A Journey through ACTS

For well over a year now I have been hitting the alarm clock at 4:45 on Wednesday mornings so that I can hit the ground running (actually more like crawling that early) with my Wednesday routine. A quick shower, a quick mostly unnecessary shave, a quiet tip-toe down the hall in a futile attempt to not wake my wife or daughter, a drive through Starbucks for my steaming dark black venti drip (cup of heaven), and a journey to the YAC to meet a group of High School & College-Age guys for a study through the New Testament book of Acts which I lead. I don't know what's most surprising to me; the fact that an average of 20 guys still faithfully come each Wednesday or the fact that we are still in that book almost a year-and-a-half later!!

This time has been like a soul-refresher to me for many reasons. The guys gather around a coffee tin the size of a nuclear bomb while fighting over vanilla nut creamer and sugar packets. After this we head into the YAC, usually giving somebody a hard time for showing up to a Bible study without a Bible! After the athletes in the group finish their discussion about the games they won or lost the night before we begin. It's all about relationships! It's been awesome taking a few verses at a time to slice & dice. It has been so incredible getting these guys' perspective on these Holy Spirit-filled 1st Century followers of Jesus. Over the months we have put ourselves in the samdals of guys like Peter, John, Stephen, Philip, an Etiopian eunuch (ouch), Barnabas, James, Paul, Seven sons of Sceva (ouch), a jailer, a couple of Roman centurions and even some Pharisees & Sadducees. The scriptures have come to life as we've asked ourselves tough questions like "Would we be willing to die for Christ?" and "Why would a guy wana become a eunuch or marry his sister?"

Each time we close our time in prayer I am reminded of a couple things. One, I love High School students. Contrary to popular belief they are far from hopeless. And, two, ministry isn't ever as rewarding when it's about the "BIG-SHOW". You can have all the theater lights, fog machines, jumbotrons and prayer segways. Let us not forget....a guy named Jesus just needed twelve to turn the world upside down forever......and He didn't even have a microphone.

What are the results of beginning this Bible study? Well, where do I start? A bunch of high school guys are growing into the disciples Jesus wants them to be, my wife Heather just started one at the same time (6:15am) on Thursday morning for the girls of ACCESS & they already average more than we do, one of our graduated college student visiting from his school in Chicago recently said to me, "That Wednesday morning ACTS study is what I miss most about Modesto." along with a ton of other things, both measurable and immeasurable.

May ACCESS never be a ministry that's a mile wide but an inch deep. As long as I keep hitting that alarm each Wednesday morning before the angels are even up it hopefully won't be.