Make an investment that will Rock the World!
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Rock the World is faith-based in every respect - including funding. About 80% of the money given to Rock the World comes from people, individual donors just like you.
You can give online using your credit card right now!
Or send checks
made out to Rock the World to: PO Box 43, Ambridge, PA 15003
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Please pray for...
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- Ambridge Youth Ignite's upcoming sports outreach in Lima, Peru
- Meredith Borel as she travels to Bolivia & Peru to train youth ministers and pastors
- Financial provision for RTW
- Abundant fruit from RTW's recruitment efforts at Urbana 09
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"Unique and Precious"
These are the words freshly impressed on me a bout Rock the World's ministry. Rock the World's team at the Urbana conference is recruiting college students for Rock the World's programs. We have been getting a lot of feedback that what we offer (especially in Josiah Project) isn't found in other exhibit booths here. Rock the World's commitment to leverage the insights of college students to develop fresh approaches to advancing the Kingdom... well, let's just say that dozens of students who have stopped by our booth have found this an arresting difference when they talk with us. We have NEVER seen more action at a exhibit booth than we are seeing here!
As this year draws to a close today and a new one begins, please pray for our recruitment efforts, and for the financial provision to continue the unique and precious things God has done and continues to do through Rock the World. In fact, would you pray for Rock the World's recruitment effort right now? Also, we know many of you have given sacrificially to bless this ministry already this year; but if you are doing last-minute year end giving, please consider clicking on the "give online" link on the left or giving by check today.
May the Lord bless you in every way as we enter 2010!
Yours in Jesus,
Whis Hays, Executive Director
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Where are we now?
Our grads really are rocking the world!
Aran Walter
Youth Pastor
St. Thomas Church, Menasha, WI
Student Ministry Professionals ('96) Graduate
What does your current ministry with young adults involve? I'm responsible for helping to facilitate a community of students in 6th - 12th grades. There's a team of leaders who work with me. Our whole goal is to invite students to trust that the Way of Jesus is the best possible way to live - to restore the broken relationships we suffer from . . . with God, with ourselves, with others, and with the earth.
What is the most exciting thing God is doing in your ministry right now? In 2004, I recognized that while we were seeing many students come to know Jesus as their "personal savior," the vast majority of them were in no way attempting to live a life that participated in what God was doing in the here and now. It was as if the Good News we were presenting was merely fire insurance so that something bad didn't happen to you when you die. So I sat down with a core group of students and told them I was finished spoon-feeding them their faith.
What is the most challenging thing happening in your ministry right now? This process has been INCREDIBLY difficult. Many students were used to simply singing songs, playing games, and hearing a talk before they went home and got back into their lives. But we have slowly seen a change in the culture of our students from being passive followers of Jesus to full-on highly participatory disciples who are attempting to live their entire lives according to the teachings of Jesus - students who don't simply know Jesus as a personal savior, but who recognize that Jesus is the Lord of the whole cosmos and that EVERYTHING is implicated when you start to take the Whole Gospel seriously.
Do you have any recent stories of God transforming a young person's life in a radical way? One of our students who has responded to this Whole Gospel is a young man in his junior year of high school. "Chris" has begun to take notice of the systemic brokenness that leads people to form businesses and governments that don't work in ways that contribute to the Kingdom of God but tear it apart instead. "Chris" has become involved in his high school's attempt to provide healthier food, to become more environmentally sustainable, and to raise awareness that our way of life here can and does contribute to horrible injustices around the world. The way "Chris" sees it, Jesus didn't merely die on the cross and rise again to live so that humans souls can be with God when we die. Rather, the entire world is being reconciled, restored, renewed, re-ordered, re-created, and re:mixed.
What specific training from your time at Rock the World are you applying to your current ministry? Rock the World showed me that in order to effectively do ministry among students, I have to be willing to spend time in community, forming relationships, and building up the Body of Christ. These relationships, empowered by the Holy Spirit, are the very heartbeat of what drives the Kingdom of God into new areas. It is through relationships that an inbreaking of the Jesus Agenda truly happens. If it weren't for Rock the World tirelessly encouraging me to focus relationally, there's no way any of this could be possible. |
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