Ignite was awesome last night! It was the last night for our 8th graders, as they will be rising up into FUSE. We did not focus a lot on them leaving because it is not a sad thing. I am excited that they are moving on because it represents the growing process. They need to continue to move on and grow into the person that God made them. They need to experience new things and learn new things…that is exactly what they will do in FUSE. They will have the opportunity to grow in some awesome ways within our high school ministry and that is AWESOME!

Here is the breakdown from the night:

Topic: PLAY-IT - Scrabble: The Power of Words
Link to Main Graphic:
Outline: James 3:1-12
My Words Will:
1. Hurt People - My words can be a like a fire…you can neither control them once it is set in motion nor reverse the damage done. I burned some paper on stage to illustrate the point and showed pics of a house burning and remains left.
2. Help People - We need to encourage one another and that can be done in many different ways (spoken and non-spoken: texting, email, note card, written letter, smile, hug, etc.). I used this time to encourage a couple of our 8th Graders. I called them out individually and told them some qualities/straights that I have been impressed by that I have seen in them. It was pretty cool!
3. Reflect My Heart - I explained the difference of a salt water spring (bitter tasting, burns on a wound) & a fresh water spring (quenches thirst, brings relief, cleans a wound). I also pulled out a mirror and told the students that mirrors give a true representation of what we look like. Not only does a mirror do that, but our words give a true reflection of our hearts.

I closed with challenging them to ask these three questions before saying something:

• Are my words true?
• Are my words necessary?
• Are my words kind?

Overall, it was a great night! Attendance was up, energy was high, band was great, students had fun, although pickup was a little quirky! I love hanging out with our middle schoolers!

A weekend full of fun and excitement is in store for Deanna and I. I am preaching at South Pointe Fellowship Church in Pageland, SC. Kevin Qualls is the Lead Pastor at South Pointe (I served under Kevin at First Baptist Church in Florence, SC). Since leaving FBC, Kevin and I have remained good friends and close minsitry partners. I am looking forward to teaching there in Kevin’s absence. South Pointe is a new church plant andministry of First Baptist Church of Indian Trial, NC that held thier first service on April 8.

Also since I am preaching at South Pointe, we decided to come down to Florence, SC for the weekend and hangout with the family for a couple of days. My sister and her boys are here for the week as well. We are having a blast hanging out with the family.

Also I cannot wait until 6PM on Sunday. I will be speaking at IGNITE this weekend and this is the last IGNITE for my 8th Graders! They will be moving into FUSE next week. I am looking forward to being back at IGNITE, since I spoke at the main service at NewSpring this past weekend. Well…I am out to hang out with some family and friends!

This past Sunday I had the privilege to speak at the main service at NewSpring Church. I had a blast!  Feel free to check out the audio or video on NewSpring Church’s Resource Page. Below are my points from the service:

He Knows
Matthew 14:22-33

Jesus knows exactly where you are and he will get to you in a way you would never expect.

Myth #1: The closer I get to Jesus the fewer problems I will have.

Myth #2: Jesus doesn’t know or care about my problems.

Myth#3: Storms were meant to seperate me from Jesus.

Jesus knows exactly where you are and he will get to you in a way you would never expect.

A HUGE thank you to all of you who lifted me up in prayer during my preperation, it was much appreciated!

Sunday Devotional…

SCRIPTURE: Read-Proverbs 20:18

THOUGHTS: “Make plans by seeking advice…” this is where we need to focus our time and energy today.

I love the fact that God puts awesome people into our lives to give us guidance and to help keep us from making stupid mistakes. I realized last year the importance of having a wise, godly person pouring into my life and teaching me from their lives experiences, and the wisdom that God has given them over their years of following him. It was about this time last year when God laid someone on my heart that I needed to start meeting with and learn from on a consistent basis.

To this person I would like to deliver my heart-felt thanks and appreciation for taking time out to teach me!!

Here are some things I have learned from this awesome woman of God that has helped to build my relationship with Jesus:

(1) Love of Jesus comes first above anything else

(2) You are in charge of where you are spiritually. Keep seeking and asking God what he wants for your life.

(3) Keep learning and asking Jesus to show himself to you, because he will

These are just some of the things that I have learned through my mentor. What can God teach you through someone else?

PRAYER: God, thank you for putting other people into our lives to help teach us more about you. I ask that you bring more people in to my life to teach me more about you. Help me to be an encouragement to other people as other people are an encouragement to me.

CLOSING QUESTIONS: Is there someone that God has laid on your heart that you want them to mentor you? Pray about this. Ask God to show you someone to ask to mentor you. He’ll show you!

Lindsay serves as the Assistant to the Middle School Pastor (thats me!). She does a PHENOMENAL job of keeping up with everything that has to do with the Middle School Ministry. Not only does she keep up with my schedule, event signups, assist in caring for volunteers, but also is the occasional teacher at IGNITE. Lindsay is a veteran of NewSpring, but came on with the Middle School staff in October of 2006. Since that time she has quickly become a vital part of the staff.

Saturday Devotional…

SCRIPTURE: Read - 1 Corinthians 10:24

THOUGHTS: It is so easy to become consumed in our day to day life and be completely self-centered. Sometimes we are just too busy to make time for other people. A typical day might look something like this for you:

• Get up in the morning and go to school
• In school until 3:30pm
• After school you probably have some sort of activity (sports, dance, cheerleading, etc.)
• Go home and eat supper around 7pm
• Start on homework around 8pm
• Go to bed

Sound familiar? We all have days where it seems like a thousand things are going on at once and it is sometimes hard to even make time for God. We have to make an effort to show people who Jesus is by living our lives, not for ourselves, but for Jesus. If we live our lives for Jesus, we will make our decisions based on Jesus. And if we base our decisions on Jesus we will ask ourselves the question: “Is this decision for my gain or for the gains of others.”

PRAYER: God help me to make decisions that will be for the benefit of others and not only for the benefit of myself. Teach me how to live my life for you, Jesus, and base my decisions on our relationship. Thank you for being so amazing!

CLOSING QUESTIONS: Will you make other people a priority in your day to day life? Will you be committed to making decisions that will be for the benefit of others and not for your benefit?

David Hall has been our IGNITE staff for sometime now. When I first started as the Middle School Pastor, David was the first person I hired. David and I did everything. We have become good friends and I have the privilege to officiate his wedding in August.

Friday Devotional…

SCRIPTURE: Read - 1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:8-12

THOUGHTS: We’ve all messed up right? Let’s be honest. We’ve all messed up AND continue to mess up. It’s who we are as humans. We live in a world that is fallen because of the presence of sin, and we were born with a nature that is prone to sin. Think about it. No one has to teach a baby how to be selfish-it’s natural for them. As kids, no one had to teach us to lie to our parents when we were caught doing something wrong.

But now that we’re older we’ve raised the stakes right? We’ve outgrown selfishness with toys in a playpen and white lies about feeding our vegetables to the dog. The things we often get into now carry so much more weight and consequences. Whether it’s the language we use when we’re around our friends, the things we look at, the way we treat people, the things we put in our bodies, the way we talk about people behind their backs, the music we listen to, or the way we treat our parents, our sins have gotten “bigger” as we’ve grown. But Jesus is bigger than our sin.

Clayton King said it this way, “God isn’t intimidated by our sin.” The truth is God created everything that we know to be. He stretched out the skies, carved out the oceans, and formed each one of us. He is the God of infinite worth, and he’s not scared of our sin-he existed before sin even entered the world. So when we sin, he doesn’t look at us in complete shock, disbelief, and horror. He looks at us with compassion. Scripture tells us that while Jesus was on Earth, he was tempted in every way. We don’t serve a God who is unable to sympathize with our needs, but instead, he knows what kind of struggles we go through (Hebrews 4:15).

The scripture verses for today talk about God’s complete forgiveness of our sins. He is able to totally wash us clean. He says that if we confess our sins to him, he will forgive us-completely. So if you’re a Christ-follower, if you’ve asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, know that you are totally forgiven. God isn’t keeping some secret scorecard against you. And if God isn’t holding our sin against us, then we shouldn’t be holding it against ourselves.

This isn’t a license to sin. The last thing God wants us to do is to abuse his forgiveness. The Bible makes it clear that anyone who deliberately keeps on sinning after accepting Jesus is in some serious trouble (Hebrews 10:26-27). But this is a license to not carry around the baggage and the guilt that comes as a result of sin. The point is we do some messed up stuff, but God says that if we truly repent, he will throw our sin away as far as the East is from the West-he won’t treat us as our sins deserve. So don’t walk around crying about the sin you committed in your past. Be confident in the fact that God’s love is bigger than our sin, and that he has made you spotless if you ask.

But that’s not where it ends. You need to leave that sin. God loves us enough to accept us the way we are, he’ll forgive us of any sin when we have a truly repentant heart, but he loves us enough to not let us stay the same. He wants us to change, to live a life that honors him. So don’t live with the pain of yesterday’s mistakes. Allow God to forgive you completely, and then, follow after him with everything you have.

PRAYER: If you’ve never asked God to forgive you of your sins, and you feel like you should, confess your sins to him and ask him to make you clean. Pray that God will help remove any baggage or guilt that you might have over your past mistakes. Pray that God will help you live a life free of those sins that honors him.

Andrew Sentell has just joined the IGNITE staff full-time. Before joining the staff he served as the worship leader for Student Ministry at NewSpring. His role with in IGNITE is to take some of the responsibilities that were not being done well (I couldn’t get everything done) and make them great. Andrew is getting married in October and is in the middle of settling into a new house as well.

Thursday Devotional…

SCRIPTURE: Read - 2 Peter 1:3-9

THOUGHTS: Early in my relationship with God I did not know what I was supposed to do. I knew I was supposed to change and I knew that the Bible was supposed to be involved. I was told to read the Bible and be like Jesus, but I just didn’t get into it. I didn’t know what to do with the words on the pages. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense. It was story after story, not some kind of list of things to do to be more like Jesus. So, I gave up for a while, I was at a dead end. Eventually I learned more and began to understand more of the Bible and came out of the dead end.

Sometimes I still feel like I have come to a dead end in my faith. Not that I have reached the end, or am perfect; just that I feel like I have no direction and don’t know what to do or where to go. The verses listed above are a place that I can go and see exactly what I can work on any time I feel like that. It helps me to not waste time, or to get down on myself. That is part of the reason God has given us His Word (the Bible). It is a way to see what we should be doing and how we should live even when we don’t feel like God is close to us.

Now, to address His closeness: God is always with us, no matter how we feel. Part of His closeness is brought through the Bible. Those are His words and they are meant to change lives. That means He must be close enough to touch us if we are to be changed by Him. Another part of His closeness is through the Holy Spirit. It is God living in and with us to let us know what His words mean.

Never believe that you are alone, or that God is far away.

PRAYER: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what the words mean when you reread the scripture from above. Ask God to teach you what those words mean. Ask Him to give you opportunities to build on your faith.

CLOSING QUESTION: What, from the list in 2 Peter 1:3-9, does God want me to work on next?

John Flowers has been on staff with IGNITE for a little over 15 months. John helps our ministry in many different ways such as planning games, writing skits, coordinating our mission activities, etc. He is really EXCITED about getting married in December.

HAPPY 4th of July! This is our Wednesday Devotional from our booklet:

SCRIPTURE: Read - James 2:14-17, 24-26

THOUGHTS: “You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?” Has anyone ever said that to you before? I can bet not too many people say that nowadays, but you probably at least know what it means.

If you try and talk big about something, like how you can jump off a three story building, turn a double backwards somersault, and still land on your feet unhurt, someone might call you out on that. You can brag a lot about things you might (or might not!) be able to do, but eventually someone is going to call your bluff!

In the verses you’ve already read, James says that faith alone is dead if there is no action to go along with it. At the same time, when you brag about doing something incredibly awesome, it means nothing until you show your friends that you can actually do it.

You see, we can believe in Jesus - that he is the son of God, died for us, and rose from the dead three days later - but if our lives don’t reflect the fact that we are followers of Jesus Christ, it basically means nothing! We have to actually live our lives to show that we follow God instead of just talking about it.

It’s not enough for us to say that we believe in God - our lives need to show that we love and follow Christ! People should be able to look at the way we live our lives and know that we are passionately in love with God because of the way we talk to people, act around our friends, and everything else we do!

PRAYER: Ask God to help you live a genuine life that shows others that you follow Christ. Pray that whatever you do, it will be what God wants, and that your actions honor God.

Caleb Jordan wrote the Wednesday Edition.  Caleb is serving as another one of our interns.   He has been with our ministry for about a year and a half.  He does a great job leading a group of our 8th grade guys.  Also, Caleb spoke at IGNITE this past week and did a great job!