Top Blog Posts of 2012

Here are the top blog posts of 2012! 

1. Coming September 2012...

2. Defeating Two Types of Porn

3. When Your Wife is Pregnant

4. Micah's First Week  

5. My Prayer for Micah

6. Source Volunteer Handbook 

7. Transitioning in Ministry

8. Branding your Student Ministry 

9. The Gift of Life

10. God, Have you Forgotten Me?

I am also a contributor with great youth ministry friends at: www.youthmin.org! Here are a few posts I have written to share with the youth worker community: - A Letter to Adult Volunteers - Interview Tips for Student Pastors - Helping Students Understand the Importance of Reading their Bible - Passion of Presence 

Thank you for reading the blog. My hope is that my website is an encouragement to you!

 Happy New Year!

Teaching from an iPad

A few months ago I purchased an iPad 2. I use it to read, surf the internet and to teach God's Word. One of my main reasons for purchasing it was to use it in ministry. I am passionate about leveraging technology for the gospel. I absolutely love teaching from it. No longer do I have a few pages of notes that I have written over at the last-minute, but now can make changes or additions on the fly. Passing the notes along to the tech team is a breeze because it is easy to transfer the teaching info into pro-presenter.

Tips on teaching from an iPad: 

Preparing to teach:

• Write your outline in Word/Pages on your computer.
• Highlight the scripture in yellow and the main points for the screen/outlines in blue. I include the scripture with the teaching points.
• Bold illustrations under each teaching point with a few statements to keep the idea on track.

• Use size "16-18" font with a landscape setting in word/pages.
• Export the document as a PDF and upload to dropbox/Evernote.
• Download the file from dropbox with your iPad.
• Use the iBooks app to open the PDF. The reason I use this app is that it flips the page like reading a book. I did use Adobe reader in the past, but I lost my spot in the notes when I was scrolling up and down.
• Save it in order to reference if needed in the future on iBooks/Dropbox. Always save it in two places (if wi-fi drops out).
• Make sure your iPad is charged, especially when you teach multiple times in a day.
• Turn off the auto lock to "never" so it doesn't close out on stage.
• Turn the sound on mute.
• Turn the iPad on airplane mode (to avoid Facebook notifications, etc).
• Lock the orientation so it stays landscape during the message.

Teaching from the iPad:

• Use the iPad as an outline, not just to show how cool and relevant you want the audience to think you are.
• Your goal is to communicate God's Word, so use the iPad as a reference, not just to read from it verbatim.
• Make sure the brightness is lower especially if a video is playing and the lights go out on stage. You will look like you have a glow coming from your notes!
• Use a black cover so it blends in with your Bible.

What tips would you add for teaching from the iPad? How are you leveraging technology to use for God? 

3 Minute Devotional: 1 John 3:21-24

²¹ Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.

The word used for “confidence” means freedom or frankness in speaking, freely saying all one thinks, or all that he pleases. This denotes a personal relationship and confidence toward God. However, it is not an arrogant presumption or cockiness, but a test for genuineness.

^{22 "}And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him."

Prayer is the subject of this verse. It would be easy to think that this verse teaches that we can ask and receive anything from God. The word picture for “ask” is like a beggar from the giver, a child by the parent or most importantly, man from God. The reason “whatever” we ask of God is answered is found in the latter part of the verse. “Because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in the father’s sight.” Those who truly know the Lord will not engage in a constant self-centered selfish prayer life. A true believer will ask according to God’s will, those things which are in line with God.

²³ And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

John lays down the commandment in this verse, which is two-fold. The first part is that we believe on the name of God’s son, Jesus Christ. The second part of the command is that we love another. The word used for “believe” means to have faith, belief or to give credit. Why the repeated command to love? Because God’s nature is love.

²⁴ Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

In this last and final verse in this passage and the chapter, John gives a final test of genuine conversion. He elaborates on the object that he mentioned in the previous verse, the commandments. Jesus kept the law and when we are “in him” the law was kept for us. The word used for “abide” means to remain, dwell, abide, endure, last, preserve, to stand firm or steadfast, to remain alive. If we are in Christ we will love fellow believers and will have the desire and power to do what is right and therefore keep God’s commandments.

Action Steps: - How is your fellowship with God? - How can you trust His love more today and be confident in who He is calling you to become?