At Lebanon Road, we have spent a lot of time in prayer recently for a wonderful five-year-old boy. Blake Rader was diagnosed last week with a brain tumor, and underwent an 8-hour surgery last Friday. Dozens of people came to the hospital to be with his parents, Michael and Connie, and the outpouring of love through prayer, notes, online messages, and other acts of kindness has been nothing short of amazing.

Yesterday, Blake had to go back to the ER here in Nashville with more difficulties. He and his parents spent the night at Vanderbilt Children’s hospital, awaiting more results from more tests.

If you want to know more of Blake’s “story,” here is the link to his Caring Bridge site.

Honestly, this has been quite a strain on many of us–but none of us more than the family. But we are praying…a lot.

Today, I am asking for something very special, and I am setting my sights high. At 12:00 Eastern (11:00 Central, 10:00 Mountain, etc.), I am asking you to pray for 10 minutes for Blake and his family. I would like to know that at least 2000 people are praying for that stretch of time for this wonderful little boy.

I am asking for three things:

1. That you pray. Whether you are alone, in an office, at home, in a classroom, on a break,…wherever, please take these 10 minutes to pray fervently.

2. Post a picture of you or your group praying on the “Pray for Blake” group on Facebook. [If you are not on Facebook, email me the picture, and I'll post it for you.] Include your location, so we can know how far the influence of this good family is known.

3. Again, I think we can have 2000 people, whether we get pictures from them all or not. Please help spread the word, and then take this great little boy before God’s throne. I’ll meet you there as we pray.

I don’t do very many “odds and ends” posts, but I have a few short notes to share, so I thought I’d empty the file. Enjoy!

Time to Finally Share All These Notes!

1. Lebanon Road is now on Twitter! If you want to follow what’s going on at Lebanon Road, just follow @lrcoc at this link: https://twitter.com/#!/lrcoc We will update with news and notes every so often, and are encouraging our members to follow this via text message.

2. This Sunday, January 8, is the last day for guys ages 20-33 in Middle Tennessee to apply for the mentoring program I outlined earlier this week. If you did not see that post, click here.

3. We rarely put both Sunday sermons on our Lebanon Road podcast, but we did this week. Sunday night’s sermon just went live. If you do not follow the podcast, here is the website: http://sermonsintheshadowofthecross.podbean.com/ , or  you can find us on iTunes.

4. Finally, the Lebanon Road website has gotten a major face lift and is looking great! We want to thank Shane Williams for making the site look good, while keeping it informative. Take a few moments and stop by http://www.lebanonroadchurchofchrist.org . I think you’ll like what you see.

Tonight after our evening services at Lebanon Road, I met with our young adult men, ages 20-33. At that meeting, I told them the substance of this post, and also that this was going live on the blog tonight.

To get to the point: I’m beginning a Christian mentoring program for young adult men, and I want you to know about it. The program is one year in length, and will be a time of true Christian growth and maturity. While I know it is somewhat rare to “publicize” such a group, I have to start this somewhere. My prayer is that it is a success and “word of mouth” keeps it going for years to come.

The document below needs to be read very closely, but let me hit a few highlights for you.

1. The group will be limited to no more than 8 guys in 2012, and there are “priorities” to fill those slots listed in the document.

2. You must be between the ages of 20 and 33 to apply, and you must live close enough to Nashville to be truly involved.

3. The deadline to apply is next Sunday (January 8 ), as our first meeting will be in late January.

There is one correction to this document. The monthly meetings are listed as 150 minutes long. That should be a “maximum” of 150 minutes. Most will be closer to 120 minutes, including supper.

If you are interested, please read this document very carefully and in deep prayer to see all the requirements of those who are involved. If you are not willing to do all that is involved, please do not apply. If there is no interest in such a program, that’s okay. I want to offer it, but I want to do this well and to truly have all involved be invested in the program.

The final page of the document is an application and agreement for the program. It also explains how to apply “online” (really, via email). If there are more than 8 who apply, we are still going to limit this to eight men per year. If you are not selected, it is no reflection on you, and I would strongly urge you to apply again for 2013. I am limiting myself to 8 for my own time and for the amount of attention that is needed for each person involved to have a successful mentoring program.

Thank you for considering the mentoring program. If you are not interested, I would ask your prayers for those who are and for me as I do my best to lead this group. If you are interested, please apply by next Sunday. I will go through any and all applications and contact everyone by Wednesday, January 11 with the list of who is involved and when the first meeting will take place.

Mentor Guidelines 2012