Interesting but Sad Statistics on Family and God

Families today tend to talk about everything but God in the home. Families talk about the weather, sports, school, extracurricular activities, and relationships, but rarely talk about their walks with Christ. Here are some interesting but sad stats discovered by Richard Ross in his book Parenting with a Kingdom Purpose. Great book to read.

-Only 10% of Church families discusses it's faith with any degree of regularity in their home.
-43% of church families never discuss there faith at home.
- 64% of church families rarely or never have devotions or worship as a family
- Only 9% reported having family devotions of any regularity at home.

Good news:
"Religious practices in the home virtually double the probability of a congregation's youth entering into the life and mission of Christ's church."

So much of a teenager's spiritual walk is dependant upon what he or she is learning at home. Parents it's so important to lead out in making your home an environment of worship, love, and discussion of the Lord.

The Power of Prayer

James 5:16 says "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

I love this verse because of it's promise that the prayer of a righteous man is Powerful and Effective. I fear that we don't really believe this much anymore. Prayer is hard because it takes time, focus, energy, and commitment. But prayer is Powerful and Effective. We talk about prayer a lot but we don't pray like we should. Our families need our prayers intensely, our friends need our prayers immediately, our churches need our prayers without ceasing, and our country needs our prayers desperately.


We unfortunately can't change much ourselves but God can do so much through our prayers. Let me encourage you to make prayer a habit. This does not just mean praying at the dinner table or before bed, but prayer that will really shake things up. Pray without ceasing and I believe God will use us in powerful and effective ways.

Goodbye Zach!!

I've had the incredible opportunity over the last year and a couple months to work alongside my awesome brother Zach. He came on full-time last summer and has done the most amazing job anyone could ask for. Today is his last day and tomorrow he heads out to finish up his Junior and Senior year at the best school in the country Ouachita Baptist University. Zach thanks for all the hard work, all the amazing videos, all the fantastic memories, all the moments of laughter, and all the ways you have challenged me to grow in my walk with the Lord. I'll never forget this time. You are very loved here and you helped this Student Ministry in more ways than you'll ever know. I love you and I'm gonna miss you man. God has huge things in store for you.

O how He loves Us!!

I have just uploaded a few songs from Youtube by Kim Walker. The first video is O how He loves Us and it is off the chart. Her voice is unreal and the worship atmosphere there in the midst of this song recorded is amazing. Check it out above.

Camp WoW Part II

Camp WoW this year blew me away. Before we left I just had feeling that God was going to do some amazing things. He did. We had 14 students give their life to Christ. I was able to baptize 8 of them this past Sunday and hope to baptize the rest this next Sunday. We also had 4 students who committed their lives to full-time ministry. 2 feel like they've been called into Youth Ministry, 1 feels like God is leading him to be a Pastor, and 1 feels led to serve as a missionary overseas.

So many other have come back with a fire to impact Brandon, Florida. Of all the camps I've ever been to in my life I really believe this was the best camp I've ever been a part of. I'm just so thankful that God moved so mightily and that so many will spend eternity in heaven. Thank you students for making this such an awesome camp, thank you adults for all your hard work, and thank you to my Youth Staff who went without sleep and worked countless hours on all this. You're all amazing. I can't wait for next year.