Tonight we had a men and women's night where we spent time in our respective genders. For each of them, the DGL leaders spoke of what they believe God has placed in their hearts for their respective gender ministries. We hope you'll join us in this.
Women's Ministry
"Glory and I (Desiree) have really taken the time to think about how Women’s Ministry could be and how God can use us on this campus and change us in the years to come. This year’s vision for this ministry is “to raise up Christ-exemplifying women who seek to actively live out their faith in both servanthood and leadership”. We came up with this for several reasons.
First off, we always say that we want to grow and mature into Godly women, but some questions we have to ask ourselves are you living out what you say? Are you allowing God to do His work through you? Are you demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit at every moment? Being a Christ-exemplifying woman also means being a God-centred disciple...and with the CCF vision “abiding in the love of God”, we need to root ourselves in the Gospel and follow Jesus in order for the work of the Spirit to really show in our growth as Christ-centred women. Titus 2:3-5 says “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” This verse speaks of several important traits that we as women need to master and with such a character God will be revealed through us, as subtle as it may be.
Another thing to take note of is whether you’re actively living out your faith. We want to see you all be filled by the Spirit in such a way that you’re able to boldly proclaim His name through deeds and speech. So often we end up standing on the sidelines and letting others to do the work, or being passive in terms of leading and guiding one another in our walks....which I sometimes struggle with as well... so we want to help you change that, from an attitude of simply following the crowd to an attitude where you want to contribute and lead a crowd. I’m not saying that your work and service has to be done in public with recognition, but it’s whether you have that intentional heart to want to lead others towards Christ and spurring each other on in the way of righteousness. Glory and I sincerely do want to see you all acquire that desire to pursue God wholeheartedly, at home or in class, with friends or in your quiet times and wanting to see that in your other sisters as well. Actively seeking the Lord should generate a response to glorify Him and He will use you to bear His good fruit. James 2:14-17 says “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Being a Christ follower can’t just be one where you say you believe but not do. We need to go out and love others, serve others, lead others, and at the end of the day use our actions to say “God, I love you and this is your work that I’m doing for you”.
Being a leader full of zeal for the Lord doesn’t require a title and it’s not always easy. It includes how you’re pushing yourself to know and understand more of who God is, demonstrating reverence and humility as a servant of the Lord, and also how you influence and impact other brothers and sisters in the community. If you fear the Lord in all his majesty, you’ll naturally develop the qualities of a Godly woman and of a strong leader under God’s name. He’ll bless us with the wisdom that we need to share the Gospel in both words and action, and through that entire experience He will mold you into the woman that He has divinely made you to be. "Men's Ministry
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
(1 Corinthians 16:13-14 ESV)
This year’s vision is abiding in the love of God and that’s exactly what we’re going for. We want to see guys rooted, men that remain, abide in the truth that they are so loved by Jesus. That all of us guys fell short, we were weak, in fact we were dead in our sin, but God in his infinite love came, showed us grace, showed us what true love is by sending Jesus so that now we can experience what it means to have true life. That is the truth we remain on, rest on and we continue to draw from as we live our lives whether its working, or whether we’re taking it easy. So specifically, what do we think it means to be men? Let's look at the beginning of the earth when man was first created.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
(Genesis 1:28 ESV)
This year our big word for men’s is CULTIVATION. Right from the beginning of creation, God created Adam, the first man. And he was given the garden, the animals, everything was in his care to be cultivated. He told Adam to be fruitful, to take care of all that God had given him, to tend the garden, to watch over the animals, to grow the land, subdue it, invest in it, put work towards it and cultivate it. And so bringing it back to men’s ministry here we really want to develop an environment of cultivation, similar to the story of creation. Cultivation exists in two places. Firstly is cultivating your own relationship with God, building into it, pursuing the Word, keeping in your mind the promises of God. And secondly, it's cultivating into the Kingdom of God. God is working all around us, in the hearts of our friends, in the Hamilton community and in CCF. Now I know that we all desire to build into something, it's just a matter of what. For some, it might be into your future career, for some it might honestly be achieving that star character in a game. But I implore you to join in God's work on this earth. We want to use what we have here as a bunch of guys, invest time in each other, invest effort and work. Now this idea of cultivation, it's really hard. If you think about gardening or restoring anything that is broken, it's also a long arduous process. So a core thing is to persevere. If you look at any of the patriarchs who followed God, who tried to sow into the world good, you will see that there was much struggle. Even Adam had to see one of his own child kill another. Even in the midst of cultivating and trying so hard, things don't always work out the way we hope. So how do we stay the course? It comes back to our theme. You need to be rooted in Christ. Because there is absolutely no other way that you can hold the course of God's kingdom. Cultivation is going to take a lot of time, the result won't always be apparent. If you think about your DGs, if your DG leader hasn't told you by now, it's a serious commitment.
I give you one more verse to chew on:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)
Run the race. Throw off every sin and weight and distraction that so easily can snare our hearts. And most importantly, do it seeing Jesus, far off and glorious. Don't look down and get consumed by the dirt because the reward is so much better. God is so much better. So join us as we point each other's eyes high and spur one another to run hard.
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