Raise passionate young disciple-makers by nurturing leadership and a heart for sharing Christ.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2025: He Must Increase

<p>Raise passionate young disciple-makers by nurturing leadership and a heart for sharing Christ.</p>

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Disciple Me - Guiding Children Toward Christ

Don MacLafferty

01 God’s Vision to Disciple Our Kids

You're about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2025 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Every day in this session, it's going to be simple practical things about discipling the new generations, especially children and youth and their families, okay?

So this will be a building block on this 1 right now, talking about what does God have on his heart about how this operates, how does this look.

So we're gonna look at big picture today, and then we're gonna be much more practice tomorrow through Friday.

Do you want the Holy Spirit to take this and drive it home right where we need it in all of our contexts?

I asked that to the last group and I ask it again here because it's not a rhetorical question so it's a serious thing so how many of you have kids in your life of some age that are very much on your heart for this end of time me too me too we cannot do We cannot do a series about discipling the new generations so seriously that we can't interact because this is about discipling kids.

So I'm going to teach in a way that I hope that you will not fall asleep.

What I need you to do is I need you to act out something that somebody that loved you, taught you to do, you know, mentored you to do, that matters to you.

And to just give you a fair chance to think for a moment, I'm gonna act out something that somebody taught me to do when I was a very little boy.

Now, I don't have a stage really to get up on with this, but you'll just have to watch.

So pretend like this is a ground, because you can't see otherwise.

But my grandpa taught me to, of course, make a fire.

But then when I was a little boy, and then he taught me to make pancakes with an iron skillet and to flip them to people.

And when they fell on the ground, he taught me to say, whoops, and that's yours.

So you've got 90 seconds, so 45 seconds each, to act out something somebody taught you that you still, you know how to do.

It could be auto mechanics, it could be drawing, it could be cooking, you know, whatever.

People have invested in every 1 of us to teach us all kinds of things, right?

Sometimes we pass on to the new generation how to drive a car, how to do business, how to clean a house, how to cook something.

We go on and on, all kinds of skills, Right?

The question is, are we passing on the faith of our fathers?

Are we helping children and youth not only have all those skills, which is great, but are we giving them something eternal?

Now, In scripture, there's 3 powerful passages of scripture that really show us what's on God's heart for the discipling of new generations.

Okay, if, can I have somebody volunteer to help me out?

And now, because my wife is here, I will not do this, because she is a very organized person, and a teacher person.

If she wasn't here, I'd probably just take them like this and throw them out to you.

And wherever they go, that's where you get to pick them up.

So look around you, make sure you have, you can be in twos or threes.

Does everybody have somebody to team up with in the Word?

Okay, on your paper, if you're doing this, I invite you to go like this, and up here we're going to say, God's dreams.

God's dreams, I say start over here, to disciple his children.

If you can't read my writing, it just makes it more adventuresome okay okay God's dreams to disciple his children now here's 3 passages The first 1 right here is Acts 2, 17.

And I'm going to give you a moment to read that passage with your teammates, and I want short answers.

Now I have to, I need your eyes for a second.

I'm not trying to be too kidsy, but I just have to do this with you.

Because some of us like to write, like write and illustrate.

I want us to just do like short discoveries like words or short phrases.

What is God's dreams to disciple his children based on this passage?

If you find something in the next couple of minutes, then you're welcome to come up here and use any color as long as it's either red or blue.

So right now, I invite you, Let's get into the Word.

I'll just read it for those of you who can't read in the back.

All flesh will have his spirit in time people.

There's something about old men I'm supposed to know from this passage?

02 Spiritual Mentoring Tips

So, I invite you to stand up because you've been sitting for so long, Approximately 2 minutes.

Please turn to someone next to you, and hopefully you like them a little bit.

Okay, everybody team up into twos, as quick as you can.

As soon as you're in teams of twos, I have instructions for you.

Now, with your team partner, please ask them this question.

Out of your whole life, which person spiritually has impacted your life the most in your walk with God, and also when did that person have that impact?

Was it when you were a child, or youth, or an adult?

Who would you say has had the biggest, and I should use the word positive, spiritual impact?

There's people that have negative spiritual impact.

So I'm saying positive spiritual impact on your life.

Now, I want to take just a moment and then we're gonna pray.

I want to hear, starting on this side, and I'll come over here, so you guys have a little bit of grace, okay?

But on this side, I want to hear a few examples.

Who's somebody that mentored you and tell me 1 thing that they mentored you to do like with God?

Like some practice or you know something that that moved your heart in some way but just very very fast like a line or 2 starting in the very back corner.

The lady I babysat for in college invited me into her home to do my first Bible study, and she presented the Gospel message to me and asked me if I wanted it.

Wow, amen, you won't forget her, will you?

Amen, And then your sister right behind you.

It was her dedication to studying the word of God and living the word of God.

And seeing the power to live it through obstacles.

Difficult to teach school, pray about it.

Difficult to teach a teacher, pray about it.

And I'm sorry for those listening later, someday later, I'm going to try to remember to repeat.

So we just had, the last 1 was that she had a mother that prayed over everything and she saw that model.

Now, somebody from this section, I'm going to come on this side.

Anybody over here going once, going twice?

When I was a young teen, I was worried about if I was going to be saved.

She said when she was little, you're saying little?

So she was wondering if she would be saved.

That's a powerful message for you to receive.

When I was 21, I got baptized when I was 19, but at 21, I had not really learned how to have my own devotion.

So I went to a mission trip, and the coach that was leading the mission trip, he used to read the Bible a ton.

And during the airport, he was reading the Books of Prophecy and Bible.

So her coach on a student mission trip, right, really modeled to her to love the Word of God and the Spirit of Prophecy.

I'm gonna take maybe 4 on this side, 4 or 5.

Okay, anybody else have an example in this section over here?

Anybody that has an example, a practical example of somebody, yes, that invested in you, yes.

Yeah, I was living in a church when I was in my early 20s, and she just accepted me and loved me so much.

And she was just sharing the love that she had for God, and I never forgot it.

So she loved you well and accepted you well and that was when you were in your young 20s.

Powerful time by the way to see that in the church.

When I was in graduate school, Morris Vinden was our pastor.

And he used to say at New Year's, the only resolution worth making is to spend time every morning with Jesus.

Okay, to spend time every morning with Jesus.

And this gentleman was saying, Morris Vinden was the 1 that taught that.

My grandmother, she taught me scripture songs that she had kind of made up.

03 Bible Prayer Walks

Did you come here because you want to go on a Bible prayer walk?

Now, we may have a whole range of mobility.

I don't know, you know, who does what, and so I'm respectful of that.

Okay, did you remember, did you remember to come ready for this adventure?

Okay, so now let me just say a few words before we go on this prayer walk.

Years ago, and some of you heard me say this in the early morning, but years ago when our kids were very small, I realized that prayer, yes, happened in my home, but it happened at meals and it happened at worship and it happened, of course, in between with things happening, but I wanted to make sure that our kids had an active prayer life that was woven through the day and not just at certain times.

So this is a burden on my heart as a young daddy.

And I also didn't want prayer to be boring.

And I also wasn't convicted that our best prayer needs to be anchored here.

So I'm gonna say just a few things about this.

Those of you coming in, please find a seat just for a moment if you don't mind because it gives room for people coming in if you don't mind.

So there's a lot of weird stuff going on right now about prayer that is not Bible-based and so it ends up having all kinds of stuff like, now I'm in danger even of describing it to you, because someone could walk in and think I'm teaching this.

So I'm not teaching this, okay, what I'm about to say right now.

So I won't act it out, I'll just say, but you know that some prayer teaching is about emptying your mind, and that is not biblical.

It's a, you know, far eastern religion type of thing, and scripture needs to fuel prayer.

It also gives us boundaries about what to pray about and not to pray about.

So as a young daddy, I was thinking, so how can I teach our kids to pray?

I already told you that April and I have a precious son that thinks outside of the box, and I shared the other day.

Very, very difficult to teach him how to pray.

When we started doing Bible prayer walks, slowly it started connecting with his heart until 1 day when he was about 16, we were hiking, so I'm a hiker, So we were hiking through the forest in Tennessee, and this was totally unplanned for by me, but planned for by God.

So I'd been trying, trying, trying for years and years to make sure these simple things stick, and there was big gaps for me, Where I, as a daddy, I was saying, God, I still don't know with our eldest if prayer is sticking.

Do any of you have this on your heart for your kids?

Like, you really want them to have their own prayer life, not just to pray with you, you know?

Guys, we need our kids to have their own prayer life.

We're not always going to be around, right?

So we're hiking through the woods, and we're having a great hike, and all of a sudden, my son says, Hey, Dad, can you just stop for a second?

He says, and he turns to me, this touches my heart even now, and he says, Dad, I'm gonna lead you on a prayer walk.

And that may sound so simple to you, but for a special needs boy who, again, is brilliant and way smarter than his daddy, but who struggled to learn simple things from this daddy about prayer.

For the day that he turned around and said, Daddy, I want to leave you on a prayer walk, it shook me to my core.

We went through the forest, and it was a very simple prayer walk.

Actually, he led me for the first time, after years and years, on a prayer walk that was my first type of prayer walk to do.

It wasn't a Bible story based 1, it was a Bible passage 1 about how to have thanksgiving and praise, you know, Psalm 100, are we on the same page?

You know, come into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.

And then he took me, and so he's saying, hey, Dad, he said, find me such and such a tree, and we're going to praise God there.

And he just did and led this daddy in what I've been teaching him for years and years to do.

Maybe they're not special needs, but they're special to God.

And it's so special to me, he still loves to lead in prayer.

And to this day, he's 32 years old, and he loves Jesus, and now it sticks deep in his soul.

The word and prayer deep, deep in his heart.

But for years, didn't know if it was sticking.

So today, the thing you need in your hand is a Bible.

We're gonna have 3 Bible prayer walks, and you have the fun of figuring out which 1 you're going to go on.

And so I have 2 precious families to me here.

They're all Castelbonos, but they're 2 different set of families.

And I'm going to ask them to come up and tell you what kind of prayer walk they're going to go on.

I waited, I told them to pick first, so I didn't pick their favorite, and then I said, I'm going to pick mine after you tell me yours.

So, would the first Castelbono family come up and tell us who you are, like your names?

I always said their last name, but then what's the name of your prayer walk?

And we are going to do Joseph's Dreams and what we can learn from that story.

Okay, Joseph's Dreams, That's the name of the prayer walk.

And the next Castelbono family, tell us who you are and what's the name of your prayer walk?

And we're going to do Jonathan and his armor bearer.

When you go on a prayer walk, though it is a specific, if I'm understanding the concept, having never heard it before, You're selecting a Bible passage that has either a story or a specific truth.

And then I want us to come back here for a wrap up.

And if you're interested, maybe even a surprise.

3.40, okay, so can you do this and be back in 30 minutes maximum?

Okay, now Mine is gonna be, it's gonna be Esther prayer walk.

Can we all agree, all you families and me, let's go to this big shade tree right under here and let's split up into 3 wherever the Holy Spirit leads you to go.

But we're gonna split out there, It's hard to do in here.

04 TAG - Take Time Alone with God

Dear God in heaven, the topic is time alone with you, time alone with God.

And how can we make this alive for our kids and for our youth?

Please bless your word here and then we're going to go back inside.

And God, we know you're going to be inside as much as you're outside here in the great outdoors.

Now I need, everybody get here like in the circle.

Now, okay, So I want to know if you kids know how to play tagger it like that.

I want to see how long does it take you 41234, how long does it take you 4 to catch Andrew?

When we say we're going to all count 123, then you guys have to see if you can catch him.

Go, Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, catch him, go catch him.

OK, kids, how fast do you think it takes to catch a dad?

1, count with me, 123, run, run, get him, get him, get him, get him, get him.

Okay, so question is, how is this quick game like us and God?

How is this quick game of tag, you're it, or them trying to catch you, how is it like or not like us and God in a relationship?

When it comes to us and God, everyone can play.

Does God give you room to leave him if you want to?

Like Jonah tried to run away from God, but God was still there.

Jonah ran away from God, but God was still there so you can't really run away from God right okay?

When I get home from work, on most days, my son's still awake.

He'll come out and I'll run around the side of my truck to try to hide from him.

And God also loves it when we're trying to catch him.

The faithful father did not pursue the prodigal son.

Well, when he came back, he came running after us.

Let's look at the first 4 words of verse 24.

Now I know you may not be with your spouse, so you may not want to do this.

So if you're not with your spouse, or you're not really that friendly with the person you're with, then just walk beside them.

But your challenge is to see if you can walk in unison.

Walk in unison all the way back and think about how Enoch Walked with God.

And I'll see you in here in a little bit.

Did you notice that we're not teaching only by lecture?

What can you tell me that you learned from walking in unison?

Did you actually walk in unison with your friend back here?

How many of you said, that is too kidsy, I'm not going to do it in a lifetime?