Greetings from Nashville!  Our last full day is almost done.  Tomorrow morning at around 11:30am we load the bus to head home, but let’s review this day first.

Morning devotions began at its normal time of 9am.  The theme for today was freedom.  Through Christ we have been set free.  Our speakers talked about what this freedom means.  It does not mean we are free from following the laws of the land, but we are free from following God’s law in order to get our way to heaven.  We are free to follow the law because we love our God and our neighbor.  This is indeed a reckless freedom.  It goes against what society says is true.

Worship celebration started at 10am.  Our speaker talked about this freedom in Christ more.  He broken down the word "F-R-E-E-D-O-M" this way.  To understand freedom we need FAITH; a gift given to us by God.  Next is the "R" of REDEMPTION.  God redeems us through Jesus Christ.  The first "E" stands for ENGAFTING.  This is being permanently connected to Christ.  The second "E" is ETERNITY.  We were encouraged to think in terms of eternity not in linear time.  Our future is in heaven.  The "D" stands for Dominion.  We have authority, through Christ, to reign as free children of God.  So far we have spelled "FREED"  God has freed us so now what?  Well, we get to the "O" which stands for OFFERING.  We are to give our whole life to God and also understand the "O" means admitting that we contribute 0 (zero) to our salvation.  It is God’s gift.  Lastly we have "M" which is MISSION.  We need to have a mission/purpose in life.  What are we meant to do?  This was very well put and I believe it got the kid’s attention.  But I pray that this freedom is something the kids live when they get home so they can make a difference in their world (or sphere of influence). 

After worship we went to our smaller groups for missional youth ministry training.  Here we discussed what it means to share our story (with our peers).  The big question that needs to be answered is "How do we move beyond religion to the heart of the matter?"  What is the heart of the matter?…a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  That is what matters.  Who is Jesus for you?  Why does Jesus matter to you?  I challenge you to ask yourself those questions and then answer them.  Church, confirmation, Sunday school, etc. should not be about religion and doing all the "right" things and saying all the "right" things.  What matters is this personal and intimate relationship.  Why does Jesus matter to you?

The afternoon was time for workshops.  The kids went to a couple interesting ones.  I will let you parents ask them about those.  I went to one dealing with the Internet culture.  After worships we walked downtown to the Hard Rock Cafe.  We got there early enough to beat the crowd.  We then proceeded to walk back to the hotel taking a different path.  The girls had fun having their picture taken with various weird statues and objects.  Whatever works for them.

So right now we are hanging out at the hotel and taking a night off.  Everyone is shot right now so we let the kids go to play.  Later tonight we are meeting for some group time to talk about what is next.  How do we take what we have learned home with us?  How do we use it?  How do we make a difference?  I want to challenge these kids tonight…so we will see what happens.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving so this will be my last post here in Nashville.  I will post again on Wednesday morning after I get some sleep.  Thank you for your prayers.  This has been an amazing experience.  I can hardly wait to get home to tell you more about it.  Hopefully the kids are excited to tell you as well. 

Blessings to each of you and take care. -EDH-