Wow!  It's been a LONG time since I've blogged on here!  But better late than never!  So much has happened in 12:11 Youth Ministries over the past 7-8 months since I blogged last!  Last spring (April) we had a high school encounter retreat that launched us into a new dimension of ministry!  We had around 25 students, most of whom were new to the youth group, and had quite the life history to say the least.  For the first time in our ministry, we saw demonic manifestations (~5) and subsequent deliverances, as well as dramatic Holy Spirit baptisms!  The brotherhood formed among the guys, especially, brought tears to everyone!  We witnessed what we've never even imagined!  AWESOME!  School officials, parents, and other leaders in the community were calling and stopping in to see what we were doing because of the dramatic changes they saw in these students!  I had no answer other than God's grace!

We rode a high wave through the end of the school year as our services were filled with the power of God, our numbers were around 90-100 students each week, and lives were being touched by the power of God's love!  After school ended, however, a number of those who attended the retreat had to go to the PEOPLE program - a residential summer academic program on the UW campus.  In those 3 weeks, we lost some momentum since our "leaders" were all there.  And unfortunately, no church or youth group for 3 straight weeks, and being surrounded by the pressures of living day in and day out with ungodly peers, the fire was quenched.  The need for discipleship was so clear to me - and unfortunately, it seemed like there was nothing we could do for them.

During the summer months, attendance usually drops a little bit...we went down to around 70-80 kids, and the departure of our strong senior class was felt.  However, in August we hosted our first middle school encounter retreat!  It definitely had some different dynamics than the previous 2 high school retreats, but God never ceases to amaze me!  The depth of hurt and the severity of the challenges these middle schoolers have faced in their short lives - this age that is supposed to be an age of innocence - was shocking to all of us.  But praise Jesus, freedom, deliverance, and healing came to these 30 or so students!
This fall we have been awed by the youthfulness of our group - the middle schoolers appear to have taken over!  We have a whole new group of Sun Prairie and Sennett Middle Schoolers.  So our group is very young, but they keep bringing more and more new people!  Our numbers have been back up over 100 this fall, and we have so many new people that it's hard to keep 'em all straight!

Halloween weekend we had another high school encounter retreat that we felt was going to be a pivotal time for our youth ministry.  We had a strong core group of students who hadn't gone to one in the past but who have been around for some time.  We felt some strong prophetic direction going into that weekend, and the Lord did not disappoint!  The depth of freedom and the genuineness of what happened was greater than any other retreat we've had.  Something was birthed that weekend - a core remnant of devoted disciples was brought into being!

So here we find ourselves about at the end of another fall semester!  Many youth staff and students have weathered some storms that the devil has sent to distract, deny and derail, but having done all, here we are standing by the grace of God!

I sense a growing resurgence in the youth staff - kind of like Elijah when he saw the cloud the size of a fist - it may not seem like much to onlookers but the Spirit is bearing witness with mine that another level of breakthrough is coming!

I still believe that He who began a good work in 12:11 and Madison will complete it!  This community needs to see a demonstration of the power and love of Jesus Christ and we, the saints of God, are the carriers of this glory!  So keep praying with us and for us!  Revival is coming to the Greater Madison community!

As we approach the new school year we are also saying farewell for now to a generation of students leaving to college and other endevors.  It has certainly been a joy to love and mentor these young adults (wow that's weird).  Watching them grow through their triumph and trials has been very rewarding, possibly the one most rewarding experiances that I have ever had.

I'd like to briefly introduce you to one of our graduates Harry Bernard, an 18 year old student here @1211 Youth.  Harry will be attending 220i in Baton Rouge, LA as part of Bethany World Prayer Center's youth and young adult interships.  For 10 months Harry will giving all that he has to God!  When he returns he will be attending North Central University.

This last Wednesday marked that last of an era for Harry as he's off now to take on the world!  No more youth group!  As his last Wed. he felt a calling to preach to our youth students about what God put on his heart.  He preached about stepping out of the ring when fighting temptation, allowing God to fight for him/us.  Harry did a wonderful job, God sure used him!

We thank God for bringing us the souls that he has, these kids will forever be on our hearts and we pray that God be with them, and that they will seek Him where ever they are and what ever they are doing!  We will miss all of you that are leaving, we love you.

Coming soon... "Harry's Last Stand" a video of his sermon too 1211 Youth on August 4th, 2010.

The word "ambition" keeps coming up in my own prayer life and encounters/conversations with others.  Defined as an "earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction," ambition is a very fragile concept.  Pauls tells us in Philippians that we are to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit" (2:3), and James repeatedly warns of the penalties of harboring selfish ambition (specifically, disorder and every evil practice-James 3:16).

So how does one discern what is truly "selfish ambition," and what may be ambition stemming from a God-given passion?  Read the same passage, James 3:13-18.  Determining what is selfish ambition and what is God-given passion has to do with wisdom.  God's wisdom, we know to be "first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."  (James 3:17)  Many of us think we have wisdom, but when it is tested in our own lives in the face of ambition, we are often challenged.  Wisdom has NOTHING to do with selfish ambition, and EVERYTHING to do with humility (James 3:13-14).  Humility...I think I will be forever learning to walk in that daily.

My first lesson in humility verses ambition sends me back to my junior and senior year in high school, all the way through my junior year in college.  I had every ambition to become a pediatric cardiologist and spent those four or five years of my life planning to doso.  I was going to be the best heart doctor the world had seen, and all with seemingly good and pure motives: to honor the memory of a peer who died suddenly of cardiac arrest during a basketball game at my high school.  Every scholarship application I filled out, every univeristy or program I applied for, every class I took declared that I was going to be a pediatric cardiologist, and nothing could stop me....

...Until organic chemistry.  Two and a half years into the rigor of pre-med courses at UW-Madison, and miserable with the load of science classes I was taking, the "ambitions" of my life weren't quite aligning with the God-given desires of my heart.  It was tormenting me.  I couldn't give up on this dream (which I thought was from God), but I couldn't live the life that seemed to be headed towards (non-stop studying, little time for ministry and in the long-term family).  It broke me when I came to the reality that Medical School was never actually the plan the Lord had for me:  I couldn't stay on the path I had determined to, and told everyone I was going to succeed in.  However, that brokeness was the one of the best things the Lord's ever done in my life to-date.

One night during my junior year at UW I had gone to a Casting Crowns concert at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield.  When the lead singer, Mark Hall, made an invititation for people to receive Christ as their Savior, he described Jesus as the Great Physician who came to heal and fix our broken hearts and make us whole.  There was more to it than that, but that night I had a revelation:  God's call on my life did not indeed have to do with the physical healing of hearts, but the emotional and spiritual healing of broken hearts.  That night I claimed Isaiah 61:1 (The Spirit of the Lord is upon me....he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted) as my true calling.  The calling He has for all of us, to do the work of an evangelist, and the specific calling He had for me in the ministry of compassion, was not found (for me) in Medical School, but was indeed the ministry of binding up the brokenhearted and continuing the work of Jesus.  I did not have to give up the desire to "heal hearts,"  but I did have to give up any selfish ambition of having the prestigious job of a pediatric cardiologist and thinking I could continue to sacrifice my strength, health, and ministry in order to doso.

Within that same semester and a lot of difficult conversations later, I changed my major to social work.  Along with choosing Jesus and marrying Adam, that is also one of the best decisions I made.  Because I was willing to surrender my selfish ambition, die to my own flesh and desires (as good as they seemed), and to delight myself in HIM and trust HIM to give me the desires of my heart, I am right where He wants me in His will and calling in my life.

So, word to the "wise".... does this ambition you are pursuing have even a hint of selfishness in it?  Is it in line with His word (James 3:17), is it really ALL for Him, or is there maybe more of you in this plan?  Does this ambition involve pleasing people, or pleasing God?  I see it proven time and again, if we delight ourselves in Him, He WILL give us the desires of our hearts.  Continue to delight in Him.  The rewards are great and better than your original ambitions!