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I was reading through a list of quotes this evening, I know real exciting right.  And I came across a quote that I haven't heard before but have actually thought a lot about for the last few years.  It's from Napoleon.  
 
Let me teach for a generation, and I will become ruler of the state. – Napoleon
 
I work at a church that has a Christian School.  I went to Christian School until I went to college.  I see a lot of value in Christian Education, but I think it may have been a mistake.  A big mistake.  50 years ago was time of change in American society.  I believe it is when we started to move away from our Christian values as a nation.  The religious leaders of the time decided to build their own schools and leave the fight over public education to others.  Instead they should have called for a generation to become teachers and administrators.  They should have run for school board offices.  Instead they gave up and did their own thing.
 
At some point I think this might be necessary.  Especially when you're talking about your child's education.  But on the other hand what about all the other kids that are being left behind.  Now I know that their are a lot of Christians Teachers out in the public school system, but the system as a whole is failing our kids, especially here in California.  Some school districts have a 50 percent drop out rate!  Yet we are told that the schools need more money.  There is no amount of money that is going to fix this problem.  What we need is for Christian Leaders to stand up and challenge a generation of Christian young people to teach and serve in their communities.
 
Napoleon was right.  If we want influence in our world tomorrow we need to teach our students today.

I watched a two hour special Extreme Makeover Home Edition today. They built a guy in Indianapolis a brand new home. But they didn't stop there they also built a library next to his new house and then they went throughout the neighborhood and fixed up twenty two houses in the community. Some needed a paint job, others needed new roofs, or new walkways. The show gave this community a complete makeover.

What a blessing this was to the community. Sears and CVS helped to pay for all of this work and they also paid of the guys mortgage. Incredible. This guy and his three kids have had their lives changed forever.

I was happy for these guys and their community, but when they were fixing up these houses and cleaning up the community I was asking myself where is the church? Of course the church isn't in the business of revitalizing communities, but we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. What a testimony to the world if Christians were out helping making the world a better place. Instead we just watch someone else do it on tv.

I am just now sending in my paperwork for enrolling in Liberty University's Distance Learning Program. I got a Masters of Arts in Christian Education in 2006. I was planning to get a Masters of Divinity, but it was too much to do with two little boys. Now I have three little boys and I'm wishing that I would have gotten the M. Div. All of the other school programs that I'm interested require an M. Div or its equivalent.

After talking to the counselors at Liberty about their Doctorate of Ministry program I found out that a Master of Divinity equivalent at Liberty is a seminary degree and at least 75 graduate hour credits. I have 62 graduate credits. So I figure that I will get 13 more credit hours and then I'll be ready to apply for their Doctorate of Ministry program.

Now I am just hoping that I will be able to get a scholarship through the Liberty Baptist Fellowship. Our church has supported the LBF for almost 15 years. I hope that I will not have to wait to long for LBF support.

The great thing about taking these 13 units is that it doesn't matter what classes I take. I just need 15 units. So I can take classes that I'm interested in instead of just taking what I need to graduate. Now the problem is deciding which classes I'm interested in. Classes Start June 22, so hopefully, I'll have decided by then.

I have worked in youth ministry for the past 15 years. In 1993, shortly after I graduated high school, my youth pastor asked me to work in the youth ministry. I've been working with Jr. & Sr. High school students ever since. 10 years ago I was hired as a full time youth pastor at my church.

It's been a fun time. I've spent a lot of time with a lot of kids and taught a lot of lessons. But I have this dreadful feeling that I'm wasting my time.

It seems as if we are loosing all of our teens once they graduate high school. There are so many teens that we spent so much of our lives with and they seem to have just drifted away. It kills me to see the teens in my youth ministry now and know that they will be gone in a few short years. I'm afraid we've been making converts and not disciples.

So what can we do? Lately I've been thinking that this problem will continue in my church unless the church as a whole attempts to address it and changes the way we do ministry. If I simply change how I do youth ministry, that's not enough. In fact that's not even really the problem. The problem comes when the students have to transition into the adult ministries. But to be honest most of the students never give the adult ministries a chance. They may go once or twice but then that's it.

So my question is what can we do to make disciples of Jesus Christ and not just converts who will drift away once they graduate from high school?

Any thought?