Prayer + Breakfast

Yesterday, we had our first high school prayer breakfast of the semester. This is one of my favorite activities during the school year. Here's a summary:

• I ask students who are interested to commit for an entire semester. Thirteen of our students literally "signed on" for the fall. This ensures that the same group will be gathering consistently and that the breakfast prepared won't go to waste.
• We meet every Tuesday at the building at 7 AM for a time of prayer followed by breakfast.
• Members of our congregation sign up to cook or bring breakfast for our students.

One of the statements I have been repeating to "market" our prayer breakfasts is, "There's no better way to begin your Tuesday." I think all the involved students would agree with that. And though we are together for only around 45 minutes, it makes a significant impact.

Heart-Heavy: Prologue (1)

Paul was not an impersonal church-planter; instead, he became extremely close to the Christians in the cities where he preached the gospel. This was true for Paul and the Christ-followers in Galatia--in his letter to them, he is nurturing and instructive, but also concerned because their faith was weak and they were prone to straying from the gospel. Galatians 4:8-20 shows us a Paul who is burdened and troubled by the meager devotion his brothers and sisters had to Christ. He experiences anguish over this because he shares a deeply personal connection with these Christians- he has a special place in his heart for them. And when they don't seem to be sold out on the gospel, he hurts.

Paul's relationship with the Galatians is a lot like our relationship with our students. We are personally invested in them. We not only share a message with them, we share our lives with them. We love them and we want to see them grow in Christ. And when they turn their backs on Him, it weighs heavily upon us. It pains us.

This is what my new (and first!) blog series is all about. I'm taking a look at how Paul's concern for the Galatians in 4:8-20 is a whole lot like our concern for our students. Just like Paul, we are (or should be) heart-heavy for our students when they struggle with faith. Here's the posting lineup:

Boiled Down

I like trying to condense the Christian life into a few, pithy statements--boiling our existence as Jesus-followers down to its central ideas and practices. Recently, I wrote down 4 statements that I think capture the essence of living Christian-ly:


1.   Love God.
2.   Love others.
3.   Follow Jesus.
4.   Make disciples.


Some quick observations about this list:

• The order is important. Not in a rigid, non-negotiable way, but there does seem to be a natural flow from 1 to 4.
• I didn't pull these out of the air. My primary inspiration is Scripture--the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, to be specific. Not to mention other stuff I have read and things I have heard and conversations I have had.
• This is not a definitive summary of Christian living. It's A way of condensing it, not THE way. Thus:

How would you boil down the Christian life into a few phrases? What is missing from my list?