Thought I would share this with you guys.  I’m very proud of my wife, Jami’s, zeal to run our house to the glory of God. She really seeks to be the Proverbs 31 woman and to me she is “An excellent wife…far more precious than jewels” (Proverbs 31.10).

The following is a project she has become involved in with man other ladies of the same biblical convictions. For 6 days only, Jami has joined forces with more than 75 widely-known bloggers and authors in the homemaking sphere to offer 97 of the most popular eBooks and eCourses, valued at just over $600, for only $29.97.

More than anything, the goal of the sale was for it to be, well… ultimate! Jami says, “We firmly believe that you will not find a more comprehensive collection of homemaking resources anywhere on the web, and particularly not in this price range.”

This library of homemaking helps include topics such as mothering, organization and cleaning, recipes and kitchen helps, home education, spiritual growth for both moms and kids, home décor and DIY, pregnancy and baby care, frugal living, health and fitness, and even work-from-home and financial tools.

What’s Included in the Sale?

When you purchase The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection , you will get instant access to any of the 97 eBooks and eCourses listed below.

PLUS over $140 of FREE Bonuses

Each The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection comes with more than $140 of FREE Bonuses from 10 companies that we know you’ll love. Details on these bonuses can be seen on Eat Nourishing.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered.

There are more details of the sale on Jami’s Website, Eat Nourishing. Or, you can go to purchase this amazing bundle here.

For quite some time now, I have [tried to] operate under the philosophy that one ought to disciple others as if they were trying to replace themselves. Often I have said, I’m trying to work my way out of a job.

As a youth pastor, this is an important position to take. If you want your youth group to grow, you have to realize that means you will stretch yourself very thin. You are going to need qualified leaders to disciple and counsel the new youth in your group. You will not always be able to do it all yourself.

So how are you training up leaders…or are you?

I have found myself very ill-equipped at times to do this. Today I train leaders in two categories. First, I use a method of encouragement and accountability to further train already mature  leaders within the ministry. You may have a volunteer who is a seasoned leader, but you will nonetheless have to get them to line up with your methods and philosophy. This can be done in short meetings or in small discussions during youth staff meetings–or whenever.

Second, I intentionally train up young men and women (college age or so). This includes a more formal environment where I teach Bible exposition (hermeneutics), biblical counseling, small group philosophy and homiletics (teaching & preaching).

These are things that will equip them to lead in some ways. Beyond this, there is much to be said about leadership. My good friend Russ Cline–a seasoned leader with extensive credentials for leadership–has recently begun a website where he hopes to educate the masses about leadership. And all this without breaking the bank. He offers Free Leadership Resources as well as other inexpensive training materials and a blog where he and other writers share their thoughts on the lifelong adventure of leadership. This site is called Lead On eSource. I’d encourage any who are in need of more leadership training for themselves or who need help finding and training leaders for their youth ministries to check it out.

As an after thought, you may say to yourself, ‘Self, this seems like a lot of work. I need help now! And this training up of leaders is going to take a long time.’ My pastor told me a story from his early days in ministry. He was a new children’s pastor and had just purchased his first house. He lived in the middle of the desert where there were no trees. His pastor came to visit his new home and told him, ‘You ought to plant a tree here in the front yard to shade the house.’ to which my pastor replied, ‘But it will take ten or more years for the tree to get big enough to do any good.’ and he set his mind to not plant the tree.

Later that week during their monthly meeting the senior pastor said to my pastor, ‘Ya know, you are always afraid to plant. But if you never plant, you will never produce.’ Maybe you need qualified leaders TODAY. My encouragement to you is to start planting leaders today. Otherwise you may never see fruit grow in your ministry.

God bless you all as you go forth to do the work of the Lord!

Acts 2.42-47; 4.32-37; 5.1-11

The earliest body of believers experienced a mass of conversion when Peter proclaimed the truth of Jesus as the Christ at the feast of Pentecost. Whether you take these 3000 new believers to be hyperbole—an argument for which I find insufficient evidence for—or not, there was certainly a notable growth that took place in the Jerusalem church, forming a community of believers; one which needed specific attention and certainly one which requires our attention in ministry today.

Specific detail is given to the way that the church operated:

1. Devotion to the apostles teaching (Acts 2.42),
2. Devotion to the fellowship [o koinonia—note this is not to the act of fellowship they are devoted, but to the fellowship as a whole, this is the community of believers] (Acts 2.42),
3. Devotion to sharing meals (Acts 2.42, 46),
4. Devotion to prayer (Acts 2.42),
5. Living amongst each other (Acts 2.44)
6. Voluntary communal property (2.44-45, 4.32, 34-37).

The contemporary expositor of scripture might argue—and indeed many will agree with this assumption—that these six points ought to be interpreted and applied in such a fashion:

1. We must teach the words of the apostles.
2. We must have time set apart for fellowship—time spent with other believers.
3. We must be hospitable to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
4. We must devote ourselves to prayer.
5. In our cultural context, it is inappropriate to assume we ought to live amongst each other, but that we must set aside time to devote to fellowship with one another.
6. In our cultural context, it is inappropriate to assume we ought to share everything we own with the church, but that we must be devoted to giving a portion of our wages and worth to the church and possibly to charitable work.

This fictitious expositor would presume to have come to these conclusions on the grounds of biblical discernment—for which he certainly ought to! But, what is biblical discernment? Is it comparing the events occurring in scripture to a contemporary reality as many expositors have become accustomed to doing (the method for which this exposition was derived)? Or is biblical discernment a criticism of the heart of God which flows through a passage of scripture? Certainly you must realize at this point I will argue for the latter.

Yes we must seek not the feels-right-approach to cultural conformity, but seek out the true heart of God through the narrative. As we understand rightly the heart of God, we can then apply that heart within the contemporary context. This is biblical discernment; that which flows out of scripture, not one that uses the culture as a means for interpreting scripture as was the case for our fictitious expositor.

Given our passages, I would propose the following methodology for discerning the heart of God in this particular scripture. Luke’s purpose was to bring certainty to the things that had been taught about Christ and to continue to show what Christ was doing in developing the early church. Interpretation should therefore follow this form:

• What does it mean (What actually occurred?)
• Why did God work in this way?
• What does this tell us about how God intended to develop the early church?
• Does this apply directly to the church today? If so, why? If not, how does it apply (why might Luke have left this account for later generations?)?
• How does it apply personally and in smaller corporate circles (ie. autonomous churches; youth ministries; etc.)?

As I seek the heart of God in this way, I find the following to be true (I’ll spare you to read all my exegetical work):

1. God desires that each individual be devoted to the study of the Bible as the only reliable source for godly wisdom and sound doctrine.
2. God desires each individual to be devoted to serving Christ first, within their collective body (ie. church, ministry, Christian community, etc.) and second, in their communities or other mission fields, alongside the collective body.
3. The breaking of bread—or sharing of a meal—in the early church culture ultimately symbolized acceptance. Therefore, God desires that the collective body actively accept one another. This can certainly be accomplished in today’s culture by the sharing of a meal, but also in other ways as well.
4. God desires that the individual be devoted to prayer, not in the supplicatory sense, (or Luke would have used the term supplication; cf. hiketēria [supplication], proseuchē [earnest prayer]), but prayer which seeks to understand the mind of Christ, [contextually] to reveal how the will of God is to play out from within the body of believers.
5. There is strength in numbers. God desires the church to be a united community to bring strength from within, through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Ecclesiastes 4.12).
6. The church exists primarily for spiritual purposes, but if physical needs are not first met, the church cannot intervene on spiritual matters. Therefore, to the degree which is appropriate for the contemporary setting, God desires the collective body to take care of its congregants’ physical needs—even to the extent that the early church went to accomplish this task.

Notice how the former set of principles, given by our fictitious expositor, lacks the call to serve Christ boldly in a communal form as the early church did. This form of Christianity is individualistic and breeds complacency. It breeds Christians like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5.111), who wanted to look like God fearing Christians, but were unwilling to adopt the heart of our God.

The latter set of principles are certainly a challenge to the way we see ministry today, but do they nonetheless reveal the heart of God? Or do you not believe that the beating of the hearts of the believers and the unity of the believers’ souls (Acts 4.32) was critical to the miraculous growth of the church (Acts 2.47)?

Again, the former principles of our fictitious expositor reflect a tradition of reformed Christian ministry in the US. And the latter reflect the heart of God as it permeates time and provides valuable insight into the will of God for ministry today.

I promise to talk about youth ministry, for that is the reason why I have prepared this study in the first place. So, should I—as tradition has showed me I ought—preach a moralistic message to the youth of my church? one where I am wise and they are foolish, except that they obey?—isn’t that the tradition of youth ministry?

No, it seems to me that I ought to proclaim the heart of God, to foster unity, to bring the strength of numbers that the Holy Spirit will use to draw more youth of our community to the feet of Christ for salvation. I am but one man with few words, but there are with me many voices to empower with the Word of God to bring the Gospel to bear on the souls of the lost.

Oh that this youth group would be ‘of one heart and soul’ and that the Lord would add to our numbers, not those with deep pockets or superficial faith, self-seeking individuals with a desire to belong, but those who are being saved. Then those who are being saved, that their hearts will begin to beat as one with the rest and the purpose of God would be accomplished through us.

I’d encourage comments that demonstrate a practical reality of this sort of ministry for I know no other way to accomplish this task than to be consistent in preaching the Word of God, making a conscience effort not to preach moralism, but to preach empowerment through the body of believers and the Spirit of God. And all the while praying that God will be faithful in this work.

I’m getting prepared to teach through the book of Acts. While I am prepping for a study (book outline, introductions, lots of prayer, etc.) I usually do something to lighten my weeks to give me time to study. In the past I have had guest speakers. For this study, I chose to do Q&A sessions with the teens, thinking it would not require a lot of preparation.

Brother, was I wrong! I passed out slips of paper and had the teens write down their questions. The first week we tackled all the heavy theological questions. I saved a group of relationship questions to deal with the next week. I felt I could share this with others who struggle to teach their youth regarding relationships, so here it is.

Please feel free to comment with further questions or feedback.

Relationships

• What should a relationship with a girl/boy look like?
• How deep should it be at a high school level?
• Should I even be in a relationship?

Start with a discussion prompting the teens to realize the only practical purpose in a romantic relationship is to find a husband/wife.

Biblical purpose of marriage

1. It is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2.18)
2. To have help (Genesis 2.19)
3. For reproduction (Genesis 1.28)
4. To refrain from sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 7.2)

Implications

1. Most teen relationships flow out of a desire for companionship or acceptance. This is a natural part of how you have been created.

What we have to remember is that Adam and Eve were given to each other before God—marriage—before they became each other’s companions. A lot of hurt comes out of relationships because we give the fruits of companionship to the other partner, without the commitment of marriage.

2. Marriage is a unification of purpose. When you are married you no longer are able to live your own life. You live life together. When I decided to go into ministry, I had to make sure Jami felt called to do that too. And she feels that her calling as my wife is to help me in ministry.

So the person you might choose to date or court should be someone with a similar purpose, with similar goals, so you can work well together.

If your life has no direction and you have no goals, then you are not ready for a relationship. And certainly, don’t enter into a relationship with someone who has no goals or direction.

Things for girls to think about: Do you want kids? Are you going to college? Do you want a career? What ministry do I see myself being involved in?

Things for guys to think about: What career do I want? Am I preparing now for that career now? Am I going to college? What ministry do I see myself being involved in?

3. I would think that the command to ‘fill the earth’ has been accomplished. Nonetheless having children is an important aspect of a marriage relationship—whether you decide to have kids or not.

My opinion is that, if you are not old enough or mature enough to even consider children, then you probably should not be involved in a dating or courtship relationship.

4. If marriage is to keep you away from immorality, then a dating or courtship relationship should involve little or no physical contact. To do so would be to tempt one’s self with immorality. Therefore physical contact should be reserved for after you are married.

• How do you know if a girl/boy is sent by God or not?

Talk about the two perspectives: 1) God has ordained a single individual that is right for you or 2) lots of people could be compatible.

I wouldn’t get hung up on the theology. If the person is compatible as far as their direction in life, you are ready for a relationship (mentally, emotionally, and practically) and you are willing to put hard work in, then it is probably a relationship God will bless.

• Should you only date a Christian?

Yes, if your direction is to follow Christ and your girlfriend/boyfriends direction is to follow the world, how can that be compatible? (2 Corinthians 6.14-16).

• Unbiblical reasons for relationships:
  • To gain experience
  • Loneliness—To feel loved or accepted (without a purpose of marriage)
  • Physical attraction
  • Because that’s what you are supposed to do as a teenager

As a final word, I’d make sure you make it clear that many teens lack a life direction and are therefore not ready for a relationship. Still many others have a direction which is not conducive to relationships (ie. I’m going to college on the east coast, so why would I date the local farm boy?). On the whole, it seems unlikely that very many teens ought to really be considering a romantic relationship.

This is a message I preached a couple weeks ago. We finally got the message posted to the church website so I can share it with you.

This message has profound implications for youth ministry. Listen for the need for a solid foundation. We must help our youth to build a solid foundation with Christ as their cornerstone or they will be in danger of apostasy, abandoning their faith. I’d encourage you to listen to or download this message to listen to later.

First I want to say thanks to those who participated in the giveaway. There were 5 prizes.

1st prize, a paperback copy of Hermeneutics Are Like Belly Buttons goes to:

• Jeremy

2nd (x4) prize, a pdf copy of Hermeneutics Are Like Belly Buttons goes to:

• Lance
• Jim
• Wash
• Stacey

Congrats! May your studies bless you richly in your ability to see the truth of God’s Word.

-Anthony Delgado

There are only two days left to enter the giveaway for your free copy of Hermeneutics Are Like Belly Buttons. Entry is super simple. If you do not know what the book is about yet, here is a snippet from the preface that I hope will allow you to understand my heart and thoughts regarding this important ministry resource:

Hermeneutics [tools for studying the Bible] are like belly buttons; everybody’s got one. Just like belly buttons, everyone’s hermeneutic is a little different, but there are certain things that are always the same—or at least should be.

Have you ever been concerned that your hermeneutic could be producing unorthodox doctrine? No? How about now? Are you getting the whole truth from God’s word? Hermeneutics Are like Belly Buttons provides basic hermeneutics to give youth workers and other Bible teachers the foundation they need for biblical interpretation. My hope and prayer is that this book will serve you well in formulating a basic study habit and that your youth groups (or other groups) will benefit richly from your studies in the Word.

Enter here:

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I’m a firm believer that the person who is not growing is digressing. This is true in faith, but also in many other areas of life. If I worked in construction, I would keep up on county codes and ordinances as well as the newest, safest practices for building and so on and so forth. As a youth pastor, I keep myself sharp for ministry by reading books to sharpen my perspectives. Here are 5 books I am loving right now.

Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands—Paul David Tripp

People in need of change helping people in need of change.

I’m reading this book in preparation for our yearly pastor’s conference. This year the focus is biblical counseling. The basic principle of the book is simple. God does not place our sanctification in the hands of professionals: pastors, counselors, advisors, elders, etc. No, it is the churches responsibility to sanctify each other. It is through the members of the body that the body grows.

I’m about half way through the book. I’m impressed by Tripp’s ability to expound scripture and to apply it in a church and counseling context. He often illustrates using his personal testimony. This is particularly helpful to those in ministry. His illustrations bring real application to bear on the passages of scripture he expounds.

At Risk—Dr. Scott Larson

Bringing hope to hurting teens

I’m almost done with this one. This book is more perspective driven than scripture driven, but it is founded on biblical principles. The idea is essentially that there is no point in helping the needy if we are not going to point them to Christ. Dr. Larson presents practical suggestions for how we can minister, specifically to hurting teens and point them to Christ.

Spiritual Leadership—J. Oswald Sanders

Principles of excellence for every believer

This is a classic. I’m studying through this book with the worship leader for our youth band. Even though it is geared towards pastors, it is applicable to anyone in a leadership role. It has been a great study for us both. We are both motivated to serve Christ with more energy and with excellence. We have learned the character commanded of the leader in Christ’s church. The greatest thing about this book is the call for humility in leadership which separates spiritual leadership from natural leadership. Essentially, Sanders is calling upon leaders to deny themselves and serve for the glory of Christ, in a way that is honoring to Christ and according to the strength and power of Christ.

Do Hard Things—Alex and Brett Harris

A teenage rebellion against low expectations

This is another book I’m studying with one of the teen boys. It addresses ‘the myth of adolescence’ that has caused complacency to come upon the vast majority of today’s youth, even in the church. These two young men, Alex and Brett, do a great job of presenting the history of adolescence alongside the biblical responsibility of young men and women. Their challenge is to embrace the responsibility and accountability God has placed upon them in this time of their lives and to step out to begin this work now, not continuing complacency into adulthood.

Cross-Cultural Servanthood—Duane Elmer

Serving the world in Christlike humility

I read this book during my Cross-cultural ministry class in college. I’m now studying the book with a young man who has expressed interest in becoming a missionary. I want him to see the challenge that the calling comes with and the level of commitment required for the calling.

I think one of the coolest things we are seeing as we go through this book is how powerful the message is, not just in the mission’s field, but right here in our backyard. We live in a culturally diverse area. One of the issues addressed by Elmer is that of superiority. None of us would outright claim to be superior to others—or at least I hope not. But, when we try to ‘help’ another culture by teaching them to live as we do, we express a message of superiority. How true is that of the church as we evangelize the lost? This theme is pervasive in Elmer’s work as he shows how to be sensitive to the culture in order to clearly communicate the gospel and the love of Christ to another culture.

If you have read any of these books, please comment to let our readership know your experience with it.