Perfectionist. Pros & Cons. Rituals.

Blog between achieve excellence and not being a perfectionist.

Perfectionist comes usually out of a heart of self-dependency/self-righteousness and leads to being legalistic.  However, Matthew 5:48 speaks of us being perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect.  How do we do this as Christians, achieve excellence while not becoming a perfectionist?  The Scripture is speaking of how our perfection comes through Christ and not our own works or doing.  We are to pursue Christ and become more like him, which leads to acts that flow out of excellence. Being obedient to the Word and the Spirit is what God has asked of us and making decisions in accordance to His will is what continues to cultivate a heart like His.  He is the author and perfector of our faith so as we keep our eyes on him and work towards becoming more like him, excellence will be the outflow because of who He is in us, not because of us. As humans, we can not be perfect because of our sins, but through God’s grace we can pursue being perfect in Him knowing He is the only one who can perfect us.

Resources: Look through two and give pros and cons in the resources in the world of discipleship

Bringing Jesus Into My World: Relationships

Pros – The study begins with love and the individual.  It continues to move outward to loving your community and restoring broken relationships to resisting Satan.  The study addresses and elevates some core issues collegiate students deal with as well as aspects they need to deal with in their own lives.  It seems like a great resource for generating authentic conversation about daily struggles of love and relationships collegiates face. It seems like the study would be very relevant to students.

Cons – The content of the book is more than likely going to bring up past struggles and experiences. Students may not be ready to address such topics in a group or with people they do not know.  In some sections, some deeper questions may need to be created to help challenge students in specific areas.  Depending on the topic, the lesson may need to be broken down into two or more lessons in order to fully address everything in the text.

Connecting with His Outrageous Love: God

Pros – The study is great tool for going through the foundations of Christianity. It could be used with those seeking to know more about Christ and new believers.  The study would also be a great resource for student leaders to use for leading a Bible study. Additionally, it could be used to overview and see where one’s students are in their relationship with Christ and to establish cohesion on what Biblical truths the ministry is guided by.  The study also allow students to interact with the content and process what they believe and think about the different topics on God.

Cons – Deeper questions may need to be cultivated with specific lessons to help challenge students (depends on your students). It is a study where students who are spiritually mature may not be as engage because they have a foundation in those areas of Christianity.

Event: What is a ritual that you could use in your events?

Secret Parakaleo: 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Each student will be given a name of the same sex at the beginning of the year with information about that individual who they are to “secretly” encourage and pray for them.  The encouragement could come in the form of notes, gifts, words of truth.  The purpose would be to connect students and build relationships as they are starting the new year and to emphasize how God has call us to come alongside each other and help during our journey through life.