The youth ministry at the Central Church of Christ in Athens, AL believes that being a disciple of Jesus means three basic things: love God, love each other, and serve the world.
Once a relationship is developed with God, the next step is to love His other children. Paul told the Romans that "the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16-17). If God has adopted us (v. 15), then we are all brothers and sisters, belonging to the same family. As a family, we not only share companionship as siblings, but we also posses the unique qualities of a royal blood line as heirs to God's kingdom. That uniquness is something that we only share with other Christians, and so we depend on them to understand (as no one else can) where we want to go, how we want to get there, and what might cause us to stumble along the way. To help each other, we must first love each other and we come to love one another on Wednesday nights through our small group discussions.
James pointed out that a knowledge of God and even an knowledge of those around us does no good unless that knowledge produces action. He reasoned, "But someone may well say, 'You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works'" (James 2:18). James went on to say that even the demons believe in God, but that belief does not accomplish anything if it is not strong enough to generate good deeds. We hope to show people in the Athens area who God is through our service to them on Sunday afternoons.
