Update July 2013

Just wanted to take a minute to share a few important updates:

There will be No youth group this Saturday June 15th, as the youth ministry staff (along with many other ministry teams) has been asked to join the deacons for a special meeting of many of ministry leaders and church volunteers.

Instead of switching to our summer schedule on the 17th, we will have regular Youth Group (aka 24/7) on the 22nd to make up for not having youth group on the 15th.

Also, in case you missed out Saturday night, we heard some fantastic stories from people who had practiced the Private Discipline of "Pray, Read, Think, Write, Pray" (PRTWR) this week.  (I especially loved Abby's story about a tough situation with a teacher, and how some verses from Proverbs got her through it.)  We talked about our priorities again, and threw out the challenge to write down what you think your priorities should be, then see how much time you spend actually doing the things you say are important.  If you aren't sure what your priorities should be, then just keep track of what you actually do, and you'll find out what your priorities are.

Remember - God's priority for my life is that I become more like Jesus.

If we say that we love God with all of our Heart Soul Mind and Strength, and our Neighbor as ourself, but our actions don't back it up, we have a problem. As we read in James,  "Faith without actions is dead."

So while it is good to know what do you believe.  It is more important to be able to describe how what you believe impacts what you do.  After all "It is useless to know truth if you have no intention of doing anything about it."

Thoughts from the Orange Conference - Students

On my personal blog, I will be doing a series of posts on my thoughts from the Orange Conference.  A youth ministry convention I just attended outside Atlanta with 2 of our volunteers.  Here are some of my thoughts from the conference that have to do with 24/7.

I've only given bullet points, because I want you to have to ask questions.  So post a comment, call me or e-mail me if you want to know more.

• The 4G gospel – we were created “Good” and of great worth to God.  “Guilt” from our sin separates us from that goodness and from God.  “Grace” inspired God to send Jesus to make a way for our relationship with God to be reconciled, and it is “Gratitude” for what God has done that motivates us to turn from evil do good.
• Set specific goals for each year (ie for the freshmen, for the sophomores, etc…) and communicate those goals to each student, mentor and parent.
• Connect them to service, not to a person or a program.  People and programs can be taken away, but if they learn to love God through serving others, they can build new relationships and programs.
• Match-make inter-generational partnerships 1 at a time.
• Provide them with specific actions they can take to be missionaries at school
• Invite them to invite others
• Don’t just assimilate them into the youth ministry; assimilate them out of it as well.
• When it comes to your program Only do what you can do with excellence
• When it comes to relationships remember that God is more interested in your availability than in your ability.
• Teach them how to study the bible; don’t just tell them to do it.  For starters try this: “Pray, Read, Think, Write, Pray.”  Pray – that you will understand what you are about to read, Read – keep it small enough to digest, Think of something you can do with what you've read, Write it down (no longer than a tweet or Facebook status), Pray – that God will help you practice what you've read.
• Give them goals then can attain.  (one example- Going from 0 bible study to 7 days a week would be great, but they may feel like failures if they don’t meet that, shoot for 4 days for starters, and work up from there)
• Remember that the lesson isn't over until it has been applied
• Teach their parents about grace – teen years are when they should be transitioning from doing what is right out of guilt (or fear of punishment) to doing it out of gratitude for the Grace God showed them when he sent Jesus.  Grace will need to be modeled in the home.
• Change the gauge of success – from results to steps.  (one example: rather than how many friends have gotten saved, to how many times you shared your testimony.)
• Students won’t believe they are significant until they are given something significant to do.

Now I hope that something you just read provoked some thoughts, and that you will share those thoughts by calling, emailing or posting a comment!

Hopefully we will have blog posts from Jenny and Leigh-anna coming soon.

April Update

Hey Parents,

If you want to know what we will be studying in the near future take a look at the book "Radical" by David Platt.  We won't be doing a direct book study with the teens, but we will be using the scripture references and some of the big ideas presented in the book as a framework for our discussion.

Also, Our youth ministry team will also be doing a small group where we actually study the book and the scriptural foundations on which it is built.  Let me know if you are interested in joining the youth ministry volunteers for this small group and I will fill you in on the date and time.

We are hoping to pull together a few youth events for April Vacation.  We will let you know about those as soon as we have the final details in place.  We've also started looking at some summer ministry opportunities, including partnering with Child Evangelism Fellowship's summer day camps.

This summer we will be experimenting with a way of customizing 24/7 to the different needs of Jr. and Sr. High students.  We will want your feed back on that when the time comes.

Don't forget our schedule:

Saturday 5:30-8:00 PM:  24/7 for students from 6-12th grade.  50% fun and fellowship 50% Bible study. Across the rail road tracks at the church gym.

Wednesdays 3:30-4:30 PM: Sr. High Bible Study verse by verse through the word with Kate Whitty, in the family resource room of the main church building.

Sundays 9-10:00 AM: Sunday School for 6-12th grades with Craig Allen.