Tim Casteel

Thoughts on Leadership and College Ministry

Seeking God over the Summer

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This week at Cru (our last of the year) I did a talk on Seeking God over the Summer. I thought I’d share the notes and slides in case it would be helpful to anyone for future talks!

Slides (and above picture) are from Southeast Christian Church. An AMAZING web site of graphic/video resources. They have editable Photoshop files as well as finished jpgs and QuickTime movies. I just edited one of their photoshop files to add my titles. It’s a great way to take your presentation quality up a notch with VERY little prep (it took me about 45 minutes to prep all my slides and edit the background)

It was a little bit of a different talk that included several elements. The general flow:

  • Began with four reflection questions (gave them about a minute of thinking time for each question)

What things make it hard to pursue God at the U of A?

What things will make it hard over the summer?

What things encourage you to seek God at the U of A?

What steps can you take this summer to keep pursuing God?

  • Talk Content – Hebrews 12:1-2

Cloud of Witnesses - What voices will you be listening to this summer? Will they encourage you to walk with God? If not, where can you find those who will urge you onward in the race of faith?

Throw off Hindrances – weights that slow you down in the pursuit of God (time wasters like video games, etc)

Throw off Sin – “so easily entangles” — it describes sin as having the advantage in favor of its prevailing

Gospel vs. Religion – not just a list of don’t do’s. But primarily about what Jesus has done leading to the third point. . .

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus – What will you do to fix your eyes on Jesus this summer? Have a plan to read God’s Word. “For every look at yourself take ten looks at Christ.” – Robert Murray McCheyne

  • 2 Students shared summer testimonies (about how they wasted summers or are intentionally thinking through how to not waste their summer)

  • Recommended books for summer reading

  • End on Christ-focus - what was the joy that Jesus was motivated by? Our redemption. So while we were still entangled in our sin, Christ ran the perfect race for us, in our place. And he did it for the joy of having a relationship with us. That is our motivation for running. The gospel.

Below are the full talk notes, student notes, and powerpoint slides.

Talk credits: I borrowed liberally from a talk by Chris Newport (Cru director at Texas Tech) and came up with the Christ focus via Tim Keller. And I’m sure there are other sources I’m forgetting!

Talk Notes:

[gview file=”https://www.timcasteel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Walking-with-God-over-the-summer-talk.doc”]

Student Notes:

[gview file=”https://www.timcasteel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Walking-with-God-over-the-summer-student.doc”]

Powerpoint

[gview file=”https://www.timcasteel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Walking-with-God-over-the-summer-slides.ppt”]