Our Blog

Student Ministry September 2018

Dear Church Family,
For this month’s article I want to share a list I made on August 6^th this year. I titled it, The Blessings of a Broken Ankle. These are some of the things that I can see God’s grace abundantly given to me, even in a time of suffering. Here they are:

1. A thankfulness for God’s sovereign plan to bring me into the world during this time in history with advanced medical technology, through which He mightily works to heal.
2. A deeper understanding of what people are going through when prayer requests for things of this nature are mentioned.
3. The privilege of experiencing the body of Christ care for its members. So many people have reached out and cared for my wife and me through meals, movies, money, mowing grass, and much more.
4. The joy of seeing people step up to take charge and lead. Many people who faithfully follow my lead immediately sprung into action to make sure ministry kept going. It is such a joy to have devoted people who are there looking for ways to serve and lead. Nothing could be done without them!
5. The sanctifying process of forced growth in my abilities to delegate. I strongly believe that ministry is a group effort. But theory and practice can be hard to put together at times. Thankfully the Lord will do anything to grow those whom He loves. This is a blessing.
6. The wonder of different people uniting together to support. I have seen people come together, who had no reason to before, to supply help and service. It is amazing how God creates community!
7. The pleasure of feeling like we fully belong to this family. We have been overwhelmingly blessed with this church family, who has treated us as your own and cared for us as such. We couldn’t ask for anything better than to belong in such a family.
8. The delight in seeing the other pastors invest in the students. Some churches do not have a ministry staff that participate together in the church’s ministries. That is not the case here. All of our ministry staff are invested in the intertwining ministries of our church, whether covering for one with a broken ankle or not. That is a mark of a healthy church.
9. The awe in God teaching that His goals are not dependent on my abilities, nor thwarted by a lack thereof. God does not need me. So, when I am sidelined He still gets things done. But it is inspiring to know that God chooses to use me whether I have many abilities or few. His work is not limited by us.
10. The ability to read and spend time with the Lord unhurriedly. I have been forced to be on a couch much longer than I usually desire. But with this time, I have been able to look to God’s word and be comforted and challenged by Him. He has been shaping me while I have been broken.
11. The honor of watching my wife be and grow as the strong supportive woman that God has blessed me with. This is my most    valued blessing.  “An excellent wife, who can find?  For her worth is far above jewels.”  I have found the treasure of Erebor!  The Lord is far too good to me.
12. The challenge of learning to humbly and happily accept acts of kindness and grace. The gospel can be hard to accept.  It means that you need help.  The faster and better that we can learn to need help, the better and happier we will be.  God is still growing me in this, and He is making me a happier man.  This is all a blessing.

 Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren

Student Ministry August 2018

Dear Church Family,
Recently I have been thinking about the fact that we call ourselves a church family. We are indeed a family built up of adopted sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, who purchased us through Jesus Christ our Lord and elder brother. Similarly to how we all have family names that denote to whom we belong, our heavenly family name is Christian. It is our new last name. It was given to us when we were born again into this family of God. My true name is Brian James Van Doren Christian, and that declares that I belong to Christ our Savior, God our Father, and the Holy Spirit our helper. Everyone who has this same family name is my sibling… and that has a very significant meaning for how we live together.

Oakhill Baptist Church makes up one local gathering of this family, which has spread over all the earth and is still growing day by day. It is the specific gathering of my family (Christians) to which I belong. Families in the world today do not always give us an accurate depiction of how we are to interact with one another in our heavenly family. If we think that the Christians should live like families of the world, then we should rarely speak to each other, disrespect and hold grudges against each other, seek the approval of others more than our family members, and spend very little time with one another. Clearly this is mistaken, but unfortunately it is too often true of some gatherings of the Christian family. This is what happens when a gathering of the Christian family listens more the world and their own selfish tendencies than they do to the Word of God. Thankfully, our church as a whole prefers to listen to God’s Word over the ways of the world and our selfish impulses. We, as a whole, choose to spend time together in fun fellowship and deep discipleship.

Time spent together in fun fellowship and deep discipleship is exactly what a healthy family needs. That is what the student ministry has been focusing on this summer. We have spent much of our time together simply having fun and enjoying a few laughs. But we have also been focusing intentionally on our relationships with Christ and how that ought to impact how we relate to one another. Those last two sentences are not mutually exclusive, however. Often we have had fun fellowship and intentional discipleship at the same time! The reason this is so important is because it is in these times that the gospel is worked out in our lives. Students know that “Jesus” is the right answer in Sunday School. But they won’t see how Jesus actually guides their thoughts and actions when interpersonal drama creeps in unless they are experiencing regular Christian fellowship and intentional discipleship. They need to spend time with their heavenly family and be committed to seeing the gospel that unites us together worked out in their relationships. We all need this. And we need to lead the younger generation to strive for this. The question is, will we be committed to our heavenly family, or will we be committed to ourselves?

Sincerely,
Brian Van Doren