A Transformation

Over the last couple of months we have been doing a lot of work in the Youth Room/Fellowship Hall. We are still in the process of remodeling but on of the biggest jobs was painting the whole entire room. It took us probably 2 weeks to paint the room, but the painting is complete and now we are just waiting to do some other work in there. New Carpet, New drop ceiling, sound equipment, and new video equipment are in the works for the end of the process. As I was sitting in my office one day I thought to myself "wow I can't wait for this room to totally be done." Its been great seeing the transformation that is going on in the room. I was hoping to post a couple pictures but haven't taken any yet, just to give you an idea of the transformation that is taking place in the youth room. After all said and done though, as the students come back into that room(hopefully by the beginning of the year), I hope that as much transformation that went on in that room while we were remodeling it, more transformation will go on in our students lives as God continues to move amongst our students. Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I am praying that our students when they walk into a new room, will forget about the world and let God do some transforming in their lives, just like we transformed the youth room. So many times we as human beings live life according to the patterns of this world, instead of living a life according to God's will in our lives. Its time we start letting transformation take place instead of staying in the same place and letting our live be patterned after this world. I ask that you pray for the students of Consumed Student Ministries that their lives will be transformed by the renewing of their minds!!

Youth Convention

This past weekend we took 26 Students down to Youth Convention in Greenwood, IN. It was a great weekend and I believe that the students of Consumed Student Ministries were touched by God. Planetshakers was there leading worship the whole weekend, and they ushered in the presence of the Lord. Kendal was the first speaker on Friday night and did in awesome job preaching a sermon entitled..."Do You Believe the Message?" Talk to students about truly believing in the message of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. Saturday morning service was awesome! The pastor's wife from Planetshakers, also the lead singer, gave an awesome message talking about identity and putting all your trust in the Lord. After the morning service we took all the kids to the mall and had a great afternoon of shopping!! The girls were really excited to spend some time at the mall!! Not so much for the guys, but they had fun just hanging out. It was a great weekend with all the students!!! I know that they are already excited for next year!

A Challenge or an Opportunity?

Consumed Student Ministries is taking on the One Month Bible Challenge. We started on October 1st and already I have had students coming up to me telling me they have had many people ask why they are carrying around there Bibles. What an opportunity to start a conversation about Jesus. I hope that the students here @ Consumed will continue this challenge of carrying there bibles wherever they go throughout the month. I'll have to give them some grace because I (Pastor Phil) even forgot his going into the volleyball game on Monday night! It was in my car, just forgot to grab it when I got out! Oops! So students you get one strike for free!! :)

As I'm sitting here writing this blog I think to myself is this really a challenge or is this an opportunity? I can see how it is a challenge, but I also see the opportunity to carry around my bible and through this God will provide opportunities to share about Him. I'm gonna look at this challenge differently and say its an opportunity! I get the opportunity every day to take my Bible with me wherever I go. I don't want to miss the opportunities God gives me, and so from here on out each and every single day, I'm gonna take the opportunity to carry around my Bible and not do it as a challenge but just say yes to the opportunity the Lord has given me!

I hope that you may jump at this opportunity as well and through this many doors will be opened to share about the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost, the hurting, and the broken hearted. Lets not keep the love of Jesus to ourselves!

Pryor and the Buckeyes top Miami!!

What a Saturday afternoon in the Culham household and in many houesholds of buckeye fans! The Bucks took it to Miami on Saturday afternoon in a packed house of 105,000 people at the Horseshoe! A great test for the buckeyes to start the season and well there #2 ranking was proven as they took care of business. I am a loyal buckeyes fan and when they are on tv you may as well not ask me, (Pastor Phil) to do a whole lot that day!! I love watching the buckeyes on TV and will take time out of my day to do so. But as much as I love my buckeyes, I do love spending time with my best friend, Jesus. He's an awesome best friend who has always been there for me. He has never failed me and I know that He never will. Can I say that about my buckeyes? I would like to hope I could but in reality my buckeyes could fail me from time to time. They may never win every game, but Jesus will win every battle He ever faces. So many times we are so loyal to our teams but where is our loyalty to our best friend, Jesus? He should have more of our time than any of our teams should get from us. But because of a busy lifestyle we forget to spend that time with Him, and our focus becomes more on our teams than on Him. My encouragement and challenge to each one is to spend more time with Jesus! We can all cheer on our teams and spend time watching them, but more than that I believe God wants more of our time than they do!! So don't forget each and every single day to spend time with the Lord reading your Bible, talking to Him through prayer, and just worshipping Him with your life!

Go BUCKS!

Status Vs. Service

When we look at the world we see so many people trying to climb the ladder in their respective careers. Wanting to get to that CEO position or to whatever it may be and we wonder why do you want to get there? Of course the simple answer that comes to my mind is, "lots of money!" Money to buy that big house, that nice car, have all the fancy suits and nice clothes, go out to eat at nice restaurants...whatever it may be we do it because we want those things. Why do we want those things though? Simple answer...to gain that social status of high class. We work and strive towards those things to gain the acceptance of our social status in this world. We want to be well known.

In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus talks about Social Status. He says dont go to the high seat but go to the low seat first so that you aren't embarrassed when someone of higher class may come in and steal that seat you wanted to be at. "But sit in the low seat so that when the hose comes he will say to you, "Friend, move up to a better place." ...For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." So rather than aiming for prestige let us look for a place to serve.

Than in Luke 14:12-14 he tells us to invite those who are crippled, lame, blind, poor instead of our family and friends who can repay us. So many times we only invite certain people into our little circles because if we are associated with anybody of the low class or someone who has a bad name than we get a bad name, and well we don't want that. God's kingdom is open to anyone though, so isn't that how we should be when inviting other people to join us. We need to be open to all people not just those of high social status but even those of low, because God cares about them too and so should we.

So my question to you is Social Status or Service? Which will you choose?

A New School Year

Well another School year has started here in Indiana and here at Consumed Student Ministries, we are EXCITED for what God is going to do through our students. This summer was a great summer for CSM with some of our students experiencing God through the Great Awakening in Kokomo, and other getting a touch from the Lord at Youth Camp. God has challenged our students to be better witnesses for Him and to reach out and Love the unlovable. Tomorrow we are having the 2nd Annual Back To School Cookout and are praying that through this we can reach many students for the kingdom of God. On the side of this blog you can see the upcoming events for CSM and I promise I will be keeping this all up to date throughout the school year. I have been terrible at this in previous months but am making a commitment to keep up with this blogging thing and keeping all the students and parents up to date with monthly events that we will be having. The leadership team and I are excited for what God's going to do in our students this school year and we pray that there be a huge IMPACT on the school districts that our students attend.

Pastor Phil

Dealing with the Big "T"

Tonight at Consumed Student Ministries we are going to start a new series called, "Dealing with the Big 'T'". This series talks about TEMPTATION. We are going to take a look at what the bible says about Temptation over the next 3 weeks and my prayer is that the students eyes will be opened to what temptation looks like and how to deal with temptation, as we all know that we are all faced with temptation each and every single day of our lives. If you are in 6th-12th grade please come out and join us @ 7pm on Wednesday nights and here how you can overcome temptation.