Guest Blogger: John Bishop, Ministries Pastor
At Elevation Church we serve under a leader who sees one of his primary goals as motivating and inspiring the next generation to follow God with audacious faith.
In a meeting at the end of 2009, Pastor Steven looked at me and said, “I want to see every student at Elevation Church in a small group…I’m so passionate about this that I want to lead the charge by having my own student group.” – and so, Generation was born.
Generation is a super-intense student group. It’s like the navy seals of student groups. Everything about the group is over-the-top. The students who were selected went through a rigorous interview process. The goal was not necessarily to pick the students who were already on track but to find the students who had the most potential. From an original list of over 100 students we picked 12 who we felt had potential to be great leaders.
Over the next 10 weeks, the students read 3 books (Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis, Next Generation Leader – Andy Stanley, and Integrity – Henry Cloud), they read the New Testament in 30 days, did a 7-day fast together, recorded an audio blog, and served over 250 hours of community service.
To complete this intensive group they were given two weeks to produce a final presentation. Their instructions were simple, “tell us how Generation impacted you – and don’t suck!” They rose to the challenge in a big way! We’re not quite done, they still have 2 more books to read and they will have a BIG role in helping us select the next round of 12 students who will begin their journey in the fall. (If you want more information about generation or if you’re interested in applying or letting us know about someone who should apply, contact our student groups director, Jamie Waldron – jwaldron@elevationchurch.org)
We started the group as an experiment and we weren’t sure if it was going to work. But these students exceeded our expectations in every way! We have always believed the best way to impact students is to challenge them more, not less and with this first Generation group we found that belief to be completely true.
To our first Generation Students: You really blew us away with your willingness to plow through 10 weeks of intense discipleship. You were humble, teachable, determined, consistent and fun. We’re praying that God will use everything you learned in Generation to give you the boldness and courage to be a rule maker! We’re proud of you!
