What is your $64,000 question?
We have a perspective about everything; to the point that if my title on this article didn’t catch your eye, you are already not reading this because your perspective was that it was not worth your time. As people in ministry (who make up the largest demographic who reads this blog), we have a very unique view of the community that we live in. With that view brings the good and the bad, but the thing I want to bring to light is that it is just that, a viewpoint. The people who grew up in your town, graduated from the high school, and now either work for a local business or own a local business have a different perspective. This is also true of the parents in your student ministry who moved into town. The teachers in the school have another.
Nehemiah 11 gives us an overview of who is in town, where they lived, and who they are related to.
1.” Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten of them to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns.”
The image here is of a man from out of town who caught a vision and implemented it, and along the way became a man who knew the people around town. He had community influence. He started out with a ministry viewpoint and ended with a larger community perspective. Right now in your community, you have your perspective. What you need is a community perspective. So, build an initiation team with parents, business leaders, teachers and student ministers on it. That way you have a healthy balanced perspective.
Perspective brings enlightenment. In starting this ministry, that is crucial.
Peace,
Brad
PS. The perspective I care the most about is a lost student’s view of Jesus. Every lost student in your community has an opinion about Jesus. This view ranges from seeing him as the Christ, the Son of God to a curse word. If a student has never stepped foot in a church nor had a spiritual conversation with a Christian, what is their view of the Christ? I believe that is the $64,000 question…
