Best Thing Ever.

Last night we kicked off our Wednesday night Bible study we hold for students during the school year. I was blown away with the 55 teens we had in attendance. What an encouragement.

Wednesday evenings are a special time for me because I led our Tween Bible Study. It’s been really fun to build a ministry for 5th and 6th students here at CUMC over the past year and I have had great anticipation about this coming year & a new batch of 5th graders.

I spent sometime last night talking about our student ministry with the tweens at the beginning of Bible study. All of a sudden one of the students yelled out: “Being apart of youth group is the best thing ever.” We all started laughing but it brought a smile to my face and heart to hear the excitement in her sweet voice about taking the step into our youth ministry family.

I like to pray when I run. This morning’s run was a little on the cold side but I had a dialogue going with the Lord in my head about our tweens & the students we saw at Bible study last night. I kept hearing her phrase running through my mind…”the best thing ever.” A lot of times I’ll selfishly admit, I do hope that. I do hope to lead a student ministry that is considered the best youth group ever. I’d love for that to be a quality that our church family is known around the city of Indianapolis for being the “best thing ever” for the teenagers that are apart of it. The more I thought about her phrase…the more I prayed for our teens on my run this morning… I was reminded about why we are here for these students, what we are really all about and that is about pointing them into relationship with the BEST THING EVER…Jesus.

Because, honestly…I’ll probably never be able to create programming that will reach every teen in this city—but I do know a Savior who desires to reach them…who desires to love every tween, middle school student & high schooler from Noblesville to downtown Indianapolis and beyond. There is no way the games, music, pizza, t-shirts, etc. that I could come up with on my own could ever be enough to spark the interest of every teen that comes my way—but I do know a God who knows the heart and desire of every teen that walks through our doors. The best thing I could ever do with my life is point them in the direction of Him…their creator, author, sustainer & best friend.

There’s a song that our worship team at the Saturday evening service, Renovate, played a few weeks ago that I feel really echoes my heart for our students in finding their “best thing ever” in Jesus…

Everything by Tim Hughes:
God in my living, There in my breathing
God in my waking, God in my sleeping
God in my resting, There in my working
God in my thinking, God in my speaking

Be my everything, Be my everything, Be my everything.

God in my hoping, There in my dreaming
God in my watching, God in my waiting
God in my laughing, there in my weeping
God in my hurting, God in my healing

Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me the hope of glory
Be my everything