Okay, what’s this missions thing REALLY about? I don’t have time to postpone my life! What would I actually be doing? Is it worth it?   Maybe these are all thoughts or questions you’ve had about taking time off for God. Whether just interested, or you’re seriously considering a decision along these lines, find answers as Andrew breaks down his one year in mission experience in Hong Kong. Hear about what actually happened, the lessons learned, and honest thoughts as you consider this potentially life-changing decision.

GYC 2019: By Many Or By Few

Okay, what’s this missions thing REALLY about? I don’t have time to postpone my life! What would I actually be doing? Is it worth it? Maybe these are all thoughts or questions you’ve had about taking time off for God. Whether just interested, or you’re seriously considering a decision along these lines, find answers as Andrew breaks down his one year in mission experience in Hong Kong. Hear about what actually happened, the lessons learned, and honest thoughts as you consider this potentially life-changing decision.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Breakouts

Kyle Allen

Mission, Miracles, and You

This message was presented at the GYC conference by many or by few in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

Well, let me just tell you from the outset that you came to the right seminar.

I know you have a lot of choices, and there's amazing things to hear, but this particular breakout is gonna be so exciting.

I know that you won't regret it, but I have to ask you something very, very special as we begin.

We're gonna tell some stories that are top secret.

They're so secret, they're being recorded for AudioVerse.

No, but actually, seriously, we are gonna tell some sensitive things, so we want you to prayerfully think about what God would have you to do as you listen to these stories.

Think about how God is calling you in your life, where you live, to be his missionary for this last generation.

So before we begin we want to have a word of prayer and ask the Lord's presence to be with us.

Heavenly Father thank you so much for a new day of life.

Thank you for each young adult, each person who's come this morning, we pray in a special way that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit as we consider the work that you are doing around the world.

Father, we know that you're coming is very soon.

We know that you're calling each and every 1 of us to be a part of that great movement to take the 3 angels' messages to the world in this generation.

Lord, our prayer is that in this seminar hour that we would be inspired by what you are doing, that we would leave here not only inspired but committed to being a part of that great work.

We love you, Lord, and we pray this all in Jesus name and for his sake.

I'm gonna start with a story from a country in the world I can't tell you where it is.

And in this country God is using a technology that is actually kind of an old technology, actually this technology that started Adventist World Radio, which was radio, right?

How many of you guys have heard of AWR by just a show of hands?

Now AWR is the Seventh-day Adventist Church's radio broadcast ministry to reach the world.

And the original, the early form of radio that we used to reach out was called shortwave.

Shortwave is a type of radio that goes very far.

It's not like your typical FM station that's just local, right?

And in this particular country, Muslims started listening to the Adventist message on their shortwave radios in the mountain regions where it is illegal to be a Christian.

In fact, in this country, The Taliban, you guys have heard of the Taliban?

They've threatened that if people convert to Christianity, they will be killed.

And friends, I'm here to tell you today that 60 Muslims began listening to the Adventist message through the radio in this country.

And today they are Seventh-day Adventists.

They were threatened to be killed so they're no longer able to meet together in 1 large group, so they have to meet secretly in homes.

But it's a testimony to what God is doing to reach people around the world.

And Alyssa, you have a second part to this story that's even more interesting.

They had started listening to the radio, shortwave radio that we were just talking about.

And they overheard a broadcast and it was Adventist World Radio.

In the beginning, it was a little bit contradictory to what they believed.

And they were struggling through it, but there was something about the message that gave them this internal hope, this peace that they had not felt while they had been Muslims.

And so as they started listening to it, they heard that like, okay, you can email someone.

So they through a secure channel, they started emailing and asking questions and getting answers back and forth.

And eventually they decided to become Seventh-day Adventist, Kyle, And they smuggled them over the border where they baptized them in a border country, another neighboring country.

And when they came back, they could not contain the good news themselves.

Once you start to know the good news of Jesus Christ, you cannot keep it to yourself.

And so they could not keep it to themselves.

So they started finding people who seemed open.

And this is where this group of believers came from.

And so they are, they have started enduring persecution.

They have been brought in, they have been tortured, and now they're just meeting in small groups here and there.

It is the most incredible thing to think that these people have been able to hear it.

And this is the coolest part to me, is that A lot of people tell me short wave should just go away.

We can't go there as missionaries, but the radio waves can.

And by the way, I'm just gonna, I decided I'm gonna tell you what country that's in, even though it's not like it's secret, but it's not like so secret.

So how many of you will pray for the new believers of in Afghanistan?

And this couple, isn't it incredible what God is doing?

And I want to just encourage you guys as you're here at GYC and as you're going through the various seminars and the sermons that you hear, may you leave this weekend knowing that God is at work, that God wants to reach this world with this Adventist message, the beautiful truths of the 3 angels' messages.

And we hope and pray that you will be inspired to what God is doing.

Now, Adventist World Radio, we've been broadcasting for, since 1971, almost 50 years, the Adventist message around the world.

And of course, we mentioned shortwave, but as you'll hear as a part of this seminar today, we're trying to use every available technology to broadcast the message.

God uses every technology to reach people, and we have incredible opportunities in, I was gonna say 2019, 2020, amen, to reach the world in ways we've never been able to before, literally in seconds.

The times in which we are living and the opportunities that each 1 of us has to reach our friends and our neighbors for Christ.

So we are currently broadcasting in over 100 languages and on over 1, 000 stations around the world through FM, AM, digital, audio broadcast, shortwave, social media, and of course, cell phone evangelism, which you'll hear about later.

But I want you to pray because you see this number right here, friends?

People need to hear the Word of God in their heart language.

And so by God's grace, in the next 5 years, before 2025, AWR has committed, we want to see the Adventist message translated in 500 languages around the world.

So we can broadcast the gospel in the people's heart languages.

We are targeting the 500 most spoken languages and the 100 largest metro areas in the world to broadcast our Adventist message.

Now I told you about shortwave, this is the station in Guam.

All right, Heather, yes, you've been to Guam.

Amy Ratsara

Original Leadership

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

Welcome in particular to this breakout session.

It's a one-time, only one-hour session that we're going to talk about original leadership this morning.

We'll talk in a couple of minutes about what that means and where that comes from and why that's important in terms of leadership.

But by way of introduction I will just let you know a little bit about who I am and why I am the person who's here.

I'm not 100% sure about that but I'm happy to talk with you about that.

My name is Amy Shepard-Razzara, and I work as a lawyer in Michigan.

I have been involved with GYC since almost the beginning.

I started attending many, many eons ago, back in 2003.

And I was involved in GYC's leadership on the executive committee from 2008 until 2015, the last time that we were here in Louisville.

I served as both the executive secretary of GYC as well as the general vice president, so helped lead this organization on the everyday level for about 8 years, and have since retired from that type of leadership but continue to serve on GYC's board of directors.

So a lot of my leadership, though not all, comes from that experience.

I also have a public campus ministry background.

Is there anyone here who studies at or has studied at a secular university?

So I also studied at secular university at the University of Michigan.

That's really where I got involved with ministry and where I learned a lot about leadership as well.

So some of the things and examples we may be talking about will come from either that public campus ministry experience, as well as from the experience here at GYC and other locations as well.

I'm very blessed that you all chose to spend this hour here.

I hope that you find that it is a good use of your time and that we will draw something together out of the Bible.

Really, the majority of our time spent today is going to be in the form of a Bible study.

I can get going and I can get talking but I may there might be points when I'm asking for feedback and or for you know just what do you think and feel free to call it out.

We are recording this session, so I'll probably just repeat whatever you say so that the recording captures it.

But I want this to be something that's interactive, that's informative, and for us to all just see how practical the Bible really can be in calling us about what it means to be a leader.

The last thing I'll say by means of introduction is, you know, we heard a lot of different seminars that we're presenting and even other ones about leadership that were going on.

Some were talking about how to execute certain methods of leadership.

That's not what we're talking about in this seminar today.

We're talking more about the leader themselves.

What is it that has to happen in me, in my heart, and in my mind in order to be prepared to be a leader and the kind of leader that God is calling me to be.

So I hope that this is something that each of you will find meaningful, that each of you will be encouraged, because really all of us are called to be leaders in the different spheres of influence that we find ourselves.

And God is able and ready and willing to equip each of us to fulfill those leadership roles.

So with that, let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we will open our Bibles.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for bringing us to GYC this year.

We thank you for bringing us together this morning as this group to talk about leadership, to talk about the way that you have called each and every 1 of us to serve us, to serve you in particular ways.

We pray that you would send the Holy Spirit to be with us now, Lord, that he would open our minds and enlighten our understanding of the scriptures.

We pray that as we study together this morning that we each will receive a conviction about where you're calling us to go in our own lives, about the ways you've called us to lead, and about how to do that in a way that brings you glory and honor.

We thank you again so much and we thank you for hearing this prayer and for answering it.

It may or may not be obvious to some people.

I am 6 months pregnant right now with our second child.

And the only reason I bring that up is I've been noticing this is a problem at court and I can tell it's already a problem here.

I'm having a hard time getting deep breaths.

I'm known for talking very fast, but talking fast with less lung capacity don't go well together so if you hear me like breathing kind of heavy I'm okay I'm not having an asthma attack or anything bear with me we're gonna get we're gonna get through it together okay so let me just send and sorry if I look a little frantic I Just saw something that I've got to go really quick My kid is here and being watched by someone else.

And so take care of that, and then they'll know that's done.

And what does that have to do with anything or everything?

So when I'm talking about original leadership, I'm not talking about the first person who was ever a leader.

I'm not talking about the standard by which everybody must lead.

That's not the different definitions of original that we're talking about.

The definition that we're talking about is the type of leadership that's not dependent on other people's ideas, that's inventive, that's unusual, that's particular to each and every 1 of us as particular individuals.

And leadership is the action of leading a group of people, an organization, or even a social group.

1 of the things that we're going to learn as we study together today is that leadership is not necessarily confined to positions of leadership.

It's a lifestyle and it's something that happens as a result of God working in each and every 1 of our hearts.

So we're going to be doing most of our study this morning in the Book of Exodus.

So if you have your paper Bibles with you, please pull them out.

If you don't have paper Bibles with you but you have a cell phone, please feel free to pull those cell phones out to pull up the Bible.

Please try not to use them for anything else, I will do the same.

And we're going to be studying the book of Exodus together this morning to see what it has to tell us about preparing individuals for the process of leadership.

And in the course of this, I hope that we can answer several questions as we study this.

Do you have to be in a position of authority to lead?

What does character have to do with original leadership?

Why do people avoid leadership situations or taking on leadership roles?

And what does original leadership look like?

As we go through this Bible study together, I also hope there will be a few occasions to share some personal experience with you in terms of leadership.

And then if at the end anyone has any questions and we have time left over, we'll take those questions live in front of everyone.

If we're out of seminar time but you still have questions, I'm happy to stay behind for a few minutes and talk with you.

At some point, there will be quite a few quotes I'll be referring to.

And if you would like the references for those I'm gonna try to get them added to the Attendify app so that you can have access to those as well.

So let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Exodus We're gonna go to Exodus chapter 2 Now you may remember that in the book of Exodus this is a turning point in the history of the children of God that in the book of Genesis we learned about creation and then we learned about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and all the rest of his brothers And that they ended up at the end of the book of Genesis in the land of Egypt But they were a favored people there because they were Joseph's people But then we turn the page and we get to Exodus chapter 1 and in Exodus chapter 1 we see that there was a new Pharaoh in the land and he did not remember who Joseph was and that a prejudice began to develop against the children of Israel and that as a result of that prejudice they began a program of extermination that they were killing baby boys as they were born and throwing them into the Nile River.

That is the context that we get before we lead into Exodus Chapter 2.

My question was, as I was studying this is, what is the origin story of a leader?

Again, origin sounds like that word original.

Do they have to have an incredible story, an incredible background to be able to grow up and become a leader 1 day.

So let's turn to Exodus chapter 2, verses 1 through 11, and let's talk about origin stories of leaders a little bit.

I'm going to go ahead and read it, but please follow along.

And The man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi.

And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him 3 months.

But when she could no longer hide him, She took an ark of bulrushes for him dobbed it with asphalt and pitch Put the child in it and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank and his sister stood afar off To know what would be done to him then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river.

And her maidens walked along the riverside.

And when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.

And when she opened it, she saw the child.

So she had compassion on him and said, this is 1 of the Hebrews children.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?

So the maiden went and called the child's mother Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages So the woman took the child and nursed him and the child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.

So she called his name Moses, saying, Because I drew him out of the water." So we see this is the beginning of Moses' story.

Chad Bernard

Walking Dead

Dear Lord, I thank you so much for being our God and I thank you that you wanna be with us.

Before we were conceived, you knew our names, you knew the life you desired for us, an eternal 1.

And Lord, today, I just pray that you would speak this morning.

I'm very excited to share what I think you've laid upon my heart.

And I just pray that you would speak and not me.

So this morning what I like to do, and this might be awkward, I hope it's not.

I've asked Tanner, Tanner just come on up.

I wanna explain something that I think is real and I think is true, And I want to just share that with you.

But I think it would work best in a conversation.

And Tanner has every, he quite possibly could represent you.

So it would be awkward for me to every time I said something and Tara, you know, and Shiloh and just you know those types of things.

But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have a conversation with Tanner this morning and explain some things that may or may not be your experience.

Okay, but I think that everyone here this morning is quite possibly God has a message for you, okay?

So we're gonna start off, and by the way, as we have this conversation, there's some stuff that will go on the screen.

Because I'm gonna kind of shape the story, this narrative, I'm going to be giving some scripture, some different details, and that'll just come up on the screen, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna read you a PowerPoint this morning.

If that's something that you were wanting to have or experience, my apologies, that won't happen here.

OK, so here's what I think possibly could have happened with you.

They were excited that you were coming into the world.

And they did everything in their power to give you the life that they believe you should have.

And it doesn't matter how much money they make, doesn't matter where you live, it doesn't matter what kind of clothes you wear, whatever.

The number 1 thing, and I think bar none, the number 1 plan or the number 1 goal for your life was for your parents, for your parents for you, was for you to be in the kingdom of heaven.

But more than that, to have a relationship with Jesus.

I'm sure your dad prayed over your mother's belly, you know, and just this, you know, and then Fano is his son, my son, you know, I'm so excited, you know, will he be a good man?

But will he have a relationship with Jesus Lord?

And the day that you told them you want to give your heart to Jesus or you wanted to be baptized, like that just made their existence.

And So what parents will do, they'll try and craft this whole environment.

I'm sure that they came up with this room that was perfect and they had their, you know, whatever color it was and just different things that would make you be whatever they wanted you to be.

They did that because you're the center of their existence.

And that might be harsh and you might want to theologically discuss that.

Of course Jesus is the center, but parents understand this.

The reason why you think parents aren't cool anymore, they're not in style, they quit being in style when you were born.

Because they spent every minute of their day, every ounce of their energy to make sure that you were everything that they believe God wants you to be.

If they were good parents, they would take you to church and they would tell you stories.

And like for instance, we have Moses here.

This is the next Pathfinder big thing that they're going to have in 2024.

And this cartoon kind of represents, you know, they would put the cartoons in the books and they would read you stories.

And they were so excited when you would, you know, regurgitate something to someone that they didn't, you know, might know.

At the grocery store, if you mentioned Moses or David or Daniel, they were so excited that it was catching on, that you would know something about God.

And then they would, you would go to church, right?

They would bring you to church, your little Cradle of Old Times, and you would learn your little memory verses, and you'd sing the little songs.

And everything you possibly could do, they were proud of.

You would scribble something that just looked horrible on a piece of paper, and they would go, look, he's an artist!

Series

Breakouts

So... Should I take Time off for God?

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Plenary

Changed Lives Testimony

58m

Plenary

The Flip Side of Service

1h 30m

GYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Resurrecting the Church

52m

GYC 2011 Plenary Sessions

Respectable Conventionality

1h

GYC 2009 Plenary Sessions

GYC 2009 Keynote Address: Unashamed

1h

Plenary

Counting the Cost

1h 56m

Breakouts

Walking Dead

55m

Plenary

To the End Will You Go

1h

Soulwinning 201: The Next Level

5. How to Lead People to Accept the Truth

1h

GYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Hear the Wind Blow

44m

Plenary

Final Charge: Make Adventism Good Again

2h 13m

Plenary

Sabbath School

1h 12m

Sound Doctrine