August 14, 2026

The Christ In Youth organization has had a lasting impact on my life and ministry. The Missouri-based ministry focusing on reaching pre-teens and teens with the Gospel has been impacting the lives of youth for decades. I attended their high school summer conference when I was a teenager. It was at one of those conferences that I experienced my call into vocational ministry. I took hundreds of middle and high school students from White Oak to their conferences over the years when I served as the Student Ministry Pastor here. One conference experience CIY offered for many years was a short weekend conferenced call “Discipleship.” CIY sensed something in the early 2000’s that resonates as a deep need today: Christian people must apprentice to Jesus.

Over the years CIY became a leader in putting on conferences that grabbed the attention and the hearts of thousands of teenagers across the country (and even the world). Engaging energetic worship music, skits and dramas which inspired, an emphasis on fun that made the experiences relevant, as well as evangelism and biblical teaching that catalyzed teens to do something big in the name of Jesus! All of that existed. But something was missing.

I look at our churches today and I see that CIY was acting upon what they saw happening in their local churches. Many people were worshiping, being entertained, and hearing great teaching from the Bible. The question that rose to the top, however was: Were those things making actual disciples of Jesus? Was The Church producing apprentices to Jesus?

Over the last two years at White Oak, we have been engaging in that conversation. When I first met with our staff and leaders to lay out our emphasis on spiritual formation beginning in 2024 this is what I shared. Formation means we are being shaped into the image of Jesus for the sake of others. We borrowed language from John Mark Comer. We want to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, to do the things Jesus did. But I didn’t want this to simply be a theme for our sermons or a focus for a season at White Oak. I want spiritual formation to become the heartbeat of our church. That we would become a church who takes seriously our apprenticing to Jesus. I want us to become a church who embraces the spiritual rhythms that allow us to spend intentional time getting to know God’s heart. That we would become the kind of church who would reflect Jesus in our interior lives, in our relationships, our homes, and in our communities. That we would become a gathering of apprentices who mimic Jesus’s actions and his heart in our lives.

So, it begs the question: How are we doing? Are you spending more time being with Jesus than you did a year ago? Listening to him and learning from him? Do you notice the subtle ways in which you are being formed more into his image? Have you taken up a new heart, posture, or attitude that reflect that of Jesus? Are you doing more of the things which Jesus spent his earthly life doing? Some of us may despair as we look at our lives in answer to these questions. Some of us may boast in our efforts toward spiritual maturity. Others may be someplace in between. If this is how we view formation and the practicing of formational rhythms we’ve missed the point entirely.

Though Scripture paints a picture of our spiritual maturing as a journey (Paul often alludes to the spiritual life as a “walk” and prays often for the Church to grow in depth of the knowledge of Jesus), the Bible also gives us a picture of urgency to the advancement of the Gospel (Jesus says the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few). We must hold both in tension. We must ask the Spirit to form us to the image of Jesus (knowing this is a process) and at the same time we must ask the Spirit to do so with a sense of urgency (moving us toward intimacy and obedience)! Intimacy with Jesus is the goal. Offering ourselves to his work is the goal.

Allow me to encourage you not to despair and not to boast. You aren’t racing against someone else nor are you building up points for entry to heaven. Those of us who call ourselves Christians have been invited by Jesus to apprentice to him. No matter where you are on the journey, there has never been a better time to offer more of yourself to his formational work in your life. Truth be told, he leaves us with no other option.

White Oak Christian Church will be a community of apprentices who are being shaped into the image of Jesus for the sake of others.

Your fellow apprentice,

Nathan

Nathan Hinkle

Lead Pastor

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