This week's questions

Each week, we are asking the students who come to Wednesday night youth group to respond to 2 questions. Here are this weeks' questions and responses.

Question 1-What does God require of us?

-Believe in him and his word
-our everything 24/7
-obey him
-he requires us to do the Ten Commandments
-to obey your parents
-obey
-to be good people
-to listen to your older sister
-to live by his word and not to put no gods before him
-to believe in him
-love, glory and honor
-authenticity
-to do his will with him in mind

Question 2- What are your biggest temptations?

-seeing people happier than me
-peer pressure
-lust
-greed
-to be alone with myself and look at all of the horrible things I have done
-thinking everyone is prettier than me
-rebellion
-lust
-selfishness

Younkers on Saturday

Great News! We get to sell in younkers on Saturday.

We have the 9am-noon/1 shifts. Please let me know if your students are planning on being there.

Here’s how we’ll divide the money:

The money from booklets sold and from Younkers for selling will go into a pot which we’ll divide by the total number of hours worked to create an “hourly wage”. We’ll then multiply that “hourly rate” by the number of hours your students work, and that number will be the money that they earn.

Dress code- no jeans with holes, no t-shirts, no sloppy dress.


Again, our shift is from 9-noon or 1. Please let me know right away if your student is going to join us.

Last night's questions

Last night, we asked the kids to respond to the questions written on 2 white boards in the fellowship hall.

Question 1: Do you have any questions about baptism?

Responses:
What does baptism mean?
Why do people get baptized?
How to schedule one?
Is baptism necessary for salvation?
Is there anything to gain from it?
Why is original sin/sin from my parents so reflective on your life?

Question 2: What good has God done in your life?

Responses:
He has given me everything in the world.
Seen me when I cried and been what I need to get through the night.
He saved me.
Everything.
He has given me hope and joy in troubled times and great parents.
He's been with me when it seemed everyone left. He has seen me through everything.
Loved me when I'm crap, given me incredible friends, been there for me when I wanted him to be.

Next week, we'll be discussing the baptism of Jesus and we'll answer their questions as well. As for the second question, we'll be discussing this more on our Youth Culture day, March 15th, at Eastview Christian Church from 10am-3pm. The second question is dealt with specifically in the "Soul Searching" movie that we will watch that day. We hope you'll join us!

Due to a number of issues, the weather, other fundraisers, lack of interest, we will NOT be doing the yellowbook fundraiser.

Yellowbook Delivery Details

Here are the details for Yellowbook delivery this week...


Monday February 18 Yellowbooks picked up in the afternoon
Tuesday February 19 3:15-5-ish, deliver Yellowbook, meet at Eastview
Thursday February 21 3:15-6-ish, deliver Yellowbook, meet at Eastview
Friday February 22 3:15-6-ish, deliver Yellowbook, meet at Eastview
Saturday February 23 To Be Determined

From Tim Schmoyer, over at "Life in Student Ministry":

What parents’ actions often teach kids about God

Posted on 07 February 2008 by Tim Schmoyer | Trackback link

Actions speak louder than words. Whether parents like it or not, kids see the priorities and values they set for the family and it makes a difference on how kids live their lives.

All the hype over the past couple years about the student drop-out rate from church seems to be focused at the church, specifically the youth workers. Almost every other week I see a new Chicken Little article about how the sky is falling and that youth ministry is failing miserably. However, the biblical structure of raising kids is through the parents, not church youth workers. Statistically, the kids who graduate from high school and stay in the church are not those who had a super-dynamic youth group. Rather, it’s those whose parents have intentionally passed on the faith. Of course, this assumes that parents have a living and vital faith that’s worth passing on. As much as we hate to admit it, we have a lot of parents who are sold out to the world and give lip-service in church, so their kids see that and do the same. Teenagers reflect what they see in the church.

According to the Family Driven Faith audio series by Dr. Voddie Baucham Jr., 92% of families don’t have devotions together even once a year. He also says that the average Christian family has less than 30 minutes of spiritual discussion each week. Maybe the church should focus more on discipling parents who will in turn pass that on to their kids.

I wish we heard more Deuteronomy 6:1-9 values being passed along to students by parents, but instead youth workers hear, “We won’t be at church for the next couple weeks because Jonny made the traveling baseball team.” Actions speak louder than words! Students learn that sports trump God so they can collect trophies that will collect dust in the basement in 40 years. And then we say idolatry isn’t alive in our churches? No wonder church is often a student’s last priority.

Even our homes communicate something about priorities. In most American families, the TV is the focal point of the living room. Notice that all the furniture is arranged around the room to focus on it, as if it’s the alter of our homes. Maybe family priorities need to change, not just “We go to church once a week unless something better comes up,” thinking that will somehow teach our kids that God is important, but in integrating God into daily life and decisions.

Lest I be misunderstood, I am not trying to blame parents as many have done to youth workers. Rather, youth workers need to consider parents as a vital contact for reaching students for Christ knowing that they have a much bigger impact in their lives than we ever will.

My Personal Story
My parents definitely didn’t do everything right, but one thing they did get right: they communicated by their actions and decisions that God always comes first. As kids, we noticed that and learn valuable lessons from it. When my brother was invited to join the travel soccer team, my parents made him turn it down because their games were on Sunday mornings. When we had wrestling matches on Sunday mornings, we’d always go to church instead. We often saw financial priorities when they spent money on helping other people even though we knew money was very tight at home. My dad taught us the Bible almost every day, including lots of scripture memorization (that I still use today!). Now that we’re grown and out of the house, every one of us are leaders in either vocational or volunteer ministry. Coincidence?

I understand this is all by God’s grace, not a formula with guaranteed results, but following God’s family principles definitely seems to have a better rate of return than any other alternative.

CIY Discipleship Info

The event itself will be held at Harvester Christian Church in St Charles Missouri. St Charles is a suburb of St Louis.

We'll be staying at the Days Inn in St Charles. The Address is 2781 Veterans Memorial Parkway, and the phone number there is 636-949-8700.

We will be leaving by 8am Friday morning and be in St Louis by noon. the plan is to check into the hotel, eat, and then go downtown to the Gateway Arch.

There is an evening session Friday night, and then we'll be back at Harvester Christian Church Saturday morning and afternoon for the rest of the conference. We plan to be home by no later than 10pm Saturday night.

Due to inclement weather, youth group for tonight, February 6th, is canceled.