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I just recently just finished my two year Cadre journey with Jeanne Mayo. Judy Gregory, one of Jeanne’s key staff members is convinced that Jeanne is one of the best kept secrets in youth ministry. After my experience, I would one up that and say she is one of the best kept secrets on the planet for ministry in general. The Cadre was one of the best experiences in my life

If You’re In Youth Ministry and You Don’t Take Advantage of The Cadre... You’re an Idiot!

Jeanne is the Real Deal -when you see leaders from a distance, it’s easy to question if they’re the real deal or not. Jeanne is! She has been in ministry for over forty years! She has so much wisdom, loves people more than anyone I’ve ever seen, and will literally do anything to enable you to do what God’s called you to do! I’m so grateful that I’ve gotten to get to know her and interact with her!

You Make Friendships that will Last a Lifetime -Looking back, the greatest things about the Cadre was the relationships you build. I have 5-6 guys that I know we’ll stay connected for the rest of our lives. People in other states, that don’t know your church or the people around you, who can give you perspective and encouragement to get through anything!

You will Have Life Experiences You’ll Never…I Stress Never, Forget - Jeanne is beyond intentional with creating life experiences for people. Things most people would never have the opportunity to experience. I’ll never forget my Cadre experience.

To Jeanne, Judy, Jordan, Bethany, Christina, Adam, the MC students, and everyone else who made this experience possible: Thank you so much. It’s definitely a huge mile marker in my life and ministry! You’re all such a huge blessing!

I got the privilege to go to NewSpring’s Unleash Conference today. It was an incredible experience. It was amazing to see what God has done here! This will be a 2-part review! One with a summary of key takeaways and another of the practical ministry takeaways. Here were my big takeaways:

It’s All About Making Jesus Famous One Life at a Time - This is NewSpring’s Vision. It is beyond evident that the vision is burning in the hearts of every staff member and volunteer. Everything they do as a church, is done with the intention of changing people’s lives. When I say everything… I mean everything!

Quit Playing Games and Start Preaching the Word - I love how simple Newspring is. I.E. The youth – ALL they do is preach, worship, small groups, and a summer camp. It’s all centered around pointing teenagers to Jesus. Period. I love it!

People Act Like they Don’t Know Christ, Because they Don’t Know Christ - Let me clarify! They had a 5th grader that went to their childrens ministry for the first time. He saw a PS3 and Wii and said, “They have a PS3! A Wii! This s*** is awesome!” Those are the people we’re trying to reach, we need to have people like this coming to church! Instead of correcting them, let’s love them and point them to Jesus. They’ll only change as a result of knowing Him!

People Can Believe in You and Go to Hell - I love Perry. He was saying that we should never try to get people to believe in us or think we’re awesome. We need to constantly be getting their eyes off  of us and onto Jesus. He’s the only one that can save them.

Celebrating Wins is Critical – Every staff meeting they start with sharing victories in their church. Then they celebrate them – this fuels them with passion every week becasuse it helps them recognize they are doing what God called them to do!

They Don’t Know How They Grew! - Twice in their church their attendance has doubled in a one week span… from 400 to 900 and 4,000 to 8,000. What did they do? Nothing… They have no idea how it happened! Perry always relays it like this: Leadership is as easy as listening to God. Then do what He  says! Perry said, “If you can explain what God is doing in your church, He’s probably not that involved in it!

I loved being at Newspring! I know it definitely fired me  up to come home and do more for Jesus. I’m so glad they are doing what God called them to do and inspiring the body of Christ while they do it!

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the practical things I learned that we can implement in our ministries!

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. – Matthew 5:28

Every second – $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, Every second – 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography, Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States?.

I’ve never met anyone who is addicted to porn who is actually proud of it. Everyone I meet is hurting, has caused pain to people around them, and longing for a way out. It’s the easiest thing to hide, but one of the hardest things to come clean to somebody about. The shame can be almost unbearable. So how can you get free?

1.) Repent and Pursue God - In James it says, if you draw near to God, He’ll draw near to you. Though you’ll feel so distant from God it’s not even funny, if you’ll pursue Him, His desires will start becoming your desires, and porn will become less and less of a temptation.

2.) Recognize You’re Not Alone - There are millions of people struggling with the exact same thing you are and feeling the exact same way you are. You’re not alone.

3.) Humble Yourself and Tell Somebody that Loves you Unconditionally – This is the hardest step. Find somebody you know will love you regardless, and will walk you through the journey to freedom.

4.) Get Accountability - The video above is promoting 2 programs: X3Watch and Safe Eyes - both are accountability software that will block sites you shouldn’t be going to, and send any questionable sites you do visit to two accountability partners of your choice.

5.) Control Your Thoughts - You can control your thoughts – that is a fact. Philippians says to think on Good things only! What you put in your heart through what you watch and listen to, will fill your thought life. If you’ve been watching porn for a while, you’re probably filled with bad thoughts. Focus on putting positive deposits into your heart (go to church, listen to sermons, read great articles). Garbage in, Garbage Out. Purity in, Purity out!

Another Great Resource is XXX Church which is headed up by Craig Gross – you’ll find tons of great videos and articles to help you.

I hope this helps you – if you’re in need of someone to talk to – Send me a message on Facebook – I’d love to talk to you.