Alive and Well in Middle School

Ashley Anthony

I serve in College Church’s middle school ministry and have a front row seat to all the work that parents, volunteers and pastors have poured into our students; I also have a front row seat to the resulting spiritual fruit. When Sunday Foundations—the morning middle school meeting—has a Fellowship Sunday, we hear testimonies from middle schoolers, middle school adult leaders and missionaries— what an opportunity for our faith to be encouraged. Here’s a glimpse of last month’s Fellowship Sunday, and I hope that your faith will be encouraged as well.

A MIDDLE SCHOOLER’S TESTIMONY

Our first testimony was from an eighth grader who grew up in College Church and was “very fortunate to have known Jesus [her] entire life,” through weekly teaching and growing up in a Christian home. The turning point in her faith was Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” When she considered this verse, she realized that she didn’t want to get to heaven and be unknown by God. This passage encouraged her to trust Christ for salvation.

When asked if she had a verse she would like to share with fellow students, she gave John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” She explained that when we think about this verse, we often think of it as “old news,” but it’s not. From this middle schooler’s perspective John 3:16 is an “amazing verse” that shows us just how much God loves us—God loves us so much that he gave his son to die for us. “Christ loved everyone and so should we,” she concluded.

A LEADER’S TESTIMONY

Like this middle schooler, Katrina—a middle school leader—grew up hearing the gospel often at home and at church. She knew about God, but she struggled with certainty in her faith until, you guessed it, middle school. One day, while reading the Scripture for a homework assignment, she felt the prodding of the Holy Spirit to just keep reading the Word. “I realized that the stories in the Bible weren’t just stories… the words in the Bible were written for me.” She felt like she met a friend who wanted to spend time with her every day.

Katrina encouraged students that God wanted to meet with them through Scripture also, and she read aloud

1 Peter 1:8-9: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” In the end, she left us with a question consider: We know that God loves us and wants to spend time with us, but do we feel the same way about him? Do we love him, believe in him, rejoice in him? soil richly tended to by her parents and her church family. We see a leader who has given herself to encouraging the growth of faith in her students’ lives through the attestation of living faith in her own life. And we see a missionary couple who has given themselves over to God’s will in every part of their lives, leading to big life changes— like moving to Ukraine to preach the gospel—to smaller life choices—like coming to share their testimony to a group of middle school students on a Sunday morning. Parents of students at College Church, I hope you are as encouraged as I am—your kids are in a place where they will hear the gospel and see it lived out countless times throughout their lives. Praise the Lord that God is at work in the hearts and lives of our children.

A MISSIONARY COUPLE’S TESTIMONY

“Are you interested in God’s will for your life?”

So began the testimony of Esther and John Waldrop, two College Church missionaries. John gave us two principles, and the first was based on Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This verse helped encapsulate major personal life events: his conversion, when he finally pronounced, “I want your will not mine,” and his marriage to Esther, as they both wanted God’s will to be done, resulting in a missionally fruitful marriage. John used an almost fatal asthma attack to illustrate his second principle: Sometimes God uses crises to open a door. While the Waldrops struggled to return to the States following their son’s asthma attack, the Lord used this as an opportunity to use them in new ways and to provide their son with the medical care he needed.

Concerning one’s life, “Who knows what’s next?” they concluded. Circling back to Psalm 37:4, John and Esther explained that when we desire the same things God does, and when we desire God himself, only then will we find the best part of life: God himself, the greatest treasure.

Glimpses Of Redemptive Grace

In these glimpses of God’s work in the lives of our church family, we see a middle schooler whose faith was grown in

God Centered Life

the media ministry of College Church, features the Bible teaching of Pastor Josh, both online and on the radio. This exciting ministry with a global reach continues to grow in impact. Here in the US, the program is heard on the radio in about 70 locations. Globally, the ministry also has a mission impact. The teaching is heard online through the OnePlace and TWR360 platforms, which have extensive listenership outside North America. Imagine! More than 35,000 people have been touched with some form of gospel content through this outreach of our church, either an online audio message, a spiritually encouraging article, or a devotional reading.

You can listen locally on Moody Radio (WMBI) at 10 p.m. M-F and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and can have daily devotionals delivered right to your inbox.

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