#SURGEisBack Competition

#SURGEisBack Competition Instructions

1.Post a creative picture/video on Facebook or Instagram that shows your excitement about SURGE starting up again!

2.“#SURGEisBack” must be part of post

3.Tag @WeBeSURGE for bonus points

*Winner of $50 Gift Card will be announced Sep 6 @ SURGE Kickoff

Fight Club - Real Men Help the Weak

True masculinity is shockingly distorted by our culture. Strength is seen as the power to dominate others. In our culture "real men" are portrayed as hitting hard and tough, insensitive, not showing emotion, surrounding  themselves with other strong and powerful people, and trampling upon the weak. This is a far cry from what real manhood is.

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all you do be done in love." (1 Corinthians 16:13)

Acting like men means showing love. The greatest picture of Biblical masculinity is Jesus Christ. He was tender and loving, meek and controlled, and yet furiously strong. What kind of strength enables a man to take a beating by a whip within an inch of death and then be crucified on a cross? All of this, and He could have blinked and had a legion of terrifying angels at His side and slaughtered all who opposed Him.

But He did not.

Why?

To redeem all that would call on His name. A sacrifice had to be made. The ransom had to be paid. And sin and death were about to be forever destroyed! That is a man. Doing what is right even when it hurts. Sacrificial love is the epitome of what it is to be a man. 

Why else would Paul command husbands to,

"...love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:25-27)

It really is true that "greater love has no man than this: to lay his life down for his friends" (John 15:13).  C.S. Lewis described this sacrifice allegorically in a beautiful way when Aslan sacrifices himself on the Stone Table to the White Witch to save Edmund's life.


This is strength. The power to sacrifice.

Husbands are called to sacrificial love. Men are called to lay themselves down in strength to help the weak and vulnerable.

Men of God, who is weak in your life? Who is being bullied? Who is being trampled? Will be you be a man and stand with them? Will you stand for them?

In Exodus 22, God commanded that Israel should “not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry" (Exodus 22:20-26). The measure of a society is how it treats the most weak and vulnerable. Likewise, the measure of a man is how he treats those who are weaker than himself. Are the weak and vulnerable afraid of your shadow? This is not being a man.

A man defends the weak. Helps the hurting. Fights for the vulnerable. This is strength.

"Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed." (Psalm 82:3)

Where are the men who will stand up and fight? Who will sacrifice their reputation or social status to stop bullying? Who will show honor to women? Who will stop the locker-room talk? Will you?

God is looking for warriors who are ready to fight. Men who will speak the truth in love and lay down their lives to defend the weak and vulnerable. As everyone's favorite superhero says,

"With great power, comes great responsibility." 

-Spiderman

Fight Club - Declare War on Lust and Pornography

A warrior does not let an enemy sleep in his tent. A warrior does not go into battle without his armor. The enemy of our souls is waging war on us as men, seeking to kill, steal, and destroy us. One of the primary battlefields of our time is the area of lust and pornography. The digital frontier has brought this spiritual warfare into our homes and lives in an insidious way incomparable to any past generation. How are we fighting this battle when...

•  71% of teens have done something to hide what they do online from their parents (this includes clearing browser history, minimizing a browser when in view, deleting inappropriate videos, lying about behavior, using a phone instead of a computer, blocking parents with social media privacy settings, using private browsing, disabling parental controls, or having e-mail or social media accounts unknown to parents).
• 32% of teens admit to intentionally accessing nude or pornographic content online. Of these, 43% do so on a weekly basis. Only 12% of parents knew their teens were accessing pornography.
• 35% of boys (Ages 13-14) said they had viewed pornographic videos “too many times to count.”
• 93% of boys and 62% of girls were exposed to pornography before age 18.
• 64% of parents do not use online parental controls or filtering software.
• 30% of 17-year-olds have received a sext.
• 38% of 13-18-year-olds said they had created a sext. 

See the full 37-page report put out by Covenant Eyes here. 

We are kidding ourselves if we think that pornography and digital explicit media is not infiltrating the lives of our teens, even our Christian teens. This indeed is every young man's battle and many of our young women struggle with this as well. With the advent of mobile smartphones and tablets the problem has become all the more epidemic. One report from 2006 (ten years ago!) found that 1 in 5 searches on Google from mobile devices were for pornography (Read the full report here). 

To be a man who is a follower of Jesus means arming oneself against and armoring oneself for the coming attacks in this battle. 

Are you ready to fight? 

Paul wrote, almost prophetically to our present day, regarding God's will in this area of personal holiness in his letter to the church in Thessalonica,

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)

Every man needs to know how to control his own body, his own mind, and his own eyes. Have you developed a personal battle plan against lust, impurity, and pornography? Where are the places, who are the people that cause you to stumble? Are there contacts you need to delete? Devices you need to destroy or get rid of? Jesus teaches the principle of Radical Amputation in fighting with lust (Matthew 5:29-30). "If you eye causes you to stumble, cut it out!" Don't halfheartedly go to war with this struggle, it will kill you, destroy your perspective of women, give false expectations of a future wife, and consume your life. What do you need to get rid of to win this fight for your heart and mind? 

Stop offending God with this secret sin and bring it into the open. Have you confessed this sin or struggle to a brother (James 5:16)? You cannot fight this fight alone! God has called you to holiness. But what He has called you to do, He will enable you to do (1 Thessalonians 5:24)! Don't lose heart, bring this sin into the light and let God deal with it. You are not alone, no temptation has overtaken you that is new or not common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

If you are struggling with lust, impurity and pornography find someone who loves you, who you can trust, and tell them. Develop a plan to cut off and limit access. Invite regular and consistent accountability. Most importantly, cultivate a stronger desire for God. Behavior modification will only take you so far, you have to replace your desire for sin with a stronger desire for God. As C.S. Lewis writes,

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis in Weight of Glory)

You were made to find ultimate meaning and satisfaction in God (Psalm 16:11). Have you run to the one for whom you were made? Have you confessed your sin to the Father, received the forgiveness that comes through the Son, Jesus, and then committed to dependence on the Spirit to fill you with His fruit of self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)?

Begin the journey of a fighter today. 

Join the war, be a warrior. 

Young man, this is your calling, these are your orders. 

FIGHT!  

Steps to Freedom
Confession (personal and in community with others)
Fostering a greater desire for God through spiritual disciplines
Radical Amputation & Appropriate Boundaries

Helpful Resources
At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry by Steve Gallagher

Every Young Man's Battle by Fred Stoeker and Steve Arterburn

Sex is Not the Problem, Lust is by Joshua Harris

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

Parents, cutting off access to explicit content for your teens is hugely important. We have created a resource for you help you explore different Filtering Software options. You can access this HERE. 

5 Reasons We Do Short-Term Mission Trips

SURGE Student Ministries has a reputation for its mission trips. Over the last ten years Berean Baptist Church in Mansfield, Ohio has sent hundreds of students and leaders to Haiti, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York City, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and more as well as local missions projects varying from a one-day activity to an entire week! Just last year SURGE sent out over 100 students and leaders on short-term mission trips to Haiti, NYC, Mansfield, and Cleveland. We have done and will continue to do mission trips for several reasons.

1. Strengthened Relationships

Shared memories, exciting stories, long flights and bus rides, close sleeping quarters, all of these are the building blocks of great relationships. When our pastors, small group leaders, and students are around each other 24/7 for a week or more, wonderful and lasting relationships commonly result. I would go so far as saying that mission trips have the potential to be the most effective relationship builder in student ministry. Students who go on mission trips are more likely to serve again, show-up for normal events, and feel connected to our student ministry and its leaders.

2. Intensive Instruction
On all of our trips we have daily team meetings where we do praise and worship, testimonies from the day, and a book discussion (student's have required reading leading up to and during the trip). This paired with pre-trip meetings, mandatory daily time alone with the Lord, impromptu discussions, and the Holy Spirit's working allows our mission trips to be highly instructional.

As followers of Jesus we are transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). Our trips are not successful if students have not learned something. They learn from these intentional and structured times but very often their learning is, even more powerfully, experiential. They learn how to share the good news of Jesus by leading a Bible lesson to children or sharing their testimony in a church. They learn about poverty and cultural differences by witnessing it first-hand. They learn about trusting in Jesus for strength when they are weak, tired and frustrated. All of this in the context of community and relationships makes our mission trips one of the most instructional aspects of our student ministry.

3. Sacrificial Living Required
We do not want our mission trips to be easy. We call our Short-Term Mission Trips "Dare2Serve Trips" (D2S Trips) for a reason. "Dare" implies it will require courage; there is a risk; it will not be easy. "Serve" declares that the nature of the trip is that it is not about the student. The goal of the trip is that students put others before themselves. Trips are not comfortable. We rarely stay in hotels. We do not feed students expensive meals and portions are often limited. We do not sleep a lot. Showers are sometimes cold. Roommates sometimes snore. And we always work hard.

Why? In the short amount of time that we have on a D2S Trip we want students to realize that following Jesus is not always easy. Serving others is not always fun. A Christian's life is to reflect a dying to oneself (Matthew 16:24). A call to die. To lose your life for the sake of Jesus (Matthew 16:25). If students can find joy and strength in serving Jesus in difficult circumstances they will be ready to embrace the everyday following of Jesus that their lives will require. Students ought to come back more inclined to serve sacrificially in their home, school, community and church.

4. The Church is bigger than Berean
D2S trips expose students to people who follow Jesus who look, live, and worship differently than they do. By the time they graduate we want our students to have a global perspective of Christ's Church. We prioritize partnering with local churches wherever we go. We are not doing humanitarian aid or social work unless it is directly tied to a church that is making much of Jesus in that local community. Students get a picture of heaven where God's desire is to gather worshipers from "every tribe, tongue, and nation" (Revelation 7:9). Our prayer is that some students take this call of global gospel expansion personally and make the task of their life to take the gospel to those who have not heard (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).

5. Catalyst for Lifestyle Change
Mission Trips are often described as "spiritual highs." This is both a positive and negative of short-term mission work. The trip in and of itself is not the goal or purpose for our D2S trips. Our desire is that God uses these short intensive times of service to be a catalyst for life change. Mission Trips need to include life-action points and follow-up. What will you do differently next week when you are back home? How will your priorities or lifestyle change? One of the most effective things we do to enable effective follow-up is including our small group leaders and parents on our D2S Trips. This provides accountability for authenticity both on the trip and after the trip. Like everything we do as SURGE Student Ministries our hope and prayer is that God uses the programs we utilize to bring about lasting change in the lives and hearts of the students he has called us to shepherd.

2017 Dare2Serve Trips are now open for applications. Are you ready?

Interested in being part of one of our 2017 D2S Trips? See trip information and apply online here!