The Revolutionary Blog

On our way to camp. 40+ kids!

Community Youth Service

Yesterday for youth service we went to a local community park. When we got there we just went around talking to people about the church. Some students signed some kids up to be picked up for Sunday School while others had prayer with people right on their front porch.

We took our moble PA to set up in a pavilion, but it began to rain and storm. So instead of taking the chance of ruining our equipment, I just played me acoustic and we sang and worshiped. After we sang Tyler Medina preached for a couple minutes to us.

It was a refreshing change for revolution. A change that takes us back to our purpose. I don't want the Four walls of a church to contain us. I want to step out and be the church!

The Mission

Tonight I preached part 2 of THE MISSION. I have just been talking about how we are called to live on mission. Tonight I preached about the parable from Luke 14 when Jesus talks about the kingdom being like a great feast. I talked about the difference between the servants that were about the mission and those who were invited who had nothing but excuses! If we don't watch it we can have so many excuses why we are not going to the kings house! Then I just challenged revolution about being about the mission! Going to the poor and those who cannot help themselves and taking the good news to them.

At the end I announced some cool stuff that is going on next week that is about the mission:

Friday - our youth band & puppet team will be ministering at a community center to a bunch of kids that are in a summer program!

Saturday - We are having youth service out in the community! Location will be announced later in the week!

I want revolution to be about the mission of Jesus Christ! GOING AND TAKING THE GOOD NEWS TO ALL THE WORLD!

I took my sermon tonight and put it into wordle and came up with this below. Pretty cool huh?

Components to a Successful Metro Mission Trip

One of the highlights of my year is always the Summer Youth On Missions Trip. For the past Four years we have traveled to a metro city by bus and worked with a Pastor there to do ministry in the city. I love the trips because it always opens students eyes to the fact that America is a mission field. It allows them to see that there are places right here in America that are untouched with the gospel of Jesus.

First of all before I give some advice about how to have a successful Metro YOM trip, I want to say that we would NEVER be able to go on a mission trip if it was not for our awesome Pastor and church that supports us. We do not live for the mission trip. We live for Madisonville, KY. It is the place where God has called us to minister all year. The mission trip is just an opportunity to be a help in another field. We have an awesome church and Pastor that supports our young people!

Here are just some things that I have learned from the last Four years of Youth On Missions trips. This is in NO WAY exhaustive. We still have so much more to learn. I an just sharing some of the things that I have learned....so for what it's worth

1. A Great Pastor/Church to Partner With - A metro mission trip rises and falls on the Pastor that you partner with. All the the Pastors that we have worked with have been absolutely amazing. They have had an intense burden for the city where they are. Also they have been so excited and eager for students to be there helping! I communicate with the Pastor extensively so that we can establish ministry plans, and the itinerary. Working together we establish a working itinerary for the days that we will be with him. My goal is not to dictate the itinerary, but to help mobilize our students to help accomplish his vision for the city. This is a great place to start looking for a Pastor to partner with.

2. A Good Fundraiser - We do not do a bunch of fundraisers for our mission trip. We have found One good fundraiser that brings in all the finances for the trip. I realize that this may not be possible for you, but for us it has worked great. Our cost is about $250 per student for our past trips. This fundraiser been great for us! We are able to raise all the funds within a month.

3. Get Parents on Board - The greatest chaperone for a mission trip is spelled PARENT. One of the things that have allowed us to take upwards of 70 people into metro cities like New York City has been by the careful oversight of parents. We always take enough chaperones so that each room can have at least one. Parents make great chaperones because they simply are parents. If a student acts up, I don't have to call a parent on the phone, I just simple walk over to them and tell them. (Usually when I have parents with us, they just take care of the problem themselves.) Plus there is no greater thing than a parent watching their child be touched and changed by God. Powerful things always happen on these trips! It really builds a bond between parents and students. I have been blessed with some wonderful parents and chaperones for our mission trips.

4. An Unbalanced Itinerary - I have done the itinerary different for different years, but I have found the most successful itinerary to be unbalanced. By that I mean that you do not spend equal amounts of time on ministry and fun/sightseeing. I have found the best itinerary to be leaning more toward ministry than fun. Not that you don't have fun, but schedule your touring/fun times to be amazing. Then spend the bulk of your time about the mission. I have found that the mission is what changes students. Students are changed when they are serving soup to a homeless person, or witnessing to someone on the street, or praying a child through to the Holy Spirit, or passing out flyers in a neighborhood. The sightseeing is fun and necessary, but I have found an unbalanced itinerary toward ministry always makes for a more successful mission trip.

5. Make it HUGE! - One thing that I have never regretted that we have done for our mission trips is that we have made them a big deal. It is our focus at our weekly youth services for nearly 2-3 months. We show videos, we show pictures, anything that will keep the mission trip in the forefront of their minds. Last year when we went to Washington D.C. we even did an entire preaching series about our nation being founded on the principles of scripture. Each week I would take a different D.C. landmark and use that as a illustration for the message. The week before we usually have a time of fasting ending in a prayer meeting the Saturday before we leave for all students, parents, and chaperones.

Prayer is foundational for a successful mission trip. We have to be walking in step with the Holy Spirit when we are about these mission trips. Prayer must Cover Everything that is done.

If you have been reading this you may be wondering..."What is a successful mission trip?" To us a successful mission trip is defined as a trip in which we partner with the vision of the local Pastor in sowing seeds for the church whether it be by prayer, singing, door to door evangelism, or working with the homeless. If we are allowed to see some reaping that is awesome, but to me a successful Metro Mission trip is defined by sowing.

If you are planning a youth mission trip I hope this post helps. Have a great day!

Wayne Francis & the GYD talk about The Commune-ity Meeting

Check out this video about The Commune-ity Meeting. I am planning on taking my team to The Commune-ity Meeting in August. It is going to be awesome!

Go to www.thecommune-itymeeting.com for more info and to register.

"If You Could Have Heaven"

"The critical question for our generation -- and for every generation -- it this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there?"

As I was reading last week, this quote from John Piper just jumped out at me. Many times we sing, think, act, pray like the treasure of heaven will be the streets of Gold, walls of Jasper, or gates of pearl, no sickness, no dying. The treasure is Jesus Alone! Other religion's heaven is all about enjoying and indulging in earthly pleasure. We get the opportunity to experience a heavenly TREASURE eternity with our creator Jesus Christ!

Just a thought.

A Hard Prayer to Pray

Proverbs 30:7-9

7 "Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:

8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

As I was listening to a sermon yesterday, the preacher read these scriptures and I have not been able to get them out of my head. A man named Agur wrote this proverb and his words have really challenged me...I pray it will challenge you also.

If you only had Two things that you could ask God for before you die what would they be? Just think about it. If you could ask God anything....what would your last Two requests be. I bet Agur's answer is different than ours to that question. What did he pray for?

1. HONESTY - He did not want falsehood and lies to be anywhere around him. He wanted to live a life of honesty and integrity. I don't always pray for that in my life...do you? It is that important!

2. TO NOT BE POOR OR RICH - He prayed to live paycheck to paycheck. It is easy to pray not to be poor, but have you ever prayed not to be rich? Not me. But Agur's explanation of his prayer is so true. He said that if he was poor he might steal and dishonor the name of his God. However, he also says that if he becomes rich he may have TOO MUCH and disown God.

If God is truly better than life. If spending all eternity in his presence is THAT amazing, then Agur's prayer should be our prayer. If having poverty or riches will keep us from him...then I don't care about them, I just want to be dependent on God EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE!

To be honest with you, all day yesterday I pondered this prayer without allowing it to be my prayer. Today I want to pray this with Agur. God's love is truly better than life!

Chicago YOM Video

Here is the video that Bro. Beardsley mixed for the trip. It was a great surprise! Enjoy

There will be another video that we are producing about the trip in more of a documentary style that will be done in the next couple weeks.

Day 5/6

I am writing this post from my house! It feels so good to be home. We had an amazing trip. It was the best mission trip that we have ever had! Not to take away from any other trip that we have been on. God always exceeded our expectations each year. This year was no exception. God keeps doing greater and greater things.

Friday's Service was so awesome! What a way to end a great week of ministry. At the service revolution praise band did part of the worship and then their Youth Pastor Johnny Alfaro and I tag-team-preached. He did a great job talking about the Y generation. He said that if we are the Y generation than WHY NOT change our world for Jesus! At the service I saw so many of our students touched that normally sit back. I know that they will never be the same!

It was such an honor working with the Crystal Lake UPC and the Beardsley family. It is such a thriving revival church and we were energized to work with them! I know greater things are yet to come in the city of Crystal Lake and the Chicago area!

Bro. Beardsley also surprised us with a video that he mixed of the trip. It was a great surprise. I am going to post it soon.

Then today we slept in and drove all the way home! Another mission trip is done...

Thank you to all the parents/chaperones that made the trip possible. You guys are awesome. Thank you to our great church and Pastor for supporting our youth so that we can do things like this! And lastly thank you to REVOLUTION YOUTH for being the awesome students that you are! Your passion always inspires Kara and I. You guys never cease to amaze us as you grow in your walk with God and take new steps of faith. Keep it up. LET'S CHANGE MADISONVILLE FOR THE CAUSE OF JESUS CHRIST!!!

Day 4

We had a great day today. I can't believe day 4 is already done. Today we went to Gurnee Mills Mall across from Six Flags and went shopping! A lot of students found some good deals!

After we finished shopping we went to a city called Zion. The city has a very rich Christian history. The city was actually founded as a "New Jerusalem." Last night it lived up to it's name! We went in and had a street concert and puppet show. We were working with Bro. & Sis. Brash. They are doing a great job in the city of Zion. We just set up and began to find people on the street and invite them to come to the concert. When they got to the concert we had an opportunity to talk to them about Jesus and invite them to the church.

It was so amazing all the people who came to watch the noise in the street! One lady came (pictured below) asking for a water. After talking with her a group began to pray for her. She was really touched right there in the open air. Our God has no limits on what he can do! Pac Baby also rapped. He did a great job. People were drawn by his music and worship! The puppets were awesome also! We had many other people from the city that came just to see what was going on. We had an awesome time just worshiping and talking to people about Jesus. We pray for Bro. & Sis. Brash that they would have REVIVAL in the city of Zion.

Tomorrow is our last full day before we go home. We are going back to Crystal Lake to do some evangelism and to have a youth crusade. it is going to be great!

A special thank you to everyone who has called, emailed, sent a text, commented, or twittered an encouraging word to us while on this trip. Thanks for you support and prayers! GREATER IS YET TO COME!

Real-time trip updates here