Disciples...Now

This coming weekend we are doing our first ever Disciple Now. A disciple now fulfills a couple of our purposes as a youth ministry but the main purpose is a focus on becoming a better disciple of Jesus. Throughout the weekend there will be game times, Bible study time, and a whole lot of fun.

Why focus on becoming a disciple of Jesus? What is the big deal?

Back in Bible times, the most ultimate job was that of a rabbi or teacher of the Old Testament (the New Testament wasn't written yet). All the schooling was based around the teachings of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the prophets and the rest of the Old Testament. When boys started to turn 15 years old, Rabbis would come to their schools and start asking them questions concerning the Old Testament. The rabbis were doing this because they were looking for disciples. The only way to become a rabbi, which was the ultimate job, was to become a disciple of rabbi first. As the rabbis asked questions of the young boys they would give one of two responses. One response would be "You are a well educated young man, but you are not what I am looking for as my disciple." With that said, the schooling would be finished for the boy and he would return to his father's house and continue the family business. The other response would be, "Follow me." The rabbi would say no more then that. Those two words meant that the young man had what it took to be a disciple and he would now devote his time to the teachings of his rabbi.

When Jesus, who was a rabbi, called his first disciples they were fishing. That meant that they "did not have what it took" to be a disciple, or so they thought. When Jesus called out to Peter and Andrew, "Follow me!" they immediately dropped their nets to follow rabbi Jesus. Jesus' words of "follow me" restored hope to these two young men who had been told they were not good enough. Jesus words let them know that they had what it takes to be a disciple.

Likewise, Jesus calls out to all of us, "Follow me!" It is an invitation to follow the true King of the world. It is an invitation that goes out to the most wealthy, popular person as well the poorest and loneliest person. Jesus calls us to be his disciples.

Since Jesus calls us to be his disciples...NOW, we are going to focus on that this weekend as we go through the first ever DISCIPLE NOW weekend at PV. My prayer is that you would be able to connect more with Jesus and become a better follower of him!

I hope to see you there.

Mission Monday- El Salvador

Seeing that we sent a group of students from our church to El Salvador I figured we would focus this week on the prayer needs of El Salvador. El Salvador is Spanish for "the Savior".

Pray for:

• there has been a growth of Evangelical Christians, but now they need prayer for effective discipling that motivates the believers into service, witness and missions for others.
• increased unity among the different churches, renewed vision of the church, and effective outreach that this nation might belong to Jesus.
• leadership in the churches. Pray for the Bible school and seminaries that they may have funds to provide the best education and equipping means possible for its students.
• Pastor Figueroa and his wife Elba as they lead the Spanish mission here at Palm Valley.