At Maranatha Church we believe that if you are going to live for Jesus, there are three things that you should be doing. These things are grow, connect and serve. At a recent meeting we had with our Student Leaders, as we were connecting, we discussed the importance of growing in our relationship with Jesus. We wanted to share the discussion with you.
Obviously we all serve, we are the Children’s Ministry Leadership Team.
When we serve together we connect with one another (unless there is a secret age group we don’t know about).
When it comes to growing, God makes it very clear that as we grow, we become more effective in the other 2 areas. Check it out. 2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV) tells us that we need to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, Godliness; and to Godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love”. Basically, God is saying that once we put our faith in Jesus, we need to grow.
The part of growth that we focused in on with our Student Leaders was in our knowledge, with the goal of becoming more like God (godliness). Each of them were given a journal with verses to look up over the next several weeks. We want them to spend time reading The Bible 4 times a week and really focus on what God might want to speak to them. They have been given a little outline for how to do quiet time and are expected to reflect and take notes along the way. God wants them to grow and so do we. But why?
The very next verse tells us EXACTLY why. 2 Peter 1:8 (NLT) “The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ”. It blows my mind to think that God would make it so clear. The more you grow, the more productive and useful you will be at serving Him. I hope to be as productive and useful to God as I can possibly be. I can’t think of anything else that is more important.
If you would like one of these journals, let us know. We would love to help you grow.
