youth | Craig T. Owens

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Lots Of Learning Opportunities

November 4, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I love learning new things, listening to innovative ideas, and talking with other learners too. This weekend I’ll get to do a whole lot of this.

I’m heading to The Genius Of And Conference at Granger Community Church this morning. I love thinking about both-and when others are stuck on either-or. As an added bonus, I’m traveling and rooming with some innovative young leaders who are campus missionaries at Western Michigan University. I know we’ll have some great discussions around the topics we cover at the conference.

(By the way… for those of you who follow me on Twitter, I’ll be tweeting and blogging during the conference. The hashtag for the conference is #and10.)

Then our youth group is going to the Assembly of God Michigan District’s annual Youth Convention on Friday and Saturday. I love how fired up our youth get when they are worshipping, learning, and praying with their peers. Can’t wait to debrief with them when they return and let some of their passion rub off on me.

On Sunday we have a special guest speaker at Calvary A/G. Brad Leach is a dynamic young church planter. He planted a church in the metro-Detroit area, and just as it was really hitting its stride, he felt God calling him to leave Detroit and plant a new church in Philadelphia. I love that sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s prompting, so I can’t wait to hear what word God has laid on Brad’s heart for our community. If you can, please come and join us this Sunday, November 7, at 10:30am.

I hope you are intentionally looking for opportunities to expand your horizons. As George Washington Carver noted, “How much of God are we missing because we don’t stop to listen to the many voices God uses to speak to us?”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, lifelong learner, youth. 1 Comment »

They’re Both Dissin’

September 5, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Check out these opening paragraphs from an article on WebMD (if you wish, you can read the full article here):

People over 50 get a self-esteem boost when they read negative news about young adults, a study shows.

Researchers also say young people, when given the choice, would rather read about people their own age and aren’t very interested in stories about their elders, whether the articles are positive or negative.

“Our results reflect that the younger readers did not perceive older people as all that relevant,” study researcher Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, PhD, of Ohio State University, tells WebMD by email. “They’re more concerned with figuring out who they are and where they stand, and those in the same age group appear to provide the relevant comparisons for that.”

Okay, this disturbs me on several areas. Basically, each age group is dissin’ the other age group.

The senior citizens are projecting a snickering, see-I-told-you, father-knows-best, condescending attitude on youth. Why would anyone who is willing to learn and grow want to be around that kind of person?!

Then our youth have an I’ve-got-it-all-figured-out, I-don’t-need-you, you’re-out-of-touch attitude toward the senior citizens. Why would anyone who is willing to mentor someone ever want to be that kind of person?!

I think both of these generational groups could learn from this wise advice:

Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. “Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, “so you will live well and have a long life.” Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.