ANCHOR VERSE:
“If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget himself, carry his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but who ever loses his life for my sake will find it”. Matt. 16:24-28
OBJECTIVES:
1. To be prepared for the challenges they will face in the coming year, through having the right posture and attitude in taking on the mission
2. To be empowered for the task ahead of them as they lead their respective campuses. DYNAMICS:
1. This session should be attended by both student leaders and Couple Coordinators. 2. The crowd are asked to be sit by campus.
3. OPENING ACTIVITY: This is my Game Plan!
The first part of the session is a sharing and honoring activity
This team leader or speaker starts the session by first asking representatives from each campus to share their plans for the coming school year, as well as how the Lord has blessed or spoken to them at EXERT.
The service team may also share and honor the participants, through giving out awards with small souvenirs or tokens.
Special awards may also be given. (e.g. “Most excited EXECOM”, or “Most active member” etc….)
At this point, the entire crowd may also be encouraged to come up with their own batch name (since they are the ones who will own the name). The name of the batch should characterize their performance during the retreat. For example, “Batch Soaring Eagles”, or “Batch Visionaries” etc., etc.,
4. Talk Proper 5. Pray Over
The speaker is to lead the crowd into a prayer.
The prayer should encourage and motivate them to go out and do the mission for God, despite its seeming difficulties
The music ministry may play slow songs as the prayer starts
The participants are given time to pray for each other. The President leads in this prayer
After, the speaker comes in to and instructs the crowd to recite with him the YFC CAMPUS PRAYER
6. Praisfest SPEAKERS PROFILE
The speaker should be at least a former EXECOM who has experienced the trials of being an officer.
TALK OUTLINE I. INTRODUCTION
(Exodus 16:1-3) Moses led wanderers through the desert. Moses saw the vision, he knew God’s
promised, but he led a community of wanderers. They were wanderers who marched through the wilderness not knowing where they were going. His people’s doubt, Pharaoh’s ignorance, plus his lack of self-confidence were but some of the challenges he had to face when he decided to accept the task of leading God’s people. Like Moses, in spite of our own weaknesses, sinfulness and doubts, we are called to lead our members who may be wanderers, people who may not yet see the vision. This task is not an easy one.
II. THE WAY TO THE PROMISED LAND
What kind of challenges can we expect as we lead our members to the Promised Land of having a renewed and united society in Him wherein lawyers, doctors, government officials and other professionals knows God and testifies to His love?
A. Bickering in the desert
What are some of the difficulties you will encounter as you lead God’s people? (The
speaker should share some of his/her experiences in the circumstances mentioned below)
1. There will be conflicts within the core group. There would be times that they will have different views.
2. People will complain especially when they experience spiritual dryness, or dissatisfaction.
3. Factions and frictions might arise within your campus and even the core group. 4. Relationships and loyalty will be tested within the core group.
5. You may experience lack of support from your families. They may not allow you at times to attend activities.
6. Lack of support from your YFC brothers and sisters.
7. Functionality may destroy the spirit of love – your prayer meeting will no longer be nourishing. People will start making excuses why they can’t make it to your meetings. B. Praying for Manna
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; NAB Exodus 16:4
These challenges however should not discourage you. God’s grace will always be there right when you need it. What should our response be whenever we encounter these difficulties?
1. Always pray.
Pray for your co-officers, your members and yourself. This will teach you wisdom and love it is the most powerful weapon that we can rely on.
2. Seek to be a source of unity.
Instead of contributing to the division, always be a part of seeking reconciliation.
3. Never indulge your emotions.
This is where most conflicts and disappointments occur—do not be indulge with negative feelings.
4. Do what is expected of you.
5. Anger should only be directed towards the sin, never the sinner.
This is the kind of anger that is motivated out of love. Check your heart whenever you
have to show anger
6. Parent’s Orientations
Help your members’ parents become aware of the importance of the work you are doing.
7. Value your relationships more than your work.
Never allow gossip or disagreements to compromise your relationships in the YFC community. Invest in loving and caring for each other until you are confident enough to correct each other.
C. The crosses in our lives
Our personal struggles
Our personal struggles could lead at times for people to question our anointing. It could also lead us into losing sight of God’s plan for us resulting for us to commit sins. We need to continue struggling towards what is good, not giving up on ourselves. We need to seize the opportunity to love God more.
People Difficult to love
Loving is what we ought to do but there are people that are really difficult to love, but this does not give us any excuse to stop loving. It is just but an opportunity for us to be more loving.
Unfavorable circumstances
There would be lot of times that circumstances will not be on our favor making it difficult to continue serving. This could lead us into being fearful of all uncertainties that go with the unfavorable circumstances we will experience. We need to see this as an opportunity to trust the Lord more than anything else, and just be assured of His promises to us.
Once we decide to follow Jesus and serve Him we need to be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices. It’s all part of this adventure called faith. In the end, the crosses he brings us are what will strengthen us and help us hurdle the obstacles we will face as Christians and as leaders.
III. CONCLUSION
“If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget himself, carry his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but who ever loses his life for my sake will find it”. Matthew 16:24-28
We have a choice. We will either see our service as a burden or as an adventure that will strengthen us. Either way, we will still experience the same problems. If we see our service and the people we serve as a burden, we will end this year spent and burnt out. But if, by God’s Spirit, we view it as an adventure, than by the end of the year, we would have lived more than most. We will be refreshed and ready to serve even more.
We must realize that we are signing up for the battle, not for the victory – expect difficulty and hardships. Every soldier goes into battle expecting to be shot at or be bruised, but this is what makes the victory even sweeter.
Be assured that God is with us. This is His work, this is His battle, and we are His army. He will never leave us. He is our shield and our fortress, our defender and our deliverer. And with this confidence we march off on to Battle!