The Way of Jesus

The Way of Jesus

 

There is no place like YouthFront Camp.  I just finished an amazing week speaking to teenagers at camp.  Our theme this summer is The Way of Jesus.  Each day we look at an aspect of Jesus life.  We examine the scriptures together in a variety of ways throughout the day – at morning prayer, in the cabin meetings, at Midday Prayer, during Encounter and Reflection.  We invite the students to live in the scripture text, to pray about it, to imagine what it must have been like to actually be there, to memorize it, to cherish it and most of all to embrace and enact it.  We are passionate about the students finding themselves face to face with Jesus, challenged by his life, inspired by his words, and serious about following him.

   

Here is a synopsis of what the week long journey in The Way of Jesus looks like:

    

Monday:  With Jesus in the River - Matthew 3:13-17

The focus is the baptism of Jesus.  Why did Jesus need to be baptized since he was sinless?  The baptism has to be viewed in light of the cross and resurrection - Jesus identifies with sinners and is already beginning the work of salvation.  Jesus is also anointed for Messiahship by the Holy Spirit and is affirmed by the Father’s declaration, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Jesus knew that he was the beloved.  Jesus makes it possible for us to be beloved.

   

Tuesday: With Jesus in the Desert - Matthew 4: 1-11

Immediately after his baptism Jesus is led into the desert.  Hebrews tells us that Jesus entered into the full humanity of his children.  He was tempted like we are yet without sin.  Jesus chose the way of the Father instead of the way of the evil one.  Jesus Christ our High Priest was victorious and will show us the way to real life.  Like Jesus, in the wilderness we are tempted to turn away from God to the things of this world.   In the desert we are learning fidelity (faithfulness). 

   

Wednesday: With Jesus at the Table – Luke 5:27-32

Jesus changes all the rules about who is included and who is excluded.  At Jesus’ table everyone is welcome, boundary lines are erased and everyone sits together.  At Jesus’ table the most popular kid at school eats with the school outcast.  At Jesus’ table sins are forgiven, lives are healed and people are loved.  At Jesus’ table we learn that we are beloved and accepted.  At the table of the Lord we are learning to have compassion.

   

Thursday: With Jesus on the Mountain – Matthew 17:1-8

The mountain is a powerful symbol in scripture.  All through Matthew we see Jesus on a mountain.  Jesus prays on the mountain.  Jesus is on a mountain when he reveals through the beatitudes the way to radical life in his Kingdom. On a mountain Jesus is transfigured and shows the Glory of his divinity.  On Mt. Calvary Jesus is crucified.  After the resurrection Jesus gathers his disciples on a mountain in the Galilee and commissions them to go into all the world and make disciples.  On this night we had an extended time of worship – singing, scripture reading, praying and glorifying our awesome God.

   

Friday: With Jesus in the Garden - Matthew 26:36-46

While praying in the garden we learn what is truly important.  We learn to pray, “Father, not what I want, but what you want.”  In the garden we learn to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus in every area of our lives.

   

Saturday: With Jesus on the Road – Mark 10:46-52

We read about Bartimaeus who has his eyesight restored by Jesus and then “followed Jesus along the road.”  Following Jesus is a journey, not a destination.

   

This was a week of transformation for so many young people.  It was a week of prayer and a week of intense dialogue with the scripture.  A couple highlights for me was the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the Prayer Chapel.  It is an overwhelming environment of peace.  It truly is holy ground.  The other highlight was a conversation I had with a youth pastor after the Wednesday night meeting.  Steve came up to me and told me how he had taken his kids to a big event camp last summer where the speaker went for two hours with an emotionally charged message and invitation.  He explained how frustrated he was with the tactics used to “get kids to make decisions.”  Then he said, “thank you for how you guys focus on the scripture and trust the Holy Spirit to work without getting in the way or manipulating kids.”  As he was speaking to me, the other cabin leader in his cabin ran up and said, “We need to go celebrate, Jonathan (one of their campers) just decided to become a follower of Jesus.”  It doesn’t get any better than that.  This is The Way of Jesus.

Comments

[moe didde]

ah, good notes for my preparations for speaking Week 7! thanks. .

glad you had a great week.

[Charlie Lyons Pardue]

Mike,
Seriously dude THANK YOU so much for your ministry. The things you guys are doing at YouthFront are what we need so much in youth ministry, camp ministry... the church. I can only hope that more camps begin to follow YouthFront's lead. Blessings.

[aaron]

Each day we meet in those same scriptures with the teen staff. It has been an honor to see Jesus come alive to them and their daily lives as well and especially in mine.

There are comments every day and week come from them about how this is the first time scripture came alive to them, or the first time they actually noticed details in the stories and how big those details were for them.

I love that we are concentrating on Jesus the way we are!