Who Wants To Change The World?

[SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND]

"Who Wants To Change The World?"
by Keith Giles

A few years ago a good friend of mine and I were meeting regularly to work out strategy for having an impact on the culture around us. Our plan involved a series of guerilla marketing concepts ranging from an elaborate scavenger hunt called the "Wormhole", a cryptic website that would rotate content between video clips, challenging text, and thought-provoking graphics, and even a magazine that we would print and distribute covertly at area record shops and coffee shops to stimulate people to think about Kingdom-related issues. It was all great fun and some of those ideas influenced me to start this very e-newsletter.

But a funny thing happened to me as my friend and I plotted our subversive campaign to impact the culture- God kicked me in the teeth.

It wasn't a literal kick in the teeth, of course. God is much too subtle for that most of the time. Instead, as I was praying one night the Holy Spirit whispered this little nugget into my head- "If you want to change the culture, have an impact on a child."

Apparently God enjoys subversive campaigns too.

The sentence was simple, but the idea was more radical and pervasive than anything my friend and I had yet to devise or implement. The more I thought about this statement I realized that it was true. If we want to change the culture for Christ, we have to start with the next generation. The only way to change the future is to develop young people today to have a clear understanding of what the Gospel of the Kingdom is and teach them how to live it out in their everyday lives.

My oldest son turned twelve years old this week. It has caused me to stop and remember that sentence whispered in my ear by the Holy Spirit three years ago. It has made me realize that my son will be a teenager in just twelve more months. Have I done all I can to prepare him for the future? Have I made sure that my son understands the Gospel? Does he know how to live it out in his actual life?

I spend a lot of time and creative energy writing these articles for the [Subversive Underground]. I map out months in advance sometimes what I will write about here. On top of that I've recently published two books and I have another book project (or two) in the works at the moment. I've also got the "Non-Con" coming up in March that I need to plan for and, of course, two house churches that meet in my home full of people I am called to Pastor, lead, encourage and inspire.

I realized this week that my sons are more important to me than all of that combined. Nothing is more important to me than making sure that my sons Dylan and David have a clear understanding of The Gospel of the Kingdom. I want to be certain to teach them how to obey the teachings of Jesus. I want to make sure they understand how to handle temptation. I want to be careful to show them how to submit themselves to God and how to trust Him with everything. I want to give them the very best I could possibly give.

As much as I know I'm called to this ministry of writing and teaching others about the Kingdom and helping people understand what it means to follow Jesus every day, I'm called first of all to make sure that my own sons know this and live it out.

If you want to change the world for Christ, if you want to make a lasting impact on the culture, if you want to influence the future generations, be sure to focus your time, energy and passion on helping a child to know what the Gospel really is. Help them to understand what it means to follow Jesus with their every day life. Teach them to love others. Model compassion. Give to them what you have been given. Then, my friends, you will change this world.

That, believe it or not, is subversive.

Peace,
Keith
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Read the complete Press Release:http://www.keithgiles.com

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NON-CON REGISTRATION NOW ONLINE
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
"More of a conversation than a conference"
-Jackie Pullinger, David Ruis, Cindy Reithmeier, John Thomas, Keith Giles

More info and online registration at:http://www.Non-Con.com

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