middle school cookies

I pulled a first tonight, of sorts.

I wanted to talk about the purposes of the church (evangelism, discipleship, service, community, worship) with our middle school students. We've been in a series for what seems like the whole of the fall season, and tonight was the wrap up session.

So I made chocolate chip cookies tonight during my talk. Yep, it was my first time making cookies. Mixed all the ingredients, stirring as I spoke about the purposes. I got some help from Josh Cone along the way. He took over the mixing as I got more into the talk.

The point was this: leave out any of the ingredients and the cookies won't turn out like they're supposed to. If we neglect any one of the purposes of the church, we won't be the church that God wants to make. We need all the ingredients to make the thing turn out right.

I want our students to realize that they ARE the church, that God wants them to know him now, that he wants them to be growing and serving and loving him today. They are bright, capable, kingdom-people right now. God loves these middle school students, and he wants them to experience him and his kingdom now.

The cookies baked while students were in small groups, and they turned out pretty good. I pray that our students are going to turn out pretty good, too.