AMP'd Rewind

Last night at AMP'd was...interesting to say the least. For the first time in my 12 years of student ministry I had to ask students to leave the worship center during the message. They were being very disruptive and being disrespectful. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but after much prayer and thought, I am confident it was the right thing to do. I have learned there is a fine line we have to walk as student pastors. The line between knowing that kids need to be at church and hear about Christ, and the line that says enough disrespect is enough. I want students to be here and experience Christ more than anything! But at the same time, they have to understand that God deserves our respect and reverence. We are in our worship series, so I have tried to explain that worship is simply placing value on something or someone. So, for a student to come to AMP'd and be disruptive and disrespectful shows me they are putting no value on who God is or what He wants to do in their life. This has been a very tough subject for me over the last few weeks, as I know we are reaching students that need to be here and find Christ. We have a ton of kids that come from tough situations, broken homes, drug abuse, parental neglect and who knows what else. It breaks my heart, and I just want these students to know that there is hope, and His name is JESUS!!!
Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. On a lighter note, here is the set list from last night:

Revolution-Hillsong United
Signature of Divine-Needtobreathe
Oh Praise Him-Crowder
Break Free-Hillsong United

Keepin' it Real,
Bholda

Currently

Things around here (meaning my life) haven't even begun to slow down a bit it seems! The cool thing is that everything that is happening is stuff I really enjoy. Monday night I spoke at FCA (fellowship of Christian athletes) at Wren High School. It was really great to see students getting together at 8:00 and lifting up the name of Jesus together! As a Student Pastor it does my heart good to know that God is still working despite the world and all its distractions. Yesterday was crazy around the office. We have another staff member moving into an office on our hall that was essentially storage for the student ministry, so I found myself cleaning and clearing out a bunch of stuff. It even forced my interns to make adjustments in their office, which was hard for Steve-O because apparently he doesn't like change to much!! He's recovering and doing well so far. After work I headed for the Y to work out and have b-ball practice with the boys team I am coaching. I did some cardio, then went to practice and after that finished my workout with some much needed circuit training. It doesn't end there though!! As I was leaving, I ran into a couple of former students who were playing DDR (dance dance revolution). Now normally this would not have even been an option, because there are tons of people in the gym. But, because it was later there weren't that many, so I took a stab at it. Needless to say, it was very humorous watching me try to dance!! So much so, the people at the front desk were watching from a monitor at the desk and they just had to come see the madness in person!! I must say it was a great workout. When I finished making a fool of myself, I basically went home and crashed!! Oh, and the by the way...I've lost 10 pounds so far, which leaves only 8 more for my first goal!! I've actually enjoyed getting in shape, and this is the longest I've stuck with it, so it's great to see results. Tonight is AMP'd and I am pumped about what God is going to do!! I feel like we have a lot of momentum right now and that is always exciting. We will be voting on borrowing the money to finish the student building this Sunday and I am so ready to get that going again. We have a good plan to attack the debt and get it paid off very quickly. Our students are anxious for their own place and they deserve it,no doubt!! I guess that's about it for now, be on the lookout for the AMP'd rewind tomorrow.

Keepin' it Real,
Bholda

Merge '08 and AMP'd Rewind

WOW!!! Merge was a great success. God gave us a little look at some snow, but kept the bad stuff away so we could still go and do the things we had planned. God showed up in a big way to our students and many of them shared how God really spoke to them and how they are ready for change. It was AWESOME!!! Last night at AMP'd, the Lord just continued where He left off at Merge. There were 3 guys who shared about their experience at Merge, and it was amazing to see the other students listening and respond to what they said. After they spoke, I challenged the students at AMP'd that it was time to decide once and for all where they stood with God. There were about 15 or 2o students that responded to the challenge, by either accepting Christ or getting their live refocused on Christ. It was an incredible night and one we as leaders have been praying for for a long time!! I know this is just the beginning of something huge God is going to do!!

Here is the band's set list from last night:
Life is Good-Relient K
Marvelous Light-Charlie Hall
There is nothing like-Hillsong United
Broadcast-Steve Fee
We will start back with our "Beyond the Music" series next which is all about Worship! Then next month we will start our series called "Undressed"-the truth about Love, Dating and Sex. It should be a big hit and I am looking forward to getting it started!!!


Keepin' it Real,
Bholda

Prepare to MERGE!!

We are only a couple of days away from our winter trip, Merge. We will be taking about 75 students up to Pigeon Forge, Tn for the weekend. I am excited about this trip for many reasons, one being the possibility of a little snow. Not a blizzard, but just enough to make things pretty. We will be looking at the book of James, and the the MERGING of faith and works (get it? Merge, merging etc) Taylor, one of my student ministry interns wrote the curriculum and I was very impressed! He did an awesome job. It is really incredible to see God work in the lives of our students on our trips. I think it helps students to get away from their everyday environments and the day to day struggles they face and focus on Christ. We are expecting God to do HUGE things this weekend. We get to spend time with students and share God's Word with them, and on top of that, we get to do all that in some pretty sweet cabins. You can check them out here:(www.sherwoodforestresort.com)
On a more immediate note, I am getting pumped about AMP'd tonight. We are starting our new series on Worship called "Beyond the Music" I think this is a must needed series for our students to explain to them what worship is and what it is isn't. Once we finish that up this month, I will be hitting the ever popular subject of SEX!!! If you have any ideas on a series name, please let me know, I am open to ideas!! Well, I guess that's about it for now. Before I go, though, I would like to leave a quote for you to think about. I know it hit me like a ton of bricks and is absolutely on target. Ponder this:

"The world is not looking for a new definition of Christianity, it's looking for a new DEMONSTRATION of Christianity."-Ravenhill

Keepin' it Real,
Bholda

Goin great in '08!!

Well, it's been awhile, so I wanted to update and talk about what's been going on lately. My Christmas was great, Crystal and I got to spend time with our families and of course ate a lot of mac and cheese and ham and sweet potato casserole and tons of other good stuff. I'm back to the gym and I'm actually enjoying myself, except for the elliptical, that thing is a BEAST! We brought in the new year at Marathon where we have a big bash with a DJ, dancing, food and fireworks. It was a blast and we reached a ton of people. Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Stonebridge Church (www.stonebridgechurch.tv), where my good friend Sammy Clary is the Pastor. They are doing some cool things there and it is neat to see God moving and changing lives. He really wanted to shoot me with his blowgun that he got for Christmas, but I was able to elude the attack!! Yesterday it was back to Marathon where I got to speak to the home crowd, and I had blast!! You can watch the service here (www.marathonchurch.org) in a couple of days. We are starting AMP'd back this week, and I have really missed our students and there energy and passion. It's going to be an incredible year, I have no doubt. We will be in our student building, The Garage this year and I am pumped! As a matter of fact, I am about to wrap up this blog so I can go meet with our trustees to get the ball rolling on the building!! It's going to be an awesome ministry tool for reaching students and families!!! Well, that's about it for now, I will update again soon, and may even let you in on my workout progress!!!

Keepin' it real,
Bholda