healthy?

As many of us get older, we start to worry about our health. In our youth, we live and play and eat Doritos at every meal, along with a big glass of Mountain Dew! But, in our later years we start to pay more attention to the kinds of foods we eat and the amount of exercise we get. We pay more attention to the potential "warning signs" of an unhealthy lifestyle; we set our daily schedule around the Dr. Oz show waiting to hear about the latest "fears" that grip us as a nation! We are a health conscious culture but you might never know it based on the way we look, our inactive and sedentary lifestyle, and what we spend our hard earned money consuming. Now granted, some of us are smarter than others. Some of you have developed a healthy lifestyle and have been living that way for a very long time! Maybe you were raised in a home that focused on developing healthy habits, or maybe you encounterd an illness which forced you to change your ways! "Healthy" and our health is a hot topic right now. But what about "healthy" in terms of your ministry to youth? Do we see our youth ministries in this way? Do we see our local congregations this way? If you had to answer truthfully, would you say that you are part of a "healthy" congregation of Christ-followers, and is your student ministry "healthy"? A more personal reflective question might be... are you spiritually healthy? I know lots of churches that have good youth ministry programs but the "health" of those ministries and ministry leaders is on life support! The "health" of our ministry to students and families is critical if we hope to change kids lives and support parents in a way that honors Christ. Here at the PRC, we are trying to develop those "core" pieces of what makes a "healthy" student ministry... spirituall, emotionally, physically, and theologically. We would appreciate your help in putting to gether this puzzle. With your input, we hope to be able to offer more seminars and training session that come to you; to help you develop into a "healthy" leader and inspire you to create a "healthy" student ministry in your context. Please share your ideas here of what goes into creating a "healthy" student minsitry... and stay tuned for updates on our progress! The first step on the road to a "healthy" youth/student ministry? Start observing and reflecting our your ministry to students from this new perspective. In the end, we all want to be "healthy" and we all want our families to be "healthy" and we all want to be active participants in a "healthy" church with exciting and dynamic ministries that are "healthy"! Look for the signs... your body and the "body of Christ" is trying to tell you something. Be blessed!