Disciple Now 2011 – Service Projects
Disciple Now 2011 is fast approaching and I am sure you are beginning to put the finishing touches on your event. There is one part of planning these events that many people get stuck on. That is trying to figure out what to do on Saturday afternoon. Most of the time during these events there is a large gap between lunch or your morning bible study time and an evening rally and as we all know teenagers and a lot of free time is never a great idea. So what can you do? There are a lot of options. Many people go with a big recreation time with a lot of crazy games. Others opt for doing a scavenger hunt. While these things can be great times of fun and building relationships I fear that they can also send the wrong message about what the Christian life is really all about. That is why I want you to consider another option this year. As you look to fill the Saturday afternoon void I want to encourage you to consider getting your students involved in a service project.
We are called to be servants and the context of your Disciple Now 2011 event will give you a great opportunity to teach this lesson. Your students will already be having their hearts stirred by what they are learning and will be hungry to live it out. Why not get that started immediately in a controlled environment? I can assure you that when they get a taste of living their faith out this way they will never want to turn back. In fact they will probably want to do more and plan their own opportunities to serve as a group.
But what can your students do? The simple answer is just look around you. I am sure that there is work that needs to be done somewhere in your vicinity. Now if you live in a lower income 7303area or an urban area these opportunities will be much easier to notice. If you live in the suburbs or a more affluent area you may have to look a little harder. But there are needs everywhere so regardless of where you live you can find opportunities to serve. You could help the elderly with yard work. You could go and make visits to the nursing home. You could go out and clean up a park. You could take your group around for a canned food drive. Anything that gets your kids serving is great. The only thing that I would say is that whatever service project you choose make sure that is directly affects your community and it is sustainable. You want your students to be able to see the effects of their service and you want them to understand that this is not a one day project. Serving someone else’s community or only doing something for a day will not accomplish these goals. There are needs everywhere so look around you7304 and stay close to home.
You are going to need things to fill up your event so why not include service projects as a part of it? It is something we are called to do and there is no better time or place than Disciple Now 2011 to instill this discipline in your students’ lives.
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