Ephesians 4:11-16

I've called it "The Missional Message" in my mind. I've never actually spoken those words out loud, but I've had them bouncing around inside my head.
I've been struggling for a while, as you may have noticed, with where to go and where to take the youth. I want the work that I do to amount to something, but at the same time, I don't know what that something is. Well, now I think I might.
It came to me last week as I was mowing the yard. La Familia. I had no idea what it was, but at the same time it wasn't exactly mine so how could I? How does a father know another man's child? He doesn't, at first. Somebody has to teach him, break him in, let him see what the child is. That's how it was with me and La Familia, at first. La Familia is a ministry. It's a family. It's a group of people drawn together by common life experiences where they can learn to relate to one another and experience the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ in community. In a healthy and growing church community.
It's what I think God wants me to do with the youth I'm working with. It's what I think He is showing me so that I can begin to show the youth a way of loving God and loving others. It is a place where youth can be equipped "to do [God's] work and build up the church...that [they] will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ...[they] will no longer be like children...becoming more and more in every way like Christ...so that the whole Body is healthy and growing and full of love."
Really, what it's coming out to be is a Wednesday night bible study that can develop and grow into more, smaller Familias in time. It is the step before small groups. It is the transition period in between all that they know church to be right now, and what a small group can do for them in the future.
But before La Familia can be properly inaugurated, the -- the youth -- need to be shown the values of such a community where people can be drawn together. They need to see what measure of stature they'll be growing into and know what kind of truth and love is out there for them to give to the lost.
That's what I'm doing this summer. Preparing the way for La Familia.
I really wish I could write more, but I have got to go.