The Summer After Senior Year
Summer Lessons: Seasons that Shaped My Life
When I was a child, I saw summer as a season of growth and opportunity. Summers were also an important part of my spiritual life. I wrote about my memories of Church Camp, VBS, and today I’ll share about the summer after senior year.
The summer after senior year was when I started getting serious about my faith. Although I believed as a child and was baptized as a youth, a deeper maturity began to take shape that summer. It felt like a spiritual coming of age—the season when my faith became my own.
I became serious about fighting sin. I began studying my Bible, not just reading it. And I came to believe that worship was more than simply singing songs—it was something sacred and spiritual.
Since I attended community college, it was natural for me to stay plugged in at my local church. I also had friends who spurred me on. We spent countless hours together, shaping and sharpening one another.
I’ve described these changes as things I was doing, but they ultimately stemmed from convictions that God placed in my heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave me a spiritual growth spurt that summer after senior year.
I look back on that summer with great fondness, and I believe it is one of the reasons I still enjoy youth ministry today. To prepare students for that season of life is to till spiritual soil—to make it fertile for faith. There is something romantic about that vision, but it is also real and life-changing.
More: Messages
A Theology of Lordship, Four-Volume Set
I’ve had my eyes on this set for a while! Frame is one of my faves and the set is currently on sale as a new arrival at 50% off via Westminster Bookstore. Use my code DIVEINDIGDEEP to save an extra 5% off your entire order always.
John Frame's Theology of Lordship series explores theology as the application of God's word to our lives in all situations. Frame speaks to the whole of the Christian life: God's relationship to us, faith, apologetics, theology and philosophy, science and ethics, sexuality, Christ and culture, God's personal communication to us in his Word, and more.
More: Book Reviews
Thank God it’s Friday
TGIF: When Your Teenager Doesn’t Feel a Sense of Belonging at Church / Herman Bavinck as Cultural Apologist / Help Your Wife Thrive Through Motherhood / Fifteen years married / Nine Marks of a Healthy Paragraph
More: Free eBooks
Endnotes
In After Church Hurt, Tim St. John provides a path to healing in the care of the Good Shepherd. He defines church hurt as any unrepentant sin that is minimized, normalized, or promoted by a church culture and its leadership, and he makes it clear that he writes this book out of love for the bride of Christ. Enter our giveaway!
Dive In Dig Deep Weekly: A weekly digest of my book reviews and ministry news.
Book Reviews, Messages, Prayer Poems, ePamphlets, Bulwark Ministries, Interviews, Free eBooks, Around the Web, TGIF, Preaching & Teaching, youtube.com/@diveindigdeep
Partners: Westminster Bookstore, Reformation Heritage Books, Logos Bible Software, Lexham Press, Voice of the Martyrs, Alabaster Bibles and Books, Moody Publishers, New Growth Press, Riverside Podcasting, Zenni: Affordable Eyewar, Publish Peace Totes and Stickers at Cotton Bureau, and many more!