ONEBLAZE in St. Louis 2008

This week is one of the most exciting weeks of the year for us. We have about 185 campers at our annual Newfrontiers-USA youth conference. Our vision for ONEBLAZE is to raise up a new generation of church pioneers. To do this we are training them to think and act differently.

Each afternoon teams of young people go into the community to serve. Some are running kids camps that focus on soccer, basketball and art, and others are doing food drives, building pirate ships for local kids or making signs for our family fun day on Saturday. This morning we trained everyone on how to engage with people and start conversations. This is a critical skill that the younger generation needs to learn in order to connect people to Jesus.

Last night I preached about the big picture. God is calling us to leave the small things and go for the big thing. He is calling us out of the Shire (Lord of the Rings), with its safe, picturesque, generational and traditional backdrop and into the great city of mordor -- the heart of the enemies activities. I gave them a vision to reach the cities of this nation. Cities have more people and more influence which makes them strategic for the advancement of the Kingdom. We'll never change things from the small rural areas.

So, big picture "CITY" and small picture "HOW TO HAVE A CONVERSATION" are two ways we have started to build the vision into this generation. Our goal is concerned with mobilizing these young people to engage in the mission of God -- which is to make disciples of all nations.

I can't wait for tonights meeting where my good friend Seth Hein will speak about sin and the wonderful nature of God's grace! My other good friend Sean Stewart will also be interviewing ONEBLAZERS about how their service projects went and relaying any exciting stories.

This camp is very different on a number of levels and it is amazing to have my wife and son around for much of the activities. Hearing Heather pray in our meetings and seeing people play with Jones is such a joy. We are one big family together on a mission.