We want to take a few minutes to bring you up to speed on the future plans for our ministry. I wanted to start off with our mission statement:

We have 2 main goals of our ministry

1) Create a community of people on college campuses and within communities that are growing in their faith. We also wish to encourage them to share their faith with others.

2) Use technology to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ

The Vision:

For the next year (from now until next June) Dive Deep Ministries has 4 goals that we want to accomplish. These all fall under our mission statement and deal with the igniting of a different generation. With these goals we have also added a few new things that we will be doing over the year and they will be things that we can’t do on our own so we will need your help.

Our goals are:

Risk more than others think is safe, Care more than others think is wise, Dream more than others think is practical, Expect more than others think is possible.

So what are we already doing?

Last year we launched Prayer at the Falls on the TFC campus. After a revamp over the winter break, we changed the name to FLOOD. We also added on a staff member, Shawn Eberhard, dedicated to overseeing and assisting with the program. As with any new ministry program, we have adjusted this to be more community centered and are taking a non-traditional bible study approach for the next semester. We hope to expand the FLOOD program to another campus starting in the spring of 2011.

The Dive Deep website has been maintained and improved in a few different ways over the past few months. There is now a mobile version of the site that allows anyone with a web-capable phone to access the site and see what is going on. As we approach the next few weeks we are going to get back to our normal weekly blog as well.

So what are we doing going forward?

To add to the list of programs we will be starting a new initiative called Take the City. This will be composed of a team that wants to reach out to those around us and love on others as Christ loves us. If you are interested in more information, you can send us an e-mail at takethecity@divedeepministries.org or visit takethecity.divedeepministries.org. We plan on launching this program in the first quarter of 2011.

One of the biggest undertakings ahead of us will be our $5 Christmas program. No, we are not going to give out $5 to everyone for a Christmas bonus (although we admit that would be a great gesture, we just don’t have the financial means to do that at this point), but just the opposite. We are finalizing details, but we are going to ask that you, those of you who want to join us in this initiative, to spend only somewhere around $5 per person in your family for Christmas. Yep, this means if you only have 4 people in your family, you get somewhere around $5 to spend on them this Christmas. So what are you to do with the extra money? That’s another detail we are working out but it will involve giving it to someone else. You don’t have to write them a check or anything, but we are working on something that we can do together to impact our local communities during the Christmas season. You can read the story from where this comes from at 5dollar.divedeepministries.org.

We will also ask that you be praying for our ministry. God has some huge things in store for us and we want to honor Him in all that we do. Be praying for our ministry team as we grow the vision that God has given us. We ask that God would bless all of those who have been involved in our ministry in any way, from helping with a new project or being on our staff. We have created a way that you can become involved if you feel lead to be more involved in prayer through a prayer team. You can sign up and get put on the mailing list by going to prayer.divedeepministries.org.

On the subject of prayer, we have a pretty crazy idea. We want to be praying for you and we want for you to be able to e-mail prayers to us, but we also are going to give you the ability to text us your prayer request. Through technology we have acquired a phone number that allows us to receive and send text messages via the internet with no charge to our ministry (and only standard text messaging rates for you). One of our staff members will daily review the text that come in and forward on request to the prayer team. You don’t have to give us any personal information and it is our promise that we will not spam you with bogus text messages (We ask you do the same for us). You can text us (or even call and leave us a message with your prayer request – we check those too) at 404-923-0669. Standard text messaging rates do apply.

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff! You might be thinking that we are crazy or maybe you are as excited as we are about what God is going to do through us. The next 12 months seek to be a time that will push our faith to new bounds and look to God for his guidance. We can’t do this on our own, even with the help of our supporters, but that is the point. We are relying on God to lead us in these new adventures as we learn to risk more than others think is safe by stepping out on faith, care more than others think is wise by loving on those around us in some pretty cool ways, dreaming more than others think is practical by thinking of ways that are new and creative to reach the lost and the found, and finally expecting God to show up in a mighty way.

We are followers of Christ, the Son of God, who is our God always and forever. We are pursuing His will for our lives and for this ministry. I have a feeling that we will look back in a year after getting the opportunity to touch others lives and realize that our lives have been changed. We invite you to come along and share this experience with us. Apart we are all of different backgrounds and denominations but we all serve the same God. Together, we become a unified body of Christ that cannot be stopped.

Dive Deep,
Kyle Atkins
Executive Director
kyle@divedeepministries.org

P.S. – Give us a few days to get all the links working and pages made that we have talked about in this casting of vision. We are a tad short on the IT side of the house, so if you or anyone you know is interested in lending some volunteer time to help us with the website, just shoot me or Shawn (shawn@divedeepministries.org) an e-mail. Thanks!

2009 was a year of new beginnings. Upon the launch of Dive Deep Ministries in February of 2009 we launched the first series of blogs about relationships. We began to build a staff of likeminded young adults to take the front seat to building Dive Deep. Starting with only 3 staff members we have grown to 5 members of the corporate level. We also launched a pilot program called Prayer at the Falls at Toccoa Falls College.

Moving into 2010 we feel like God is going to be growing us in some really cool ways. We launched the new Dive Deep site and have moved everything to our own server. The prayer at the falls pilot program has been given a facelift and the name has changed to FLOOD. Currently we are looking into ways to grow the FLOOD campus ministry program even to the point of running a live stream for campuses to plug into. As we continue to grow we appreciate all of the support that all of our followers have shown over the past year.

As the executive director for the ministry I am always encouraged when I see the response to our post and what we are doing. It means so much to know that God is using us to work in others lives. When this ministry was founded we had no idea who or how we were going to reach anyone. In reviewing some of the numbers of hits on the website and the like, we have had the chance to impact over 2,000 people. Our prayer is that God will continue to work in all of your lives and that you will be inspired to share your faith with others.

Stay tuned to our blog to start seeing our regular blog updates again. You have all proven to be extremely patient with us as we are figuring everything out and we thank you for your continued support. May God bless you and your family in all that you do in this year and beyond.

If you could take a few minutes to give us some feedback that would be great as well. You can find our survey here: http://2010.divedeepministries.org/survey/

Dive Deep,
Kyle Atkins

We hope that you have all had a wonderful first part of 2010. After months of changing the design of our website we have arrived at our finished product. We will be doing our communication through our blog/website as well as adding a feature to view a few events live during the year (we are still testing this new feature). Be sure to check back as we are planning on starting our newest series Identity Crisis in the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by!

Dive Deep,
Kyle Atkins
Executive Director

If you look around at the world there are many Christians who seem to be living in this area of “dead faith”. They believe that Jesus is their Savior. The real issue is you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at their lives that they are Christians. We as a culture are in a place where becoming practical atheists while professing to be Christians seems to be the normal way to do life. This is something we as the youth must start to change so we can get back to the original intent of what we are all about.

There are many stances on how we as Christians should live. If we really want to get down to the core of what we are about we are supposed to be different. Somewhere along our lineage we have implanted in our mind that Christians are supposed to stay contained to their Christian friends, their Christian church, their Christian t-shirts and sayings, but Jesus was never contained. We live in a society of cookie cutter Christians who all look the same as everyone else. While we should make every effort to live differently in this world most Christians look exactly the same as the rest of the world. We must stop living like this because it conveys the message that we really don’t care about God, so as Nietzsche suggested we live like “God is dead”.

When we look at the life of Jesus Christ who we know was sent as God incarnate to save us from our sins there was nothing ordinary about His life. He didn’t just go to the places everyone else went and he didn’t do the things that the typical “good Jewish person” would have done. This doesn’t mean that Jesus did anything wrong but that the culture had gotten it all wrong. The Pharisees had lead the people into a very legalistic culture and if we look at our present day culture there are not many differences. There is a problem with Christianity when we are the ones who are legislating our religion, persecuting minority groups, and living like non-believers when we should be living like Christ.

The great thing is we still have a chance to make changes that will positively effect our generation. We are stuck in a cycle we must get out from under. Superchick sums it up well in their song Hero when they say:

Now it’s our time to pick a side.
So don’t keep walking by not wanting to intervene,
Cause you just want to exist and never be seen.
So let’s wake up, change the world
Our time is now

It is time for a revolution of our generation that isn’t afraid to love those who others won’t love. It is our time to make a change instead of allowing it to continue on the current path. Instead of living in our Christian circle we need to break out. We need to flood the world with a love they have never seen before, something no one ever gives. We need to spend less time on legislating religion and more time on actually taking time to love the people around us.

Christ spent most of His time hanging out with those people who were living in sin. He was the ultimate example of what we should look like. Be willing to do life with those who are far from God and just be different. We were not called to be like everyone else, but to be the ones willing to stand for the oppressed, the persecuted, the underprivileged, and the ones who have no voice to offer. We should not sit in our houses with all of our stuff and look down on those who are not like us.

The things of this world will fade and at the end of our lives it will not matter what people here say about us. The only opinion that will matter is that of our Heavenly King. Begin to look internally and see how your life is doing. Are you living out an untamed faith that is fully on fire for God? On the flip side of that are you living like God may as well be dead because you say what you believe but never act it out? Take some time to see where you are and look for our upcoming blogs about how we can make a difference to show the world our God is alive. Let us be different for the cause of Christ!

Dive Deep,

KC

As you may have noticed over the past few weeks there has been a lack of blog posts on our site. I wanted to give you an update and let you know what the Dive Deep group has been up to recently.

Over the past few weeks most of our staff have been starting classes on various college campuses around the nation. This means for a little bit we had to focus on a few other odds and ends, but now that those are tied up we can get back to delivering a weekly blog post for all of you who support us. We have also had the chance to start up some really cool things on one of the campuses in North Georgia.

I am pleased to announce we have started a Dive Deep Ministries Toccoa Falls College campus group. Toccoa Falls College is a small Bible college nestled in the North Georgia mountains. There is a huge opportunity for us to grow our organization in reaching those on campus, and we are quite excited about what God is doing there. This group has already started a weekly event called “Prayer at the Falls” where students meet for worship, devotions and prayer. Our sole focus of the Dive Deep TFC group is to create a community of believers who live in a lifestyle of prayer and wish to grow deeper in Christ. On the other side of things we hope to help believers on campus learn how to share their faith with others and reach people for Christ.

Another endeavor we are embarking on is the making of our first music video! While there aren’t many details we can share now as we are still working on the specifics we ask you to pray for God’s blessing on this new avenue. We hope to use this video as a way to share our message much farther than we can by just talking about our faith. More to come on this as we get closer to finishing the video.

Starting next week we will be launching into our new series called “Remix” where we will be talking about some Christian stereotypes and common conceptions of Christians as a whole. Our purpose for this series is for us to begin to change the way Christians are viewed in society and align ourselves more with the original mission of Christ. To give you a sneak peak to next week’s post we will be talking about “Remix: God is dead”. Now before you begin sending in all of your objections, we would urge you to stick around and check out the blog next Monday for an in depth look at this topic and what we mean by that.

Thank you again for your continued support of our ministry and we look forward to reaching more people with your help!

Dive Deep,

KC

For those of you who know someone or maybe you have recently come into the faith we rejoice with you!  We would love to encourage you along in the journey, so just drop us an e-mail at kyle@divedeepministries.org and let us know. It is truly amazing to be part of God’s big plan.  As a new Christian things can be pretty scary at the beginning of the journey.  We as Christians usually guide a person to the journey and  then say have a great day. This is something in  need of change.

As someone new to the faith you may begin to see some things you need to change but aren’t sure how.  There is not a formula or a set of steps which will work for everyone, but we do know God can help us though anything.  The biggest thing to do is to begin pressing into God.  You can do this by getting involved with your local youth group or church but even that is not enough.  Begin to read the word every day even if it is just a little piece.  A good place to start is in 1st Corinthians or the other writings of Paul.  Paul does a great job of communicating what life should look like as a Christian.

There is a tendency sometimes for believers to think they need to “renew” their salvation like they would a parking meeter.  After you have accepted Jesus as your Savior you don’t have to recommit every time you hear the message of salvation.  God has saved you and you can’t get away from Him now.  Now we aren’t saying recommitting is a bad thing but do it out of God’s spirit prompts and not out of guilt or shame for doing something wrong.  Unless you turn your back on God there is no need to recommit and even when you mess up God always loves you.

Along the journey of faith there is always a possibility to start back into your old tendencies. When this happens God has given you grace and freedom from it all. You just have to ask Him to help and restore you.  There is no amount of stuff that can get you farther along in the journey.  Even following all the rules won’t bring you closer to God. The only way to draw closer to God is to press into His love.

As a new Christian know that sometimes life will be hard like we talked about a few weeks ago, but God promises never to leave us.  He is always present and wants a deep relationship with us. In this deeper relationship with God you begin to find the true meaning of life.  To live an unhindered  life with the God of the universe on your side is an amazing experience.  Begin now to trade the things of this world for things God would have for you.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who have not yet tasted true life and freedom in Christ Jesus.  Continue to seek them out and love them where they are.  Allow them to see you as different and pray God opens the door to sharing the best thing that has ever happened to any of us.  Live with them and not above them.  Love them through everything even when they don’t want to be.  Let’s begin to remix the typical Christian and discover new things God will have for us.

I’ll be taking a few weeks off from blogging myself to transition into some new beginnings for me, but we have some great things in store. We will have some cool people doing some guest blogging for us, and we will launch our new series ‘Remix’ in September. There are some pretty cool things we believe God wants to do with us and excited we get to do this together.

In all you do always remember to Dive Deep!

KC

Pride is when we decide that we are doing things the “right” way. It starts as a small thing like having pride about an accomplishment and believing that you did it all on your own. As you begin to allow this to grip you it roots itself deep in your soul and spreads throughout like a virus. When we are gripped by pride we feel like we have arrived. We are always the ones who are right. It becomes hard for us to communicate the gospel because when someone offers a different idea our pride lashes out and fights against showing God’s love. Even on the cross Christ was always about others not about himself. The root issue of pride is that we have an inward view and not an outward one.

In our state of pride we fall into the spirit of  judgment. We begin feeling as if we should be able to tell everyone else how to live according to our lives. Last we checked God is the only one who has the ability to judge people so why should we inflate ourselves to play God? In the movie Bruce Almighty the main character Bruce (played by Jim Carey) gets the chance to be God. He is given the ability to do everything that God can do and for a while it is fun. He feels like he is good enough (out of pride) to be God, but at the end there is a scene with God and Bruce that captures why we should not try to take God’s place in judging others. Bruce tells God that he doesn’t want the responsibility of Him, and God replies saying something along the lines of we all want God’s powers without the responsibility of them.

When we become judgmental and prideful we begin to assume the role of God. As Bruce figured out, playing God is not something that any of us could even begin to do correctly. We lose the grace that God has given us to pour out on others because we are so wrapped up in ourselves and can’t see past our own desires. Our mission is to love others, and we can’t do that with a judgmental spirit. God would have us to love others unconditionally and even when they don’t deserve it. He first forgave and offered grace to us. Let us not be like the man in the parable whose debt was forgiven and then demanded another debt be paid. Let us spread the message of love to all who are around us even if we don’t want to give it to them. Of course we will stumble. That’s where God grants us grace and mercy. Let us pass on what we have been given.

The easiest way to not fall into a spirit outside of God is to constantly dive into the Word and God’s love. If we know God’s word we will begin to see that there are things we may do that are different for us than others. God gives us a set of universal lines to follow for those of us that call Christ our Lord. He offers the Ten Commandments as our guidelines for living. One thing that many Christ followers think is that if we shouldn’t do it then the non-Christians shouldn’t either. God’s rules apply to us, and we can’t expect those in darkness to act like the Light. Even within ourselves God has given us some things He feels will best benefit us. If it’s not written in black and white within the Bible God grants us free will to determine what we believe He would want of us.

There are millions of people living in the dark and we have been given the challenge  to reach those people. There is a God-sized agenda we are responsible for and it is much larger than our pride or judgmental spirit. Our Savior came into this world not to condemn but to save it. Over the next week we urge you to search in your heart where the virus of pride may be resting and begin to work through that area of your life. Let us give grace and mercy to those who we don’t think deserve it. Give forgiveness when we feel like we can’t. Be about this cause that is greater than anything we can ever do. Let’s go be who Christ called us to be. Be the Light in the darkness!

Dive Deep,

KC

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to us. If we look back at the apostles, especially Paul, they didn’t have it easy. Paul was beat up, put in prison, whipped and eventually hung for sharing his faith with others. Our Savior had the exact same thing happen to Him. He was ridiculed, cast out, his own people turned their back on Him, and ultimately He died on the cross for us. If we are wanting to be more like Jesus we need to understand the fact that our life will not be easy. Sharing the message of salvation is not something that is easy to do and Christ told us that because they do not know Him, they will not know us. As Christians we have accepted this mission when we signed on. We have committed to follow Christ till the end of our days, and sometimes it means being in rough spots. We have faith because our Father in Heaven pours out His love on us in ways we sometimes don’t realize.

God never told us that our life would be easier when we chose to follow Him but that He would never leave us. He gives us a full life. One that we cannot attain otherwise. Even in our troubles God is there guiding us though them even if we don’t see it. As new believers come onto the journey we have an amazing opportunity. We get to share with them what we have gone though for the sake of Christ and help them along the way. In our trials and troubles God uses them to reach others in ways we may never see. Non believers and new believers don’t want to buy into something that we are fake about, and when we share about everything that God has gotten us though our faith is real.

The prosperity Gospel is fake. You don’t get a sign-on bonus for becoming a Christian, but instead you are able to live a life that is renewed in Christ. While we live as Christians we have to become transparent which means putting the old to death. The new creation God has molded us into is revealed when we live a transparent lifestyle. We don’t believe people when they put up fronts so we should not live like this ourselves. This means that we are in the spotlight because we serve God and we need to keep that in mind. If we begin to really live what we say we believe we have the ability to reach those far from God with just being who God crafted us to be.

When we get discouraged about our faith we must rely on God to refill us. Paul in all that he was put though was singing songs of praise to God. We often in trials blame God, but instead we should praise Him in the storm. If we begin to live this we will be put into places that we can help others along the journey and call new people into a relationship with Christ. It isn’t easy helping others along the journey, but if we show love to them in all areas we will begin to grow in our journey. Sometimes God asks us to let someone else live on borrowed faith for a season so they might be drawn into a deeper relationship with God.

If we are not living a life that continues to dive deeper into our relationship with Christ we will not have faith to help others along the way. Believers are not just one person in a sea of faces, but one person being a part of a community of faces. Christ meant for us to do life together in community and to invite others into the journey. We do not walk this path alone, but with our Savior beside us and our brothers and sisters in Christ in front and behind us. Community living allows us to sometimes borrow others faith and in turn will grow ours. We long for the day when this is the case with believers, and we don’t feel like just one person in a sea of faces.

Throughout this week begin to seek out other believers and fellowship with them. If you’re not plugged into a community like this search one out. If we are going to reach people for Christ we are much stronger in a group than as individuals. Begin to live lives that are, as Ephesians 4 says, worthy of the call that we have received. Our call is to be real with those around us and open to sharing our faith. Continue to pray for God to allow you to minister to people and invite them into the journey. Let us take the hard road that gives us a fulfilling life rather than a prosperous one that leaves us empty. May God bless you all as we continue on this journey to reach those far from God!

Dive Deep,

KC

The “turn or burn” approach takes the path that we all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. This statement is quite true. Although this approach has truth in it you can attract more bees with honey than with tar. After hearing this message people are made to feel like God is angry at them and if they don’t accept Christ they will burn in hell for eternity. The whole concept of hell has been skewed by cartoons of a red horned devil with a pitch fork. Hell as a place is not the bad part of not believing in Christ, but it is eternal separation from God and being enslaved to the most evil person that will hurt our souls more than any physical torture could ever hurt.

In the “come and live” approach we begin to invite people into a life that is much better than they have right now. We know that Christ loves each and every one of us and never wants to see us to live a life away from Him. The thought of someone going to hell because they did not believe in Him as their Savior pains Him. When we suffer the Bible says that He suffers with us. Instead of using that suffering to pull people to Christ God wants us to share the love and grace that he has poured out on us to everyone. God does not send people to hell.  He does not want nor wish for that to happen. He wishes for all that he created to be in eternal fellowship with Him.

To fully understand how to share the “come and live” Gospel with others we must understand as a community what it means for us to be loved unconditionally. In everything that we have done Christ loves us. In our shame, our guilt, our successes, and everything that we will ever do Christ’s love is endless. If we want to look at what love is we have to turn to 1st Cor. 13:4 which says:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This verse is used in alot of different instances, but it truly is the most perfect form of love that we can find. Christ wants us to love everyone like this so our message should not be one that goes against this.

“Come and Live” is an approach that inspires us and allows us to use the love that God has given us. While we know what the ultimate reality is everyone wants to know what it is like to be loved. If we have been shown the ultimate love,it would make sense that we would share it with everyone no matter who they are.

Over the next week continue to pray for those who are lost. Begin to show love to those around you, and ask God to show you more love so that you can give it away. Look for others that are wanting to reach out to those that are lost and join them in this. Let us become a community that loves on everyone no matter who they are. God loves us, and sharing the message of salvation is the ultimate expression of that love. We have to do it in a way that is pleasing to God.

Dive Deep,

KC

When you begin to really process that number, it can be a little bit overwhelming. That is a lot of people, and in the midst of that we can begin to feel like we are just one in a million. Numbers tend to dictate much of what we do. We have become about how many friends we have, how much money we have, how much stuff we own and the like. It seems in all of this we lose sight of the only number that matters. That number is 1.

Compared to the population of the world 1 seems very insignificant, but it actually holds more weight in reality. You can do many things with the number 1. It takes 1 person to begin to dream of new things and purse them, 1 person to lead a group of people to accomplish a goal, 1 person to create this amazing world we live in and 1 Savior to die for 1 person.

We tend to get stuck sometimes on the amount of people that are important to God. Sometimes we feel like God is happy when we share His message with just a few of them. It’s hard for us to grasp, but God cares about all of the people on this world on an individual level. Jesus Christ came to die for all 6,792,467,727 people.  We should never try to hold back what we believe and be willing to reach people.

If Jesus Christ came to die for each of us, then why should we keep that gift silent from the rest of the world? Jesus did not die for a everyone to allow us to not share the gift of eternal life with the people around us. We as Christians, true followers of Jesus, hold the responsibility of sharing the message of Christ with the world! We have been given a gift that is meant to be shared not to be held inside of us.

There are many ways to share this message with the world, some more effective than others. One thing is clear throughout the bible and that is Jesus’ message of love. When we are sharing this means that we should not be preaching something that goes against this. This includes messages that breed fear into new believers and make others want to come to Christ for fire insurance. Christ never took that approach and we really don’t know what it will be like. Instead of teaching about something we don’t understand, let us begin to teach of the love of God.

Christ has given us the gift of mercy and grace from our past sins. He has given us life, true life! So many people are living, but have yet to really live. One of the most effective ideas about sharing this gift comes from the magician Penn Jillette. After a show a man came up to him and started a conversation with him about his show. The man really showed interest in Penn’s acts and after a while handed him a Bible. He told the Penn that he was concerned about his eternal salvation. In the video that Penn posted about this conversation, he said:

““How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?”

You can view the whole video by going to this youtube link. We would encourage you to take a few moments to watch this to grasp the whole idea that he is talking about.

Over the next few weeks we want to invite you to discover a new way to share your faith with others and some common pitfalls we all end up in. We can do much on our own with God, but we can reach so many more people when we unite for a common purpose.

This week we challenge you to search your heart and spend some time praying for those who you know do not know the Lord. Be sincere in your prayers and earnestly desire for their salvation. If you don’t know someone, then we suggest looking for people who you may know or have mutual friends with and begin to pray about them. Lets go change a nation!

Dive Deep,

KC