Friday, October 29, 2010

Student Ministry Recapsm week beginning October 31


October 24, 2010                  Middle School/High School Sunday School
  • 15 Students, 2 Adults
  • Theme: Who is Jesus?
  • Bible Story:         John 4
  • Specifically: We answered questions from the 3x7 that the students came up with from their reading.  We read the text and had great discussion.

October 24, 2010                  High School Youth Group
  • 13 students, 4 adults
  • Topic:         Crazy Love, chapter 7
  • Overview: We discussed the questions that arose from the reading of chapter 7.  Most students are doing the reading, only a few did the 3x7 for the week. 

October 27, 2010                  Middle School Youth Group
  • 12 Students, 7 Adults
  • Topic: Whos’ the Man?
  • We discussed John 8:1-11, and what happens when we are forgiven by God.  He expects us to “go and sin no more.”  The discussions in all 3 small groups were great, with some really deep questions asked by our students.  Beginning in January, we’re going to tackle some deeper theological topics and the tenets of the Christian faith.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Student Ministry Updates, week beginning October 17

Sunday School

  • Theme: Who is Jesus?
  • Bible Story:         John 3
  • Specifically: We walked through John 3 and talked about the differences and similarities between Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and John the Baptists encounter with “a certain Jew”.
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Senior High Youth Group
  • Topic:         Crazy Love, chapter 6
  • Overview:  The previous week, we challenged the group to read chapter 6 and come up with a “3x7” (3 questions and 7 truths) from the reading.  We spent our time answering their questions and had some great conversation.  Once again, we did not make it to the video because we didn’t have to.       
Middle School Youth Group
  • This week, we had someone take money from the purse of one of adults sponsors.  We spoke about the value of TRUST within relationships and how there is no real relationship with it.  It was a pretty sad and frustrating night.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Student Ministry Recaps, week of October 3

Sorry this is a day late.  Earlier this week I was in Loveland, Colorado the home of Group Publishing.  I'm a member of their Inside Track Team, a group of youth ministers and workers from all over the country.  We met to do some planning for next year's Simply Youth Ministry Conference; it's really going to be an excellent time of study and relationships.  We're planning on taking 3 of our youth workers along with us.  


Like last week, this has been a good one.
Sunday School

We began our study of the Gospel of John in the Bible's New Testament this past Sunday.  The conversation was decent.  Would you encourage your students to read John 2 and paraphrase it before Sunday morning?
Senior High Youth Group

We discussed chapter 4 of Francis Chan's Crazy Love 
book.  This was a very tough discussion.  Up until this chapter, the book has been about God's amazing love for us, so amazing that he would send Jesus to fix the relationship between us and him.  Chapter 4 changes it, once we know that God loves us...what is our response?  Often, it is lukewarm and unexciting.  A lukewarm love of God is no love at all.  And...some of our students simply don't love Jesus, it's just the reality.  This has left many of these students fearful and filled with doubt, and the hearts of our youth workers are heavy.   Please join us in prayer for all of our students, this study does not get any easier as we progress.  We'll be discussing chapter 5 this coming Sunday.

Middle School Youth Group

Wednesday night a study on David and Bathsheba.  According to one of our youth workers, "the kids seemed pretty shocked at the point in the story when their son died and how that was his consequence for his sin."  We are still having some issues with kids over the way they disrespect one another.  We'll be covering this specifically next week.  The Bible reading for next week is Mark 10:17-27. 
How you can help us help you

As you can see from above, at each weekly activity, we are asking the kids to do some sort of preparation, it might be reading, paraphrasing, doing a take-home sheet, or whatever.  We are working hard to equip you to minister to your own kids.  As a parent, this is truly one of the hardest things to do.  If you're like me, you feel inadequate (I do...and I'm a minister!).  We're trying to give out simple tools and things that you can do as a family.  Regardless of what we may think, polls continue to state that parents are the most important influence on the faith of kids.  If there are other things that we can help, please let us know.  You can call me at 319-393-9570, email me at eccparents@gmail.com, or...better yet, attend our upcoming "Second Wednesday" on Wednesday night, October 13 at Eastview.  It's an event just for parents and grandparents, we'll be talking specifically about building meaningful relationships with our kids.  W'll be hanging out from 6-8pm.  Would you join us?