Salvation

The 2015 Ministry Results!

August 26, 2015 By michealwalley

This week, our CentriKid office team is away from the office at something we call “Eval Week,” a time where we celebrate what God did throughout the summer and discuss ways (from your feedback!) that we can make next summer even better.

Before we ever jumped in to details and discussion, we spent time as a team praying over the decisions that were made and seeds that were planted at camp. Because of how God worked through CentriKid’s “FIT: Faith in Training,” hundreds of kids now have a relationship with Christ and many others are continuing to grow in their faith.

We are excited to officially announce our 2015 Ministry Results!

2015 marks the highest amount ever given to missions by CentriKid campers and adults! Check out some other fun results below from this past summer.

Wow! Please take time to say a quick prayer thanking God for how he continues to work through CentriKid to impact the kingdom of God.

Thanks for joining us for FIT: Faith in Training in 2015, and we hope to see you next year for CentriKid 2016: Unseen! You can check out all of our dates, locations, and how to register here.

CentriKid 2014 Ministry Results

August 22, 2014 By henrydutton

In 2014, we spent the summer at CentriKid Camps studying about a God who redeems. We learned that God has had a plan to redeem His people since the beginning of time. He reaches down to redeem us, even when we are helpless. In the same way that God rescued the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, God rescues us from the captivity of our sin. God’s redeeming work was completed through the birth, perfect life, substitutionary death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and because Jesus is still alive today, we can trust Him to reconcile us to the Father. God restores His children for a purpose, and He reaches out through us as we seek to share with others about the redeeming work of Christ.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord. For there is faithful love with the Lord, and with Him is redemption in abundance. Psalm 130:7

As campers and adults encountered the truth about God’s redeeming love, hundreds of participants made salvation decisions, and many more made milestone decisions to follow Jesus more closely. We are so humbled by the way that God continues to work through the ministry of camp, and we invite you to celebrate with us as we reflect on all the things God did during the summer of 2014. For a full report, check out our ministry results page.

We are already well underway for CentriKid 2015, and we hope that you’ll join us as we explore our theme — FIT: Faith in Training! Be sure to check our blog regularly for more exciting updates.

5 Tips for Sharing the Gospel with Kids

March 17, 2014 By henrydutton

Sharing the gospel with kids is why we do what we do. Since we believe the gospel is so important, we spend a large amount of time making sure that we are stewarding the truth of the gospel responsibly. Here are a few tips that we have learned over the years in sharing the gospel with kids.

TELL YOUR STORY One of the most effective ways to share the gospel with kids is to simply tell your salvation story. Make sure that you thoughtfully plan out which pieces to include or exclude, and be sure to explain difficult words or concepts that kids do not understand. In addition, incorporate and use Scripture in your story. (Ex. “When I was six years old, I learned that I am a sinner and that I break God’s laws. I knew this because Romans 3:23 says ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.'”) Most kids trust the validity of your testimony, but when you incorporate Scripture, you are also appealing to the authority and the validity of God’s word.
ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS When sharing or counseling with a kid, always begin by asking a lot of open-ended questions. This step is very important because it allows kids to articulate their thoughts, and it allows you to gauge the level of understanding. Everyone laughs and jokes about the “raise your hand if you want to go to heaven” faux pas, but we think that saying, “Sin is when we break God’s laws. You understand that, right?” can be equally detrimental. Instead, ask questions such as “What do you understand about sin?” If it becomes clear that a kid doesn’t understand some of the gospel essential concepts, don’t push him or her. Some kids are simply not ready to make a decision to follow Christ, and that’s okay.
SHARE THE WHOLE TRUTH I’ve often been frustrated by hearing watered down or incomplete gospel presentations, and many times I hear the excuse, “Kids simply aren’t ready for that deeper stuff.” I believe that Paul is very clear when he says, “As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!” (Galatians 1:6). At the end of the day, I believe there are very few biblical concepts that kids are unready to hear. The challenge comes in sharing these concepts on their level. We have to work very hard explain deep biblical truth in language and on a level that kids can understand. More often than not, the real excuse is not that kids are unready but that we are unwilling to do the hard work. Spend time preparing well so that you can rightly divide the word of truth.
TRUST THE HOLY SPIRIT We have a responsibility to faithfully proclaim the message, but praise God that we are not required to change lives! Always remember that when you share God’s truth, the Holy Spirit is at work to help give understanding, to convict of sin, and to draw others to Himself. Spend time in prayer and be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading.
USE AVAILABLE TOOLS There are many tools available that help make your job of explaining truth easier. One tool that we use at camp is The Gospel: God’s Plan for Me booklet. At the end of the day, though, remember that the only tool you really need is the word of God. Make sure that you always have your Bible handy and use it when you share truth with kids.

I hope you’ll find these tips useful in your ministry, and I’m looking forward to another amazing summer of sharing the gospel with kids at camp! It’s not too late to join us for this summer. I hope to see you at camp!

Declaring God’s Promises

February 27, 2013 By centrikid2018

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

Isaiah 61:1-3

God’s many promises and His faithfulness to keep those promises never stop amazing me. In just a matter of three verses in Isaiah, God promises that the Messiah is coming to preach good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, release from darkness for the prisoners, comfort all who mourn, provide for those who grieve. He promises to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. And then, after all of that, He says that these people, who were once poor, broken, and captives, will now be called oaks of righteousness that display His splendor.

Can we all just let that sink in for a minute? These three verses are packed with promises from God that fill us with hope and joy and leave us completely in awe of the One who provides these.

Not only should these promises leave us thankful for our own freedom, but we should also be overwhelmed with the desire to declare these promises to those who remain poor and broken. We’ve all mourned before and we’ve all been held captive by our own sin, but we have been set free, and we must not forget just how much of a miracle this is.

Are we declaring God’s promises to those who don’t know Him? Are we living as oaks of righteousness and displaying His splendor, or are we living as if we have not been redeemed and have not been set free? God sent His only Son to preach good news to the poor and to release prisoners from the darkness. Receiving this freedom shouldn’t be enough for us – we should long to share God’s grace and love with others.

Take time today to thank God for the freedom He has given you and to ask Him for opportunities to share this wonderful, undeserved freedom with those around you who are still being held captive. Go forward in boldness and confidence because you have been called an oak of righteousness, and the Lord’s splendor is displayed in you.

Valentine’s Day: What is Love Anyways?

February 14, 2013 By lauraregister

Has anyone ever told you that you don’t really know what love is? Chances are, they’re probably right.

No matter how far along life’s journey we get, I’m not sure that any of us will ever be able to fully comprehend the depth and the weight of God’s love for us and the magnitude of all that He has done. Ephesians 3:10 reminds us that we are striving to “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge”.

So what makes this love that God has for us so big that we can’t quite wrap our minds around it? God’s love for us is a direct overflow of His character. Jeremiah 10:12 tells us that “God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding”.

God, in His infinite power and wisdom, created the very world we live in today. He breathed His own breath into our lungs in hopes that we, His own creations, might walk in a relationship with Him, our Father. He made this world and said that it was good, until we lost sight of our love for Him and walked away from His truths. As Adam and Eve brought sin into the world for all of us, we lost sight of what true, intimate love with God looks like. Our sin caused separation, as a perfect God could never be a part of something as imperfect as us.

Only perfection could bridge the gap that our sin created, and as we all know, we are never really able to live in perfection. But God, who continued to love us in the midst of our unfaithfulness, gave us a greater gift than we could ever imagine. He sent His own son, as perfect as God Himself, to live among us, to show us the way, and then to take the weight of all of our sins to His death on the cross. Because of His sacrifice, we now have the opportunity to walk in forgiveness and again be unified with God, just as we were created to be.

With the opportunity to be unified with God comes the growing knowledge of His love. As we spend time getting to know the heart of God, we begin to grasp more and more of the beauty of His love story. We understand love for others only out of an overflow of Christ’s selfless love for us. 1st John 4:19 reminds us that “We love because He first loved us”. If we are not seeking to know His love more, we are not able to fully love those around us.

Do you fully grasp the weight of His love in your life? Do you know it more clearly than you did yesterday? I pray that we each remember today just how much He has done for us and how very worthless our lives are without His love and grace. We do nothing to deserve to be loved the way we are, and I pray today that the Gospel is fresh on your mind and heart. Let His words dwell in you as you walk through today, seeking to understand His love more and to love others well as an overflow.