Capturing it.

Stories will be told for many years about Challenge 2008. It was a great week of seeking God's face and connecting with each other. God really showed our students who he was and they responded in utter dependence and worship to him. I was so impressed with the way that God moved in students' hearts and adults' hearts.

Now comes the capture portion of Challenge 2008. People made all kinds of comittments. God worked in many different ways in many different lives and now, we must come back and follow up well with kids so that they can continue to live out what they were convicted of at Challenge. In the fall, we begin our section of "intense spiritual growth" and our small group program will look radically different than it has in the past. There will be a series of questions that each small group will go through. These questions will be questions that will get the students talking and offer an element of accountability. Where there is high trust, there will be hard questions asked. We are moving towards a model of small group ministry where life change can occur because there are deep relationships. The large group will offer the large group momentum, but small groups will be where the relationships will be had and where we will see intense spiritual growth happen.

Small groups will be scary for some students because the questions that will be asked will open them up in ways that they have never experienced. They will feel exposed. They will feel vulnerable. But it is in these moments when the body of Christ can shine through and come around people to help them become Christlike.

I am so pumped about this fall and challenge follow up. Pray that God would continue to build the house so that the laborers don't labor in vain!

Amen.

-PC