October 10, 2014: Leave No One Behind (Friend Request Series: Part 2)

Sigh. Don't you hate it when you complete an entire blog post and then your computer crashes right before you save it? Well, here goes round 2!

In nearly every war movie, there's a scene where the hero has to go back onto the battlefield to rescue a wounded friend. It's usually at this point in the movie where the injured man says, "Leave me behind, save yourself." (a truly terrible acting moment). As tempting as it might be, the hero never leaves his friend behind, but hoists him onto his shoulders and runs in slow motion as the jungle behind them erupts in explosions.

In Luke 5:27-29, we're told the story of Levi (Matthew) first meeting Jesus. Levi then threw a party and invited many of his old friends (other tax collectors and criminals) to meet his new friends (Jesus and the other disciples). Levi didn't leave his friends behind. He wanted to introduce them to the person who showed him love and kindness when everybody else hated him, and he did so by simply inviting them all to a party.

If we've made the choice to follow Jesus, we shouldn't forget about our friends, but we should do what we can to introduce them to this person who has offered us love, forgiveness and a brand new start. It can be as simple as inviting a friend along with us to a special event at CATALYST (like our upcoming Mystery Night event on October 24). Also, starting in January, we're going to be running the YOUTH ALPHA series for several months. We're still going to play wacky games and sports, have the band play and eat some great food, but instead of me (Pastor Ben) getting up and talking, we'll be showing a video on the big screen and have breaks for discussion around tables. The video series is high quality and relevant (see the trailer below) and it will touch on some really deep questions: What's the point of life? Why am I here? Who was Jesus and why does he matter? What's the big deal about the Bible? Why is there so much evil and hate in our world? In short, it's a great starting point to introduce our friends to Jesus (and we'll probably learn a lot in the process ourselves).

CHALLENGE:

1. DISCUSS: Ask your teen some questions: Why would you want to introduce a friend to Jesus? Why does it matter? What difference would it make? What's the point?

2. PRAY: Encourage your teen to think about a friend who hasn't met Jesus and pray for them once a day.

3.ASK: Encourage your teen to ask, invite and bring a friend to CATALYST. While inviting someone is cool, when you offer to bring them with you, it makes people a lot more comfortable. If they think their friends aren't ready for a typical CATALYST night, any time we have a special event (or when YOUTH ALPHA starts) please continue to encourage your teen to bring someone along with them.

October 3, 2014: One Big Friend Request (Friend Request Series: Part 1)

This week at CATALYST we talked about Facebook, this social media site that helps us connect with each other. Over 500 million people are on Facebook. It has given us a platform to broadcast the minutia of our lives at any given minute but it also has redefined "friendship". We can be friends with someone on Facebook without ever actually having any kind of personal relationship with that person. Sure, you might know what they're doing every 5 minutes, but we know an awful lot about celebrities too. That doesn't mean we're FRIENDS with those people.

In real life, a friend isn't just someone who you recognize or have some vague connection to, but a friend is someone who actually cares about you. A friend is someone you can rely on, someone you can trust and talk to about anything. A friend is someone who is looking out for you.

The Bible tells us that God has sent each of us a 'friend request'. Revelation 3:20 says,
"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends".

It boggles my mind that the God who created life with a word, the "ultimate celebrity", wants to know me and have a relationship with me. He's knocking on the door, and all I have to do to have friendship with Jesus is to invite him in, to welcome him in as a friend.

Of course, you can't really be close to someone after a brief introduction, God wants us to let him in to our everyday lives. He wants us to talk to him (about the good and bad), He wants us to read his "wall posts" (the Bible). One of the reasons why we look into the Bible at CATALYST is we want to know God better. We want to hear from the Ultimate friend. We want to receive his wisdom and guidance.

DISCUSSION:

1. Ask your teen who their favorite celebrity is. What would your teen do if that "celebrity" called him/her up and wanted to hang out? Would your teen ignore that celebrity's calls or would they be so excited that they would be shaking with excitement, sharing the good news with anybody in earshot?

2. We often take God for granted. There is no "celebrity" greater or more important than him, yet how often do we ignore his pleas for friendship? How often do we ignore his calls? Take some time this week to think about how amazing God's offer of friendship to us really is!