“Be ENCOURAGED” - GOD is the One …

Positive Expectations & Excellence in Our Efforts --- These are the SEEDS for Ministry Success that We Plant, and then God Gives Us the Growth and the Results.

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.” Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

This is the third Blog post in my series God is the One...

Pastor Nick Diliberto recorded his video, “God Speaks” as a testimony of how God moved during services he was leading at a Christian camp for kids in grades 4 - 6.   He made remarks in the video about how he had some plans for activities that he thought were very creative, but he listened to God for direction and was led to minimize the implementing of those plans.    

He still affirmed that you have to plan, and to be motivated to have excellence in what you do.   But God … when God takes over, to just stir the hearts and minds of the kids and draw them in - for powerful times of worship and revelation of Himself through the Word, then your plans for ministry and activities need to take a back seat.    “God is the One who makes ministry successful.”   You can get ready to switch gears, and start to harvest spiritual fruit from what God is doing in your midst.

I also can testify from my experience with taking a group of sixth graders to the Super Start Conference for preteens last March.   The conference planning, programming, and worship, with the singer Yancy, were all excellent.  But the real blessing was how God moved, challenging those sixth graders and stirring up faith in their hearts.   I was in a position to help by answering their questions, and counseling them.    I’m looking forward to next year’s conference.

The take-away idea for ministry to young people is to expect the Power of God to really be your Source.   I have objectives for ministry, and plans to accomplish them, but the main thing I need is the spiritual breakthrough that causes my preteen students to engage - first, engaging with spiritual matters (for the “Not Interested” or “Stagnant” kids), then engaging with learning and  discipleship at the next level higher (for the “Growing” kids), not just listening to some Bible stories but making a commitment  to be young disciples of Jesus.   

I can tell you that -- if you don’t have that spiritual breakthrough -- applying all the intellect and all the experience you have, into planning and program development, or curriculum development, will fall flat with preteens.   But, don’t let that drive your efforts.     Let positive expectation and faith be what is driving your efforts.

Be Encouraged.   God is the One who can take the positive expectations you have for your work in the ministry, and the effort you put into it, and use that as seed planted for a harvest.   He will give the growth and the ministry success.


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George Nielsen is an ordained minister in the Christian Church and Churches of Christ.  He is a teacher and evangelist with Faith Hope and Love Christian Ministries, of Springfield Illinois and teaches in the Children’s Christian Education ministry at Rochester Christian Church.   He is a member of the United States Reformation Prayer Network (USRPN) and is affiliated with Mountain Alliance of Illinois.   He is a US Army veteran and retiree.

"God is the One ..." so - Have FAITH

Jesus answered, saying “Have Faith in God”

Mark 11: 22

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.” Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

This is the second Blog post in my series God is the One...

We need to always minister to others from the mindset of positive expectation, looking to our Source, God Almighty.  If we are in alignment with God, doing the works He has preordained for us to do, we can be fully justified in having our positive expectations.   

2 Chronicles 16: 9a is a Scripture passage that declares a Kingdom principle we can rely on to have and to maintain our positive expectation:

9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. (NKJV)

God Almighty, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and  using the holy angels when needed, takes action to show Himself strong, on our behalf.

Mark 11:22 is the verse I have used throughout the entire 20 years I have been in vocational Christian ministry as my reminder to “look to our Source”.    Put a dagger into doubts -- Have faith in God.      

This does not necessarily mean immediate achievement of  positive results that we can see.  Sometimes, the positive expectation is achieved in stages, like planting and then watering a crop, then waiting for growth and then the harvest.    During the time it takes, when we don’t see what we have expected, having faith and exercising our faith is vital.    The words we say need to reflect our faith, not any frustration we may feel while we wait.    

Helping Kids Develop a Mindset of Positive Expectation

Words we say are particularly important when we are saying them to preteens.   There are enough things happening in the lives of our typical preteen (and some are quite serious, needing our intercessory prayer), that it is easy for them to have doubts.   This is not just “having questions”, which is normal.   The things that are happening in their lives can cause them to doubt basic things like their worth as a person, their ability to achieve what is expected of them, or whether they will have friends.    In some cases, the kids will have gone beyond doubts, to the point where they are experiencing “fears."
The number one thing to say to preteens, and to communicate with sincerity, is “I believe in you.”   This is the start toward building your level of faith into the kids you influence.    They are able to get the intellectual understanding of the idea “God is the One who is our Source” and that God is capable of showing Himself strong.  Preteen kids need to have the confidence to receive this as their own.   Telling them of your confidence in them will help -- so that your confidence starts to rub-off onto them.
This also will help them to see that you are the kind of person that they can go to, to  get those doubts and fears out into the light.

This series of articles about God, and depending on Him as the Source, is being written just prior to the start of one of the most important seasons of the year, Back-to-School season.   This is one of the critical times when a preteen kid needs big-people in his or her life that say “I believe in you,” as they launch into another year of school.

"God is the One..."

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.”  
Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

Today I am publishing this quote from Christian pastor Nick Diliberto.  

This will serve as a Preamble to additional posts I will be writing next week. Key elements that I will emphasize are Faith, Encouragement (in the work of the ministry), and Intercessory Prayer.

George Nielsen

"The Olympic Myth" -- and My Response

My Response to:  “The Olympic Myth”  

By:  George Nielsen - August 10, 2012

“The Olympic Myth” is a recent posting at www.preteenministry.net .  This is one of the ministries that I have ‘liked’ and subscribed to, on Facebook.    Excerpts from the post are shown below, and a link to the full post is given at the end of my response.    The basic premise of the post is that the effort and character qualities of Olympic championship athletes, that they need to reach that level of achievement, are NOT the right approach for achieving ministry and spiritual life goals.   The myth is that the same model for achievement used by Olympians will work for Christians in their spiritual life.     I agree -- that is a myth.    But I feel that the post needs to be supplemented by comments that add some balance, regarding our own effort, and don’t leave the impression that it’s okay to be a spiritual “slacker”.     

Excerpt:

As the summer olympics come to a close, I have been reflecting on what I call the olympic myth. Let me explain.

Some of the keys to success for olympians is hard work, determination and persistence. They set goals and create daily habits that move them towards their destination. Eventually those habits, combined with a good attitude bring them victory. Yes, not everyone gets an olympic medal. But the super stars do.

Now, these characteristics are good. In fact, God applauds persistence, self-determination and working hard. The danger is when we carry this attitude over into our spiritual lives.

The problem is that many of us try too hard when it comes to following Jesus. We try hard to avoid sin, maybe even setting specific goals in this area. We are determined to get closer to God. We persistently read the Bible and pray without those practices having much of an impact in how we act. We hear a message and are determined that change will happen if we make the right choices.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work long-term. We end up frustrated and confused. The bigger problem comes when we push this approach on those that we lead. We tell them to try harder and be stronger when following Jesus. As a result, they end up frustrated and confused as well. Some even quit following Jesus. We weren’t designed by God to try harder.

We were designed to rely on Jesus more often, not try harder.

So, stop trying and start relying on Him!

My Response:
Your point is valid, regarding relying on extra effort as THE way to achieve ministry or spiritual life goals. It is not the way.  Receiving guidance and strength from Jesus is the answer, along with your own effort and persistence.    We want to teach our preteens to connect to Jesus as their Source.  One of my fellow ministers has a saying "Look to the Source for your resources."   This lines up with our Theme and prayer emphasis for this year "Fix your Eyes on Jesus."

You should note that the article doesn't give enough credit to the importance of putting in your own effort to persist with spiritual disciplines.   There is a balance -- between legitimate personal effort and reliance on supernatural help from the Lord.   We want to teach the kids to build their devotion to Jesus and stay connected spiritually to the Lord, to be faithful young disciples of Jesus.  To Be a faithful, and growing, young disciple of Jesus, it is still important to Do spiritual disciplines that strengthen that devotion.   "BE"-ing comes first, but there is also a place for emphasizing "Do"-ing, for the young disciple of Jesus.    

For the 5th graders I teach, Being a Young Disciple of Jesus is the primary goal for this year.   But I don't feel I can neglect their development of spiritual disciplines, and I feel the kids need to put in a lot more of their own effort too.

- George Nielsen

To read the full post “The Olympic Myth” - Click HERE .