Championing Destinies, Re-creating Reality

Last night was the first official lead-team meeting of the school year for the adults and kids who form the backbone of Uturn, the youth ministry at Grace Church. I am so stoked to see what the Lord is doing in these kids (and in the adult leaders!) this year! Coming back from a summer in France, I have a renewed perspective and zeal to see these kids' lives transformed by the hope and love of Jesus Christ. And I can clearly see how the Lord has spoken to the hearts of other adult leaders this summer; I sense that we have regained focus on the most important thing: investing Christ into these kids. His love, His passion, His joy, His peace, His purpose, His Word...

Curtis (our youth pastor) shared something last night that really struck me. He said that current statistics show that only about 4% of the generation of teens right now will come to know the Lord. That's about 800 young people in Thornton...out of 20,000 young people, total. How do we respond to this? Curtis shared what God has been speaking into his heart this summer: he is called to champion destinies and to re-create reality.

Wow. What an awesome concept...and a dream that God is calling His children to live out. Championing destinies in people, pouring new life into the wounded and dismayed and hopeless and stressed, speaking into their lives a new destiny of hope and healing and peace and purpose and then challenging them not only to see it but to seize hold of it and to live it. In so doing, we will see the statistic mentioned above, the 4%, completely surpassed, completely proved wrong. I want to live this way. I want to be a championer of destinies and a re-creater of reality. So, Mr. Statistic, I scoff at you! I ignore you, for you are only a representation of an estimation of what reality is at a given moment in time. Reality, I challenge you! You are not something unchangeable and unshakeable, for only God can claim these qualities. I will take you on and I will prove to you, Reality, that you can be re-created! And this won't be by my hands or work, but by the Lord Jesus Christ, through me and others who are willing to let Him work in and through us. For Jesus Christ comes to make ALL things new, to re-create all. (2 Corinthians 5:17). Including statistics.

This year is gonna ROCK.