http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/ The latest Blog feeds from www.youthtrain.com en-us Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:20:24 +1200 Rocketspark http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/141045/opportunity-acts-3-12-26/ Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? (Acts 3:12)What is evident from the previous verse is that Peter was not looking for an opportunity to preach the gospel when healed the man born lame. He did not think, “If I heal this man, it will draw a great crowd and that will give me a chance to tell people about Jesus.”Furthermore... Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:38:02 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post141045 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/140989/what-would-i-most-want-my-team-to-know-at-the-start-of-a-new-year/ If you have ever tried to jump start a car, you’ll know that the time where most effort is required is at the start. As we push hard and as the wheels slowly begin to turn, inertia takes over and the effort required diminishes as the car begins to roll down the road.One of the challenges of youth ministry at the start of a new year is inertia.At the end of the previous year things were rolling along quite nicely but after the summer break there are new leaders on board and new young people com... Wed, 22 Jan 2025 12:39:36 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post140989 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/140856/nothing-acts-3-1-11/ But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”. (Acts 3:2)The account of the healing of the lame man at the temple gate is astounding for a number of reasons. Here was a man familiar to all who entered the temple. He had been lame from birth and so likely had sat there for many years, begging for money.At Peter’s command this unfortunate man was instantly healed – one moment he was s... Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:32:32 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post140856 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/137707/life-acts-2-42-47/ And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47)A great temptation we face in churches and the ministries within them is to seek to imitate what we deem to be spiritual Life. We have a picture in mind of what a Spirit-filled church looks like and so we set about trying to imitate it.With a mindset such as this, we tend to read the book of Acts as a blueprint of what we are to do instead of a description of how Jesus builds His church.The passage at hand ill... Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:57:14 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post137707 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/136948/response-acts-2-37-41/ Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” (Acts 2:37)At the conclusion of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, people cried out, “What should we do?” to which Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” As a result, we read that “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the churc... Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:25:58 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post136948 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/125660/preach-acts-2-22-36/  “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.” (Acts 2:32)Here we have the first sermon preached in the history of the church, and, unsurprisingly, it is about the resurrected Christ. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, stood to address the crowd gathered for the Feast of Pentecost and immediately spoke on the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, drawing on prophecies made by King David in the book of Psalms. It is impossible to think of a more relevant me... Fri, 15 Mar 2024 13:35:02 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post125660 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/116226/spirit-acts-2-14-21/ ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)It is of note that the first sermon preached in the “church era” began with a reference to the past. When Peter stood to explain to the gathered crowd what they were seeing, he quoted the words of the prophet Joel in the Old Testament.He did this because he wanted his listeners to understa... Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:45:38 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post116226 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/114382/amazed-acts-2-1-13/ They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.  But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”. (Acts 2:12-13) The desire on the part of leaders to run services, programmes and events that people refer to as “amazing”, is understandable. After all, we serve an amazing God, so naturally we want our efforts to reflect that reality and evoke amazement among those who attend. Surely, it’s not wrong to... Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:07:29 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post114382 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/113124/appoint-acts-1-15-26/ So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias… Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven. (Acts 1:23,26) It is undoubtedly true, that it is easier to appoint someone to a leadership position than it is to move them out of it! Divisive leaders can harm the team while ineffective leaders can do harm to those who are being led. Equally, a leader without the necessary gifting and passion, can not only wea... Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:02:54 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post113124 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/post/112684/accord-acts-1-9-14/ These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (Acts 1:14) While it was significant that Jesus’ disciples obediently waited in Jerusalem as He had instructed them, it is even more significant to note the manner in which they waited. Here we read that they waited “with one accord”.Jesus' great hope for the church – the number one item on His list of prayers to the Father was, “that they m... Wed, 25 Oct 2023 11:27:21 +1300 http://www.youthtrain.com/blog/#post112684