My Daily Reading: 1 Kings 11 - 17

My reading today was short (I am still behind the schedule though). I am


still loving how the story is coming together. I have never read the Bible straight through like this before, so I am really seeing how all the pieces fit together.

The start of todays reading shows Solomon being visited by the Queen of Sheba. The Queen had heard about Solomon's wisdom and wanted to test it for herself. She found out that he was as smart as everyone had said. Chapter 11 also talks about the vast kingdom that Solomon had including the treasures, wives and servants.

Unfortunately, Solomon wasn't as strong as he needed to be and allowed his wives to turn him toward idol worship. God punished Solomon for it by splitting the kingdom of Israel into 2 pieces, the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. God anointed Jeroboam over the kingdom of Israel, but he too turned from God and did evil.

The rest of my reading with through the different kings that were in charge until we get to King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. This means tomorrow I will be reading about Elijah and Elisha (love those stories).

One interesting piece of the reading today was a chapter on an unknown prophet of God (at least I think he was unnamed). This prophet spoke with Jeroboam about his sin and then was told to not eat or drink and to go home a different way. Apparently, another prophet decided to trick him into disobeying God by lying and using the great phrase "God told me to tell you". The unnamed prophet followed the lying prophet and it cost him his life.

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So many questions come up when reading about the kings of Israel and Judah. The biggest being, why couldn't/wouldn't they follow God if they knew that he would bless them for it? I would say we deal with teaching ourselves that same question...

My Daily Reading

I normally don't do New Years resolutions. If I do, I usually (like most people) never follow through with them. This year, I decided to make two. The first is to lose weight. I am about 80 pounds overweight and want to be in better health. My wife and I have started a diet and I am committed to working out more.

The second resolution is to read the Bible in 90 days, at least once this year. I started using the reading plan out of YouVersion to help me keep track. I actually started the plan at the beginning of December and should be finished sometime in March. I have tried really hard to keep the reading. doing the Bible in 90 days is pretty intense and if you fall behind, it is hard to catch up.

I have decided to help me keep myself accountable, I am Ginger to blogg each day about my reading. The post won't be super extensive but just some notes about what I got out of it. I am also not going to try to go back with what I have already read but just start from where I am.

Today's reading was from 2 Samuel 22 to 1 Kings 7. The reading covered the end of David's life and reign as king and the ushering in of Solomon as king. Reading about David and his life was very interesting and insightful. I loved how he tried to do what God wanted and when he didn't, he would repent and make it right. As a great leader, he had faithful leaders under him who did what he needed when he needed. They sometimes questioned him but still followed him.

Solomon took charge and cleaned up a mess that started before his father passed away. David asked Solomon just one thing before giving him the kingdom and that was that he follow the will of God and do what God wanted. god promised David that if his family followed Him, then God would bless David and his family. Solomon started out right and vowed to follow God. Because Solomon was faithful to God, God said that he would give Solomon anything he wanted. Solomon was humble Nd asked only for the wisdom to rule his people. This pleased God and he gave Solomon the wisdom plus whatever else he wanted.

The last few chapters of the reading were about Solomon building the Temple of God. The description was amazing. The cost and times was enormous but Solomon was able to do what his father was not.

Very interesting stuff. I am enjoying reading the Bible straight through as the whole story comes together with each verse and chapter...

Looking Back

I was going through some videos and thought it would be interesting to put up.  Here are 3 videos from 2008, 2009 and 2010.



Decisions - Refuel 03/22/2010: Lesson starts at 21 minutes



Refuel 2009 from Roy Probus on Vimeo.



Refuel 2008 from Roy Probus on Vimeo.

Philosophy of Youth Ministry

I remember back in my days of college that during my youth ministry class, I wrote a paper on my philosophy of youth ministry.  A why I do (or wanted to do) what I do.  I remember that writing the paper was hard for me because at that point, I had not actually done youth ministry.  I had been a part of a few youth ministries but never led one.  I remember struggling through the paper trying to come up with the correct answers.  


I don't have that paper anymore (I wish I did) but I remember the focus being on relationships.  I remember writing about spending time with students, talking to them and just being there for them.  I now know that there is more to youth ministry than just hanging with students.  You have events to plan, parents to deal with, adult leaders to train and a church staff to work with.  All of these things have shaped my "philosophy" of youth ministry over the years.


My philosophy is kind of a mixed bag of different ideas that I have read about and adopted over the years.  My youth ministry philosophy is called RSS (Relational, Sustainable, Simple).  I believe these three components are the core of why I do what I do.  I believe that these three pieces help to form a youth ministry that will withstand the test of time.  I have never been a big fluff person. I don't have a super dynamic personality.  RSS, to me, will help build a ministry that isn't lost in programs and isn't tied to any single person.  Let me explain.


Relationships are the key to any ministry within the church.  If people don't feel accepted and loved, then they will find some where they will.  In youth ministry, this has to be more than the youth pastor.  We must teach others to be relational.  We must teach them how to talk to a student, be friendly and let others know they are willing to listen.  This is scary for most adults, and some students, but it is essential to making students feel welcomed in your ministry.


Sustainable ministry is a concept by Mark DeVries, that I believe all ministries need to adopt.  The goal is to build a ministry that is a church ministry, not just based on a single person (normally the youth pastor).  The churches role is to provide the resources (money, facilities, personnel) to put the ministry in a position to succeed.  The youth pastors job is to build a structure of ministry that goes beyond themselves.  I believe this is replicating yourself to allow other adult leaders to be the youth pastor to a group of students.  This is not an easy concept for some to follow but is essential to building a ministry that will last once the youth pastor is gone.


Simple Student Ministry is a concept by Jeff Borton.  (Simple Student Ministry was written to follow the book Simple Church by Thomas Rainer.)  The thinking is that our ministries do not have to be so complicated that students get lost in programming and events.  How many of us as youth pastors have complained about being to busy.  I believe this to be a very clear message to everyone.  I have learned over time that students aren't drawn to programs or events but to people.  Yes, they may come to your events but will they stick around.  I have taken this concept in our ministry and built not only simple one but one that is consistent.  Most of our events take place on Sunday night (our normal worship time) or Friday and we try to stick to the same night each month.  We also simplified our ministry by using our small groups to have events on their own, so we weren't always planning large events.


Some might look at this and find it to be very elementary in thinking but believe me, putting RSS to work is something else.  My philosophy will continue to change and develop as I learn new things and get into different situations but I believe that right now, this is a great way to run a youth ministry.

If the church was like Boy Scouts...

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege to watch the Eagle Court of Honor for our local Boy Scout troop.  I have been to a few of these during my time here at Platte Woods and it always amazes me to watch these boys who have committed so much, reach a major milestone within the Boy Scout organization.