About 3 years ago we decided to rename the New Harvest Youth Ministry, epic Youth Ministries. We obviously wanted a name that would be appealing and attention-getting; but more than that, we wanted a name that got to the heart of why we do what we do. Our purpose statement is this:
epic Youth Ministries exists to introduce students to Jesus Christ and empower them to reach their campuses and communities with His life and love.
II Corinthians 5:21 is the verse that drives what we do. Paul has been explaining what motivates Him to live a life in pursuit of Jesus and he says this:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This one verse describes one of the most incredible theological truths we find in the Bible: Substitutionary Atonement. Jesus, who was perfect, became imperfect. He became the object of His Father’s wrath and took the whole of sin on His shoulders. He was completely sinless; in fact, He was the opposite of sin. He was Holy. Yet, for our sake He became God’s example of how serious sin really is. In essence, He became who you and I were supposed to be.
… That’s the first part of the verse. Even though that is an incredbile reality that completely blows me away, it isn’t even the coolest part. The second half of the verse says that Jesus did this so that we could become the righteousness of God. You see, Jesus ‘became us’, so that we could ‘become Him’! No, I’m not saying we can become Gods; but we are able to become God’s children because we, who believe in Jesus as our Savior, have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
epic stands for Eternally Perfected in Christ. We are so far from perfect it is almost laughable to suggest that we can attain perfection. But, the truth is, we are perfect. Not by our own work, but by His! Our goal is to share this truth with whoever God gives us the opportunity.
Substitutionary Atonement… what a beautiful combination of words.
Hey Chad!! Now I worked for 1,5 years in your ministry and I didn’t know what EPIC meant. Kind of embarassing from my part. Anyway, now that I know the meaning I think it is actually really cool (not that I thought it was lame before, but now it is even a little bit cooler)… I love that verse.