In this short video John Piper passionately declares that, “Churches shouldn’t do play ministries, they should do passionate ministry youth ministriest. Give teenages a vision for what they can be and what they can accomplish.”
Question: How can we here at The Journey create an environment that is not “playful,” but rather PASSIONATE FOR THE HONOR AND FAME OF JESUS CHRIST? If you do not worship with us here at the Journey, then consider this question, “How can your groups best create an environment to live passionately unashmaed for Jesus Christ?”
For our first week we will be reading the first chapter of “Do Hard Things.” The title of the chapter is “Most People Don’t…A Different Kind of Teen Book.” For the guidelines and expectations of the read along and discussion click here.
The first paragraph reads like this,
Most people don’t expect you to understand what we’re going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don’t expect you to care. And eve if you care, they don’t expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don’t expect it to last.
Well, we do (pg. 3)
After reading this I was reminded of how difficult it is to talk to people about the environment that they live within. For instance, if you wanted to know what it feels like to be wet, would you ask a fish? Well, I wouldn’t, because they don’t know what it feels like to be dry!
In the same way it is difficult for us to truly know what it is like to live within our environment. To have the ability to stand back and look objectively at the world we live in is no small order.
If you are a young person reading this, some of the things you read may be difficult for you to grasp at first. It will be difficult to realize that the world you live within does not encourage responsibility, independence, and productivity (for more on this check-out Are we not allowing our kids to grow-up part 1 and 2).
My prayer for you young person is that God will use the words of this book and open your eyes not only to the reality that your world requires very little of you, but that by His power you are capable of doing hard things for Jesus Christ!
And it begins! Today marks the first day of our journey together through Alex and Brett Harris’ Do Hard Things. We will be reading 1 chapter per week and finish with the appendix (Do Hard Things, The Gospel, and You). This means that our on-line discussion will cover a total of 13 weeks beginning today!
The following is a brief list of expectations and guidelines for joining in on the conversation:
Join in at anytime. You are more than welcome to join in on the conversation at anytime, even if it is the twelfth week!
On Monday’s I will post our reading assignment (which will be 1 chapter) and short introductory comments.
On Wednesday’s I will post questions from the Study Guide. You are more than welcome to read the questions ahead of time in order to formulate your response. However, NO comments will be posted in response to the questions UNTIL I actually post the questions on Wednesday. So this means if you comment on the chapter prior to my posting the questions, your comments will not be approved until that point and time.
Comment on AT LEAST one question per week and respond to AT LEAST one other comment per week. You are more than welcome to share more, but this will be the MINIMUM requirements to ensure that we have a certain level of conversation on what we are reading.
In your comments, no trash talking, cussing, cheap shots, talking bad about someone, gossip, etc… ALL comments will be filtered and I reserve the right to approve them or not. If your comment is not approved for whatever reason, I will contact you ASAP to let you know why. Even though this is the case, I DO NOT believe that I will have to be put in this position!
I’m really looking forward to our time together through the book. May we all be encouraged to DO HARD THINGS for the honor and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Posted by Jesse Wisnewski 
Posted by Jesse Wisnewski 
Posted by Jesse Wisnewski 
