Posts filed under ‘Youth Ministry’
XP3
XP3 kicks off this Sunday for all 7th-12th graders. XP3 is our brand new youth worship experience that will take place on Sundays from 5:30-7:00. Here’s an overview of our first series, Rhythm, along with some ideas for you to continue the conversation with your kids beyond Sunday.
WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:
Here is an overview of what we’re talking about. Listed below the summary is a “parent cue” to help you dialog with your child about the session. The question is intended not just to be asked by you, but to be responded to by BOTH of you. Use this opportunity to find out what God is teaching your child, and allow your child to see what God is teaching you as well.
Rhythm:
Series Overview
Have you ever noticed how connected everything is? It’s almost as if there was some type of unseen structure to all of life, a rhythm. Many of us are oblivious to it until things are out of sync. We know something is wrong, and we can maybe pinpoint a few things around us that are culprits, but deep down we know there is something more going on. We are out of rhythm—with God, with ourselves or with others.
Session One (September 12)
In the beginning, God created a song, a rhythm. Humanity existed in harmony with God, with ourselves and with each other. But then humankind settled for another song–a lesser one–and the rhythm started falling apart. Yet even then, God didn’t walk away, and because of that, we have a way to restore the rhythm with Him, with ourselves and with others.
Session One Parent Cue: The first week of the Rhythm series is designed to help students understand that in the beginning, God established a rhythm. They will unpack the story of creation and the harmony that existed between Adam and God, Adam and nature, and Adam and Eve. They will entertain the idea that from the start, everything worked together in perfect harmony like a beautiful song. But then Adam and Eve made a choice that destroyed the song and threw the rhythm off. They will also look at God’s response to Adam’s sin, and they’ll see that God continues to seek relationship with us even after things have fallen apart. Talk with your teen about how he or she sees the brokenness in the rhythm around them. Feel free to share your observations as well.
Session Two (September 19)
If you’ve been in church for a while, you’ve heard it all and seen it all. You know the stories. You know the songs. You know the words. Many of us even think we know all about God. We think we have Him figured out. We think we know everything about Him, and in our lives, He’s very small. But the reality is that we will never fully grasp how awesome and amazing He is. We can spend a lifetime in awe and wonder, and even an eternity, because He’s that big . . . and that good.
Session Two Parent Cue: This second week, students will be challenged to look at God in new ways. Many times we find that we are so familiar with “churchy” descriptions of God that we forget who He really is. And when we forget who God is, how awesome and surprising He can be, then we are tempted to turn our attention and affection to other things and our lives fall out of tune. In week two students will be challenged to discover a God who is bigger than our attempts to define Him. Discuss with your teen ways that God has surprised you and your family with how big He is.
Session Three (September 26)
You’ve heard the words before–“love your neighbor as yourself”–but most of the time we don’t really hear the second half of that. We don’t love ourselves. Perhaps it’s because it just seems wrong. After all, as followers of Christ, we are supposed to become less as He becomes more. But for some of us, somewhere along the way we’ve confused humility with self-hatred. God wants us to be in rhythm with ourselves because when we aren’t, it throws off the rest of the song.
Session Three Parent Cue: This week students will explore the things that create tension in their own self-perception and learn the ugly truth: Being in rhythm with ourselves and being in rhythm with God go hand in hand. How we view God our Creator affects how we view His creation, ourselves. They will consider the masks they wear and the faults they try to cover up, and they’ll receive a challenge to begin to shed those masks and be at peace with who they really are. Talk openly and candidly with your student this week about the things both of you have a hard time accepting when it comes to the faults you see in yourself. How can you better accept yourselves as you are?
Session Four (October 3)
No person can have a life of rhythm unless he or she is at peace with other people. That’s easy to say but hard to live, isn’t it? But following Jesus means being passionate about what He is passionate about–and Jesus is passionate about people. So if we want to be in rhythm, we not only have to be in sync with God and ourselves, we also have to be in sync with others.
Session Four Parent Cue: No person can have a life in rhythm if they are not at peace with the people around them. In the final week of this series students will be challenged to be in rhythm with others, to be passionate about serving those they encounter and to seek forgiveness and reconciliation when needed. How can you work at making this a regular practice in your family?
Forget the Pizza!
I try to keep up with what’s going on in the overall landscape of youth ministry and in youth culture and today I found this article published by the USA Today giving a brief description and explanation as to why a lot of teens just don’t care about church any more.
Take a look at the article and if you have any personal ideas about what we can do as a youth ministry to counter some of the reasons teens stop caring about church submit a comment.
Local Missions
This week is local missions week for our youth ministry. Our students are serving and ministering to our local children’s home, Children’s Hope, by painting walls in their new facility. Today was the first day and we nearly finished painting in the boys’ bedrooms! They did an awesome job! We will finish the bedrooms tomorrow and begin painting in some of the offices. If you haven’t seen the new facility yet, stop by what used to be West Elementary tomorrow afternoon. We will be heading out at 12:30 again tomorrow. Don’t let your kids miss this incredible opportunity to be a part of our local missions week!
It’s Here….
We’ve been waiting…counting down the days since Spring Break (or since Christmas…or perhaps since Labor Day). Now it’s time to throw away alarm clocks, break in new flip flops, shop for new swim suits (no two-pieces of course), and prepare for the shortest 12 weeks known to mankind. That’s right! It’s SUMMER!!!
Since I was a kid summer has always been a time for me to focus on all the church trips…camps, mission trips, concerts, six flags, VBS, more mission trips, putt-putt golf tournaments, trips to the lake…you get the point. Our church inundated us with non-stop activity from the last day of school till the first day of school. And I can honestly say those were the days I grew closer to God, learned more about what it means to follow Jesus, and built incredible Christ-honoring friendships.
Summer has changed…A LOT…since I was a kid. Sometimes it seems like the start of the school year is a welcome respite from the busyness of the summer months. Our summers are totally consumed by things like basketball camp, cheer camp, football camp, band camp, theater camp, practices, basketball tournaments, baseball tournaments (do you remember when basketball and baseball were seasonal sports?), summer jobs, college classes (do you remember when college was something we did after high school…and when we never did school during the summer?), 7 on 7 football, etc., etc., etc.
I know many of you have experienced first-hand just how crazy summer can be. And at the same time I can’t minimize the importance of things like mission experiences, camps, and other intentional and strategic ministry activities that take place during the summer months when it comes to the spiritual growth of teens. So this summer we’ve made some changes to the summer schedule that should make it easier for everyone to participate. We only have one week-long out of town trip…MPact…which will include a mission experience, discipleship and worship times, and a lot of fun! But we have built into the summer many one day ministry events, local mission experiences, and family events.
Take a look at our E3 Summer of the 10 schedule. If you’re on FaceBook join the E3 Student Ministry group. Check the church website regularly. Find times that your teen can be involved. Find times that you can be involved. Join me in being very intentional about helping our students grow closer to God, learn more about what it means to follow Jesus, and build incredible Christ-honoring friendships this summer.
STS 131
Yesterday morning I sat glued to the television for about 30 minutes waiting to watch the Space Shuttle Discovery land safely at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I can’t think of very many shuttle landings I have missed in the past several years. I’ve always been fascinated with NASA…I even had a boyhood dream of wanting to be an astronaut. Still I would love to be at a shuttle launch or landing in person (there are only 3 shuttle missions left before the shuttle program will be retired by NASA).
One of the things that I love about watching the landing and listening in on the communication between mission control and the shuttle commander is the teamwork involved. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how many people it takes to successfully bring the shuttle back to Earth.
It kind of reminds me of how much teamwork is required in helping teenagers navigate the turbulent years between childhood and adulthood…especially when it comes to spiritual discipling. The Bible makes it clear that God’s plan is for parents to teach and to train their children spiritually. But I know that in many cases grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and mentors, and pastors and even youth ministers play a role in the discipling process as well.
As a youth minister, I’m so thankful for the teamwork involved and I want to make sure that as a youth ministry we are doing everything that we can to partner with you as parents in teaching and training your children spiritually. I also want to make sure that we have the same goals in mind…imagine what would happen with the space shuttle if everybody on the team had a different landing area in mind when trying to work together to safely land the shuttle at the end of a mission. Our youth ministry has 3 primary goals:
1. To help students fall in love with God and grow deeper in their relationship with Him.
2. To help students experience authentic Christian community.
3. To help students become servants…to provide opportunities for students to serve others and develop a lifestyle of serving others.
40 Days
Today is Ash Wednesday. It marks the first day of Lent. For the majority of my life I never really observed Lent. Sadly I was never taught about the spiritual significance of this season. Until a few years ago I never participated in observing Lent. And quite honestly still today I’m somewhat uncomfortable in some circles using the term “Lent.” I know this shouldn’t be the case, but for too many Christians we haven’t been challenged to observe many of the liturgical seasons that can have such an significant impact on our relationship with God. And Lent is one of those seasons.
Last year I posted this entry with a link to an article about Lent. I taught our students about Lent and focussed on it as a time of intense focus on God and spiritual growth. Tonight I taught about Lent again. But this time I spent more time talking about why this should be important for us as followers of Jesus. I referred to the question I asked in Sunday School last Sunday and the question I wrote about in this entry earlier this week. For me when I think about what I deserve…what’s fair…I can’t help but to want to deepen my relationship with God. I want to spend focussed time with Him. I want to spend time in intense study and prayer. I want to allow God to purge me of anything in my life that doesn’t need to be there. I want to allow Him to change the way I talk, the things I do, and the words I say. And I believe with an incredible amount of conviction that once our students accept what is fair and right and just (that they die and go to hell) any apathy that exists will be replaced with a passionate desire to know more of God, to allow God to change them, to tell others about God’s amazing grace and unconditional love. There will be a natural desire and an unexplainable urgency to live as Jesus lived, to love as Jesus loved, and to leave behind what Jesus left behind. I pray for you as a parent and for your teenager that during this season of Lent you would spend intentional time focussing on your relationship with God and that you would allow God to grow you, to stretch you, to refine you, and to change you as He sees fit. Yes, this can (and should) happen throughout the year, but let’s take advantage of this season that is before us as we prepare our hearts to remember the ultimate sacrifice that was made for you and for me.
Youth “Bring One” Party This Sunday
So this coming Sunday, February 7, there is a major championship game for a major sport that is not baseball or basketball. The game will begin at 5:30 pm and will be shown on a major television network. Now, the governing body of this major sport has set some pretty strict limits on what can be used publicly in reference to this game (i.e. it would be a copyright infringement if I used the actual name of this game on this website…but it rhymes with “pooper roll”).
Anyhoo…our students will be getting together for the purpose of watching this game on Sunday at 5:15 at the home of Ricky and Wanda Lawless. We will be eating hamburgers and hotdogs. All girls that come need to bring one bag of chips and one dip that goes with the chosen bag of chips. (I would be eternally grateful if a couple of you girls would come with a hot crock-pot full of queso!). All the guys that come need to bring one batch of brownies or cookies.
The name “Bring One” was chosen because there are a few “ones” that everyone needs to bring: Bring one snack (see the instructions in the above paragraph); Bring one can of food (for our local food ministry); Bring $1 (for our student ministry’s Compassion International sponsor child); Bring one friend (if possible…more than one would be okay too).
If you have any other questions about this party feel free to give me a call in the church office.
What’s The Deal With Guys?
I read a lot of articles every day. This one caught and captured my attention as this is an issue I deal with every day. It’s worth sharing because I know it’s an issue many of you deal with every day as well. Take a look at the article here and let me know your thoughts.
E3 Youth This Wednesday
This week we will be meeting at the Runkles house (1006 Cactus) from 6-7:30.
New Website for Youth
I’m excited to finally announce the arrival of our brand new youth website.
Tell your kids!!!
