Monday and Tuesday, January 22-23, CCS held Spiritual Emphasis Days to provide students with a pause from their ordinary academic schedules in order to hear from God’s Word, participate in worship through song and think through what it looks like to follow the Lord with their everyday lives. Champion Forest Baptist Church graciously hosted both days, providing hospitality, a worship team and a myriad of activities for students to participate in.
Middle school welcomed Mr. Taylor Stricklin, middle school pastor at Champion Forest, as the keynote speaker. He passionately unpacked lessons from the Bible that all dealt with individuals who fell asleep and the consequences that came to them and others. Whether exploring the story of Eli from the Old Testament or Eutychus, who fell asleep as Paul preached and then fell to the ground from the third story window, Taylor’s impassioned plea was for students to encounter the Lord Jesus and not spiritually sleep. After each of his talks, students gathered into discussion groups to dig in to the teaching. Forty juniors and seniors served as small-group leaders. Ten middle schoolers publicly committed their lives to following Jesus during the last large group session on Tuesday.
An important idea for elementary students was that we need to confess (spit out) our sin. If we confess, Jesus promises to forgive us and Satan can’t make us feel guilty. We can also struggle with the idea of turning the other cheek, being slow to anger and being loving to others.
Takeaways from elementary students/classes:
- TKA: We learned about God and being a real Christian.
- KD: Being an authentic Christian means you’re the real deal. Christians feel bad when they don’t obey God. They always say sorry. They walk away when people are rude.
- 1A: Being an authentic Christian means to be a real Christian. A real Christian loves God, loves others, prays, reads the Bible and follows God’s commands.
- 1B: Being an authentic Christian means you are the real deal. You can ask God for forgiveness when you sin. You love and forgive others.
- 2C: God is the Lord and Savior. Authentic Christians share the gospel, feel bad when they sin and are doers of the Word.
- 4B: To be an authentic Christian, you have to love others, believe Jesus is Lord, be a real deal Christian, be a “doer” for Christ.
- 5B: Being an authentic Christian, aka the real deal, means being doers of the Word. You can see from one of their journal entries what it means to be a doer of His Word.
- Kendall’s friends in their own words: Being an authentic Christian is to be the real deal, to lay your life down for God, to love one another. If you want to be an authentic Christian, God has to be the King of your life. Authentic means you are the real deal. I learned how to know God and come closer to Him. We are to love one another and be kind.
CCS would like to thank the entire Champion Forest Baptist staff and volunteers who contributed to welcoming us and caring for our students for these two days. Our prayer is that each student who participated will find their walk with God deepened as they take the next step toward Christlikeness.
