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MPact
This summer our students will experience an incredible week that will include lots of unbelievable fun, missions, and worship all in one trip…MPACT!
I’ve seen how God uses trips like this to completely turn lives upsides down, to break individuals and groups, to transform hearts and minds, and to ultimately draw individuals closer to Him. Because of the impact a trip like this can have we want every student in our youth ministry to be a part of this trip. We have worked hard to keep the price affordable and for those who need additional financial help there are many people in our church who have given money so that nobody has to miss out. Here are a few details of the trip:
Dates: July 9-17
Cost: $220
Deposit: $50 Due by May 16
Activities: Rangers Game, Six Flags, Mission Arlington Bible Clubs, Worship, Great Wolf Lodge and Water Park, Whirlyball, Speedzone, and more!
We also need adult sponsors to go on this trip. Please call the church office if you would like to go as a sponsor. Trust me…it will be the best week of your summer!
Basketball and Community
Last Friday I sat in the United Spirit Arena and watched the Levelland girls basketball team play in the regional tournament along with hundreds of other Loboette fans. As I sat there watching the game, cheering for our girls, and observing others in the seats my mind begin working in overdrive thinking about the parallels between what takes place during the basketball season and what takes place in authentic Christian community. During halftime I pulled out my phone and typed out a few thoughts that have had some time to marinate since then. During the next few days I will be blogging about some of those parallels and hopefully challenging all of us as believers to live out community as it is modeled in the Bible.
Suffering Well
A few weeks ago I shared this post about Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX. I found this article written about him last weekend. Reading the article was a huge encouragement and challenge for me and I wanted to share it with you.
Sunday Small Groups
Yesterday our youth small groups discussed Pentecost. This event recorded in Acts 2 marked the beginning of the new community of believers soon to be known as Christians…Christ-followers.
Over the past few weeks we have learned about the foundation of the church…Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; about the purpose of the church…to make disciples; about the strategy of the church…we get our power from the Holy Spirit, we are to be witnesses for Christ, and we are to start at home and work outwards to the rest of the world; and about the fact that sometimes we have to obediently wait for God to work…just as the apostles waited for the Holy Spirit to come.
From here our small groups will begin to look at the characteristics of the early church. We will carefully evaluate to see if our youth ministry possesses these same characteristics and what we can do to more closely follow the model that was set for us in the early church.
I encourage you to read through the first few chapters of Acts. Make a list of the qualities of the early church and have conversations with your teens about what it must have been like to be a part of this new community.
On the road…again
Tomorrow our entire church staff is going to Dallas to attend a one day conference on children’s, youth, and family ministry. I am really excited about this conference and what we will be able to bring back home with us. Next week I’ll be blogging about my experience at the conference.
Strategery
Yesterday in Sunday School our youth discussed the strategy that Jesus gave us to fulfill our purpose (to make disciples). The verse we looked at was Acts 1:8. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The strategy includes: 1. Living a Spirit driven life (…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…); 2. Living a purpose focused life (…and you will be my witnesses…); and 3. Living a vision directed life (…in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth).
We ended by evaluating our own lives. How focused is your life on the purpose and strategy that Jesus gives us as believers when it comes to how you spend your time, your money, and your energy? Laser sharp? Needs adjustment? Total blur? In your day to day life how important is being Christ’s witness to you? Very important? Somewhat important? Not very important? How would you grade yourself on how much effort you put into being a witness for Christ? A? B? C? F?
What do you do as a family to make sure you are pursuing the purpose Jesus has for you as believers?
“Christ is All”
One of my heroes in ministry is Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. Matt has had an incredible spiritual influence in my life and in the lives of thousands of others. On Thanksgiving day Matt had a seizure at his home and was rushed to the hospital. Tests revealed a brain tumor and a week later he underwent brain surgery. The pathology report came back…Matt has Anaplastic oligodendroglioma…brain cancer. Matt is my age. He has a wife and 3 small children.
The phrase that I see and hear often from Matt is this: “Christ is All.” As long as I have known him and listened to his teaching he has spoken and lived this phrase. And now he still speaks and lives it.
Christ is all. I’ve been evaluating my own life in light of this phrase. Is Christ all? Is Christ all in my marriage? Is Christ all in my job? Is Christ all in my day to day tasks? Is Christ all in my free time? Is Christ all in my checkbook? Is Christ all in my words? Is Christ all in my thoughts? Is Christ all in my home? Is Christ all in my attitude? Is Christ all when things are going great? Is Christ all when things seem to be falling apart? Am I living this out? My prayer for myself is that I would be able to say and follow through with my life “Christ is all.”
I also want more than anything for this to be the message we teach and live out in our youth ministry. It doesn’t matter what we do… teach great lessons, play fun games, take exciting trips, build incredible facilities, sing loud songs, build deep friendships…none of it matters if Christ is not all. Would you join me in praying fervently and regularly that Christ would be all in our youth ministry and in the lives of all of our students, parents, and workers?
Go Ahead and Mark Your Calendar…
Our big youth trip for the summer will be July 9-17. We will be going to Arlington for some fun time (Rangers game, Six Flags, Great Wolf Lodge), some mission work (with Mission Arlington), and some times of intense worship. Please plan on keeping this week open for your teens. We need everybody to be a part of this trip. Lots more details coming soon!
27 Hours…
In just 27 short hours we will have our E3 Parent Open house and meeting! I hope you have made plans to be here tomorrow at 6:00. We’ll be meeting upstairs in the new E3 Lounge. We will be talking about the summer events for 2010 and there will be the new 2010 E3 Release forms available to fill out.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Withitness
I learned about the term “withitness” today while studying for the Sunday School lesson. Apparently “withitness” is being used in education circles to describe a teacher’s awareness of everything that is going on in the classroom at all times.
So, naturally I thought about how else I could use the term…scrabble, boggle, confusing my daughter…or maybe as a term to describe a parent’s awareness of everything that is going on in the world of their teenager.
I am a student of youth culture and I’ll be the first to admit that it is next to impossible to keep up with everything going on in the world of the teenager because as soon as you think you have it figured out, everything changes. However there are some great tools to help old folks like us. And the best tool I’ve found is the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. Take a look at their website. They have some great articles and resources for parents, but pay particular attention to the research and trends section. This is one of the best ways to keep up with teen pop culture on a weekly basis. I hope this will help you with your withitness!
