Verge Ministries Blog @vergeministries - Tumblr Blog

Jenn killed it this week speaking at @TroutLakeCamps! So proud of her! (at Trout Lake Camps)

Always good to visit with our friends at #OakHillsChristianCollege when we are in the Bemidji area! (at Oak Hills Christian College)

#oakhillschristiancollege

Midsummer meeting with part of our team to touch base. It's been an interesting summer for us. Lots of spiritual headwind leaning into an important fall! #JesusMovement (at Verge Ministries)

#jesusmovement

We are excited to be launching leader communities this fall for college/young adult leaders connected with #VergeMinistries

#vergeministries

It’s 3rd And Long… Let’s Just Punt

It’s been a crazy few weeks for our team. A few of us just came off of a 15 state, 7,444 mile tour of the western half of the United States. We had the opportunity to connect with some of our partnering ministries in Boise, Portland, Vancouver, Sacramento and Las Vegas, as well as welcome our 21st ministry in San Jose, CA. Each time we head out on the road, God reminds us of the important role we provide by coming alongside churches to help them reach and engage with college age/young adults. This last trip we had the opportunity to sit-down with college leaders of all size churches, and I mean all size churches.

The theme we continue to see across the country, is a church that fails to engage with college age/young adults. It feels like at times, that church is raising the white flag in surrender conceding that we just can’t do it. It’s as if the church is on 3rd and long with young adults and deciding that instead of taking another snap and getting a first down, they would just rather punt. What?!? Punt on 3rd down! A coach would be fired in football if you decided to punt on 3rd down!

So the question is why? Why would one give up so early and concede? I want to present a few different aspects of what we have seen. I want to look at some different ways we have seen churches punt. I want to explore why there is the temptation to punt right now. Then I want to argue in the value of moving the ball down the field.

What Does Punting Look Like

“Our church is too small to have a college ministry. Let’s just let the bigger church down the road deal with reaching the college age/young adults.”

It’s amazing how often our team hears this. We are constantly faced with the challenge of inspiring small and medium sized churches to engage with this age group. Part of our challenge is helping redefine what is success. Is a church not successful because they only have a few young adults in their church or ministry? If a young adults life is transformed by Jesus, is that not a success? Don’t punt to the bigger churches!

“Let’s just let the campus ministry reach that age group. They are on campus engaged with them everyday. What can we do?”

Now we love campus ministries. This is not an argument to push against campus ministries. In fact we see, city after city, that even if every campus ministry were maxed out and every church had a young adult ministry as part of their community, there would still be a need for more ministries and more movements. Don’t just punt to campus ministries!

“We don’t need a young adult ministry because we don’t have a college.”

More and more, we see young adults waiting to go to college, taking breaks in-between semesters and coming back home to live. I’ve been in some of the smallest communities out there and hear people tell me that they all move away. Do these people ever open there eyes, go into a coffee shop or even walk the streets. They are there! Don’t punt to bigger cities!

Here are a few temptations why one may want to punt and give up. I’m not saying that I haven’t been frustrated with these sometimes annoying traits of college age/young adults, but we need to continue to see our part in ministry as discipleship. They are on a journey, as you are on a journey. In the same way, you need grace, they need grace as well.

Why Is There A Temptation To Punt

We may only have them for a season.

They don’t put money in the offering plate.

They are constantly evaluating what benefits them at that moment

They are idealistic

They are way too much into technology

They are late or sometimes don’t show up.

They think they know everything.

For many of us, we have passed on this temptation to punt, or even decided we were going to keep going even though something didn’t workout the way we thought. There is a blessing in having them engaged in your community. Paul, has some very strong words for us, when we have parts of the body missing. In fact, he says that when a part is hurting or isn’t there, it actually hurts the whole body. What we have seen over and over again, is the value that a young adult can bring when they are engaged in the body. They bring things that other generations can’t, and will provide things that are unique.

What College Age/Young Adults Provide To The Body

Energy… and lots of it!

Spontaneity

A unique understanding of the world

Passion

Creativity

The ability to go

So you have the ball! It’s 3rd and long, what are you going to do? Are you going to keep moving the ball down the field or are you going to punt? If we can encourage, please don’t punt! It’s worth the fight, the effort and the cost.

Andy Abramson

Director of Verge Ministries

View this post on Instagram

The zipline at #troutlakecamp (at Trout Lake Camps)

#troutlakecamp

Team rest time after hiking up Stone Mt. #vergeATL #stonemt #Atlanta #51cities #vergeministries

#vergeatl #atlanta #stonemt #51cities #vergeministries

Our Purpose Part 4

At the very beginning of this whole journey of Verge Ministries was this deep convocation to take seriously the call of Jesus, this call to go and make disciples. I think for far too long, people have given over their responsibility of making disciples to paid pastors, teachers, leaders and missionaries. So many people sit back and have an expectation that their responsibility is to show up occasionally at a church and drop a few bucks into a plate when it’s being passed around in the service. Young adults aren’t really interested in this type of Christianity. In the midst of peers who are running multi million dollar companies, innovating new ideas and pushing culture into uncharted areas, a boring version of following Jesus sounds unappealing. This is not what Christ intended when he called us to be a part of His mission.

I love the passage in 2 Corinthians 5! Paul tells us in this passage, we have been reconciled back to God through the work of Jesus on the cross, and because of that work he has trusted to us the MESSAGE OF RECONCILIATION! In fact Paul says… “as though God were making His appeal through us!”. What an amazing statement! God is using us to make His appeal to people, this appeal to come back to Him and be reconciled! Do you think this passage speaks of a mission of sitting in a chair, changing a few diapers and throwing a few dollars into a plate? NO! This is the greatest opportunity we could ever be presented with, an invitation to be a part of the MISSION OF GOD!

Our heart as Verge is to instill this into the young adults that we have the opportunity to be leading! This invitation to do more with their lives and a deep devotion to the mission that Jesus has called us to be on with Him.

Our Purpose (Part 4)- We Desire That A Generation Of Young Adults Would Have A Deep Love For Christ Where They Would Respond By Having Deep Devotion To A Missional Lifestyle

Andy Abramson- Director of Verge Ministries

Our Purpose Part 1-

Our Purpose Part 2-

Our Purpose Part 3-

Our Purpose Part 3

A few days ago I had the privilege of spending time with one of my mentors. As we chatted at a local diner here in town, we began to reflect on the group of guys who have had so much influence and impact in my life. The uniqueness of this group is that they pretty much all run in the same circle. Many of them started doing ministry at a young age together. They have been doing ministry together, or at least in the same sphere for many years now. I’m a product of this group of men and the distinctives that they held to. I remember many times, as I grew up watching these men giving there lives to following Jesus, they would pour themselves into the lives of others. They had this relational bend to all the ministries that they were a part of. As I got older, they began to talk to me about their conviction to following the Great Commission seriously. Their call was to “Go and make disciples” and I had the privilege of watching them do that. This call of disciple-making was imbedded into me at a young age. So much so, that it became so normal to me that I began to think that every christian had this intense call on their lives as well.

I remember walking into bible college being a 20 year old. As I sat in many of these practical ministry classes I remember the professors talking about this commission, this mission, this command to make disciples of the people we are ministering to. What I quickly found out, as I began to have discussions with my classmates, that this concept had mostly been talked about in their local churches but never demonstrated, modeled, encouraged or taken seriously. What? How could this be?

My wife and I made a commitment early on in our relationship that we were going to live differently. We were going to take this call of making disciples in a literal, not a figurative way. We began to ask ourselves questions of how could we make ourselves more available to people? We wrestled with how to invest our lives into other friends, students, church members and even strangers. We took this call so literal, that in our first twelve years of marriage we had thirteen people who lived with us for extended periods of time. Even now, my kids find it odd when there aren’t people, beyond our family, sitting around our dinner table. Sometimes the people around our table are friends, sometimes parents of my kids’ friends and sometimes anybody we can find. We have spent countless hours with people on our couches counseling and encouraging them to follow Jesus. My wife and I have committed our lives to this call, pouring ourselves into others, in this mission to make disciples, who make disciples that follow Jesus.

For the last several weeks we have been looking at the very purposes that are central to Verge Ministries moving forward. This idea of being disciple-makers is at the very core of who we are! It’s one of the thrusts behind everything we do. We, as well as our team, are committed to this idea of raising up disciple-makers around the world. We pray this this is in the very fabric of every ministry that we are involved in. It’s been so exciting for me, to see people being raised up with this passion that was placed in me at such a young age. We firmly believe, that through this process of raising up disciple-makers that we can change the world. We believe Jesus is contagious and will change lives. We believe when we take this call seriously of making disciples that the gospel can spread in ways that we can’t even imagine.

Our Purpose (Part 3)- We Desire That A Generation Of Young Adults Would Have A Deep Love For Christ Where They Would Respond By Being Committed To A Lifestyle Of Disciple-Making

Andy Abramson- Director/Founder of Verge Ministries

How Was Your Thursday?

You know there are some moments when God shows you what He was up to all along! Yesterday was one of those days for us. You see, three and a half years ago, God placed this little vision in some of our hearts to jump on board with Him and be a part of a movement that he was creating to capture the hearts of the young adults around the world and use those young adults to reinfuse new life into the church. Some people have labeled it a ground swell, others have understood it as an awakening but I like to think about it in terms of a movement that God is creating. In those early days of 2010, my wife and I made a bold decision, with our fifth child on the way, we would step out and gives our lives to the cause that God had placed on our hearts. Not only would we do it, but we would leverage the relationships around us to inspire others to do the same. We would give our lives not just to a local ministry but to raise up and send out leaders around the world with a heart to be a part of this movement.

Last night was one of those nights where God said “I told you so. I told you to trust me and this would happen!” Well you might be asking what happened last night? Last night we had the extreme privilege of being partnered with four different ministries in four different states that were going on at the exact same time. It was one of those moments were you are blown away by how God can use this little, unskilled group of people to be a part of such a massive movement. He did it! He did what He said He was going to do!

My heart is overjoyed right now! Some may say we made it… we made it to the finish line, but not me! I hear God saying this race is a marathon and you wait and see what is around the next corner! Ahhhh I can’t wait! I believe there will be a day when four ministries happening on a night will be the norm and then it will be the rarity because we will have ministries that meet on every day of the week all the time.

But make sure you don’t confuse this. This is not a movement of Verge Ministries… this is a mini movement within a bigger movement where God’s kingdom is being expanded and our little stream is young adults. I believe we are going to be just one part of that movement. I believe He will use us in significant ways for His Kingdom to be expanded. I believe that as I look back at the end of the journey, I will be amazing at the massive ways we got to contribute to this God sized movement.

So today we remember! We remember how faithful God has been for these last few years. We celebrate today! We celebrate what He is allowing us to be a part of. We anticipate! We anticipate the things He will do that will blow our minds! It’s going to be a crazy ride!

Andy Abramson - Director and Founder of Verge Ministries

Our Purpose Part 2

Clarity is essential. We started this journey a couple days ago, beginning to talk about our purposes behind Verge Ministries. Our desire is for people to clearly understand who we are. We believe that if people understand who we are, they will understand our heart behind our ministry and the motivation that leads us to engage with this incredible generation. In “Part 1 of our Purpose” we talked about our heart for the local church, the body of Christ. Today we wanted to continue to talk about another statement behind our purpose, or who we desire this generation of young adults to be.

Our Purpose (Part 2)- We Desire That A Generation Of Young Adults Would Have A Deep Love For Christ Where They Would Respond By Becoming Leaders In Their Generation

We love leaders! We believe that this generation (young adults) have the chance to change to world, society, government and the church. We love their fresh ideas and the way they see the world. We are passionate about helping young adult leaders become all that God intended for them to be. A big part of our ministry is walking alongside young adults who have a passion to lead and change their world. We count this as an extreme privilege and honor to be involved in the lives of these young leaders.

We believe that this generation of young adults have so much to offer us. I find myself continually learning about new aspects of our world because I have surrounded myself with these young leaders. Their passion and zeal is contagious, and if you aren’t careful, you will find yourself actually giving your life to the things you really believe in because of their influence. We believe that these young leaders have so much to contribute to the life of the church. The church needs these leaders and will benefit from their insights and perspectives of the world we live in.

Sometimes, I stand back and watch the impact that these young adults are making in their world and am amazed. I believe that because of Verge Ministries, we will have the opportunity to raise up 1000’s of leaders that will be sent out into every corner of the world. These young adults will be leading multi million dollar companies, impacting churches, redefining educations systems, moving government, creating new art and and leading movements all over our world. I’m excited to see the stories that come about from our ministry as we work with these incredible people. The future is bright!

Andy Abramson (Director/Founder of Verge Ministries)

Our Purpose Part 1

As we have been talking as a Verge Team, our goal over the next several weeks and months is to help paint a clearer picture of who we are as a ministry and where we are trying to go. Nothing is more frustrating than unclarity. We wanted to share with you, in four different parts, what are some of our purposes behind Verge Ministries. Now you may be asking yourself, what do you mean by purpose? Purpose will help answer the question of what are we wanting our ministry TO BE? A purpose statement should show you a picture of what would be lived out, in our case with young adults.

OUR PURPOSE (Part 1)- We desire that a generation of Young Adults would have a deep love for Christ where they would respond by CONNECTING TO THE BRIDE OF CHRIST (The Local Church)

Our heart really is for the local church! We see our ministry not like a traditional para-church ministry that runs in a parallel steam to the church but we want to jump into the same stream as the local church. We love the local church! Our heart behind our ministry is to partner with local churches, in their specific contexts, with their specific leaders to help them reach young adults. As Verge Ministries, we are not looking to do it ourselves, to create our own program separate from the church but rather to be partnering with churches in order to help them be more strategic with this generation.

We value it so much that we make it a requirement for all of our board, staff and key ministry leaders to be serving in their local church. We love the fact that we have Verge members who are on boards, in children’s ministries, on productions teams, leading worship and so many other opportunities that they have committed to in order to be a part of their local church.

Who do we want our young adults to be? We want them to be people who value and connect with their local churches.

Andy Abramson - Director of Verge Ministries

Ministry Success and Obedience

Have you ever had one of those moments where the Bible just wrecks you? I mean wrecks you in such a way that you find yourself spinning for the rest of the day. Today was one of those days for me. As I was listening to my Bible in the car (which is wonderful for me because I travel a lot), I came across a passage that I have read, taught and preached on a large number of times. But this time, for me, a new truth came across.

But before I get to the passage, let's talk shop! Doing ministry in today's world is hard. It's unbelievable, that in the culture we live in, with so many resources, that technology can actually hurt you. I love social media! I love seeing people be connected and in conversations about life, ministry and the world we live in. I use them all…. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more. For us, we have actually had new connections for ministry because of social networking. The bad part of social networking is we can become deceived with what is really going on with people. Let's be honest, we only put what we really want people to know about us. And even beyond that, for myself, I can see jealousy and envy creeping into my life if I don't guard my heart. I can see these high profile ministry leaders, see there interactions, see all their perceived success and begin to ask myself the question, "What is wrong with me?" These people must be doing it right and I'm not! These people must be truly following God that pales in comparison to myself. But I know, if I were to sit-down with any of them, they probably would show me a side of them that many don't think about. Their churches have problems. They don't do everything right. But the problem I find, it in my mind I can equate MINISTRY SUCCESS WITH OBEDIENCE.

Now back to the passage I eluded to earlier. So I'm in Numbers 20 with a passage that has been all to familiar with me. Like I said before, I have used it in so many contexts within my ministry.

Numbers 20-

2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”

6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Here is what stood out to me! Here we have Moses doing something pretty incredible. I'm not sure last time you tried to get water from a rock but I'm guessing it didn't go very well. The crazy thing is, as you look at the text. Moses was failing to obey and honor God in the situation. I'm not really sure why God chose to continue to do something miraculous in that situation. I mean, if I was God, I would have let Moses hit the rock and have nothing happen, but he didn't, he used Moses even in his disobedience. MINISTRY SUCCESS DOES NOT ALWAYS EQUAL OBEDIENCE! Now can it? Yes! But what we must realize is, they are not always tied together. The think the warning on the other end is just as valid. If we do have ministry success, to look around and think that we are doing something right and others are not is a slippery slope that is dangerous. Look at all these miracles! Look at how many people are coming! Look at how much influence I have! The problem is, even God moved through Moses and he was ultimately punished for disobeying God.

So I translate that into my own life. I look at these high profile ministry leaders, because they have a big ministry does that mean they are obeying God? Maybe… maybe not! Because Joe Pastor has a small church does it mean he is not obeying God? Maybe… maybe not! What we need to realize is, those two principles are not always connected.

So what is our job? I would argue that OBEDIENCE is our job. If we have a big ministry or small, high profile influence or not, if 1000 people comment on our Facebook posts or none, our job is obedience. We need to be faithful to obey God and leave any ministry success up to Him. I would be willing to bet anyway, we are going to get to heaven someday and find out the God's standard for ministry success was ultimately different than ours.

Andy Abramson (Director of Verge Ministries)

#Ministry Success #Obedience #Andy Abramson #Verge Ministries

What Is In Your Car?

I have to admit, I love change! I love technology! I love development! Even though I can say those statements, I still get overwhelmed by watching the church jump from one program to the next, from packaged ideas to packaged ideas and from one trend to the next. It feels at times, we are closing our eyes and hoping we can magically find the right formula that will help the church be successful.

I've been reminded these last few weeks of what is at the heart of Christian ministry. In fact, I was reading an article a couple months ago that talked about how this latest trend in the church will fail. The author began to unpack, this new movement (which he himself is a part of) can be misinterpreted as a quick fix to helping the church achieve all that it's intended to be. He used the analogy of a car, the vehicle in which the church is using to move forward. The problem, he began to lay out, is the church is so intent on changing the outside of the car that they are failing to recognize the real problem. The real problem is the engine of the church is broken. We somehow have come to believe that if we can change or make the outside of the car better that we will fix our problems. So what is the engine? The engine is discipling people. You see, what the church has moved away from is the heart of making disciples, the very thing that Jesus commissioned us to do! So what is in your car? Is your engine broken? Are you obsessed with moving from one new thought to the next, from campaign to campaign or from one method to the newest idea out there?

We need to remember that no matter what kind of car we have, if our engine is broken we are stuck. I've been encouraged these last few months because I have slowly seen ministries, church and chrisitan para church organizations go back to this principle. At the core of everything we do with people is discipling them!

Andy Abramson - Director of Verge Ministries

#Verge Ministries #Discipleship #Development

When the church engages at the fringes, it almost always brings life to the center

Alan Hirsch

The Seed In Good Soil

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15 ESV)

I was reminded of this passage yesterday in my reading. This “Parable of the Soils” comes up often as we dialogue about young adults. So often, what we find, is young adults walking away from their faith at 18, 19 or 20 years old. The temptation is to respond in crisis mode (which I’m guilty of doing at times) and frantically try to find the “secret formula” that will fix all of this.

I’m struck because even in this passage, there seems to be difficulty for the seed that falls on good soil. There are really two distinguishing characteristics for what the seed will have to go through even in its maturing process.

1) The faith will need to “hold fast in a honest and good heart. The NIV uses the word perseverance. These words paint a picture of the rigorous work that will need to take place. The faith that we hold on to will take perseverance and holding fast. I think of the words of Jesus, “wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the road that leads to life.”

2) Faith that will require “Patience in bearing fruit”. Following Jesus takes time, energy and fruit does not happen over night. I think at times we can forget long road of sanctification in our lives that we all need to go through.

I pray that we would remember these truths when it comes to the faith of young adults. I pray that we are all the more eager to pray for them as they hear the word of truth and the seed of faith is planted into them. I pray that we would help them in this long journey of following Jesus and that we could be a part of them hearing the words “Well done good and faithful servant” as they stand face to face with Jesus.

Andy Abramson

Director and Founder of Verge Ministries

#bible reading #learning #faith

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Verge Ministries Blog