White Water Rafting

Who - Senior High Students
When - August 23-25
Why - Fun
How - $140.00 per person (start saving now and you only have to save $12/week)
Where - The Kennebec through Windfall Rafting and Moose River Outpost in Jackman


Mark your calendars and start saving your pennies

New Summer Schedule

FYI, the Summer Schedule just went up on the "Schedule" page of the Blog.  

You should check it out.

No seriously, click on Schedule and read it...

Girls Only This Saturday

Hey all, my grandfather passed away this week, and Philip and I will be at the funeral on Saturday, and won't be able to be at Youth Group.  Jenny and Leighanna will be hosting a Girls Only night.  Ladies, the plan is to have some fun, and based on the ideas I have heard from Jenny, ot should be a lot of fun.   Guys we will find a way to make it up to you soon...

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.

Parent Cue February/March

I have been lax in updating the Parent Cue portion of the Blog (or any portion for that matter)  Hopefully this will get you up to speed. 

Two weeks ago we asked the question, “If pastors can’t even agree about the Bible, how is a teenager supposed to get anything useful out of it?”

Since so many leaders have different opinions on some pretty big issues, it isn’t enough to believe something just because someone told us we should, we need to know why we believe it. 

What we need is some way of taking the thousands of verses in the Bible and transforming them from words on a page into passionate personal beliefs.

Thankfully this is not a new problem in 2013.  2000ish years ago people were wrestling with the same issue.  Since Jesus left, different of His faithful followers had different ideas on how Christians were supposed to live.  Paul gave some advice in his letter to the church in Rome, that we’ve been unpacking for the last few weeks

Some ideas from Romans 14:

·         I should live like I belong to God.  That means that I care what He thinks about everything I do. (that requires that I find out what He thinks, by using my Bible)
·         I should not do anything that will make it easier for someone else to sin.  We all have the power to influence.  How am I using it?
·         If I am not sure what God thinks about it, I shouldn’t do it (But I should find out, using my Bible).
·         If I feel the need to be sneaky about it, I shouldn’t do it.

We also get some help from 1^st Corinthians:

·         God decides right and wrong, not my feelings.  Just because I don’t feel guilty about something doesn’t mean it is right.
·         Everything is allowed, but not everything is helpful.
·         Everything is allowed, but I will not become addicted to anything.

So when a decision comes up we can now run it through this filter. When we open the Bible we can look for how it reveals God's character, rather than just looking for rules.

But how does this apply to the behavior of others?  1 Corinthians and our passage in Romans 14 have some tips for us here as well.

1.       Let non-Christians off the hook.  Don’t expect people who aren’t Christians to act like Christians. 

a.       We (Christians) have given ourselves a really bad name, for being “anti-sinner”.  That’s odd because Christ was known as a “friend of sinners”.

b.      Instead, know why you personally choose to refrain from a certain activity or behavior (or why you choose to participate) and feel free to explain how happy you are with your decision. (avoid telling them that what they are doing is dumb or just wrong…)

2.       When it comes to other Christians, leave room for disagreement. Remember for 2000 years people who have devoted their lives to the study of the Bible haven’t been able to agree on a list of behaviors we should and shouldn’t do, or even a list of facts about God.  Here are a few ideas to help you navigate such disagreements. 

a.       There are certain lines you don’t cross.  There are behaviors that all Christians should be able to agree are wrong.  It is a short list, so get to know it well: Sex outside of marriage, Greed, worshiping anything other than God, abuse, drunkenness, and stealing/cheating. (1 Corinthians 5:11) If anyone tries to tell you that God is cool with one of these behaviors, they are lying to you.  The Bible is clear, if someone claims to be a Christian but are doing one (or more) of these, don’t have anything to do with them until they stop. Period. (remember these are the standards for Christians, if they aren’t claiming to be a Christian, then don’t hold them to Christian standards.)

b.      Something not on that short list might be a sin for you, and not be a sin for someone else.  A certain behavior might be perfectly okay for you, but it could be a sin for them.  We are all unique in our strengths and weaknesses, unique it what could easily distract  us from living like we belong to God. 

c.       When you have a disagreement over whether something is a sin, ask yourself, does the other person live like they belong to God, and do they have biblical reasons for what they believe?  Are they the kind of person who generally loves and serves others? (are you?) If so you can probably agree to disagree.

d.      Instead of lecturing, have conversations about where you disagree.  Remember Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.  It could be that you have something to learn or that you have something to teach, but it doesn’t matter which if you don’t have love.

e.      If they are sinning against you, there’s a proper way to deal with it.  You can read about it in Matthew 18. 

f.        If they are just doing something you’ve chosen not to do… Judge, but don’t condemn.  This is an important difference.  We need to be think through our actions, and our motives.  We don’t have to accept everyone else’s ideas.  We should have deep convictions. This is judgment.  But whether or not the other person is really a Christian, is up to God, not up to me.  I can't condemn someone, and it isn't my place to punish them for disagreeing with me.

That’s a lot of information.  So let me sum it up.

·         There are standards God has set.  But it’s a pretty short list.  Get to know it.

·         Don’t hold not-yet-Christians to Christian Standards

·         Know what you believe and why.

·         Make every decision like God cares deeply about what you are going to do.

 

Over the next few weeks we  will try to apply these ideas to some real life scenarios, so that we can practice.  If you have any scenarios you'd like to suggest, I'd love to hear from you!

Bye Bye Bhani

One of our friends is headed to the West Coast.

Bhani! We will miss you!

If you are interested in saying good bye to Bhani, please join us on Saturday Night at 24/7, as this will be her last week in town before moving west.