• Nine Ways to Go for God

    ByKristin faith, family

    We’ve taken our older kids on short-term mission trips and hope to go on more. They’ve served locally. We support missionaries. We want our kids to be open to wherever God calls them and incorporating missions into our small-town life is one way we, as parents, have hoped to teach that. 

    I’m incredibly thankful our church – Hardin Baptist Church – comes alongside us with the same message. The middle and high school youth spent the summer looking at different aspects of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Youth minister Chase Bright spent the last Sunday of the series looking at nine practical ways that students – yes, even middle and high schoolers – could participate in and pray about going for God. 

    Chase shared these 9 Ways to Go with students’ parents, and I asked him for permission to share them with you because even as an adult I want to remember to live on mission – even right where I am. 

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    In his final marching orders to his disciples, Jesus beckons all of his followers to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). Today, we refer to these last words as The Great Commission. 

    In my experience with students, they want to be faithful to this Great Commission. Many of them are passionate about the gospel being spread to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8), and they want to play a role in this high calling and participate in what God is doing across the globe. Many times, however, they don’t have a very good idea as to where to start. They need something practical. To that end, it’s my aim to provide nine brief yet practical ways for students to “go,” if not now then in the very near future. 

    It’s my hope and prayer that students and families would prayerfully consider what God may have them do both now and in the future in order to proclaim the gospel and make disciples among all the nations of the earth. 

    1. Share the Gospel HERE & NOW 

    You don’t have to be in another culture to make disciples. All followers of Christ are called to make disciples wherever God has us now by sharing the gospel with the people around us. A great way to do this is to “Find your One” and commit to praying and sharing with that person. Who’s Your One? 

    2. Short-Term Mission Trips

    Each summer our high school students get the opportunity to go on short-term mission trips through our church. Take advantage of these great opportunities. Be on the lookout for any information about short-term mission trips our student ministry will be taking. 

    (Note from Kristin: These students went to Chicago this summer and my 15-year-old Cate had a great experience outside her comfort zone serving and sharing. Here’s my post about that.)

    3. The Radical Gap Year

    After graduating high school, you can take a “gap year” before you begin college or your career for the sake of disciple-making and figuring out what God may be calling you to do in the future to make his glory known among the nations. The Radical Gap Year is an amazing way to do this. 

    4. Theological Education

    How about going to a Christian college or theological seminary that will intentionally equip you to go on mission and equip others in the local church to do the same? There are so many great options that will prepare you to do this. Here are just a few: 

    5. GenSend – Summer Missions 

    Even as a youth student, you can already begin to think and pray about how you might spend your college summers and breaks. Why not spend them on mission? GenSend, through the North American Mission Board, is a great option for you to be able to do this. 

    6. Go2 – Give 2 Years

    After you graduate college, what if you spent the first two years in a big, strategic North American city while beginning your career, serving with a church plant, and working to further advance the gospel? Check out Go2, also through North American Mission Board, and begin praying through what this may look like for you. 

    7. IMB Journeyman Program

    Similar to Go2, the IMB Journeyman Program is for recent college graduates or young adults who desire to spend two years on missions. IMB Journeymen are sent internationally (as opposed to domestically) to strategic nations around the globe. On top of that, IMB Journeymen are fully-funded! 

    8. Full-Time Missionary

    May God be calling you to be a full-time missionary? What about a church planter? You don’t have to wait to start praying and seeking where or how God might send you in the future. You can start NOW! 

    There are so many ways you can be a missionary or church planter. Here are just a few ways that you can begin to research and pray about: 

    9. Careers for Missions 

    Teacher. Nurse. Farmer. Businessman. These are but a few of the career occupations you might find yourself doing in the future. But what if you pursued these careers somewhere else, like in a place with little to no gospel presence? Start thinking about what career you might want to do in the future, and begin praying for where God might have you do this career so that you can further advance the gospel to the nations. 

    By no means is this list exhaustive. However, I pray that it’s a helpful starting place for many youth students looking for some practical ways they can participate in the Great Commission by going. 

    To God alone be the glory!

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    Chase Bright serves on staff at Hardin Baptist Church in Hardin, Kentucky, and as a theology teacher at New Covenant Christian Academy. He also is an MDiv student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Kaitlyn, have two children.

  • Let’s go where trust is without borders

    ByKristin faith, guest post

    “Lord, lead me where trust is without borders …”

    When “Oceans” was a popular worship song, I was annoyed by it. But one day when my kids were 8 years old, almost 6, and just a newborn, I heard the lyrics in a fresh way.

    Maybe I didn’t like the song at first because trusting without borders is scary.

    For several weeks after the day I decided I didn’t need to switch stations whenever “Oceans” came on the radio, I couldn’t get the phrase “trust without borders” out of my head. At the time, I was navigating a relationship with my youngest daughter’s birth mom. We adopted two times before, but the relationships are all different and change as the children grow.

    Adoption built my family but it also built my faith, largely in part because there’s a lot of trusting and very few borders. I was able to take the lessons I learned from our adoption experiences and remember God’s faithfulness in other circumstances.

    I was able to pray big prayers of faith because I’d seen God show up and show out so many times before.

    “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.” – Psalm 107:28-30  NIV

    To trust God without borders means I need to surrender control, once again. It means I need to realize life doesn’t fit in a tidy box. Sure, sometimes storms far out of our control rage and overwhelm our lives, but God will lead us to a calm haven. Recently, God has reminded me of this truth over and over again.

    *****

    To read the rest, join me over at Lyli Dunbar’s blog, where I’m sharing as part of her Pray Big series. Oh, and Rend Collective’s version of “Oceans” is my favorite version, if you’re wanting to listen to this song.

  • The Wilds of Schooling & Parenting

    ByKristin guest post
    2 Comments

    Please welcome my sweet friend Amanda to the porch, where she’s giving you a peek inside her new book and encouraging you to see the joy in whatever season you find yourself. Amanda and I met online through mutual friends and fellow writers, but now we’re real-life friends who live on opposites sides of the country and don’t get to see enough of each other. She spurs me on toward appreciating wildflowers, remembering what God has done, and leaning into the truth.

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    Hi, new friends! I just released a new book called The Wilds of Homeschooling: A First-Year Guide to Teaching Your Kids (and Maybe Even Liking It). I picked an excerpt to share with you all that I think will encourage you whether you are homeschooling or not. Homeschooling has been the refining fire the Lord has used to shape me, but I think if you take out the word homeschooling and replace it with mothering you might find the Bible truth here still applies.

    I will say this of homeschooling, and it’s true of motherhood too: It’s sanctifying.

    Cindy Rollins says this best: “A wise person once said not to take too much credit or too much blame for your children. That is comforting. This is often hard for the homeschooling mom, because she has laid down her life. Her reputation and even her abilities are on the line. It is an incredible burden to carry … Part of the sanctification of motherhood is learning to trust God with our children.” (Mere Motherhood, 161)

    It doesn’t matter if you are picking up homeschooling for one year or for all the school years, it can feel like it is all resting on you. Whether or not they read, whether or not they love reading, whether or not they can recite their times tables and the Declaration of Independence. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves. I think part of this is love. I think another part of it is pride.

    I remember the stress of my later-reading son. One of my reasons for homeschooling is to allow my children to read when they are ready, but goodness how anxious I was when first grade came and went, and he remembered one whole sight word and was still sounding out “hat” one phoneme at a time. For him, reading happened in the middle of second grade like a rickety roller-coaster creaking its way to the top, until all at once everything locked into place, and he was off. He read his readers. He read chapter books. I’d check on him at night to find he’d fallen asleep on the page of a book. I rejoiced. It felt like the single greatest accomplishment of my life. But even then, I knew. It wasn’t simply my accomplishment; it was his milestone. And it was a partnership: God and me—and a boy who was ready.

    If I could only tell you one thing about homeschooling, it would be this: do it with the Lord. Understand that it is a journey, one of sanctification, for you and your children. But one you are not left alone on. God is with you.

    Here’s the bad news: In case you were wondering, you are not patient enough to homeschool.

    But here’s the good news: Patience isn’t required. It’s acquired. You will grow in it, friend.

    Homeschooling at its core isn’t just a commitment to teach your children; it’s a commitment to keep learning yourself.

    Homeschooling once felt like a tremendous sacrifice on my part. Hours of my day were dedicated to teaching. I never felt like I was doing enough or doing it right. And all I had was a messy house to show for my hard work. I forgot all the gifts homeschooling could bring in my efforts to try to get it right and complete our assignments. No matter how long you do this for, don’t leave out the joy of homeschooling.

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    I’d love to know: How has homeschooling (or motherhood) been sanctifying for you?

    The Wilds of Homeschooling is available in print or for Kindle on Amazon. Think of it as a pep-talk and the CliffsNotes to homeschooling. If you are feeling thrown in and overwhelmed, I would be so honored to encourage you and help you get started.

    Amanda Conquers is a cop’s wife and homeschooling mom to four. When she’s not pulling her toddler off the bookshelf, she loves hiking, wildflower identification, and iced decaf lattes. She lives clinging to Christ and loves sharing the good news that no matter how weak you feel, you only have to be strong enough to lean on the One who already overcame. You can find her writing on Instagram and her blog.