Sean Mills

I heard you're moving?

2011-03-21T22:02:00.000-05:00

Sunday I announced to our church family, Beech Street FBC, that I would be resigning and taking a position with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

Our journey began late in 2010 with a lunch meeting that set things in motion that would send us to our knees praying for God's direction in our lives. We began praying through the possibility of serving on the Evangelism and Church Growth Team, led by Sonny Tucker, at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC). It has been one of the toughest decisions Sara and I have dealt with in a long time. We love serving on our current church staff and with the people of our church, Beech Street. Not to mention the fruitful ministry we have had here over what is almost 4 years now. God over several months made it clear to us through many different people that this was the direction He was leading us.

This past week I was officially hired for the position I mentioned above. So what will I be doing for the ABSC? I will serve over 1400 churches in Arkansas in the specific area of Youth Ministry. I will travel and work with Youth Pastors, Youth Workers, Pastors, Volunteers and others as they strive to reach teenagers for Christ. I'm excited to partner with so many great leaders all across our state. I will also oversee Super Summer Arkansas, the Youth Evangelism Conference, ASPN (Arkansas Student Pastors Network) and many other various things.

How can you pray for us? First, pray for our church family here as they move forward. They have been amazing to my family and I over the past several years. Second, pray for my house to sell. Third, pray for my family as we began to make the transition to the Little Rock area. Fourth, pray we are able impact many for Christ. There are other ways to pray for us, but those are the big ones right now.

Be watching my blog over the next 2 weeks as I will post some memories I have from the past 4 years here at Beech Street.

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How Can I Help Japan?

2011-03-14T21:04:00.000-05:00

Maybe you're like me and have seen all the incredible devastation the earthquake and tsunami caused in Japan and wonder how you can help. The destruction seems so large, how do I know where to begin to provide assistance.

As Southern Baptist we work together with the International Mission Board (IMB), which has Missionaries over in Japan and teams that are responding to the crises. You can give through the IMB by going to this site: http://imbresources.org/index.cfm/product/detail/prodID/3352

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention has also set up a way for you to give, here is their press release:

Arkansas Baptist mission partners,

No doubt you are leading your congregations to pray for the Japanese people in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that has left thousands dead and untold numbers displaced.

The Arkansas Baptist State Convention has established a Japan Relief Fund and is poised to assist our International Mission Board representatives and Japanese Baptists with ministry assistance as needs are communicated to us. We are certain that we will be asked to provide “boots on the ground” at some point in the near future. As was the case with the Haiti relief fund (which funded and is still funding projects in Haiti food, water, building shelters, providing medicines, seed for farmers, Bibles and much more), all funds given towards Japan through the ABSC will be used for the direct relief of victims.

Funds can be sent through your church:

a) Online click here.

b) By check to the ABSC Japan Relief Fund, 10 Remington Drive, Little Rock, AR, 72204.

If you have any questions, feel free to call Bob Fielding on the Missions Ministries Team at 1.800.838.2272 x5149 or email him at bfielding@absc.org.

I hope this helps you and provides you with more information and how to get involved. Both of these organizations are extremely trustworthy and have a long track records of using funds as designated by those giving.

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Top Ten in Youth Baptism's 2010 (for churches our size)

2011-02-22T16:21:00.001-06:00

This past week I received a publication, the Arkansas Baptist News Magazine or ABN, that listed baptism's for churches categorized by size. For the third straight year Beech Street was in the Top Ten for Youth Baptisms for churches 251-500 in size. This year we were third with 15 youth baptisms. Praise God for the students lives that were changed this year by Jesus. Beech Street this is a testimony to your desire and heart to reach teenagers with the message of Christ. It is exciting to see God at work in our midst.

The point to me is not so much that we made the list, but that we are very intentional about seeing students saved, follow through in baptism and then begin to grow in their walk with God. We are doing what Jesus commanded us to do in Matthew 28:18-20:

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

As many of you, Beech Street members and visitors, have noticed over the last several weeks God has continued to allow us to impact more students for Christ. It's always exciting to watch as a student runs out the door on Wednesday night to tell his parents about accepting Christ and his/her desire to follow in believers baptisms. That is one of the most amazing sights I witness almost on a weekly basis. It never grows old.

What I've learned is, when we are faithful to share the message of salvation the Holy Spirit moves on lives and they respond. I pray God continues to allow us to impact teenagers for Christ.

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Still had church on a Snowy day, but never came to the Building

2011-02-10T16:42:00.001-06:00

Photo by Katie Michalls, in Northwest Arkansas

This past Wednesday Arkansas was hit with a major snow storm, though here in Texarkana it wasn't near as bad as the rest of the state, and the majority of churches had to cancel their Wednesday night activities.

For h2o student ministry Wednesday nights are huge. It's a night when we reach lots of teenagers and has become something that all our students anticipate each week. As we began to spread the word about canceling our h2o worship time, students started sending us messages wishing it would still take place. You got to love it when teenagers are begging you to have church, but for safety reasons we obviously did not.

With this in mind we decided to try doing a brief video message via our h2o facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/h2ostudentministry). Check out the video below:

I've been overwhelmed by the response we have received. It was very effective and connected us with a lot of our students even though we couldn't meet for h2o. It was simple to shoot and load this video. We shot the video with a Kodak hand held Digital HD Video Camera then we took the camera plugged it into the computer and uploaded the video to our h2o page. To drive students to the video we used the power of social media to get the word out.

We also, earlier in the day, used the same idea and Rob, our Associate Student Pastor, shot two videos letting students know h2o was canceled. See these video's below, they are funny.

Anyone could do what we did, it's very simple and all you need is a video camera. I must say we took the idea from my brother, Brian Mills. He has done a lot more elaborate video messages due to snow cancellations at their church. They have seen incredible success in broadcasting video's on snow nights with their teenagers. His videos and production are a lot more involved then ours, but are very cool. Check out some of his here:
1. http://brianmills247.blogspot.com/2010/12/canceled-service-no-problem-lets-do-it.html
2. http://brianmills247.blogspot.com/2011/01/here-is-our-snow-day-wednesday-night.html

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Strategic Outreach Events

2011-02-07T10:39:00.000-06:00

Early on in my ministry I learned a the powerful lesson that just doing several events does not equal a successful Student Ministry. Since that day I have operated under the opinion that less events done well and very focused are a lot more effective. Instead of trying to achieve several things in one event, we get focused on what we are trying to achieve. A focused event we do each year takes place on Super Bowl Sunday.

One of the largest events our country experiences each year is the Super Bowl. People who never watch football will attend a party on these nights just because of all the hype. With this in mind I've taken an approach of why fight them, join in with them. Here at h2o our "Super Sunday," which happens on Super Bowl Sunday, is a day we strive to reach out an connect with new teenagers that have never attended a church or have quite attending.

Each year we do things a little different, this year we hosted a Super Bowl Party and encouraged our students to invite their friends. Over the past three years we have done an all day event, that has been very successful (click here to read about it), so we were taking a risk doing something different. This year we offered free pizza, drinks, chips and dip to anyone that came. We have so many incredible adult volunteers in our ministry and they made cheese dip, brought chips and other snacks.

What was our goal? To reach students that may not come any other way. Our focus was outreach and connecting with new students. The response was huge last night. We had over 120 students attend, with several first time students. Our adults do such an amazing job at not only helping serve and supervise but also talking and building relationships with the students. We want to connect with teenagers and for them to see that h2o student ministry is a safe place for them, a refuge. It's was neat to talk with students and hear them say how they are coming back Wednesday night to our worship time and to see what this "church thing" is all about.

We have used the power of the Super Bowl to reach out and impact many students. Every year we see several students connect with h2o through this event and eventually pray to accept Christ as their Savior. The neat and easy thing about this event is all the hype is done by the Super Bowl, we just jump on board. It's an easy event to pull off, and has proved to be very effective in our ministry. We achieved our goal last night and I pray in the weeks ahead we see many lives changed for Christ.

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h2o live recap

2011-02-03T10:43:00.000-06:00

Wednesday nights at h2o are my favorite times of the week. For the past 4 weeks God has been doing some amazing things in the lives of students on Wednesday nights. We have had well over 100 students each week and have seen several accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. There have also been many broken to see their friends impacted by Christ. The passion some of our students have to reach their friends for Christ is exhilarating.

It's also been moving to watch as students have laid down sin in their lives at the alter and have made a strong stance to live passionately for Jesus. The phrase we have heard over and over is, "I'm tired of faking it, I want to live it for real." There is a uprising taking place and God is using these students as his vehicle.

My favorite story from last night: We have a student that started coming just recently, he accepted Christ a couple weeks ago and was baptized this past Sunday. He has no way to get to church except riding his bike. So on Sunday's and Wednesday's he rides his bike to church. Last night he was so determined to come Worship his Savior that he rode his bike over 3 miles to church when it was 31 degrees outside with a wind chill of 23. He said to me, "I just didn't want to miss h2o worship tonight." After it was over I loaded him and his bike up and gave him a ride home. Now that's a changed life.

That's why I love h2o on Wednesday nights. The power of joining students in passionately worshiping God and then not just leaving it in that room. They are taking it into their day to day lives, now that's exciting! Pray with us that God continues to grow these students and uses them to impact other for Christ.

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Parent Must Read: MTV "Skins"

2011-02-02T09:27:00.001-06:00

It seems as our culture progresses media is at the forefront of influencing our daily lives. I'm not big on blogging about movies or shows, but this is one parents need to know about that I believe leads to a larger discussion. Just two weeks ago MTV released a new show entitled "Skins." Parent's, this is a show you need to be aware of and the message MTV is endorsing in teenagers lives.

The show involves everything from teenagers doing drugs, drinking, fighting, having sex, homosexuality, pornography and more. They do all this with the idea that this is normal everyday teenager behavior. The sad part is they are actually using some teenage actors for the show. This has led Taco Bell to pull their advertising from the show and has led to an investigation over whether MTV is breaking child pornography laws. Yet millions of teenagers are watching a show rated TV-MA that boldly promotes elicit behavior.

Here is MTV's description of their own show below from their website:

Skins is a wild ride through the lives of a group of high school friends stumbling through the mine field of adolescence... and stepping on most of the mines as they go.

We'll meet TONY; good looking, witty, manipulative - he wants everything, and usually gets it. Then there's his girlfriend MICHELLE; gorgeous and clever, just not clever enough to realize Tony may not be the right one for her. And maybe the right one is actually Tony's best friend, STANLEY. He's everything Tony isn't, and that might end up being a good thing. Of course, Stanley is stuck in a pretend relationship with CADIE, possibly the most dysfunctional girl ever to attend a high school... or maybe that's all just another thing she's faking. You'll love CHRIS because, well, everyone does. No drug is too obscure for him to try, and no sexual mountain too high for him to climb. Complicating everyone's life is the infamous TEA. She likes girls. And girls like her. What more is there to figure out... right? And let's not forget ABBUD, the not so devout Moslem and DAISY, the responsible one of the group who is just itching to break some rules of her own.
Be it sex, drugs, the breadth of friendships or the depth of heartbreaks, Skins is an emotional mosh-pit that slams through the insanity of teenage years. They'll crush hearts and burn brain cells, while fearlessly confronting every obstacle head on...or slightly off.

MTV defends the show by saying this is taking place in normal everyday teenage life. Is that a true statement? I know that there are some teenagers that are involved in the elicit behavior depicted in this show, but not all teenagers are doing these things. I know lots of teenagers personally that are not involved in the things depicted in this show. They are very committed to the stance they have taken against such behavior. To flip the coin, I do know teenagers who are involved in this type of behavior. Teenagers face the temptation dealt with in this show everyday, some stand strong against it and others cave to the pressure. One thing is for sure, they don't need MTV throwing it into their lives as well.

So what do we do? I believe we as parents should address these issues head on with our teenagers. Don't let MTV, their Friends or anyone else teach your child how to deal with these issues. Teach your son/daughter how to Biblically deal with sexuality, drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, bullying, pornography, etc. If we as parents would do our part and address these issues and teach them head-on, I believe we could see a down turn in this behavior.

Parents, make sure you know what your son/daughter is watching on TV, online, on their iPod, or cell phone where all of this is readily accessible to anyone. I talk to a lot of teenagers that are accessing pornography on their iPod or Cell Phone more then any other means. It's our job as parents to protect our children. Get involved in their lives and have open dialogue about right and wrong. Set boundaries for your teenagers, you are their parent and that is the responsibility God has entrusted us with.

As for MTV "Skins" I would not let anyone watch this show. It just encourages elicit behavior, and if they watch it long enough eventually they will try it, because it is presented as normal behavior for teenagers in this show.

If you care to check it out for yourself, here's the website (CAUTION it is graphic) http://www.mtv.com/shows/skins/series.jhtml

Here's a story ABC News did on the show:

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Disciple Now 2011

2011-02-01T14:27:00.000-06:00

What an amazing weekend we just finished. Over the past 4 years God has used our Disciple Now weekends to greatly impact students in their personal walk with God. Our theme this year was "Fuse." Our goal was see our students grow closer to God and to grow closer to one another. Our speaker for the weekend was John Cowling, a youth pastor at Park Hill Baptist in North Little Rock, AR, and our band was from Lakepoint Church in Hot Springs.

Over the weekend John challenged our students to be real in their walk with God and not fake it. He talked about the importance of living out your relationship with Christ. He also challenged them to love others and be known for loving everyone. It was incredible to watch as God broke students. They were weeping over their sin and their apathetic Christian lives. I always love watching God move in the lives of students and seeing how radical they become for him.

Saturday we served from morning till early afternoon at the Runnin' W.J. Ranch in Texarkana. The Ranch reaches out to and ministers to adults, teenagers and children that are disabled. They use Therapeutic Horse riding as a form of exercise. We worked with Samuel Coston, who works at the ranch, to set the day up. We cleaned stalls, cleaned trails, cleaned the building, walked with horses, interacted with people who were there for therapy and various other activities to help the ranch that would otherwise go undone. I am so proud of our students and how they jumped in and served, whether they were talking with people or scooping poop.

On Sunday morning we concluded with 4 students being baptized and a powerful time of worship with our entire church family. It was an amazing weekend that is paying off big in students lives. The stories we are hearing already of the stances they are taking at their school are amazing.

I must say a HUGE THANK YOU to our adult volunteers that made this weekend a success. From the families that opened their home for the weekend, to the volunteer drivers, to those that prepared the food and those that just jumped in an helped where needed, thank you! We have the best adult volunteers here at Beech Street. I appreciate each of you and the hard work you put in for this weekend to be a huge success.

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h2o live recap

2011-01-20T15:37:00.000-06:00

Almost 4 years into my ministry here at Beech Street our Wednesday night h2o service is still my favorite time of the week. It's a joy to watch as well over 100 students from many different schools in the Texarkana area and various backgrounds come together to worship our God. It's also refreshing to engage them in conversation and talk about what God's doing in their lives individually and hearing how God is using the ministry of h2o to shape their life.

Two weeks ago I began a two part sermon series for our teenagers at h2o on reaching out to your friends and doing whatever it takes to get them to Jesus. All throughout the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, you see people going to extreme measures to get their friends to Christ or to reach people with the message of Jesus. I challenged our teenagers to do the same and if you have to, be creative in getting your friends to hear you share Christ and/or bring them with you to h2o to encounter Christ.

It has been exciting to watch this week, after preaching that message last week, how many of our students brought their friends with them. I had many all week long send me facebook messages and text about who they were inviting. Yet at the same time I had many send me discouraging messages of how they had been made fun of for standing for Christ and inviting others.

This week I preaching on Paul and Silas, Acts 16, and how they took a beating for taking a stand for Jesus yet still shared Christ with others even while they were in jail. What if we didn't see peoples rejections as rejections but as opportunities? Paul and Silas took a very bad and painful situation and led many to Christ through it. May God use this word to encourage and motivate our teenagers to keep on, even when it's hard.

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Birthday & Anniversary on the same day!

2010-12-21T10:58:00.000-06:00

Today, December 21st, I turn 34 years old and I also celebrate 14 years of marriage to my amazing wife, Sara.

It all began almost 16 years ago when I met the girl of my dreams. I'll never forget setting in the balcony of my church at that time, Second Baptist Hot Springs, and seeing Sara for the first time. I knew some how I had to muster up the courage to pursue her. Over the course of that summer Sara and I became good friends and did a lot of things together with large groups of people.

Then came THE day. We had spent the afternoon on Lake Hamilton, as we had often that summer, the day was coming to an end and everyone was heading home and I gained the courage to ask her out on an official date. There I stood looking all manly in my bathing suit. Can I just say I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I asked her if she would like to go to dinner and she joyfully said "YES," I was pumped! Being overly excited she said yes, I let her choose the restaurant. She chose a little Italian restaurant called Fauci's (not sure if I spelled it correctly). At that time I hated Italian food, but didn't care because I was going with Sara. I remember her having to order for me, because I had no idea what the items were or if I'd even like them, but I was just excited to be there with her. It was a night I will never forget as long as I live. I have no idea what I ate or if I even ate, but looking across the table into her eye's I will never forget. Fauci's is not longer there, it burned down, but my love for Sara has never faded, it has only grown deeper.

From that first date to now God has blessed me with the most amazing wife. These past 14 years of marriage have been worth every penny I spent that night at the little Italian place. Everyday it's obvious that God planned for us to be together. I thank God daily for the most amazing birthday gift I ever received, my wife Sara Mills! I love you!

There is a lot more to the story, but hopefully I will be able to share it in the years to come.

End of 2010-Part 2

2010-12-20T14:35:00.000-06:00

Last week I began a blog series on the end of 2010. I stated last week, "if I could pick one word to describe this year here at Beech Street and h2o student ministry it would be: CHANGE."

Another change that began taking shape in early 2010 was our New Day Campaign. This campaign focused on renovating the first floor preschool area, second floor children area, third floor adult Small Group space and adding a street level entrance to our Senior adult area with a new elevator to the worship center. As the plans came together in the early months of 2010 our stewardship campaign kicked off as well. Both moved a long very smoothly and we knew there were many new exciting things on the horizon for Beech Street.

In May our church approved the project and construction began. Below are some pictures from the demolition.

Tearing our to 2nd floor Children area (above)

New elevator shaft (above)

Digging out the grassy hill for the new

Sr. Adult entrance (above)

Grassy hill gone. New Sr. Adult entrance will be where the

plastic is on the left side of picture (above)

A lot has taking place construction wise at Beech Street this year. Some of the construction is nearing an end other parts are just beginning. The Preschool and Children area are almost complete, I will post pictures after we move in in January. Trust me this area look incredible. The Sr. Adult entrance and New Elevator are still under construction and we are just beginning on the third floor Small Group space remodel. I must say a lot has taken place this year and continues on into 2011 with our New Day Campaign.

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End of 2010-Part 1

2010-12-16T10:17:00.000-06:00

Sitting in my office today I begin reminiscing over the year that has been 2010. If I could pick one word to describe this year here at Beech Street and h2o student ministry it would be: CHANGE.

To begin 2010 we were right in the middle of relocating our h2o worship room to a new location due to rapid growth. The room we were worshiping in at the time was packed with teenagers every week, it was so full it was uncomfortable for everyone. We where averaging around 80 students a week at the time with many weeks getting up to 90-100, but the room would not hold that large a crowd.

(old room picture above)

As a result we remodeled what is our fellowship hall to add a stage, lighting, screens, flooring and paint to provide us with ample room to grow. This was a very challenging process as we did it all in house and on a tight budget. God, as always, provided people and supplies to make this room incredible. I'm still very grateful to the many men that served many hours free of charge to make this a reality.

(new worship area)

We moved on Disciple Now weekend to our new worship area. With lots more space God has given us more students weekly. Now we average 95 students a week with many weeks at 110-120. The move to a new worship area has proven to be very successful. It's been amazing to watch as students accept Christ and then follow through in believers baptism.

We have also seen many parents begin to connect with our church due to their teenager becoming involved in h2o. God is allowing us to reach a lot of unchurched teenagers, which also means their parent's are unchurched. It's very common place that a student accepts Christ and the first time their parents ever step in church is to watch their son/daughter be baptized. God has not only allowed us to reach more students but to impact and share Christ with entire families.

The key to all of this was our ability to relocate the h2o worship area to accommodate more students which leads to us reaching more adults. I'm praying 2011 will be another year of great impact on students lives during our worship times as it has been in 2010.

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Great Pastor

2010-10-21T14:26:00.000-05:00

October is Pastor Appreciation month and this past weekend was bosses day, so in honor of those two days I thought I would write about my Pastor. I've known Pastor Craig for around 9 years know and have great appreciation for his heart for the local church. Pastor Craig is a man that is passionate about people. He wants to see people reached for Christ, to see the grow in the walk with Christ and to see them engaged in ministry. He always has the best interest of the church as a whole in mind. That's one thing I admire about him, his desire to see all age groups reached and nurtured spiritually.

Beech Street, you have a great Pastor! I see him day in and day out and he is very consistent in his love for God and you, the church. Just to think about where he has led our church, Beech Street, over the past 3 1/2 years is amazing. He has a great passion to see Beech Street have a great Kingdom Impact in the future as well.

I often tell young guys entering the ministry that the most important relationship you will have on a church staff is with your Pastor. I have a great deal of respect for my Pastor, but more importantly I consider him a close friend. It's great to know that he is approachable and engaged in my life at work and outside of work. Thanks for your great leadership Pastor Craig!

Beech Street, take time soon to tell you Pastor how much you appreciate him. Maybe even send him a note or an email telling him how he has impacted your life.

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New Sunday Night Worship Experience's

2010-10-04T15:29:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday night we began 2 worship services. One of the services is very traditional and the other is "contemporary." The Contemporary Worship Experience is completely band driven and uses the Passion style of worship. The Traditional service is piano, organ, hymns and special music. In both services we have a communicator (preacher). We are currently teaching through some of the Miracles of Jesus. We have set up a rotation for who will preach in each service over the next 6 week, which allows our people to hear from different communicators. Last night, I preached in our Contemporary service and Pastor Craig preached in our Traditional service.

It was a great success, both Worship Experiences had huge crowds that engaged in Worshiping our God. We are praying this will allow us to reach more people for the Kingdom of God. It's always exciting when you begin something that has a huge return immediately. I'm excited to see how God uses these two services in the coming weeks.

"To Save a Life" series

2010-09-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Sept. 29th, we kick off our "To Save a Life" message series at h2o. This past Wednesday night we showed the movie, "To Save a Life," to set the stage for the series we are doing. As with any big series, we promoted it heavily in the schools, with the sport teams, band, cheerleaders and other clubs. We also invited school counselors and other school administration to attend the movie. The week prior to the movie we handed students 100's of tickets to handout to their friends. As a result we had a huge crowd here to watch the movie with us. The movie deals with subjects that teenagers in our city struggle with every day and we believe over the next several weeks God's going to use it to rescue teenagers.

This week we begin our message series called, "To Save a Life." It will run for the next six week and cover topics and issues that were dealt with in the movie. Rob, my associate, and I set down and decided on three topics/issues to speak on and then at the end of the movie last week we allowed the students to write down two topics/issues from the movie that they wanted us to speak on. We took the top three topics/issues they wrote down and will develop them into the other three messages.

What will we cover? We are going to deal with Suicide, Relationships/Friendships, sex/teen pregnancy, Saving People (noticing the unnoticed), God in my life? and Drugs/Drinking. Our students are really excited about this series and we are expecting a lot of guest over the next several weeks.

Join us in praying God uses this series to literally Save Students Lives.

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Lifeway Conference-Downloads I mentioned in my session

2010-09-20T13:24:00.000-05:00

I have had many request for documents that we use in our ministry. I have uploaded some and they are available to you for FREE to download. I'm just one guy in the trenches of Student Ministry, my way is not "the way" it's "a way." I strongly believe in helping each other out in this journey and this is my small contribution to you. Take it and use it, reformat it or file it away.

To all my new friends I met at the Lifeway National Youth Workers Conference last week, I hope this helps you. I've uploaded some of our job descriptions and a basic rules/guidelines we use. Thanks for being apart of my session. Let me know if I can do anything to assist you in the future.

h2o Rules

Wednesday Staff_Cafe Team

Wednesday Staff Greeters

Wednesday Staff Monitor

Wednesday Staff Registration

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Speaking at Lifeway Conference

2010-09-13T21:08:00.000-05:00

Lifeway is hosting their annual National Youth Workers Conference this week and invited me to be one of their breakout speakers. I greatly appreciate Jeff Pratt and Paul Turner from Lifeway's Student Ministry division for inviting me. It was a great honor! Today, I led a session on "How to reach teenagers in a Small to Mid Size Church." I talked about 4 main areas:

1. Ministry Philosophy
2. The Importance and Value of Volunteers
3. Practical Ministry
A. School Ministry
B. Wednesday night
4. Changed Lives

I will be posting some free material for anyone to download that I talked about during the conference today. I pray God will use the information I shared to encourage and help guys in their ministry journey. For those of you back home at Beech Street, I spent a lot of time bragging on how amazing you guys are at serving and leading out in h2o student ministry.

For the next two day I will be one of the attendee's soaking up information from other great men of God.

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New Day Construction Update

2010-09-03T11:43:00.000-05:00

Construction continues to go well. Lots of things are changing again. This week they began work on the new front entrance for our Sr. Adult area, they've painted several rooms, new cabinets are being set and more. Here are some pictures to catch you up. The picture at the top is as they began demolition on the area for the new entrance off of Beech Street.

(above) This is where a portion of the porch used to be, it's the part that is covered by the tarp in the picture below. This is all to create the new entrance on Beech Street.

(above) another picture of the area they are working on for the new entrance

(above) 2nd floor, new Children's Worship room. They have created new walls .

(above) 2nd floor, Children's Worship room. You are looking at the stage area.

(above) 1st floor entrance to the Education building Lobby. Paint is going on the walls to prepare for all the design to be installed by Worlds of Wow.

(above) 1st floor, nursery hallway on alley side. Paint on the walls to prepare for the designs to be installed by Worlds of Wow

(above) 1st floor, Nursery room, Accent wall painted and new cabinets being installed.

What's the big deal about Social Media; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc? Watch this video.

2010-08-22T15:14:00.000-05:00

Very thought provoking video. In our ministry here at h2o, we communicate more with students through Facebook and text more then any other form. We can almost instantly get a message out to all our students, just by making a post on our h2o facebook page. It's the world we live in and it can be a great tool if we use it effectively.

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Wake Surfing on Lake Greeson

2010-08-19T11:45:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday of this week we had an adult guys lake day. Michael Chesshir was kind enough to invite several guys up to the lake House to go do a little "Wake Surfing" for the day. We went up Monday night and had some great fellowship and hangout time. Then we got up Tuesday morning and hit the lake by 8:00am. We did a lot of "Wake Surfing."

What is wake surfing? You use a short rope to get up on a board, that looks like a short surf board and then throw the rope in the boat and surf in the wake. As long as you stay in the wake you stay up, get to far back and you sink down. It's a lot of fun!

Below are a few pictures of me "Wake Surfing" and some video. A big thanks to Michael for taking us out. (if you can't watch the video's below for some reason, go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/seanmillsh2o click on the video tab.)

This next video is of me catching a grape while wake surfing. Mark Reese in the one in the video that is throwing the grapes. It took about 10 tries for me to finally catch one. Like I said we just had a blast!

3 year Anniversary at Beech Street

2010-08-16T15:41:00.000-05:00

2007 Family Picture - The year we moved to Beech Street

Late 2009 Family Picture

This past Sunday marked 3 years of ministry at Beech Street for my family and I. A lot has changed since I moved to Texarkana in 2007. My kids, Haley & Ty, have grown a lot. Ty was entering Preschool and Haley was starting 3rd grade when we moved here. Now Ty is entering 1st grade and Haley is starting 6th grade. Our church has grown and reached a lot of new people and families over the past 3 years. h2o student ministry has become a well known name on school campuses and with students all across this city. For memory sake I took some time to look back through some pictures over the past 3 years just to bring back some memories. It's neat to see how things have changed.

I'll never forget my first Wednesday night worship time with our teenagers, there were a total of 45, including adults, present. I remember how our adult student team and I led a remodeling effort for the entire student area. The church jumped on board and gave a 1 day offering of $34,000. Then with the help of many great volunteers h2o was birthed at Beech Street with a newly remodeled student area.
(Below are 2 pictures from that first remodel)

We have seen God do some amazing things in teenagers lives over these 3 years as well. When I arrived, the church year of 2007 was coming to and end and 0 teenagers had been baptized. Every year for the past 3 years (2008, 2009 & now 2010) we have baptized a minimum of 15 teenagers. Praise God for that big turn around!

On the Education side of my job we have seen Sunday Small Group attendance climb consistantly to an average of 380. Which is a large increase from the average of 2007, which was 275. With the help of some great Small Group Leaders we have started several NEW Small Groups. It's been fun to watch God grow us.

One of my favorite things about serving here is our staff. I love the people I do ministry with! These guys and girls work hard each and everyday, but we make it a lot of fun. I love our Pastor and his heart for our church and us his staff (no I'm not brown nosing, ok maybe a little...haha).

As I begin my 4th year of ministry here at Beech Street, I pray we will continue to see God changing students, adults & families lives. We have just completed our 2nd remodel of the h2o student area, due to our rapid growth and are currently remodeling our children's area, Sr. Adult area and adult small group area. The future certainly looks exciting.
(Below are 2 pictures of our newest h2o remodel, the worship area & hangout area)

Join with me in praying for God to use all of us to reach people for Christ!

"Teens avoid church & religion"

2010-08-11T10:07:00.000-05:00

Below is an article I read in USA TODAY. This is very challenging.

"Teens avoid church groups and other aspects of religion"

By Cathy Lynn Grossman and Stephanie Steinberg, USA TODAY

"Bye-bye church. We're busy." That's the message teens are giving churches today.

Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in.

"Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook," says Barna president David Kinnaman.

"Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It's the age teens typically drop out," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. "A decade ago teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They're not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, 'We don't see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.' "

"I blame the parents,"who didn't grow up in a church culture, says Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor at First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan.

His megachurch would routinely take 600 teens to summer church camp, he says, "and many would be forever changed by that experience. But this summer we don't even have a camp.

"Remember, 80% of kids don't have cars. Their parents could be lazy or the opposite — overstressed and overcommitted. If parents don't go to church, kids don't, either."

Don't forget the overcommitted teens themselves, the recession and growing competition from summer mission trips, says Rick Gage of Go-Tell Youth Camps, based in Duluth, Ga.

Registration fell 22% in 2009 but stabilized this summer with 2,000 middle- and high-school teens at five camps in four states. Attendance peaked in the late 1990s at 5,000 teens, Gage says.

Chris Palmer, youth pastor at Ironbridge Baptist Church in Chester, Va., says its youth group enrollment slid from 125 teens in 2008 to 35 last winter.

He pulled participation back up to 70 this year by letting teens know "real church, centered on Jesus Christ, is hard work," Palmer says. "This involves the Marine Corps of Christianity. Once we communicate that, we see kids say, 'Hey, I want to be involved in something that's a little radical and exciting.' "

Rainer agrees. He says teens today want Scripture, they "don't want superficiality. We need to tell them that if you are part of church life, you are part of something bigger. The church needs you, too."

But first, they have to find the kids.

Sam Atkeson of Falls Church, Va., left his Episcopal church youth group not long after leaving middle school.

"I started to question if it was something I always wanted to do or if I just went because my friends did," says Atkeson, now 18. "It just wasn't really something I wanted to continue to do. My beliefs changed. I wouldn't consider myself a Christian anymore."

Nicole's says goodbye, plus our Bye, Bye, Bye Dance to her on video

2010-08-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

Mark, Rob and I preformed the video above for Nicole last Wednesday night as we say Bye to her after three great years of summer interning. Let's just say it was a huge crowd hit and Nicole loved it.

This past Sunday marked the end of a three year summer internship for Nicole Dibble. She is one of those people that will be greatly missed by all. Little did I know the impact she would have on people's lives and our ministry three years ago when I first hired her. Over the past three summers, Nicole, has been a vital part of all the planning and events that took place for our teenagers. Maybe some of the most meaningful and fruitful times where when she would take out a couple of girls to lunch and invest in them. No job was to big or to small for her. She would take in major roles in helping plan our Mission Trips, yet do the tedious unseen work of organizing our h2o storage room. She loved teenagers and it was evident.

This past week we blessed Nicole with a nice dinner; steak, bake potato, salad and topped it off with Watermelon then we gave her a gift. All summer she has told my wife how she desperately wanted a Chi Straight Iron for her hair. As a gift from us we bought one and gave it to her, let's just say she was very excited.

So where is she going? Nicole is headed to graduate school at John Brown University to get her masters. I greatly appreciate the heart that Nicole has served with over the past three years. She is one of those people that will be hard to replace.

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Construction Update & Pictures

2010-08-06T17:14:00.000-05:00

Construction is moving right along this week. They did a lot of work on the old elevator and stairway in the worship center that connects the 1st floor Sr. Adult area to the 3rd floor balcony level. They have completely tore out the elevator and stairway. It is now ready to prepare it for the new elevator that will go in this area. You can see pictures of this below.

They have continued to work on the 1st and 2nd floor of the Education building. On the 1st Floor Nursery area they have done a lot. They have prepared the walls to be painted, worked on plumbing, electrical, heat and air. The 2nd floor area has gone through a major transformation this week. The new Men's Restroom has been formed and the new entry to the Women's Restroom has been created. In the kids area they have created the new check in area and put walls up for the new kids restrooms. In the new Kids Worship room they have walled up the new stage area and gameroom area. This large room has been greatly transformed. Enjoy the pictures below.

1st floor, under the Worship Center, where our Sr. Adult Sunday School meets. This picture used to be the elevator and stairway. Obviously they have both been tore out. That lighter area of the concrete will all be jack-hammered up to make a large hole, like the one in the picture, for the new elevator to fit in.

Looking up what used to be the elevator shaft and stairway from the 1st floor Sr. Adult area. The ceiling and light on the right side is the floor level of the Worship Center. The top of the picture where the wood is showing is the actual roof of the Worship Center. This will be the shaft for the new elevator.

This is the same area as the two pictures above. The middle of this wall is

where the New Entrance will be off of Beech Street for our Sr. Adult area.

Room in the 1st floor Nursery/Preschool area

2nd floor. Straight ahead, in the middle of the photo, you are

looking at the entrance to the new Men's Restroom.

This is the new Men's Restroom on the second floor.

This is the new entry way to the kids area on the 2nd floor

New kids restrooms on the 2nd floor.

New entrance to the Women's Restroom on the 2nd floor, obviously that stud wall will be taken down

New kids worship room on the 2nd floor. This is taken

from the Beech Street side looking toward the alley side.

The wall you see framed up is the back side of the stage for the kids worship room.

Those window are looking out toward Beech Street.

This framed up area is the new kids gameroom in the kids worship area.

Those windows to the left look out toward the alley.

Mission Trip Testimony - Michelle Woolley

2010-08-05T15:46:00.000-05:00

Michelle setting with kids during the opening at New Hope

In their words: Michelle Woolley

A mission to change a life, but changed mine. On the mission trip I had the most incredible experience. As I went through the smiles, the games, the hugs, the prayer, and helping kids learn about Christ, I grew more in my walk with God. The kids reminded me everyday of the beautiful life God gave us. Every kid impacted my life in ways I can't explain, 12 lives saved and many other growing closer. This mission trip has opened my eyes to what I have a passion for, Children ministry. I thank God for using me and the rest of the H2O family in this experience, lesson and new paths in his grace.

Michelle Woolley

Michelle helping with crafts at the Boys & Girls Club

Mission Trip Testimony - Chris Nailing

2010-08-04T13:16:00.000-05:00

(Chris at opening rally at New Hope, holding Vanessa)

In their words: Chris Nailing

Ok, so this mission trip was just absolutely amazing I got to witness to so many kids and hopefully change some families for the better, and all I had to do was just show these kids some love. There was this one little girl who I instantly connected with, her name was Vanessa. This little girl was so cute she would only let me carry her and she always wanted to sit in my lap and wanted me to carry her everywhere. I remember one point during the trip that I had to go back to application and Miss Vanessa didn't want me to so she threw a little fit. It broke my heart to leave her because I had grown so attached to her, and when she did get to application she did the cutest thing she walked up to me pointed her finger at me and told me I was grounded. On the last day when we had to say our goodbyes she wouldn't get on the bus and go home unless I rode with her and walked her to her front door. Telling this little girl goodbye was extremely hard because I had grown so attached during those few days I had with her. But one good thing that happened in her family was that she was talking to her mom and brothers about what Jesus did for them and how He died on the cross for our sins.

Back at the church we stayed at I grew so close to so many of the guys I stayed with, I got to hear some of the most amazing testimonies. There's some stuff going on in this world that no body should half to go through but there's teenage guys going through them and coming out on top with the power of Jesus which is absolutely amazing. So many bonds were formed and with some of my already close friends I just grew closer. I came so much closer to God during this trip its absolutely amazing at what we can do through Him.

Chris at opening rally of the Boys & Girls Club

Mission Trip Testimony - Rachel Sangalli

2010-08-03T16:49:00.000-05:00

Rachel, helping a little girl with the motions

during opening rally

In their words: Rachel Sangalli

The Mission Trip to Marion, Arkansas was the first mission trip that I've been on. I had the opportunity to travel with the H2O group and see many lives changed, 12 to be exact. I helped Mark and Whitney with music along with Ian, and I got extremely close to the kids there. Loving on those kids who don't have as much as I do really set things into perspective.

There was a 1st grader there that I got really close to. Her name is Maddie. I would love for everyone to just keep her and her family in your prayers. One day, she came up to me and asked if she could talk to me privately, so we went into another room. She was wanting to be friends with Jesus and she fully understood what sin was and what she was getting into. She was one of the 12 that not only changed their lives, but also changed MY life.

Rachel, left side, helping teach music to the kids

at New Hope with Ian and Mark

Mission Trip Testimony - Ashley Nailing

2010-08-02T11:30:00.001-05:00

Ashley, left side white shirt, sitting with the kids

during opening at the Boys & Girls Club

In their words: Ashley Nailing

All I can say about the mission trip is WOW!! It was my first mission trip and it was the best thing I could have done. It was so amazing. I enjoyed getting to met all the boys and girls and I got close to two of the girls at New Hope. The first girls name is Amber. She was so shy at first and then once you actually tried to talk to her and have a conversation with her she could not be quiet! She was so adorable! Majesta was another girl that I got close to. She was the cutest, ball of fire you could ever met! Everyday I would walk in the room and all I could see was her smiling face! She lit up the room. What made me so happy was to know that I was helping these kids that didn't really know about God. I loved teaching them about our Lord and Savior. I wanted to tell the kids about what God has done in my life and what is possible for Him to do in there life. It broke my heart that we had to leave so early. I really do hope that we can go back next year and lead more kids to Christ.

Ashley, on the couch, with one of the kids during

application at New Hope

Mission Trip Testimony - Annie Sorsby

2010-07-30T13:23:00.000-05:00

(Annie leading discussion with Chris about the Bible Story)

In their words: Annie Sorsby

My mission trip experience was amazing. The children there were all so sweet and I think we all really reached them. It was so awesome to see my friends lead kids to Christ right in front of me. Even though we were teaching the kids at VBS, I was learning as well. The children weren't living in the best environment and had many struggles, yet they would come in the church every morning with the biggest smiles on their face. This was making me realize that even though I go through many struggles, I should dwell in those struggles and keep praising God no matter what. Since then, I have become a much stronger Christian in my walk with God. Now I can't wait to share about God with everyone.

Annie, center in Red shirt, helping a kid do the

motions during opening rally

New Day Construction has begun (pics)

2010-07-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

Construction has begun on the New Day project or should I say "DEstruction," as church member Neil Ward calls it. It's neat to see what we have been praying and planning for begin to happen. It's great to know that our church family believes in having up-to-date facilities and is engaged in sacrificial giving to see the New Day Project become reality. Hope you enjoy the pictures below of the progress that is taking place. I will take more pictures in the days and weeks ahead for you to keep track of what's taking place through the construction process.

Picture above: 1st floor hallway on the Beech Street (west) side. Just out those windows on the right is the playground. The ceiling and floor have been tore out.

Picture above: Nursery/Preschool area. New door way connecting nursery and preschool areas to the workroom. Walls, ceiling, floor torn out and old wall paper being tore out.

Picture above: Nursery/Preschool area. New plumbing to provide sinks in all our rooms. Just glad I didn't have to run the jackhammer to do this.

Picture above: Nursery area. This is the kitchen area for the Nursery. Old cabinets, stove, refrigerator, floor and ceiling all tore out.

Picture above: Room on 1st floor Preschool area, Alley (east) side. This room is being converted into a Preschool Indoor play area. Ceiling, floors and wall all tore out.

Picture above: 2nd floor landing, ceiling and floor has been torn out.

Picture above: 2nd floor entry to the new kids area. The stairs are to your left and the elevator is to your right. That stud wall is being torn out to make a nice entry for the kids area. Also just to the right of that man working will be a new men's restroom entry. Lots of work going on in this area.

Above Picture: Classroom in the 2nd floor kids area. Floor, ceiling and old cabinets torn out.

Picture above: 2nd floor kids worship room. This picture is taken from the Alley (east) side hallway. You are looking toward the Beech Street (west) side windows. All these wall are being torn out to make one large room. Lots of demolition in this area. The following pictures are of this same area from different angles.

Picture above: 2nd floor Childrens Worship room. Picture taken from Beech Street (west) side hallway looking through toward Alley (east) side.

Picture above: 2nd floor Children's Worship area. Picture taken from Alley (east) side hallway looking through to Beech Street (west) side.

Check back for more pictures again next week.

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Mission Trip Testimony - Rachel Qualls

2010-07-29T13:11:00.000-05:00

Rachel (right) with her sister Krystal (left) at New Hope in Marion

In their words: Rachel Qualls

The mission trip this past week was truly amazing. I had a lot of fun teaching all the little children about Jesus. This was my first mission trip, and I was scared at first. I had been praying before we left for the trip that all would go well and we could reach as many people as possible and many would come to know Him. I still pray now that more kids there at the boys & girls club and the kids in the trailer park would continue going to New Hope and learning even more about God. The Marion mission trip has been truly one of my top three favorite things that I have done this summer and I hope that we will get to go back one day. The mission trip was very fun and I hope I get to do one or even more each summer.

-R. Qualls

Rachel (top, yellow shirt) working with the kids at New Hope

Mission Trip Testimony - Andrew Starkey

2010-07-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

(Andrew, helping lead recreation with VBS kids)

In their words: Andrew Starkey

Wow! What can I say about the mission trip to Marion, Arkansas? First of all, I would have never thought that just being led to Christ not long ago that I would be able to bring someone to christ. This trip has impacted my life in many ways. For example, every since the day I got back from the trip I've read my bible everyday! I feel like I'm a servant of God and that everyone that doesn't know Christ should. Basically, this trip has changed me as a person in a positive way, and I'm proud of that change. Thank you Sean, Rob, and anyone else that helped put this trip together. From here on I will live for Christ and no one else. So thanks again for not only helping me help the kids in Marion, but for helping me grow in Christ more then ever!

Andrew, (center blue shirt) in the application room with the kids.

Mission Trip Testimony - Hunter Alexander

2010-07-27T14:36:00.000-05:00

(Hunter leading out in telling about the Wordless book)

In their words: Hunter Alexander

I personally had an incredible experience on the mission trip. Not only did I learn more about others; I learned more about myself. I had the privilege of leading a ten year old to Christ. It was very touching to hear his story and for me to share my testimony with him. It was amazing to see all of the children that came to New Hope Baptist Church and the Boys and Girls Club. My job during VBS was application. We discussed the stories and color book with the children. This was a great experience and I plan on doing this again.

Hunter Alexander
aka Uncle Ray Ray =)

(Hunter leading at the Boys & Girls Club)

Mission Trip Testimony - Tanner Reed

2010-07-26T14:54:00.000-05:00

(Tanner, telling the Bible Story at New Hope)

In their words: Tanner Reed

Our mission trip to Marion was impeccable for everyone who went. I grew in my faith, love, and also my understanding of God. I became much closer to all of the students who went. Every single one of the kids in Marion impacted my life in many ways but there were certain kids who I will remember forever. I had the opportunity to witness to a little boy named Jordan Jones. He accepted Christ into his heart right there in front of me and I’ve never seen a happier child in my life. In a quote by Barbara Harrison she says, “True revolutionaries are like God - they create the world in their own image. Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.” I believe that we have impacted Marion Arkansas indefinitely and it was an awesome time.

Tanner, acting out his character for Bible Story

at the Boys & Girls Club

Mission Trip Testimony - Brittney Ray

2010-07-21T13:20:00.000-05:00

(Brittney, blue shirt on the left, doing motions during opening rally)

Testimony in their words: Brittney Ray

This is the most effective mission trip I have ever been on. Just seeing how much these kids wanted to know about Christ was amazing. I had the preschool and kindergarten group and even though they didn't really want to listen to all the stories I had to tell them, I just had the chance to love on them and play with them. Hopefully I made some sort of impact on their life so later on they can come to know the Lord. This mission trip just made me thankful for everything I had. These kids go through a lot and don't have a lot and just wanted someone to love on them and play with them. I am glad to be one of the people that could do that.

( Brittney, far left, talking with her group of kids)

Mission Trip Testimony - Alexis Burns

2010-07-20T16:03:00.000-05:00

Testimony in their words: Alexis Burns

A journey on a mission, that changed my life. New Hope Baptist Church, Marion, Arkansas was not only an adventure but a chance that will stay in my heart forever. This was my first mission trip to be involved in and I'm so proud to say that I was involved in 12 saved lives into the kingdom of God! :) Woop, woop. Anyway, I'm also proud that on the trip not only did I help the kids and help them find their way to Jesus Christ, I found myself. I believe instead of changing their life, they changed mine. I finally see what my calling in life is because the KIDS opened my eyes to all the things I can achieve. Through the crying, the pain, but the praying everything in the end was more than worth it. The spirit filled all of our hearts and all of our souls, to where we couldn't hold it in. Look, it paid off. We all came together as a family, got close to one another and used our faith to change a way of life kids, teens and adults live through every day.

God is a powerful God and without him, we’d be nothing. I thank him for using me and my H2O family to bring his glory to this earth and broken hearts who would never have thought or learned about him. I pray that he keeps using us to were, we are not even on a mission! That he uses us everywhere we step foot in, that everyone can feel his grace in us, in me! He will make our paths straight, only if we follow him. And I believe that I see an army of the Kingdom of our LORD, Jesus Christ.

-Alexis Burns

Alexis (back left), teaching the Wordless book to

kids at the Boys and Girls Club.

Mission Trip Testimony - Zach Mullino

2010-07-19T09:27:00.000-05:00

Testimony, in their words: Zach Mullino

(Zach, in the middle of photo, working in

crafts at the Boys/Girls Club)

The mission trip to Marion, AR was the first I had with the church. I loved to see the kids smiling faces, and it made me happy to know I was helping them. I think that by teaching in this trip we learned things ourselves. I loved working with the pre-k and it broke my heart to leave some of them. A little girl named Maddison wouldn't talk to anyone much, however we had whole conversation and it tore me apart to know I wouldn't see her for a long time maybe never. I know that some might not agree with me, but I would love to see the kids, especially Maddison, and go back next year and stay longer.

Mission Trip to Marion

2010-07-18T16:22:00.002-05:00

What an amazing week for our h2o mission trip to Marion, AR to work with New Hope Baptist Church and Pastor John Rech. We had a total of 39 on the trip with us. New Hope is in the middle of the second largest trailer park in Arkansas. There are over 450 trailers and over 1,200 people living there. Our focus was to lead a VBS for New Hope in the mornings and then lead another VBS at a local Girls & Boys Club in the afternoon. After months of training and preparation we left on Sunday, July 11th, after our morning worship service at Beech Street.

Immediately upon arriving in Marion we went straight to New Hope and began canvassing the trailer park handing out flyer's inviting kids to the VBS. While we were walking the streets it began to rain, but our team just keep going with great determination to touch each trailer. After handing out the flyers God gave us a neat reminder that He is in control and had a beautiful rainbow in the sky.

Monday we hit the ground running early. Our team was up and ready at 7:30am to head out and get things ready at New Hope. Each day during the VBS we feed the kids coming breakfast and lunch. With this being such a poor area, Pastor John or Papa John as people call him, told us most of these kids don't get breakfast or lunch during the summer because the family budget doesn't allow. They receive it during the school year from the school. So this was a big draw to get kids there. That's right, no big giveaway, just food. It makes you grateful for the blessing of food you and I have each day after seeing these kids. We would feed the kids breakfast and then began the VBS around 9:30am each morning. Our students led the different areas; crafts, bible story, application & music. It was incredible to watch our team at work each day.

(Opening Rally one Morning of VBS @ New Hope)

In the afternoons we went to the local Boys & Girls Club and did the very same VBS over again. We did not serve any food here. Our students gave the same amount of love, energy and attention to these kids as they did the ones at New Hope. We worked here Monday thru Wednesday each afternoon.

We did the same schedule Monday thru Wednesday. It was a lot of work and very little down time, but our team gave it there all every day. On Thursday we did our morning VBS at New Hope and then I had a mandatory rest time Thursday afternoon. Our team was exhausted and need some rest before our big Family Night event on Thursday night.

Thursday Night we had a huge Family Night event at New Hope. Papa John had prepared us to be happy if 10 adults showed up with the kids. God had different plans, the building was packed with adults with their kids. We did a high energy event with the kids singing the songs from the week and then sharing from the Wordless Book the plan of salvation. Then after the program we had a bounce house, hot-dogs, snow-cones, pop corn and lots of fun. It was a huge success and provided Pastor John with a lot of contacts.

For the week we had 12 kids accept Christ!!! Plus we planted many more seeds that will one day be harvested. It was an amazing trip, where we saw God move with power.

Mrs. Paula Owens was our cook for the week and all I can say is WOW! Paula feed us great all week. We ate meals like we were sitting at home around the dinner table. Mrs. Paula, you are amazing and your ministry this week was tremendously appreciated, THANK YOU!

Also, a big thank you to First Baptist Church Marion for allowing us to stay in their facility. It great to know that churches have a heart to serve their community. Allowing us to stay in their facility, freed up funds for us to do more at New Hope. Thank You FBC Marion and Pastor Clay Hallmark!

Over the next several days I will be posting things that our students sent me. I want you to hear from their perspective what God did. I will begin this on Monday, so check back each day.

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The Y-Team (A-Team) Video's we shot for Super Summer

2010-07-08T15:12:00.000-05:00

This year at Super Summer I was Dean of Yellow School. We themed our school after the A-Team. They were always there to help someone, and our goal this week was to help students deepen their personal walk with God.

For fun our team shot a short movie to use in our school. Here's the videos:

Day 1 Video:

Day 2 Video:

Day 3 Video:

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Getting back to blogging

2010-07-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

Sometimes in life something has to give and blogging was what gave in mine for the last two weeks, but I'm getting back on track. So what has taken place? The past couple of weeks have been spent traveling. I spent a week at Super Summer Arkansas, which was an amazing week of God working in teenagers lives. Then last week I traveled to hang out with my daughter some at Children's Camp in Sherman, TX. She had a great time and learned a lot.

I'm going to try to update you over the next several days on these trips and more.

Plus, we leave this Sunday on our Mission Trip to Marion, AR to serve with New Hope Baptist Church for a week. Not sure if I will have internet access, if I do I will do a few post from there.

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VBS @ Beech Street, watch the Video's here.

2010-06-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

This week was VBS at Beech Street. Check out these video's to see what took place. Thanks to Burns Barr, Jr. for doing these each day for us.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Flying a Airplane for Yellow School/Super Summer

2010-06-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

We finished up our video shoot for Super Summer Yellow School on Saturday. We shot the final scenes with an airplane, courtesy of our good friend Shane Robertson. While doing one of the flying shoots, Shane let me take over control of flying the plane, it was amazing! Below are a couple of videos. Thanks to Shane for taking time out of his schedule and for flying the plane for us.

Caution: Lots of loud plane noise in these videos

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Great Video Shoot for Super Summer

2010-06-11T12:38:00.000-05:00

Thursday my staff; Rob, Nicole and Mark, plus our incredible unpaid staff memeber, Michael Dyar, went to Hot Springs to shoot a video for Super Summer Arkansas's Yellow School. I'm in charge of the Yellow School for camp and plan to make it very exciting. We met up with Tad Moore, who is the Student Pastor at Hot Springs Baptist, and Shane Robertson, who is the Discipleship Pastor there, for the shoot. Tad is working with me in Yellow School.

Our Theme for Yellow School is based off the A-Team, yet we call ourselves the Y-Team. That's right I'm Hannibal, Tad=BA, Mark=Face Man, Rob=Murdock, Michael=Super Summer Tribunal-bad guy, Nicole=Girl rejected from camp by Super Summer and Shane was our pilot. Let's just say we came up with a pretty good script that will release at Super Summer. We had a blast shooting this video! I will post it on my blog after camp for all of you to see.

Sunday

2010-06-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy Sunday's and the opportunity I have to worship. This past Sunday I preached for our Pastor. God gave me a great message on Worry. It seems so many people are controlled by things they worry about in life. I preached out of Matthew 6:25-34. After a week of preparing God gave me a sermon that was very practical and geared toward helping people be released from this sin of worry.

These were my points:
1. Seek God
2. Be Proactive
    A. Do what God ask you to do
    B. Think on Right Things
    C. Do wise things

Worry is basically me thinking, "I'm bigger than I am and God is small then He is." It's making me thinking "I can do far more than I can and God can do far less than He can." One person called worry, "A mild form of atheism."

It's been neat to have so many people talk with me and even call me about the practical steps I suggested and how they are putting them into practice in their lives. It's always exciting to see the Word of God taking action in people's lives.

I appreciate my Pastor, Craig, for always trusting me with his pulpit and preaching the Word. It's great to serve with him.

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Week in Review

2010-06-06T12:51:00.000-05:00

What a interesting and busy week it has been. This week began with the sad news that Miss Kathy Starks had passed away, then a day later learned of Doc Thane passing away. With Pastor Craig on vacation, I took care of much of the pastoral care responsibilities along with the help of our administrator, Dick Young.

Miss Kathy's daughters were very kind to allow me the priviledge of preaching her funeral, which took place on Tuesday afternoon. She was a great lady that loved God and will be greatly missed.

Dick and I visited with the Thane family and prepared for Doc's funeral on Friday. Pastor Craig was able to preach it, after arriving back from his vacation. Doc was a man that invested greatly in Beech Street and left a incredible legacy

Wednesday night at h2o, Rob preached a message called, "What's the Big Deal" talking about the church and it's importance in our life. It's always refreshing to see our teenagers worshiping God with great passion. I appreciate Mark and all our student band; Jordan, Thor, Rachel, Zach, Jessie & Theo for the great job they did leading.

I finished up the week with a meeting for our summer camp, Super Summer Arkansas, in Little Rock on Saturday. The leadership team, consisting of youth pastors from all over Arkansas, met with our college leaders for training. It was a productive day. I'm honored to be serving on this leadership team in planning Super Summer. Praying God will do a great work during this week.

It was a busy week, but very productive.

Amazing night at h2o

2010-05-27T17:04:00.000-05:00

I finished up our "Devil Made Me Do It" series that Rob and I have co-taught over the past 4 weeks. Wednesday night turned out to be one of those amazing worship services where students allowed God to move powerfully in their lives. We did a lot of programming for this final week. My final sermon was "Can I be Forgiven?" The point was after you have fallen into temptation and sin is in control, can you be forgiven? We programmed our Worship set, the drama and my message all together.

Our worship band set list was:
Shout unto God
Overcome
Jesus Paid it All

Immediately following the worship band we had a drama team come on stage and perform the "Everything Drama." Theses students did an amazing job through this drama of presenting what happens when we give into our temptations and sin. Following the drama I preached out of Psalm 32:1-6 on Forgiveness. My points where:
1. Don't hide your sin - vs. 3-4
2. Confess your sin - vs. 5
3. Don't wait - vs. 6
4. Enjoy God's Forgiveness - vs 1-2

It was amazing to watch as I gave the invitation and students flooded the alter to confess their sin and to have a "then" moment, from vs. 5. After we concluded the service many students talked with me about a plan to beat the sin and temptation in their life. I'm praying and believing God set many teenagers free.

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What's going on a Beech Street

2010-05-26T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well over the past couple months I haven't been blogging as consistently. My goal is to get back blogging at least twice a week, maybe three if I'm really eager. I know a lot of you like reading what's happening.

This past Sunday Beech Street took a huge step in preparing for the future. For the past 6 months we have been in a remodeling campaign called, New Day. What does this involve? A complete remodel of our Nursery area and Children's area that will be very kid friendly and very inviting. It also includes creating a nice street level entrance for our Senior Adults to their area, handicap accessible restrooms for their area and a new elevator (the old one is like a carnival ride). This will greatly assist our Senior Adults with overall accessibility in our church. We are also remodeling our Adult Education space to create more space for new classrooms. It's a huge project!

Over the past several months the people of Beech Street have been praying what they could give over the next 3 years toward this project. On Sunday, May 2nd, the people pledged over 1.5 million dollars toward this project. As a result, this past Sunday Night, our church approved doing the entire project. Construction will begin in the next couple of weeks. It's and exciting time for our church and a lot will change over the next year cosmetically.

Week in Review so far

2010-05-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning was amazing, I had the honor of baptizing 5 teenagers. I love doing baptisms, because it's a powerful moment in every new believers life where they unashamedly proclaim their faith in Christ. Another great thing about baptizing teenagers is, their entire families usually show up to witness it, which gives us the opportunity to share with them. I got to meet and interact with a lot of people Sunday that were related to one of the students being baptized. It was an exciting morning. When we have teenagers baptized here I love that our students cheer and clap for them, it brings great joy to my heart and it encourages those being baptized.

Week 2 of our Series "The Devil Made Me Do It," continued Wednesday night. I preached on how temptation turns into sin from 2 Samuel 11:1-4
1. Careless with where you go
2. Careless with what you see
3. Careless with what you do
All teenagers are facing some type of temptation in their lives. I provided them with a guide to watch for to help them avoid letting that temptation lead to sin. It's not easy, but it is possible and may require some tough decisions. I love how after our worship time I have student after student come up to me and talk about what is tempting them and how to defeat it. God is using this series to greatly impact and challenge our students.

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h2o live - Wed. night Recap

2010-05-06T10:40:00.000-05:00

We started a new series last night called, "The Devil Made Me Do It." It's a 4 week series dealing with how Satan attacks us with Temptations in our lives. Rob and I are team teaching this series and our Sunday Morning Small Group time goes right along with it.

I must say, I love our Worship Band! They have developed incredibly in the past year under the leadership of Mark Bartels, a college student from Ouachita Baptist University (OBU). Every week huge crowds of students are drawn in to a deep and passionate time of worship by our band. There is something contagious when you look on stage and the band is worshiping as it leads. It's always exciting when students are standing at the door anticipating Worshiping their God!

Wednesday night Rob kicked off the series by preaching on the difference between a trial and a temptation from James 1. He talked about how Trials help you grow in your walk with God, but how Temptations with kill your walk with God. To talk about destroying temptation he showed a clip from the movie, Fireproof, where the man is tempted by pornography on his computer and takes it out in the yard and destroys it with a baseball bat.

I spent nearly an hour after the Worship service talking with teenagers about the temptations that are destroying them and how they can defeat these temptations. Rob did a great job of preaching the Word of God and it had great impact on lives.

We got the idea for this series from our Small Group Material. We use the KNOWN material from Lifeway for our Small Groups. Several weeks ago as week looked at this upcoming series of Small Group Lessons, we felt God lead us to develop our Wednesday nights to go along with the Sunday time. KNOWN provides this option and we have taken and developed it and added some creative elements to strengthen the message.

Must See this: Esthers House (Episode 1)

2010-05-03T15:28:00.000-05:00

Zach Kennedy and his wife Erin took their entire family on a 2 month mission to Malawi, Africa to lay the ground work to open Esther's House Orphanage. The Kennedy's have four small kids; twins Easton-5 and Catherine-5; Sophia-3; Addis-1 is their adopted son from Africa. Zach is a friend of Sara and I from Hot Springs, who is now on Staff at First Baptist Springdale, AR as the Minister of Creative Media, and Erin is a relative of mine.

The show "Esther's House, Africa" premiered Sunday Night on Daystar Network and will run for 6 weeks. The show is simply following the Kennedy family as they serve in Malawi. Check it out, very moving and challenging. Zach and his team have done all the production and editing of the show and is a production of First Baptist Springdale and The Church at Pinnacle Hills.

To find out more about Malawi and how you could give, go or get involved check out Pure Mission at www.puremission.org. Enjoy watching the show.

Esthers House Episode 1 from Esther's House, Africa on Vimeo.

Great Sunday @ Beech Street

2010-05-03T11:09:00.000-05:00

What a Sunday! This Sunday was the culmination of our New Day Campaign as the entire church made a 3 year pledge. What is New Day? (click here) Our Worship Time began with 5 people following through in Baptism. It's always powerful seeing people lives changed by Christ. Our Worship time led by Melanie, the Choir and our Worship Band was very powerful. Pastor Craig briefly shared from God's Word and then led us in a time of commitment. It was a moving experience to watch as families came and prayed at the alter and then laid their pledge card down. It was a very exciting day in which I believe God was made great and glorified.
I thought the baptisms were a perfect picture of exactly why we are doing this New Day project. A teenagers, a child and two adults were baptized. That's what this project is all about, allowing us to reach more people for Christ of all ages. It's exciting times at Beech Street!

Baptisms @ h2o

2010-04-29T14:10:00.000-05:00

Over the past several months we have had a lot of students accept Christ at h2o on Wednesday nights. Several have already followed through in baptism, but we have many more that have not. Last night I preached on baptism. The goal of the message was to help those that had not been baptized to understand and set a date. At then end of the service I had cards under each students chair with a pen and I had them fill out the card (name, address, cell phone, age, grade, parents name). At the bottom of the card I had 3 statements with boxes to check beside them.

I have accepted Christ and have been baptized
I have accepted Christ and have not been baptized
I would like to be baptized on May 9th

We had over 110 students there, I made all the students fill out a card. I had 26 cards turned in check that they had accepted Christ but had not been baptized. I had 15 of those 26 check they wanted to be baptized May 9th.

Pray for us as we set up all these baptisms. I encouraged them to invited their entire family to our worship service. Pray their parents will hear the gospel and accept Christ or because of their testimony through baptism accept Christ. Join me in praying for a harvest.

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68% of Millennials (20-30 year olds) rarely or never attend church. Powerful new research by Lifeway released.

2010-04-28T10:29:00.000-05:00

Lifeway research came out with a very revealing research project on 20-30 year olds. I have reposted some of the information and have provided links to the full story and other related stories on this research below. This research made me take a step back and really think. Trust me it's worth your time to read.

I first read this information in a USA Today article printed Tuesday (4/27/10) on this information which led me to do some digging. WOW, taken back by what I read. I feel like I knew this, but this research confirms it.

Below is the information I received from Lifeway, taken from their press release.

Two-thirds of American "Millennials" – those born between 1980 and 1991 – call themselves Christian, but far fewer pray or read the Bible daily, attend weekly worship services, or hold to historical positions on the Bible and its teachings.

These are the findings from a wide-ranging August 2009 LifeWay Research study of 1,200 Millennials in the United States. The study forms the basis for the upcoming book "The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation" by Dr. Thom Rainer and his son Jess Rainer.

65% that rarely or never pray with other people.
67% of Millennials say they rarely or never read the bible
66% Millennials rarely or never visit a church, synagogue, mosque or temple, only 25% attends religious worship services once a week or more.
20% meet with others at least monthly in a small group to study the Bible or other sacred texts, but 80% rarely or never do so. A slight majority (53%) disagree (strongly or somewhat) that the Bible is the written Word of God and is totally accurate in all it teaches.

"With fewer people attending worship services or praying with other faith adherents, it is not surprising that the religious landscape of our culture is changing with the maturation of the Millennials," said Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources.

48% of Millennials believe they will go to heaven after they die, but are split as to the reason. 26% of all respondents believe it is "because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior;" 16% say it is because they have tried their best to be a good person and live a good life; and 4% say it is because "God loves all people and will not let any of them perish."

While the survey found that American Millennials hold diverse beliefs, 6 out of 10 say their religious faith is very important in their lives today, and 70 percent agree (strongly or somewhat) that Christian churches are still relevant in America today.

"Millennials are the most religiously diverse generation in our culture’s history," Rainer said. "Unsure of the afterlife and the life of Jesus, Millennials present the church with a great opportunity to engage them in conversations dealing with the nature of truth and its authority as God."

(Read the entire story here from Lifeway.)

Tom Rainer, President of Lifeway Christian Resources, also did an interesting blog post to follow up this research. I've posted a few highlights below.

Our best estimate is that only 15% of this generation is Christian. Among nearly 80 million Millennials, only 12 million have personal relationships with Christ.

That means 85% are lost. That means 68 million young people are lost.

Millennial Christians will not settle for business as usual in our churches. They will not be content with going through the motions, programs without a purpose, and spectator Christianity. They take their faith seriously, and they have little patience with churches that focus most of their resources on the members. These Millennials are serious about taking the gospel to the nations and to their communities.

In the midst of all the bad news, there is good news. Radical commitment from radical Christians. If a few Christians turned the world upside down in the first century, we have no reason to doubt that a few million can do it again in the twenty-first century.

Click here to read his entire blog.

Very challenging and revealing information. It's time we act on it!

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Graduate Sunday

2010-04-26T13:24:00.000-05:00

Above is the video we did for our 2010 Graduating Seniors. We honored them at a breakfast with their families during the Small Group hour (9:15-10:15am) then we recognize them in our Worship service. During the breakfast I share with them some funny and interesting facts from the year they were born and play some clips of the top songs from that year. Then I share with them a brief challenge as they head off to college.

As a gift I gave them the "Purpose Driven Life." They are making some of the most important decisions they will make; what they will do, who life long friends will be and who they will marry. This devotional style book challenges them to know who they are and the big plan God has for their lives. We also put together a video of them with their pictures and I give each of them a copy of the video. I'm proud of all our Seniors.

The MAIN EVENT Rec video & Wed. night programing

2010-04-08T12:56:00.001-05:00

We used this video to introduce our new rec schedule for Wednesday nights following our worship time. Our Wed. nights are called, "h2o live" and impact well over 100 students each week. Our schedule for Wed. night is as follows:
5:00pm-Doors Open, students can start arriving.
6:30-7:45pm-Worship Time.
7:45-8:30pm-Rec/hangout time.
8:30pm-Doors close/everyone goes home.

Our Worship time is the focus of the night and is very relevant to teenagers. From the lighting, sound, band to the sermon it's all programmed to point people to Jesus. One thing we hear over and over from students is how they love coming and love inviting their friends to come with them to our worship time.

What takes place from 5:00-6:30pm? We have just completed, well almost completed, the remodel of a new gameroom (I'll post pics soon). When students arrive they check in at the registration desk, new guest fill out a "guest form." From there they go to our gameroom/cafe. We have several xbox360's & Wii's set up, pool table, ping pong table, fooseball & air hockey. Our cafe serves food and drinks and we have an area for them to sit and talk. They stay in this area until time for "h2o live worship" and we move them into our worship area.

What takes place after the Worship time from 7:45-8:30pm? The students join in the rec games as mentioned in the video above: dodgeball, 3on3 basketball, broomball, walleyball & micro-soccer. We rotate these games each week. All of these are not played every week. Students can also hangout in the gameroom/cafe.

How do we pull all of this off? We have a lot of great adult volunteers. I completely trust them and depend on them to do the job they have been assigned. It's a joy to be able to just hangout with teenagers and interact with them and know that every area is covered by one of our great adult volunteers.

Grand Opening of h2o

2010-04-01T10:12:00.000-05:00

God gave us an amazing night for the Grand Opening of our new h2o area. Over the past 1 1/2 years God moved in lots of teenagers lives here and we have grown rapidly. We quickly out grew our old worship area, we literally had students sitting on top of each other. Our solution was to create this new worship area that could seat a couple hundred students and was very relevent to today's culture so we could once again began to grow. We accomplished creating our new worship area and also created a new cafe/hangout/game room area for students to engage one another before and after our Wednesday night worship times.

Last night was our official Grand Opening and we had a large crowd. This crowd would have never fit in our old worship area. Our Worship Band did an amazing job leading our student to worship our God and then I preached the Word and had 2 student accept Christ. I love seeing student lives changed by Christ. We have seen several teenagers over the last couple of months come to Christ. I pray God will continue to bless our ministry and allow us to reach many more for Christ.

We have also made some changes to our programming on Wednesday night. I will blog about this tomorrow and post a pretty funny video we shot with our "h2o rec team." Trust me you don't want to miss this one. There will also be pictures up on our facebook fan page...www.facebook.com/h2ostudentministry after this weekend.

Beast Feast @ Beech Street

2010-03-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday we had our 2nd annual Beast Feast at Beech Street. We have a great team of men that organize this event for our church. Lots of wild game and a couple of dogs made this years a huge success. My Pastor posted about it on his blog, check it out www.adaysportion.com or (click here).

"Church Birth Control"

2010-03-09T16:25:00.000-06:00

Title got you didn't it, it got my attention as well. It was an article that Ed Stetzer did for Outreach Magazine that was published in their March/April edition. It got the article off of Ed Stetzer's Blog.

I thought it was very thought provoking, read it for youself.

"Get your church off birth control & start having babies-- churches need to birth churches," Ed Stetzer. Below is the article:

Church Birth Control
Seems to be that churches must be on some powerful birth control. They are not reproducing. And I don't get why.

It's natural. It's normal. It's essential. And we all know how to do it. But somewhere along the way, church reproduction and multiplication became unusual or strange in North America. And I am not happy about it.

The Church is the most powerful institution in the world. Where no electricity and running water exist, you will still find a church that is planting churches. When governments grow corrupt and economies crash, the Church still stands and plants more churches. Nothing in the world and nothing in the last two millennia of history can compare to the Church. It advances best by exponential and explosive multiplying. But not here.

The Church matters. It is God's agent of change for the hopeless. It is how He delivers transformation to a hurting world. Through the Church, God unfurls the banner of mercy and announces the kingdom of grace. He has assembled the Church to tell and model the most important issue in life--how to spend all of eternity with God Himself.

God has chosen the Church to make known His multifaceted wisdom to all in authority (Eph. 3:10). Whether a power in the heavenly realm or an authority on the earth, the Church is where God rolls out His message. It is used by God to speak to the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich, the hopeful and the hopeless.

We believe in the Church not only because of what we have seen, but because of what Christ can do next. He constantly amazes us at how lives are changed through the Church.

That is why church multiplication is so vital, and why I love church planting so much. Depending on how you count, I have personally planted five. Each time I learn about a church being planted, I get ready to witness lives changed. I prepare myself to hear about cities touched by God's grace. I feel assured that entire nations will be transformed by the Gospel. Church planting is almost the most effective evangelistic strategy in the world.

What's the most effective? Church multiplication movements. When churches plant lots of other churches, our witness advances exponentially. The Gospel goes viral. We need that kind of movement today. One that cannot be controlled, confined or contained.

[Church researcher and author] Warren Bird and I have a new book coming out in May called Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass). By our definition, a church multiplication movement happens when churches:
-Multiply at a 50 percent rate (100 churches one year become 150 the next year) -Reach 50 percent of their new people through conversion (they are reaching the lost)
-Multiply to the third generation of churches (parent, child, grandchild)
Yet I feel like a tired husband in yet another round of false labor. Everyone is talking reproduction, but not enough churches are having babies.

I hope and pray to see a church multiplication movement in North America during my lifetime. I love local churches and know that God is moving in them. But we need more churches that want to see more churches planted.

Conferences, books and articles can point the way, but only God can change the heart. We have a lot of right information, but we haven't made enough application. It will take a passion for reaching people far from God and a willingness to sacrifice for multiplication. It will even require a new kind of surrender. But I challenge you to take up the work of supporting, cheering and even boldly leading what becomes a viral church.

As Posted on www.edstetzer.com

Sunday @ Beech Street

2010-03-08T16:21:00.000-06:00

For the past several Sunday's I have had the priviledge of baptizing a teenager. God has been moving in our students lives and weekly we are seeing student accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. As a result we are seeing these student follow through in Believers Baptism. This past Sunday was no exception as I baptized one of our teenage girls that had accepted Christ.

This Sunday I also had the opportunity to preach, Pastor Craig was away preaching a revival. I always appreciate him giving me this opportunity. My sermon was based off of James 2:26, "Faith without works is Dead," then I used Peter walking on water to illustrate a Faith that's Alive. If you want a Faith that is Alive you will be Called, then you must put it in Action and finally Worship Jesus. God used the Word to draw another man to accept Jesus.

God is doing some neat things in people's live and I'm glad to be apart of it.

h2o live -Wed night

2010-03-05T14:06:00.000-06:00

I finished up my series, "Becoming a Champion for God," this past Wednesday night. I spent 3 weeks walking through David's encounter with Goliath. It was very effective in students lives. To conclude the series I preached on David killing Goliath and talked about how it's time to kill the Giants in your life. So many times we sincerely want to defeat a Giant in our life, yet we do like the Israelite Army and march out to the battle lines, the Giant comes out again and we give into in and live in sin. Why not just kill the Giant? I ended the message by handing each student a small stone and asked them to kill their Giant with this stone. The Spirit of God moved in and we had 4 students accept Christ and many others defeat Giants in their lives.

The stories I've heard from students since Wednesday night are simply amazing. We were at one of the local High Schools on Thursday and several students walked up to me, pulled their small stone out of their pocket and said, "I'm killing my Giant."

I heard stories of students going home and talking with their parents about Giants in their lives that they were ready to kill. Other students left things at the alter, some handed them into our adult leaders. It one of those nights that students allowed God to move in their lives. God is able to help us defeat & kill the Giants in our lives.

Adult Volunteers @ h2o

2010-03-02T14:55:00.000-06:00

I believe one of the key to having an effective Student Ministry and a successful ministry is the Adult Volunteers that serve with you. I love our adult volunteers that are apart of h2o student ministry. This fall alone we have almost doubled the number of adults that volunteer with our Student Ministry.

This always begs the question, "What do they do?"

For me the #1 key for all our volunteers is that they love teenagers. Our adults here at h2o have strong relationships with the teenagers, they love on them and they build relationships with them. Our students know that the adults they see each week are there not because they have to be, not out of duty but because the care about the students.

Another key is for me, as the Student Pastor, to give them clear direction on what they are to do. Volunteers want to know what their job is. We meet with all our volunteers regularly and go over their responsibilities and where, when, what and how. I have overall expectations and rules I provide to every volunteer and then I have individual job descriptions that I give to a volunteer based on the area/task they are assigned. On Wednesday nights I assign our volunteers to areas of our building. We have cafe workers, area monitors, door monitors, registration desk, recreations leaders for after our worship time and security. Plus, we train people on counseling students that make decisions during the Worship time.

I encourage all our volunteers to build relationships with the students. Even while they are serving in the area they are assigned to I encourage them to engage students. Our adults here at h2o are very good at this part. There are very few students that walk through our ministry that don't connect with an adult. This may be the thing I appreciate most about our adult volunteers here, there desire not to just be there to help, but to invest in student lives.

As a Student Pastor I can't do all the ministry, care for all the students, organize and run all the events by myself. That equals burn out and a small ministry. My desire is to empower our adults. The more volunteers I have engaged in our ministry the more students we can reach and the more lives are changed by Christ.

If you are one of our h2o volunteers and your are reading this, thank you for the job you do each week!

Dnow '10 "Live Love" (Video, Pics & Recap)

2010-02-22T22:41:00.002-06:00

This past weekend was Disciple Now weekend for h2o student ministry. Our theme and focus for this year was "Live Love" from John 13:35, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." I stand in awe of God and His Spirit that moved with great freedom. This weekend ranks as one of the best Disciple Now's in my 13 years of ministry. What made it so incredible? The movement of God in students lives! Saturday night the Spirit of God moved in and in the silence of the room students just started praying over one another, others accepted Christ, others hit their knees. It was one of those indescribable God moments. (watch the video below)

I believe a big key to a very successful and spiritual growth Disciple Now is the quality of college leaders involved. The leaders we brought in this year had a deep passion and walk with God. They were spiritually ready before they arrived. All weekend long they loved on students and poured into these students to Word of God.

Another key to a successful Disciple Now is the Speaker and the Worship Band. This year I brought in Pat Cammarata to speak to our students. Pat spoke with great authority from the Word of God and challenge students to "Live Love" everyday of their life. As he spoke the Word of God changed lives. Our band was led by Mark Bartels who brought in several college students with him to lead us in worship. I appreciated how they focused us upward in worship, it was moving to watch as students were drawn to passionately worship God.

Disciple Now..."Live Love" this Weekend

2010-02-18T20:23:00.000-06:00

This weekend is our annual Disciple Now Weekend. This year our theme is "Live Love." The focus is loving other people as Jesus does. This is always a weekend that we see students lives radically changed by Christ. Our speaker this year is Pat Cammarata, he is a man that has a passion to communicate God's Word. This year we are using college students from Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) led by Mark Bartels as our worship band.

We have so many people that have been great in volunteering their homes for us to use and many other adults that have volunteered to help this weekend. We have the greatest adult volunteer workers here at Beech Street! They love teenagers and love seeing lives changed for Christ.

This is going to be a great weekend!

A day at Barksdale Air Force Base

2010-02-12T17:14:00.000-06:00

A week ago Craig and I got invited to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, LA for clergy day. We were invited down by one of our church members, Ken Wooley, who is in the Reserves and also works full time on the base. Ken does some pretty amazing work on B-52 bombers. While we were there we ate lunch at the officers club, toured the base and got up close with at B-52 bomber and A-10 Thunderbolt II.

The Reserves are hero's, these guys work in the civilian workforce and then give up their time to train and defend our great country. I'm proud to know several of these guys. I hope you will join me in constantly telling these men and women thank you for their service. Below are some pictures from the day.

Thank you to Ken Wooley for the invitation. I love spending time around our military and especially the Reserves.

Barksdale is home to the 917th wing:
The 917th is a composite wing which operates both the A-10A Thunderbolt II and the B-52H Stratofortress. Located at Barksdale AFB, La., the Wing employs approximately 1,600 Air Force Reserve personnel. The mission of the 47th Fighter Squadron is to train students to fly the A-10. The primary mission of the 93rd Bomb Squadron is to conduct strategic heavy bombardment and maritime operations in the B-52. (from their website)

B-52 Bomber...these planes are massive and bring the thunder

Bombs dropped from the B-52. The one on the right has a larger case to go down into the ground. You're in trouble if you see one of these things coming your way.

Another bomb carried on the B-52. This one is so smart it can literally be dropped from over 8 miles away and go through the window in your house. Amazing the technology our military has!

This is the bomb bay of the B-52. They can carry a lot of bombs like pictured above.

Cockpit of a B-52. I got to sit in the pilots chair on the left.

Call-sign of the B-52 we looked at

A-10 Thunderbolt II

This was a fun day. Hope to go back again.

What and amazing Sunday!

2010-02-08T15:05:00.001-06:00

Our "Super Sunday" had a huge impact on lives. Every year we take Super Bowl Sunday and create a church wide event called "Super Sunday." We take the excitement created by our culture and in-turn create excitement for our Savior and Church. We make the day all about getting people plugged into a Small Group from Children through Adults.

I'm so proud of our church and how people got excited, not about a ball game, but about inviting people to church. All across our church, in every Small Group, there were new faces.

Our Sr. Adults had a neat get-together before their classes. They used one of their rooms as a place to serve finger type foods before Small Group. There was great excitement and joy among them. Great job to all who worked hard in our Sr. Adult area to pull of this great morning.

In almost all our Adult classes we had to bring in extra chairs. I love it when I'm having to run down chairs because a class has run out. There were several classroom bursting at the seems. It was neat to see them bringing in friends and neighbors and introducing them to their classes. I'm so proud of how they made it their mission to invite people to be here. Then they all had parties Sunday Night to watch the Super Bowl and build relationships. Great job to all our adult classes.

Our Teenagers (h2o student ministry) blew it out of the water by inviting their friends. We had well over 100 teenagers in Small Groups. Not to mention they almost took up the entire center section of the worship center. God is continuing to bless this ministry. Plus they did an all day event ending with watching the Super Bowl (read more about it here). Thanks to all our great adult volunteers that served tirelessly all day.

The Children's Ministry also has a big day in Small Group. All their classes were filled with kids. It was fun to walk around and see all the groups as they taught these kids about Jesus. They also had a huge event after Worship for the kids to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Great job to Emily and all our Children's Volunteers and teachers.

This was a great day all about building relationships with people. I believe God used it and will continue to use to in the days ahead.

Super Outreach on Super Bowl Sunday

2010-02-03T12:50:00.000-06:00

Every year for Super Bowl Sunday our Student Ministry does a huge outreach called, "Super Sunday." Our goal is to see a lot of students connect with our Small Groups that morning. We developed an event that takes a lot of work but is very successful. Here is what we do.

For weeks prior to the event we do lots of promotion with mailouts, social networks, phone calls, etc.
Super Sunday:
It all begins with Students arriving for Small Group at 9:15am that morning. We have a great free breakfast for them, and energetic/engaging Small Group time in God's Word. Next we attend or worship service. After worship we load student on buses and take them to a local city park. There we grill burgers, have chips, drinks & snacks. While at the park we play ultimate frisbee, some students just hangout and talk, others play other games. We stay at the park about 2 hours in all. From the park we load back on the buses and go to bowling alley. We bowl for 2 hours, this is the only part of the entire day that cost the students. We leave the bowling alley in time to return to the church for the Super Bowl. We have pizza for all the students, free, and they can play games, talk, and/or watch the game. At then end of each quarter we give away a nice prize and at half time I do a brief devotional. It all ends when the game is over. This day is all about building relationships. Here's what the schedule looks like:

9:15am-Small Group
10:30am-Worship
11:45am-Go to the Park for Lunch, Ultimate Frisbee, etc
2:15pm-Go Bowling
4:30pm-Return to the church and eat dinner (pizza)
Go home after the game.

It's a lot of work, but every year God brings us a lot of students for this day. We usually more than double our normal Sunday Morning attendance. We have seen God save students here, connect them with our group and finally we have seen several families come as a result of their teenager getting involved. This has been a very successful outreach for us.

It is very worker intensive. We have some of the greatest adult volunteers of any church I have every served. We have parents cook cookies, bring bags of chips for snacks, drive, provide supervision and more. We have a group of adults that takes care of the food, others that help with the recreation at the park, many other adults that come along to interact and provide supervision. Without our great adult volunteers this day would never happen. I appreciate them and value the service greatly.

I can't wait until Sunday to see what God does this year!

s

Baptism, Top 10

2010-01-26T15:25:00.000-06:00

The picture you see above is an award I received for our church being in the "Top Ten for student baptisms." Over the past two years God has allowed us to impact a lot of lives for Jesus. I'm humbled by how God has chosen to use our ministry in such a powerful way. We have so many great adults that serve week after week that pour into students lives and as a result we see many come to Christ. I'm so thankful for the adult team of workers we have that want to see teenagers lives changed by Jesus Christ. I pray this year will be another great year of reaching students for Christ. I pray this year we will once again see many students follow in believers baptism.

Awards are always encouraging to get, but there are still 100's if not 1000's of lost teenagers with in 10 miles of our church. Join with me in praying for us to reach these students.

.

Super Sunday is Coming

2010-01-24T08:11:00.000-06:00

Super Sunday is an event we do every year on Super Bowl Sunday, which is February 7th. Super Sunday is all about impacting lives and connecting people with a Small Group. All our Small Groups are working hard to invite people to be in their Group that Sunday Morning at 9:15am. Then we have an exciting Worship service at 10:30am, where we pray even more lives are changed for Christ.

We end the day with all our Small Groups having a Super Bowl Party at one of their class members homes. These parties are a lot of fun! This is a great way for new people to build relationships and get connected. I hope if you live in the Texarkana area you will come and join us for "Super Sunday" on February 7th here at Beech Street. Not sure where your Small Group meets? We will gladly help you find the one that fits you the best. Plus, we want to invite everyone to join there Small Group for a party that Sunday Night. Even if you're not into football or the Super Bowl, just come enjoy the fellowship.

God's Movement is Amazing

2010-01-24T08:02:00.000-06:00

Last Wednesday night at h2o we had one of the God moments. As our worship band was leading us to focus on Christ we began to sing "Jesus Paid it All" and the spirit of God feel. It's hard to even described what God was doing. Students were worshiping and as the band was bringing the song to an end God impressed on my heart that there were some in the room that needed to accept Christ right then. I stood on the stage gave a simple explanation of what it means to accept Christ and 5 students did so right then! Other students were on their face before God worshiping.

I was just one of those God moments in a worship service. I thank God for the 5 lives that were changed and for the many others that were challenged. God is moving in our church in many different avenues and I'm excited to be apart of it.

Haiti Earthquake

2010-01-13T15:05:00.000-06:00

It's hard to grasp all that has happened in Haiti due to the 7.0 earthquake that hit there on January 12th. I do know this, God calls all of us to help in some way or form.

Matthew 25:35-36, ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'"

So how can you help, who can you trust? Here are two groups that I strongly believe in and trust to spend money given to them completely on the Haiti people.

Here is a link to some pictures from Haiti (click here) WARNING some of these are on the graphic side.

Group #1
The "International Mission Board (IMB)." This is our Southern Baptist Mission Organization. They are taking all their funds through "Baptist Global Response (BGR)." You can read about the actions they are taking and give by clicking here: (IMB-click) (BGR-Click). Both of these links take you to the same place to make a donation.

Group #2:
The other group is "Samaritan's Purse", which is run by Franklin Graham. This is the organization that does "Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes" and many other mission works across the world. When you click on the give link on their website a pop-up window with "Haiti Relief" comes up for you to put you donation in. (Samaritan's Purse-click).

I'm sure there are other organizations that will do a great job, but I have been personally involved with both of these and completely trust them.

Ty is 6!

2010-01-12T16:41:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday Ty turned 6 years old. I remember the day he was born in the metropolis of Warren, AR. God has blessed Sara and I with a great son who is very full of energy and life.

This year he wanted to do a bowling party for his friends. He had several of his buddies come and they had a blast bowling together. Then on Saturday we did his family party. This year his one big request was a basketball goal, of course he got it and some other stuff. I thank God for the blessing of Ty and look forward to the plan he has for him.

Standing for Christ at all times

2010-01-08T15:30:00.001-06:00

I'm not a Texas Longhorn fan at all, but I am a fan of Colt McCoy. As I watched the end of the NCAA BCS Championship game last night I saw and heard Colt make an amazing statement. He had been knocked out/hurt in the biggest game of his life and the final game of his college career and here is what he said when asked about that...(watch video)

Here is Colt's Testimony. That we would all strive to live this powerfully and give God the credit.

A plan?

2010-01-07T16:52:00.000-06:00

I'm a guy by nature that likes to plan and have structure in my life and ministry. We all have responsibilities and we all seem to be "busy." Many ministries seem to just run from one event, one worship service, one weekend to another. God led me a long time ago to be a person with purpose and a plan.

The past several months I've been evaluating our ministry here at Beech Street. After 2 1/2 years God has allowed a lot of incredible things to occur. We have added a lot of structure to what we do both in the Student Ministry and in the Adult Ministry. I have now set some new bench marks for us as a ministry over the next 2 years.

For our Student Ministry I've been working on a sequence that takes a student from one point when they enter in 7th grade to another point when they Graduate. This plan has already begun, but we are only 2 years into the process. God has been giving me a lot of direction in this area over the past couple months as we move into the next 2 years.

Our Adult Ministry is well on the same track. Our guiding direction as a church is: Believe, Belong, Become. I am now working hard to see us incorperate this into our Small Groups and Faithworks (discipleship) ministries with great intentionality. I believe we will be helping adults deepen their walk with God, which translates down to the families.

This is going to be an exciting year as God continues to mold the plan he has for us in me. I look forward to reaching more people for Christ and growing others to serve Him more.

A look back at my 2009 New Years Resolutions

2009-12-30T10:06:00.000-06:00

New Year Resolutions...everyone seems to make them, yet few keep them. I thought for fun I would look back at my 2009 Resolutions/Goals and see how I did. Here were mine from '09:
1)Improve our family devotion time
2)Continue my financial plan
3)Eat healthier
4)Exercise Consistently

So how did I do? 1)We have worked hard to be consistent in our family devotional time. I believe it's my responsibility to disciple my kids so we are still working, but had a good year in this one. 2)We have done excellent with our Financial plan. We went through Financial Peace University (FPU) and have followed this plan and it has helped us be very responsible financially. 3)As for eating healthier, I have cut back my portions and eat less food at each seating. I need to still improve on eating healthier foods. 4)I have Exercised Consistently all year. I set a goal to run a 5k in early 2009 and did. I have keep running and started other exercises as well.

As a whole I would say I did very well with my 2009 Resolutions. So what are my 2010 goals? That post is coming soon.

The Real Meaning of Christmas Charlie Brown Style

2009-12-24T19:09:00.001-06:00

13th Wedding Anniversary & 33rd Birthday

2009-12-21T20:56:00.000-06:00

December 21st is both my Birthday and my Wedding Anniversary. The best birthday present I ever received was my wife. I'll never forget that day that occurred 13 years ago today. God blessed me with an amazing woman that shares this great life with me. She is encouraging, uplifting, supportive and loving of me. She is an incredible mother to Ty and Haley. I can't imagine life without her. We are a perfect fit for each other.

I remember seeing her walking down the isle of the church and thinking WOW! As I look at her today I still say WOW! I thank God for blessing me with Sara and the 13 years we have now shared together. Each year seems to get better and better. I love you Sara and Happy Anniversary!

Missions @ Beech Street

2009-12-13T08:16:00.000-06:00

In December of each year Beech Street takes up it's annual Mission Offering. The "Acts 1:8 Offering" is structured with this verse in mind, "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Many people have given to this offering over the course of the entire year, while others give a lump sum on the actual day in December. Last Sunday was our "ingathering" for the Acts 1:8 offering and we have received $97,000 to go toward missions, PRAISE THE LORD! I fully expect it to go well over $100,000. This money is divided up in to 4 categories and a percentage goes to each: International Mission (IMB), North American Missions (NAMB), State Missions (ABSC) and Local (BSFBC).

It's exciting to be apart of a church that has a huge heart to see people won to Christ. Thank you for your obedience to God Beech Street!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

2009-12-08T13:57:00.000-06:00

I always enjoy attending our Small Group Christmas Parties, it's one of the benefits of also being the Education Pastor side of my job. This past Saturday our "Threads Too" Small Group had an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. As you can see from a few of these pictures there were some really ugly sweaters. Lots of people went all out and did the entire outfit. This group know how to have a lot of fun. Sara and I had a blast hanging out with them Sunday night.

Sara & I

Burns, Neil & I

Sr. Adult Christmas Party

2009-12-04T20:01:00.000-06:00

Thursday our Sr. Adults had their Christmas Party in the Fellowship Hall at the church. They did a great job of putting a great event together. The tables were decorated very nicely, the food was excellent and the entertainment was fun. They had Roasted Pork Loin, dressing, sweat potato caserole, green beens, salad, rolls and some amazing deserts...I personally had the Apple Pie and Ice Cream cake...it was all very very good!

For entertainment they had a "Illusionist." He performed all kinds of illusions and did a great job of entertaining the crowd. At one point he brought Pastor Craig up front and tried to teach him a trick. He had Pastor Craig tear up a napkin is several of different squares then wade them up and put them in his mouth. This idea was for it all to come out in one piece...of course it didn't work for Pastor Craig and it did for the Illusionist guy, it was pretty funny. (the picture below is of Pastor Craig with the napkin in his mouth.)

I always enjoy spending time with this age group in our church, they are such a big encouragement to me. So many of them send me cards and offer many words of encouragement. Plus they are some great prayer warriors.

New...

2009-12-02T12:47:00.000-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving with our families last week, now it's back to the ministry at hand.

Monday morning I hit the ground running, mostly planning for 2010. Part of our staff team spent most of the day Monday meeting with "Worlds of Wow" about the design for our Childrens area. Two of their team members came down Reagan, President, & Wayne, Project Manager. Our team was very impressed with them and looks forward to partnering with them. Emily, our Children's Minister, shared her vision and direction with them and this area is going to look simply amazing.

Tuesday I went to the monthly Super Summer Leadership Team meeting in Little Rock. I am priviledged to serve on this team of Student Pastors from across the state in planning Super Summer for 2010. For those of you that don't know, Super Summer is a camp for teenagers that takes place each summer at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU). Super Summer does two camps, a Jr. High Camp & Sr. High Camp, with each one having over 1000 students.

Serving the Homeless & Struggling with Ty & Haley

2009-11-24T10:18:00.000-06:00

Since our kids, Ty & Haley, are out of school for this entire week Sara and I decided to have them serve others. I believe it's important to teach your kids and give them hands on experience. We took Ty & Haley to the Friendship Center to serve lunch. The Friendship Center serves lunch everyday to anyone in need. The Friendship Center also does a variety of other services to help the homeless and those that might be struggling. It's led by a great man, Bryan Bixler, who does a phenominal job. Check out their website to find out more about what them.

Ty & Haley helped set up the food line and then they put food on the plate as the people came in. They helped get ice in the glasses, pour tea and water, put rolls on the plate, put the desert on the plate and then handed the plates to those coming through the line. They were both smiling and engaging to those that came through, which in turn brightened the day of many of these people. (you can see Ty on the left putting the desert on the plates)

After it was over we set down as a family and talked about the morning. I asked them what they saw and heard. We talked about how we need to be grateful for the things that God has blessed us with. We also talked about how we need to care and serve others. This is only the beginning of many more service projects we will do as a family. (you can see Haley on the right putting rolls on the plates)

h2o live -Wed night recap

2009-11-19T15:22:00.000-06:00

It was a good night at h2o and lots of fun. Our worship band did a great job of leading us to focus on Jesus. I appreciate them and their dedication and passion to led others to worship Christ. I preached on Thanksgiving. I talked about being thankful for what God has blessed you with and being thankful for what Jesus has done for us. I had students write down five things they were thankful for in their lives, then I had random students share one of the things they wrote down. It was neat to hear the different things students shared. Then I challenged them to thank God more often for the blessings of life. I concluded my message with being thankful for what Jesus has done for us...He Redeemed us. We had a neat prayer time at then end where students spent time Thanking God for what he has blessed them with in their lives and for Him redeeming them.

After h2o and we were closing down for the night I was talking with two students. As I was talking with one about following through in baptism the other students said she wanted to be baptized to, I asked her to tell me about when she accepted Christ and she had no answer. I sat down with the two of them and walked her through what it meant to accept Christ. She said, "I want to accept Christ tonight," so she prayed to receive Christ right there. I love leading people to a personal relationship with Christ!

The most important thing we can do as believers is tell other people about Jesus. It's exciting that God blesses us with the opportunity to see student accept Christ very frequently here. May we never grow tired of telling people about Jesus!

Youth Baptisms falls from 140,000 to 75,000

2009-11-18T14:54:00.001-06:00

I read this report on my brothers blog, Brian Mills, and thought I would share it with you.

Check this out:

1971 Southern Baptist Church Youth Ministries baptized around 125,000 students.

The next year, 1972, that jumped up to almost 140,000 students.

Watch this –

1973 - 120,000 – pretty big drop from that 140,000 the year before.

Each year it has gone down.

1980 (7 years latter) – 109,000

1985 – 88,000

1990 – 90,000

1995 – 93,000

2000 - ??????

2001 – 83000

2005 – 83,000

2008 – 75,000

It's sad to see that we are reaching fewer and fewer teenagers every year with the message of Jesus.

When I came to Beech Street the end of 2007, I came with a passion to see the Baptism numbers here changed. It broke my heart that no teenagers had be baptized that year. For the past two years God has used our efforts and drawn many in to a personal relationship with Jesus. Each teenagers that follows through in baptism represents a life changed by Jesus. Here's a look at the last 10 years in the life of Beech Streets Youth Baptisms:

2000 - 8

2001 - 5

2002 - ? (no record)

2003 - 6

2004 - 12

2005 - 6

2006 - 3

2007 - 0

2008 - 17

2009 - 18

Praise the Lord for what God has done here over the past 2 years. I pray God will continue to allow us to reach teenagers for Christ.

Source: Annual Church Profile, Lifeway Christian Resource Center, Nashville Tenn. Compiled by the center for Missional Research of the North American Mission Board, Alpharetta, GA

Ty & Haley's heart for others...

2009-11-17T15:14:00.000-06:00

As I told you in my last post, our church finished up our Operation Christmas Child boxes this past Sunday. The Saturday before Sara and I took Ty & Haley shopping to file the boxes we had gotten. We allowed Ty to chose for the boy and Haley for the girl. They put a lot of thought to what they chose to buy. We talked a lot about the kids that would receive these boxes and what would make them smile and joyful. Sunday morning before Ty & Haley brought their boxes to church they prayed over them and prayed for the kids that would open them.

As Ty was finishing up with his box he decided he needed to add a Football, but we didn't buy one. Ty went to his room and pulled out one of his favorite soft footballs that he and I play with a lot and put it in the box. He said, "I've got more footballs, but this little boy doesn't have anything. I'm giving this to him." I must say it brought tears of joy to my heart, that my son was more concerned about giving to someone else, someone he will most likely never meet, that he was willing to give up one of his favorite balls. (you can see the ball in the box he is holding)

I'm so proud of Ty & Haley both and the heart they have to give to others and to serve others.

What a Sunday!

2009-11-16T15:30:00.000-06:00

This was just one of those Sunday's that you really since God's presence. Sunday Morning I baptized two more of our students, God has given us the priviledge of seeing lots of students accept Christ and follow in baptism. I love baptizing, it's just one of those major God moments in an individuals life and in mine. As our worship time continued we had a neat time of praying over the Operation Christmas Child boxes, I will blog tomorrow about how God preached a sermon through Ty (my son) with this. Then Pastor Craig preached a powerful message on the 10 lepers out of Luke and how only 1 of the 10 came back to Jesus. At then end of the service we had 8 people join and one by salvation. Just an amazing morning.

Immediately following the worship service we had a Operation Christmas Child (OCC) box packing and lunch. It was neat to see so many parents bring their kids to this and teach them the importance of blessing other people. It was also neat to see so many different ages of people represented. It was a beautiful picture of what the church should look like, young and old working together for those in need. I appreciate greatly the leadership of our Adult 4 Small Group in spear-heading our OCC mission.

Sunday night Sara and I finished up our discipleship class, "The Five Love Languages." We have had a great group of people in their for the past 8 weeks and have had some great discussions. As we concluded one of the couples, Jason & Sherri, brought in a small wedding cake and punch to celebrate the end of our class. It was a lot of fun, I will miss meeting with all these people each week.

I am so thankful that God is at work here at Beech Street. On a weekly basis lives are being changed for the kingdom of God, may we never take for granted what God is doing!

h2o live - Wed. night

2009-11-12T20:23:00.000-06:00

We had a solid night at h2o Wednesday night. The band did a great job of leading us in worship. It fun to watch and hear them improve week after week. I gave Rob the night to preach. He preached on allowing God to use. He talked about how Moses thought he couldn't be used, but God used him. He encouraged students to allow God to use them.

It was a solid night, nothing fancy, but solid. We had a large crowd of students again. It still amazes me how God continues to use us week after week to impact lives for him, I hope I never grow tried of this.

Recap on Friend Day

2009-11-09T16:41:00.000-06:00

We had a very effective day of touching lives on Friend Day here at Beech Street. The day began with our Small Group hour at 9:15am. We encouraged people to invite their friends to attend their Small Group with them and we also encouraged our Small Groups to reach out to people.

h2o student ministry had Kingsdown, a band from Little Rock, do a free concert during the Small Group hour, plus we feed all the teenagers a free breakfast of biscuits, gravy & bacon. Over 100 teenagers showed up on a Sunday morning. Kingsdown put on a great concert, we are still hearing how our students enjoyed the morning. After the Small Group hour our students attended the Main Worship service at 10:30am. (pictures below)

Our Children's Ministry had BOZ the Bear during Children's Church, 4yr olds-2nd grade. They were excited to get meet BOZ upclose and personal. He put on a program that all the kids enjoyed. Many of them walked in Sunday Morning with a look of great anticipation, they were ready to see BOZ. (pictures below)

Finally, we had Dr. Grant Ethridge, Pastor of Liberty Baptist in Hampton, Virginia, as our guest Preacher for the day. He preached out of Acts 2 and how lives were changed by Jesus. Many people came down front to pray and some to make decisions. It was a powerful morning of God moving in peoples lives.

Friend Day's are always exciting and encouraging to everyone. They are a lot of work to pull of from but well worth it when you see what God does. I look forward to seeing how God continues to use this Friend Day and the spirit from it in the days ahead.

BOZ performing @ Beech Street

Landon & Ty (my son) with BOZ

Kingsdown in Concert @ Beech Street

Friend Day, THIS SUNDAY @ Beech Street

2009-11-06T11:33:00.001-06:00

This Sunday is "Friend Day" at Beech Street. We are offering a lot of things for different age groups this Sunday Morning, Nov. 8th. The goal is for all of us to invite our Friends to come with us. Everyday we interact with people that attend no church this Sunday is about them.

For our Children's Church, "BOZ the Bear" will be here to present the Word of God to them. I believe all of our preschoolers will be facinated with Him and have an exciting morning.

For teenagers, the band "Kingsdown" will be performing during the Small Group hour, 9:15am, a free concert. They are a rock style band that will engage the crowd.

The Highlight of the day will be our 10:30am Worship Service where Dr. Grant Ethridge will be preaching. All our age groups will come together at 10:30am, with the exception of Children's Church, for a great morning of Worship and hearing the Word of God preached.

Ty & Haley meet PGA Pro David Toms

2009-11-05T19:24:00.001-06:00

Thursday afternoon Ty & Haley got to meet David Toms, a PGA Golfer. The First Tee of Texarkana put on a golf clinic where David Toms spent an hour hitting shots and answering questions from the kids. He was very generous and kind. Haley asked him, "How do you grip a club?" He answered her and then after it was over and she was talking with him and he showed her how to grip the club. It was a neat moment for her. Below are a few pictures from today.

These 2 pictures are Toms showing Haley how to grip a club.

Below Toms is signing Ty's shirt

David Toms talking to the crowd in-between hitting balls

Ty & Haley on the driving range before the David Toms clinic

Gr8 Wed. night @ h2o

2009-11-05T09:05:00.000-06:00

Last night was an amazing night at h2o. I shared what God has been teaching me for the past month through His Word. I talked about what Jesus made a priority in His life and what I saw the early church made a priority. You see Jesus draw people to a relationship with Him (salvation) you see Him Serve people unconditionally. I talked about how we must be about telling people how they can have a personal relationship with Jesus. I even had a couple of students share about times in their lives they led someone to Christ...very powerful. Then I talked about serving people. We have got to serve people with not expectations. Jesus did both serve people and invite them into a relationship with Him.

We had 2 students accept Christ last night and scheduled 4 others to be baptized. Just a neat night of God moving in lives.

h2o live - Wed. night

2009-10-29T14:38:00.000-05:00

Last night was the last of our "Thr3e Big Nights" at h2o. We concluded with and Xtreme Txt game. We put together a list of questions from pop culture to biblical to everyday life put the question up on the screen and the first student to text in the right answer was called up on stage. We did 6 questions, then did a simi-final round with those 6 to narrow it down to 3 and a final question for those 3. It was a lot of fun and the students loved being able to text during church.

Our worship band did a great job after the Xtreme txt game of focusing our students on Christ through song and the Rob preached on Standing in your Christian Walk. He challenged students to stand strong in life even though it's very difficult. He talked about how God is pleased when we stand for Him. It was a powerful word that ministered to students.

I enjoyed talking with several of our students on a deeper level last night one on one. I had a goal of just focusing on one student at a time last night and hearing what is going on in their lives. I must say it was one of the more meaningful nights for me personally at h2o. I think it's because I took time to listen intently to one student at a time and not be in the constant Student Pastor rush of talking to everyone and impacting no one. Times like last night remind me why I do Student Ministry.

YouTube Challenge WINNERS & Videos

2009-10-25T21:25:00.001-05:00

Our YouTube Challenge to promote Small Group finished up today. The Winners are 10th Grade Boys, led by Michael Chesshir. Great job guys! The 2nd place group is 8th & 9th grade girls & 3rd place is the 8th grade boys. Check out the 1st, 2nd & 3rd place videos below, they are in order of place. I congratulate all our groups on a job well done.

What was my personal favorite? The 8th & 9th grade girls video. They did a spoof of Rob and I and did it well. It is very funny to me.

This was a fun promotion for our Small Groups. They had to work together to create, produce, shoot, edit and promote their videos. I highly recommend anyone doing this to promote Small Groups. If you want to know how we did it check out my previous post by clicking on this link: "How we did it."

1st Place: 10th Grade Boys

2nd Place: 8th & 9th Grade Girls

3rd Place: 8th Grade Boys

Good job to all!

Friend Day, Nov. 8th @ Beech Street - Video #1

2009-10-20T16:01:00.000-05:00

Friend Day at Beech Street is on November 8th. Dr. Grant Ethridge, Pastor of Liberty Baptist in Hampton, VA. will be our guest for the day. Pastor Grant has been used by God to reach many for the Kingdom of God. God has worked through him to grow Liberty to a church reaching thousands each week though 5 worship service. God used him here in AR as well to grow FBC Lavaca to a dynamic church. Pastor Grant is a guy that you will want to get your friends here to hear. We want everyone to invite a Friend to come with them to Small Group-9:15am and Worship-10:30am on this day.

For Preschooler's Boz the Bear will be here during Children's Church. Talk about exciting! Your child will not want to miss this exciting opportunity to meet Boz up close and personal at Beech Street Sunday, November 8th.

h2o student ministry will be having a live band, Kingsdown, for teenagers during Small Group at 9:15am. Kingsdown is a solid rock style band that has recently played with groups like: Switchfoot, Anberlin, Skillet, Superchick, Disciple and more. This will be a great morning for teenagers to invite their friends to a FREE concert, plus we will have a FREE breakfast for them. It's all on November 8th @ 9:15am.

We look forward to God doing a great work on FRIEND DAY, November 8th at Beech Street. Who are you inviting?

I hope you enjoyed the first of 3 Friend Day videos there are more coming in the weeks ahead. We took the Geico commercials and spoofed them.

Disciple Now in Bastrop, LA

2009-10-19T10:51:00.000-05:00

This weekend I traveled to Bastrop, LA to Grace Baptist Church and spoke at their Disciple Now Weekend, Chris Wright is the Pastor (above Left) and Tony Campanale is the Student Pastor (above Right). Grace is a new church, 8 years old, and has a big heart to reach their community. I had a great time hanging out with them and challenging them from God's Word. The theme was "Identity" for the weekend. I spoke on Identiy in Christ Friday night, Identity other see in us on Saturday morning and Identity to Lead Saturday night. We finished up Sunday morning where I preached to the entire church out of Luke 5 on Passion for others people.

It was a great weekend and I appreciate Chris and Tony inviting me to be apart. Sunday morning 4 people made decisions with 3 of them being Salvation decisions. Grace is a neat church that is having a impact on their community.

h2o...3 Big nights...Night #1

2009-10-15T17:29:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night we began "Three Big Nights" at h2o. Our goal is to offer things on these Wednesday nights to assist our students in bringing their friends to hear who Jesus is. Night #1 we played the game "Don't Forget the Lyrics" and did it just like the TV show. It brought in several new students. I'm doing a message series called, "Upload." Last night I preached on John 3:16 and the importance of Uploading Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. I talked about how we upload so much to our lives but the most important thing to put in our lives is a relationship with Jesus. It was a good night with lots of energy and God moved in several lives.

Where have all the Christians Gone?

2009-10-08T09:44:00.000-05:00

I read the following story on www.foxnews.com. I have reprinted it below, or you can go to the original article (click here).

This is a very thought provoking article:

Where have all the Christians Gone?

Christianity is plummeting in America, while the number of non-believers is skyrocketing.

A shocking new study of Americans’ religious beliefs shows the beginnings of a major realignment in Americans’ relationship with God. The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reveals that Protestants now represent half of all Americans, down almost 20 percent in the last twenty years. In the coming months, America will become a minority Protestant nation for the first time since the pilgrims.

The number of people who claim no religious affiliation, meanwhile, has doubled since 1990 to fifteen percent, its highest point in history. Non-believers now represent the third-highest group of Americans, after Catholics and Baptists.

Other headlines:

1) The number of Christians has declined 12% since 1990, and is now 76%, the lowest percentage in American history.

2) The growth of non-believers has come largely from men. Twenty percent of men express no religious affiliation; 12% of women.

3) Young people are fleeing faith. Nearly a quarter of Americans in their 20’s profess no organized religion.

4) But these non-believers are not particularly atheist. That number hasn’t budged and stands at less than 1 percent. (Agnostics are similarly less than 1 percent.) Instead, these individuals have a belief in God but no interest in organized religion, or they believe in a personal God but not in a formal faith tradition.

The implications for American society are profound. Americans’ relationship with God, which drove many of the country’s great transformations from the pilgrims to the founding fathers, the Civil War to the civil rights movement, is still intact. Eighty-two percent of Americans believe in God or a higher power.

But at the same time, the study offers yet another wake-up call for religious institutions.

First, catering to older believers is a recipe for failure; younger Americans are tuning out.

Second, Americans are interested in God, but they don’t think existing institutions are helping them draw closer to God.

Finally, Americans’ interest in religion has not always been stable. It dipped following the Revolution and again following Civil War. In both cases it rebounded because religious institutions adapted and found new ways of relating to everyday Americans.

Today, the rise of disaffection is so powerful that different denominations needs to band together to find a shared language of God that can move beyond the fading divisions of the past and begin moving toward a partnership of different-but-equal traditions.

Or risk becoming Europe, where religion is fast becoming an afterthought.

Bruce Feiler is bestselling author of eight books, including "Walking the Bible" and "Abraham," and the host of the PBS series on "Walking the Bible." A frequent commentator on National Public Radio, CNN and FOX News. His latest book "America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story" will be published in October.

Sunday @ Beech Street

2009-10-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

Pastor Craig was out of town this Sunday and he gave me the priviledge of Preaching. I preached a sermon out of 1 Sam 14 talking about the importance of living a life of complete trust in God. I asked the question, "What are we doing that if God doesn't show up, we are going to fall flat on our face and fail." Jonathan new God could act on their behalf, he just didn't know if God would. I want to live my life in that manner. We had several guest with us and had one family join, with the teenager coming by salvation.

Missed the service Sunday and want to watch it click this link: http://www.beechstreetfbc.org/bsfbc_media

Sara and I are still leading a discipleship class on Sunday nights, "5 Love Languages." We have a lot of couples in this class and our discussion time is always interactive. It's neat to hear how God is using this study to impact marriages and open lines of communication. We are loving spending time investing in these couples.

h2o YouTube Challenge has begun

2009-10-05T11:25:00.000-05:00

Sunday we began the h2o YouTube Challenge. This is a Small Group competition where they all made a video that promotes h2o small groups. We then uploaded the video's to our h2o YouTube site (www.youtube.com/h2otexarkana) and the video that gets the most hits over the next 3 weeks wins.

This has been a lot of fun for all our h2o small groups and they a now in the midst of fierce competition to see who can get the most hits. I will feature a video on this blog every couple of days, or you can just go to our YouTube site and watch them (click here).

Want more information on how we did this? Read a previous post I did on this "h2o YouTube Challenge - Part 2."

Don't see this everyday...

2009-09-28T16:48:00.000-05:00

Saturday some friends of mine, Brendon Burrell (L) & Charles Thacker (R), went Gator hunting. They caught a 12'11" Aligator that weighed around 600 pounds. I hear it's one of the largest gators caught in AR history. It took them over 4 hours to wear it down and kill it. They said it pulled their little flat bottom boat all over the place. Pretty amazing! Charles also is our Sr. Boys Small Group leader, this made for some great discussion starter Sunday Morning.

Watch this...

2009-09-25T11:26:00.000-05:00

The world is changing fast and how we communicate and interact is changing. Check out this video, I have seen this video on several blogs and on YouTube.

Very interesting and thought provoking.