Aftermath of the student ministry teaching series "Gideon: Least to Leader"

Wow, what a great series! The idea for this series came from the understanding that Gideon came from the smallest tribe, the weakest clan and the youngest; God took him from that position to leader of Israel's army. Here are a few observations and take aways that came to the surface!

The story starts with Gideon threshing grains in a wine press. To me this a funny picture. A wine press is a hole in the ground and here we find Gideon hiding for fear of losing his grain or worse his life. Threshing grains was successful only if the wind blew away the garbage and the grains fell to the earth. In a hole this was not going to happen. Gideon was probably tired from working many times more, dusty from everything falling back down on him and wondering to himself who will stand up to these Midianites bullies? 

Who will stand up against the bullies? Who will feed the poor? Who will protect the innocent? Who will fight against sex trafficking? Who will reach out to that cancer patient? We find ourselves with those questions, who will decide something? Who God? "You will! I have given you my eyes to see! I have given you my heart to hurt?" God called Gideon from the least position in all of Israel, from a hole in the ground. Sometimes those people are the most dangerous; all in and relying on God to follow through.

Before God even had Gideon raise an army and lead, He gave him a small task. Tear down the idols and alters in his village. Gideon took 10 servants at night and destroyed everything God asked Him to. At night, not much courage? Actually yes, this is Gideon who was hiding in a hole. He was taking a small step into leadership. God gives us many opportunities to grow our leadership and courage!

The next two things are taught on a lot: the fleece and the raising of the army. One thing, I never caught before was that Gideon tested God twice with a fleece and then God tested Gideon twice by cutting his army. I think this was with purpose, because many times that is how God does things.

Gideon took his 300 men and waited near the enemy's massive army. God tells Gideon to go down to enemy camp. Upon arrival, Gideon overhears one soldiers dream and another who interpretes the dream. The dream means Gideon is going to come and destroy us all...what a confidence boost for Gideon! What did he the do? He rushed back to his 300 men? Nope, he fell and worshipped God! Gideon recognized that this was all bigger than himself, he wasn't going through it alone and God deserved the credit! 

We know the rest. God uses Gideon and 300 men to cause a panic in the enemy's camp. They fought each other and fled from an army of 300 men. God got the glory and Gideon went from the least to leader. He can do the same for you.

God provides in ways that you can never imagine!

This year has been an interesting one...one of the book biggest blessings has been God's provision and love. Material things are not necessary important, but when you are blessed; sometimes it's hard to stay silent.

I have been spending a lot of time on leadership podcasts. My favorite is Perry Noble, a pastor I have followed and has mentored me through his preaching and books. During one of the leadership podcasts, they were talking about his new leadership book and an opportunity to win a signed copy. I won! The best part is what happened after. I got a shoutout on the leadership podcast and decided to respond. I sent Perry a cheesehead and an encouraging card about the investment in my, my wife's and teens lives. 

You never want to lose your laptop in ministry...my 6 year old Mac was on its last leg. I spent a day working on it, knowing I had little time before it would never turn on again. The next day, I went on a bike ride to clear my mind and try to focus on my Sunday morning sermon. As I was leaving; I received a text, would you like a new laptop? How? When? Why? Absolutely! The Mac I was given was 3 times better than my old one; more memory, more storage, better hardware and one of the best gifts I have received.

I got a text about what I was doing one night. Only to find out a friend had an extra pre-season Packer ticket. We parked for free on the streets and I was able to go to a Packer game for free!

Out of the blue, I was Facebook tagged. Michael Ott congratulations you won a free year's worth of youth ministry curricululem! Wow, being part of the DYM Facebook page has just blessed me. Not just curriculum, but PowerPoint games and graphics. 

I could talk about checks in the mail, giftcards showing up or encouraging words from others this year...the point is: God provides and in some seasons He goes way farther than you can imagine! Not every season will you see this; but God uses a variety of things to show of His love!

I created this series for our 0-4 ages that are in our nursery program. Currently, we might have a Veggie Tales video or a Bible story read; but nothing God-related that is planned in advance. This series will take maybe 10-15 minutes of the nursery time. There is a four part learning: shapes, colors, themes and Bible verses. For 5 weeks, we will focus on one shape, one color, one theme and one Bible verse. Then there is a coloring page each week for them to color and have a take home with what they learned (I used a variety of free internet coloring pages for this)

Starbucks is doing what!?!?!?

I had a moment of envious today when I went to “my office” to write children’s curriculum. I have been a gold card member of Starbucks since 2009 and I knew they were changing their point system. It was going to be harder for me to get free drinks, but this new thing seems so UNFAIR! To make it worse; Starbucks is advertising for the month of April, any drink gets you gold status. 

My flooded thoughts:

It took me 30 drinks of green status to get Gold status; and now it only takes one drink for other people to…UNFAIR!

I have to keep drinking 30 drinks a year to keep this status and now they are giving it away to anyone…UNFAIR!

The point system changes, everyone is now on gold status; I lose out with the change…UNFAIR!

Should I keep going to Starbucks…

Then a story hit me, yes, a story from the Bible. It is a story of what most would see as unfair! In Matthew 20, we find the parable of the workers in the vineyard. It goes like this: landowner goes out early in the morning and hires workers promising to pay them a days wage. He must have had a lot of work because he does the exact same thing at 9am, noon, 3pm and 5pm. At the end of the day, the wages are handed out. They start with those who were hired at 5pm and move to those hired at the beginning of the day. What did each person get? What was promised, a day’s wage. You can imagine the grumbling that took place and the UNFAIR thoughts that took place. But the landowner reminded the workers that each were promised only a day’s wage and that is exactly what they received. 

In this story, Jesus was using a parable in reference to the kingdom of Heaven. God promises those that come to Him will be saved and can come live with Him. Doesn't matter it they come at the beginning or the end of their life. It doesn’t matter how much they did during their lifetime for Him. All that matters is that they accept Him!

For some Christians this is hard to swallow! It seems UNFAIR! I got saved when I was young and have led a long life of obedience, reading my Bible, praying, going to church etc. Then this guy who led a life of disobedience, never read the Bible or went to church, but prayed a prayer at the end of his life gets in?!?! UNFAIR! Status doesn’t matter! What we did in our lifetime doesn’t factor into this promise. God made the promise that WHOEVER comes to Him will be saved and spend eternity with Him! 

This is a very dangerous trap for Christians! UNFAIR is really leading into a spirit of enviousness! In reality, we should be excited that God keeps His promises! That any person can come to God and be saved! To be honest: who really deserves for God to save them? None! Fairness is subjective to the person looking at it. We are all doomed with no way to save ourselves and God intervenes to save us. 

Perry Noble sent me a signed book!

Pretty stoked when I received in the mail a signed copy of Perry Noble's new leadership book "The Most Excellent Way to Lead!" Amber had bought me a copy for my birthday a few days before. So now I have one to mark up and make notes in; and the signed one to treasure on the book shelf. As we were traveling down to St. Louis, I was listening to his leadership podcast and received a shout out! "Michael Ott from Wisconsin" Apparently, I am a Packer fan, who eats cheese and read Perry's book; because that is all there is do up here.