Last night we started a new teaching series at the five, Plan B.  Honestly I sit here and I am overwhelmed and excited by it all at the same time.  I feel like it is so huge of a thought to wrap our minds around that it is going to be hard for me to do it justice, yet I am thrilled to be able to help spur on thought, and discussion, which hopefully will lead to healing and restoration.  Here’s the video that we used to open up our teaching time.

  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GdGM-p9ckM]

I remembered to push the conversation through text button last night, and we did get a few questions…  So, let’s carry the conversation over…

1.  Why did God choose to send Elijah to Zarephath?  

God moved Elijah away from the brook for one very simple reason.  The brook wasn’t there anymore.  It had dried up, and it was non existent.  So, God moved him to Zarephath.  I can’t find any direct line of reasoning for why God chose Zarephath out of all the towns in the world to send Elijah to.  What’s ironic is that God sent Elijah to a Phoenician town while He was fleeing from the promoter of a Phoenician pagan theological system.    

2.  What is the difference between a Baptist and a NonDenominational Church?  Don’t we all worship the same God?

The difference’s between a Baptist Church and a NonDenominational Church are often very small.  It generally tends to come down to how do you do certain things.  As in, what is the method, or tradition, that you use in order to serve communion.  There are any number of examples that I could give.  However, to answer your question plainly, there is not much of a difference between a Baptist Church and a Bible believing NonDenominational church.  In the case of a Bible believing NonDenominational church, yes, we do worship the same God.  

The other youth group I go to is kinda dried out, what can I or the group do to try and “moisten” our hearts?

This is a great question.  You could very seriously replace the word youth group with the word church and apply this to any situation inside of the body of Christ.  From time to time, we will go through seasons of “dryness”; meaning, we won’t be in as close communion with God.  We will go through this personally as well as corporately.  Why is it that some church’s are booming today, but 3 years from now there is a few faithful attenders, but the boom has gotten up and busted?  I’m sure that there is no easy answer to this.  However, the number one thing that you can do is pray and ask God to show you ways that you can help draw the group/church back into that experience and that fellowship.  A great book to read for this is “It” by Craig Groeschel.  Here’s a link to a video done by Craig, talking about the book.  

Some of the things that you can be doing is by cultivating an environment where people are known and cared for.  This is something that we try and do at the Five.  I think another thing you can do is to make sure that what is being discussed and what is being taught are things that are relevant and important to today.  Meaning, what am I going to do with what I just heard… If I can’t do something with it today, or tonight when I get home, than….  I’m not sure it really matters.  Unfortunately that is the attitude that we too often face.  

The best thing you can do is to pray for your group, your church, and your pastor!  

Thanks for the questions… Keep em coming!

~Peter