Friday, March 26, 2010

High School/Middle School Youth Group Recaps, March 21-27, 2010

High School Youth Group--March 21, 2010

Topic: The second week of discussion of the book, Dateable: Are You? Are They? has been awesome. Our students are learning about relationships, character and recognizing lies that have been told to them, their friends, themselves and even those they may have done to others. We talked about how our actions are important and what our actions say about us and how they make others feel. How if their friends ask them to lie for them, they will lie to them. It's great seeing our students talk honestly, openly and looking at their own relationships and expectations.

Take away: We need to be truth-tellers and truth-hearers in our relationships with others.

Next week:
We continue this study next week with talking about their appearances, revealing clothes and physical boundaries.

A quick reminder....we will not be having Youth Group April 4th Easter Sunday. We want the kids to enjoy that celebration time with their families.


Middle School Youth Group--March 24, 2010

Topic: We talked about our need to trust God when He tells us to do things. We talked about the example of Jonah, found in Jonah 1.

Take Away: God wants us to be obedient to Him. As He asks us to do things, and we do them, we learn that He is trustworthy. We cannot simply say that we love Him with words and then not do what He asks.

Next Week: We'll be talking about Jesus' desire to heal us, using several stories of Him casting out demons.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

E-Klub/Youth Group Recaps, March 14-20, 2010

High School Youth Group--March 14, 2010

Topic: Chapters 1-3 of "Dateable": discussion of the nature of high school dating relationships and the tactics guys and girls use in these relationships.

Take away: High school dating relationships will always end.

Next week: Chapters 4-6 of "Dateable": the lies teens tell to make high school dating work.


Middle School Youth Group--March 17, 2010

Topic: We talked about the ways that God speaks to us, using Daniel 5:1-30 as our story.

Take Away: god is speaking to us, and will often go to great lengths to get our attention. He wants us to talk about all aspects of our lives with Him.

Next Week: We'll be talking about God's love for us, as shown in the book of Jonah.

E-Klub--March 17, 2010

Topic: Last night we continued Operation Space. Last night was a continuation of things we learned the week before. We will have the same topic for two weeks then move to a new one.

Take Away: Last night, in our skit, we met a young girl names Sydney. She works at the planetarium. She taught us that there are 100 billion stars in the sky. We also learned that God has a name for all of them. Sydney's boss says that working at the planetarium you need to "leave your Bible at home." Over the next few weeks she will learn that her boss is wrong. She fell asleep stargazing and woke up on a space ship. She is starting her cadet training. Our memory verse for this week is still from 2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God".

Next week:
Next week we will talk about the authority of the Bible.

Friday, March 12, 2010

E-Klub/Youth Group Recaps, March 7-13 2010

High School Youth Group--March 7, 2010

Topic: Our topic was "The benefit of face-to-face relationships when loving others. We talked about Facebook, texting, technology and cliques that can develop within our group. Scripture used was James 2 and 1 Corinthians 11.

Take Away: The students were challenged to build personal relationships that went beyond Facebook friends and to look outside of their existing groups of friends and build relationships with others.

Next Week: We are starting our "Dateable" series...first up? Chapters 1-3.


Middle School Youth Group--March 10, 2010

Topic: We talked about the weird instructions that God sometimes gives us to follow. Scripture used was Ezekiel 4.

Take Away: The students were asked to consider what instructions God may be giving to them, and whether or not they would recognize them as from God.

Next Week: We'll be talking about being courageous for God, as told through the book of Daniel.

E-Klub--March 10, 2010

Topic: We started our new series called Operation Space. Among many things we talked about was how huge our universe is, how to measure it, how fast light travels, and the most important thing, we had a close encounter of the Bible kind.

Take Away: We learned how truly unique the Bible is. We gave the Bible awards as we named off how one-of-a-kind it is. We learned facts about how the Bible was first copied, how many languages it's been translated into, that it's the most read and best selling book, and how some kings and emperors tried to ban it, burn it, and ultimately get rid of the Bible. Having no success. Our memory verse for this week comes from 2 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God".

Next week: We will talk about the authority of the Bible.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

The Messiah is "MORE"

Wow! Or is is "WAAAOOOOW!"

What a great night. Since it was his first conference, I asked him if he thought it was awesome, and he said, "What part of it WASN'T awesome?"

Our message last night was that our Messiah is "more"...more than we want, more than we desire, just what we need. He deals with out separation from God by coming to earth and being with us. He loves us!

The music is loud, the skaters skilled and Messiah is Present with us! He is MORE.

Be sure to check out the pics and videos...I'll be getting more up through the day.

Believe Pics here.


Videos here.

Friday, March 5, 2010

CIY Believe

Believe Pics here.



Videos here.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Ministry Theory

"Our kids come from a family system that is more influential than our Bible studies."- Jim Burns

This statement should be our lightning rod, our starting point, our catalyst. It should be our battle-cry, our rallying point. It should be the point from which we do ministry.

In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, God gives Moses the key to the younger generations remaining in the faith. Check it:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts"

This is what we must believe, it's our starting point. It's what we are to do.

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Notice what it does not say. It does not say, "Take them to church and let them do the heavy lifting."

God is making the assumption that, as parents, as CHRISTIAN parents, we will love God with all our heart, soul and strength. A natural outflow of this will be the training (discipleship) of our children.

When we are at home, watching tv, playing cards, or HALO. When we are driving them to school, the park, a sporting event. When they go to bed at night, we are to pray with them. When they get up in the morning, we are to pray before our meals. God-talk should permeate our conversations and activities. My question is this: does it?

This is such a struggle in our home. There, I said it. We do not do this as often as we should.

Go back to the beginning.

"Our kids come from a family system that is more influential than our Bible studies."- Jim Burns

What if...

...we spent time as a ministry discipling and equipping parents for ministry?

...we gave parents the tools to disciple their own children?

...weekly we had conversations, sometimes encouraging, sometimes uncomfortable, about how we were doing in the discipleship?

I wonder...do we have the courage to try?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

E-Klub/Youth Group Recaps, February 28-March 6 2010

High School Youth Group--February 28, 2010

Topic: We began a new topic on Sunday after finishing up our series on prayer. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at loving others. This week we studied gossip and how it effects our relationship with God and others. This subject is one all students have either done or have been a victim of. A quiz was taken just to open their eyes on how they handle gossip. We looked at scripture to see what the Bible says about gossip. One of the verses put gossip in the same league as murder. The seriousness of gossip as sin was stressed.

Take Away: The students were challenged to be aware this coming week of the gossip around them or in their lives. They were encouraged to repent of the sin of gossip and to "avoid association with persons who gossip" from Proverbs 20:19 . We had some great discussion on gossiping and what can be done to keep from gossiping.

Next Week: It's great seeing God work through our students. Next week we will continue to look at loving others through technology that our kids use everyday and how it too can be gossip. We intend on expressing to them how to "love others as myself."


Middle School Youth Group--March 3, 2010

Topic: We talked about Elijah taking on the prophets of Baal. Over time, God's people stopped worshiping God and began to worship Baal. Elijah was a prophet, and was tasked to show the people that there was only one true God, the God of Israel. He did this by testing the prophets of Baal and challenging them to a contest. You can read all about it in 1 Kings 18:16-40.

Take Away: We asked the kids to write down a thing that was getting in the way of their relationship with God. They said things like, "video games", "homework", even "family". We ended our time in small groups, and prayed for one another.

Next Week: We'll be talking about God's plans to restore His people into a right relationship with Him. The Bible story is from Ezekiel 4:1-5:10.

E-Klub--March 3, 2010

Topic: Tonight's lesson was about living what you believe. Our scripture was from Luke 6:43-44. Jesus compared people to trees. He said that good trees don't bear bad fruit and bad trees don't bear good fruit.

Take Away: We learned if we truly believe in God, our actions will show it and good things will come out of our hearts and lives. We had fun in groups acting out skits. We took facts, like snow is cold, and one person acted like they didn't believe a fact was the truth. The others had to show how it was the truth.

Next week: We start a new series called Operation Space. We will be exploring the answers to these, and other, questions: How did the universe begin? How is the Bible unique? Did the meteorites kill the dinosaurs?