Now that I’ve lured you onto Parkside’s student ministry web site, you’d probably like to know what you’re doing here. This is certainly a fair thing to be wondering, and better than wondering something like
I wonder if I could have beaten Bloons Tower Defense II in the time I’ve spent on Parkside’s student ministry website. At any rate, I will, in fact, tell you what you are doing here.
It’s sort of a new concept, so let me give you a brief overview of what’s going on, what I’m doing with this, and what I hope to accomplish. First and most obviously, you are reading my blog. The idea for a student-written blog was first divinely handed to me on a stone tablet by The Lord Almighty back in July, when Matt Robinson was pushing me to actively work toward my goal of becoming a minister. Part of the reason I’m doing this is to polish my preaching skills, basically. But, if I were only practicing, I would do it for a mirror, not for people.
You who are reading this are the bigger reason for this project. You are, for the most part, peers of mine. If you’re like me, you probably go through the majority of your day’s jumping through state-funded flaming educational hoops wishing you were somewhere else doing something else. Whether we realize it or not (and we often don’t), this is a huge problem. We’re told all the time by our church leaders that we have a huge opportunity to witness and glorify God in our high schools, that there are literally thousands of people around us every day who need to meet Jesus. But how much do we really think about that concept? If you’re like me, probably a grand total of seconds per day.
Why is this? As with any good problem, there are a number of reasons, and we’ll be looking at them together throughout the year. One basic underlying issue, though, is that we don’t let God have enough of our focus (much more detail about that next time). My hope is that my messages will provide us as students with some help focusing more on God.
Now, as this is a blog specifically for our teenage students, I also want to focus specifically on making the material applicable for all of us. I want you to be able to read it, think about it, and apply it directly to your life right now as a student. It’s easy to tell yourself that life starts when you’re done with school, but that’s a dangerous way to think. You may be the only chance for some of your friends to meet Jesus; they can’t afford to wait for our lives to start. In this blog, I’ll be covering a wide variety of topics intended to challenge us to think about our faith, about how we’re living our lives, and about what we need to do to better serve God. I have a number of topics in mind already, but I am always willing to listen to suggestions. If you want to see a specific issue addressed, make s ure to let me know. I’m planning tentatively to update monthly, but it’s going to come down to how much I can handle- I’d like to keep this up weekly or biweekly if my schedule allows.
-Michael Shaw
*In an effort to restore the original meaning of the word “gentlemen”, I will be using it only in reference to land-owners from now on. Also, I will be using asterisks to mark places where I have more to say about land ownership or Christian spirituality, but feel it unnecessary to mention it in my main text. You can take it or leave it, depending on whether or not you enjoy chasing rabbits (figuratively, that is—I do not know a single person who does not enjoy chasing literal rabbits).
