Spiritual Growth/Leadership Recommended Reading

1. The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg – Probably one of the simplest and best books I’ve read on Spiritual Disciplines and how we should approach them.
2. The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley – A quick read on the 5 essentials college students need to be thinking about and seeking to develop since they are going to be the next leaders in our world.
3. I Became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt by Vince Antonucci – Great book on the basics of following Jesus. Much of this stuff you may already know, but it is brought to your attention in a new fresh way.
4. Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung – Great, short book on decision making and God’s will.
5. Principles of Spiritual Growth by Miles Stanford – A classic book on spiritual growth. I think this book should be read once a year. You’ll want your highlighter handy!
6. The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer – Probably Tozer’s most well-known book.
7. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson – Great book on the Song of Ascent Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
8. Louder Than Words by Andy Stanley – A very challenging read on what it means to live with integrity while pursuing God.
9. If You Want To Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg – Ortberg does a great job looking at the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water in Matthew 14.
10. Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard – Join Much Afraid on her journey to the High Places, a wonderful allegory about the Christian life.

Matt’s Personal Summer Reading List

1. The Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter
2. Faith of My Fathers by Chris Seay
3. From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola
4. Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola
5. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola
6. Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
7. This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley
8. Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson
9. Crave by Chris Tomlinson
10. He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen
11. Guerrilla Lovers by Vince Antonucci
12. Experiential Storytelling by Mark Miller

Happy Reading! Keep Seeking Jesus….Matt

May 16th – Grillin’ & Chillin’ @Lehman’s and an outdoor movie that was moved indoors on a big screen due to the rain.

Doughboys in the Lehman's garage because of the rain!

Trent is always up for Frisbee - even in the rain!

May 30 – Picnic at Pioneers & KickBall!

Waiting in Line to kick

Olivia winds up

Excited Kickball Fans!

Derek on a rare miss....

Action in the field!

Allison nails one

My, what big feet you have!

The next Summer Gathering is June 13th – the Amazing Race! Check here for more info…

1. Take Initiative – Create a Schedule
This is important whether you are a scheduled person or not – and especially if you do not like to be a scheduled person! For some reason the summer immediately creates in me the desire to go on vacation, be lazy and not do a lot. I could blame this on the school system, but in reality it is just my own selfishness. The best way I’ve found to fight this is to take the initiative and create a schedule for myself when it comes to spiritual growth. This “schedule” can take many different forms…
a) Set a specific time to spend with Jesus in prayer and in His Word on a regular (not necessarily daily) basis.
b) Find a Bible study that you can attend weekly.
c) Set up a weekly meeting for coffee or lunch with a friend to talk about your pursuit of Jesus
d) Set up a weekly phone call with a friend (if you are out of town & away from friends) to discuss your pursuit of Jesus (and His pursuit of you!)
e) Find a place to serve Jesus with others this summer – some of my deepest relationships have been formed while serving with others!
f) Find some books you want to read and set a time (at least weekly) where you will sit down and read. In a future post I will give you a suggested list of books as well as a list of what I am reading this summer. For now you can go to http://www.campusimpact.org/resources/growth/
g) Find a podcast that will challenge and lead you spiritually and listen to it regularly. I suggest Lincoln Berean’s Podcast or Andy Stanley’s church podcast.

If you know me well, you know I don’t like tremendous amounts of structure in my life, however, I also recognize, my life (spiritual as well as the rest of life) very quickly goes to shambles without some type of structure! The bottom line is if you want to grow in the summer, you can, the change in schedule and apparent laziness of summer is not preventing you…and a schedule can help!

2. Find encouragement & Accountability
This idea is primarily for those who are out of town and away from christian friends, but it applies to all of us. If you are struggling being back around old friends or back in a location where temptations from your past seem harder to resist, then you need to do something about it. I would say do something about it ahead of time, but we are well into the summer now….so I’ll just say do something. The temptation is not going to go away on it’s own and as I said at the last CWH, “We were never meant to follow Jesus on our own for an extended period of time. We were meant to exist as followers of Jesus in a community!”

The primary (and maybe easiest) thing I think you can do is get a hold of a christian friend and plan a time where you will have a phone call every week for the purposes of encouragement and accountability. There are other things you can do, like check out churches and groups in your area. It may not be exactly like what you are used to in terms of church or bible study, but that does not mean God can not use it to grow and challenge you!

At the end of the day, I think growing spiritually in the summer boils down to one question, “Do I want to know Christ?” Another way to ask that would be, “Am I willing to seek God?” If the answer to that question is yes, then it doesn’t matter where I am or who is around me. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. If you seek God this summer, He will reward you. The reward will be a closer relationship with Him.

I pray this summer we will be like Abram in Genesis 12. When the Lord told him to go out and leave everything he knew except for his immediate family (which was unheard of in those days), Abram went. Abram’s location in Genesis 12 is a great picture of summer for many of us. He is not in a comfortable place, he is away from almost everyone he knows and I wonder if some of those who were with him weren’t completely on-board with this trip they were making to an unknown land, sent by an invisible God. In Genesis 12:9, Abram calls upon the name of the Lord. It’s a beautiful picture of what we should be doing this summer – calling upon the name of the Lord…seeking Jesus…pursuing God!

Next Post….my summer reading list….

Keep Seeking Jesus…Matt

I think there are 3 main challenges to growing spiritually during the summer:

1. Schedules Change – Road Trips abound!
As a college student regardless of whether you stay in town for the summer or head somewhere else, your daily schedule changes. You go from a schedule of classes to working a job most of the day (or multiple jobs!). Even if you take summer classes, those are longer. And many people take more road trips during the summer=more changes to the schedule of your days.

If you are a structured person this can be very challenging for you until you get into the new structure of your summer schedule, which usually takes a few weeks. For those who take summer classes, your schedule changes again in a few more weeks because of different summer sessions.

If you are not much of a structured person (like me), I think summer can be challenging spiritually as well because days are longer and it seems like there is a lot more to do (at least outside!) in the summer. People stay up longer and out later and it feels like there will always be time later to fit everything in. I’m a person who doesn’t want to miss out on anything and usually if I live my life that way – trying to fit everything in – the thing that often falls out of the schedule is my own personal time with the Lord. Or I end up trying to do it late at night before I go to bed or early in the morning after going to bed late. Either way, I usually end up falling asleep during my time with the Lord.

2. Old Friends, Old Habits This can be especially challenging for those heading home for the summer. Many students have changed significantly over a school year. They have left behind old habits or struggles and been able to walk in victory. But they get home to find the temptation to their old life feels stronger. Their friends at home may not know Christ (or want to know Him) and they have not changed. Or worse yet, they had friends who knew Christ before they went to college and during the school year, they began to live in a way that is not following closely after Jesus. Some students also go home to families who do not know Christ (or want to know Him), so they end up in a place without much accountability or encouragement to pursue Jesus. It can be quite a shock if you have lived your life in a vibrant community of Christ followers for 9 months and now find yourself alone or almost alone as a follower of Jesus.

3. Spiritual Offerings Change
If you head home for the summer, you may not have a church or group you can attend or maybe it just doesn’t feed or encourage you the way college worship hour or your small group does. Even those who stay in town can struggle for this reason. College Worship Hour & Real Time stop meeting and the Summer Gathering and Summer Studies start up. Let’s face it, most of us are creatures of habit and when we find things (habits, groups of people) we like, we don’t like it when those things change or aren’t quite the same. It can feel at times like you are starting over making a new group of friends, getting to know new people.

Most likely you can find one or more of these to be true for your life and if all three of these happen to combine in your summer, it can be quite challenging. What do you think? Are you finding any of these things true for you this summer? If so, how are you seeking to overcome these challenges? In my next post, I’ll talk about some of the things that can help us Succeed Spiritually During the Summer.

Keep Seeking Jesus…Matt

This summer on Wednesday Nights we are gathering together to look at Ordinary Heroes.  People like Daniel, Samson, and Deborah.  For many of us when we look at these people in the bible we think of them as heroes and we should.  These are all people who walked with God, served God, and were used by God. But I also think that a lot of times, we kind of separate ourselves from these people.  At times we think, “I couldn’t be like them.” Sometimes that’s what we do with heroes isn’t it. We want to be like them but somewhere along the way reality sets in.

As a kid you probably had a hero – like a professional athlete or a musician or an astronaut or maybe you just wanted to be a princess when you grew up. When I was younger, I wanted to be Magic Johnson. I loved the LA Lakers. I would imagine myself on the court…10 seconds left in the game…I bring the ball into the front court…dribble through the lane…make the no-look pass…and we win the championship.  But over time reality settled in and I realized I’m not going to be Magic Johnson. I’m not as tall as he is, I’m not as fast as he is and, most importantly, I’m not as good as he is at basketball.

I think we do that with the people we read about in the bible as well. Sometimes the more we read about them, the more reality sets in that I’m not going to be like them. I don’t know if I could stand up for my faith like Daniel did. I don’t have wisdom like Deborah had. I can’t lead like Nehemiah.  But one of the things I love about the bible and the people of the bible is they made mistakes and we’re told about those mistakes. The bible doesn’t leave them out.

One the of the things I think we have to keep in mind as we look at these people is God doesn’t want us to be exactly like them. God is not asking us to be exactly like Daniel or Miriam or Deborah or Hannah or Nehemiah or Barnabas. For one thing, we’re not in the same circumstances as they were in. We live in different circumstances and God wants to enlarge our faith and grow us for our circumstances. He wants us to become more like Him so we can live in our circumstances and so He can live through us in our circumstances.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from their circumstances and their lives and how they walked with God.  So, most importantly as we read about these people and look at their lives, we should be asking this question:

What do I learn about God from this person’s life?

Because all of these people are just ordinary people, but they have an extraordinary God. Just like it says in James about Elijah, “He was a man with a nature like ours.” That means Elijah was just like us. But when Elijah prayed, God did an extraordinary thing! He stopped it from raining for 3 ½ years on the earth. Elijah was an ordinary hero with an extraordinary God!

I believe if you will ask the question “What do I learn about God from this person’s life?” God will show you himself. He will reveal more of Himself to you through these people’s lives and I think He will reveal more of Himself to you in your own life.