (if you want to read more about it, check out his FB page, then go to his notes).  Tonight we had a pretty intense youth group meeting. We've been meeting every Friday night (unless it's Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Year's Eve) for the past 10+ years... tonight we met, Sheldon spoke to them, sent them home, and told them not to come back!

Woah, what? Yup, that's what he said.

See, the thing is, (it's complicated) but we put a challenge out to the teens and basically said we're not here to simply entertain them.  We want to implement the whole 5 purposes in our youth group (evangelism, fellowship, discipleship, ministry & worship).  Right now everyone is so focused on the fellowship aspect and not really anything else.  There are only a few who truly want to worship the Lord and minister to their peers. Anyhoo... the challenge is for them to go home and decide what they want, what God wants for them and the youth group, and then to come see Sheldon before next Friday to share with him what they've 'discovered.' 

After dismissing them Sheldon, Paigel (youth leader) and I spent time praying and seeking the Lord.  We felt God challenge us to stand in the gap for the teenagers.  They won't know it (unless they read this) but we'll be fasting and praying for them this week like never before.  We're fasting some things that the youth in our group are most distracted by: multimedia.  We'll spend the next week giving up all time we would normally spend in front of the TV, on the computer, on the internet (whether it be on the cellphone or computer), or whatever other media there might be!  (Sheldon and I already don't have TV, but we have movies, so we'll not be watching any of those!)  This will be my last post for the week.  No Facebook, no blog-reading, no news! (I hope someone comes face to face and can fill me in on Japan and whatever else is going on in the world!)

Our hope and prayer is that the teens will begin to understand what really matters in life, what truly is important, but realize that they can still have fun!  Being a Christian doesn't mean living a boring life! NOT AT ALL!

so anyhoo- this has been a rushed post, but I need to get off the internet!!!  I wanted to just let you all know what we're up to, and ask you to join with us in prayer for our teens (maybe even try the fast yourself!).  We need a lot of wisdom. We're not sure how parents will react to what we've done, or even how many kids will take this seriously and come speak to Sheldon during the week...HOpefully it'll be all of them, but if it's only 1, we'll rejoice in that one and start with him/her!

Until next time...