Welcome to another installment of our “Everyday Jesus” series… How are you liking? If you are digging it, let us hear it!! I am privileged to host my friend Meghan today as she share’s her heart (and ministry) for Christ’s love across all generations. Read. Enjoy. Comment. Be blessed! 🙂
Thankful for Jesus in the Everyday,
SGK
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And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” – Mark 9: 34-36
We simply cannot be Christ followers without the death of our old selves and a rebirth into His new life. If we don’t shed the old life like a snake coming out of it’s skin, we will be burdened with too much baggage to follow Him freely. So why do so many of us try to do things our own way? Why do we procrastinate truly giving our whole life to Him? Are we afraid to pick up our cross or are we just too numbed by our immersion in the world? I mean, do we even believe – really believe– that what Jesus says is true?
I am involved in a growing ministry at my church, which is appropriately named “Young Adults”. Our mission: to develop adults who will forsake the world to follow Jesus. Here. Now. Today. Because true life does not come from graduation, work, family, or a mortgage.
Maybe you’ve heard of this growing area of ministry in the Church? Just in case you’re not clear on what defines a “Young Adult”, we are students, workers, and young marrieds in the church who are in between the high school and grown-up gap. I like to refer to us as the “lost generation” because our age group hasn’t always been specifically addressed by the Church. However, there has been an influx of young adult ministry growth as churches realize how crucial it is to be vitally connected to the Body during the time in life when our most important decisions are being made (i.e. – Deciding our major, diving into the workforce, considering who to marry, and solidifying morals and values).
Our group of believers gathers on Friday nights to get in the presence of our Savior. We do this through a shared meal, fellowship, worship, prayer, & Biblical and Spiritual discussion. Our time of exalting Christ and coming together in authentic, uplifting community is essential to who we are becoming in Christ. With competing messages bombarding us daily, we will build our foundation on what we are immersed in. Community brings us strength. Together, we move toward the prize of knowing Him in unity, accountability, and support.
We must decide today if we will choose the world or Jesus Christ. There’s no use in trying to live in a muddled, half-hearted combination of the two. We are strong as a group, and are able to move towards that goal of knowing Him more fully as we come together sharpening one another as iron sharpens iron. My hope is that we will influence each other to fall more and more in love with Jesus Christ so that we are able to freely choose Him in all circumstances.
So will you (yes, you) choose Jesus today? Will you cling to what you have and what you know or will you forsake everything to follow Him?
My prayer is that young adults would awaken and choose true life! Let us not be a generation who gives our life away to “things” rather than the one true King. Let us lay down every single one of our idols and give Him the reigns of our whole life! Oh, I pray that we will not be a generation who waits for “real life” to begin or who live in complacency. I pray that Jesus would meet us here & now!
Join with me in encouraging the Young Adults in your church and in your community to stand up and own their faith with passionate belief!
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Meghan Stewart is the Young Adults Director at Christ Community Church in Columbus, Ga. She is a wife, sister, daughter, friend, and devoted follower of Christ. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys health-wise cooking and baking, running, reading, and spending precious time with her husband, Mason, and cat, Jake. She is basking in the joy of her salvation and loving every day that God blesses her with!
