And...we're off!

Our new semester has started and we're off with a bang.  Our middle school group is hearing the story of God, we're teaching the Bible from a different perspective, one story at a time, building on the previous week's story.  So far, we've covered Creation and the Fall of Man, next up if the story of the first murder, starring Cain and Abel.

In our high school group, we started our "Gospel According to the Office" series and this past Sunday we had a great discussion about judgment and self-righteousness.  Up next, we'll be taking about the role of denial, reality, and excuse-making in our relationship with God.  It's going to be great.

We've got more kids than ever and covet your prayers.

Also, forms for the Colorado trip (high school) are due Sunday, and CIY: Believe forms are due next Wednesday.  We've got a lot of things going on besides our normal youth group schedule, and we'd love for your kids to join us!  As always, contact us with questions!

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.

Student Ministry Recaps, week beginning September 26

It's been a very interesting week.  It is evident that our students are coming to Sunday school and youth groups ready to talk and listen.  What have we been talking about?

Sunday School

We just finished a multi-week series through what are called the "General Epistles", 1, 2 and 3rd John, along with Jude.  Each week we asked the kids to read the book or chapter for the following week.  Also, we've asked them to paraphrase what they've read.  We had mixed results at the beginning with the reading and paraphrasing, but many of the kids have really taken to it.  At this point, more kids are doing the reading than not, and the number of those paraphrasing is increasing.  Starting next week, we'll be reading and studying the Gospel of John and learning Jesus' life and ministry.  Our hope is to introduce them to the Jesus they don't know.

Senior High Youth Group

We're in chapter three of Francis Chan's Crazy Love book.  We had some amazing conversations and sharing going on.  One of the main pieces that we talked about was how our human relationships affect our thoughts and relationship with God.  Again, many of the kids are doing the reading (hopefully before 4:15 on Sunday afternoon), and this has really helped.  Some of the questions are starting to change, revealing some depth that we hadn't seen before.  A main struggle with this group is unity, we have several small groups of 2-3 kids, so we are working on group unity.  Our upcoming SEMP service project will help with this.

Middle School Youth Group

We continue with our Grapple series.  Last night we finished the first section of our semester, called "Who's the Man?" which dealt with the nature of God himself.  Our Bible story last night was from the book of Jonah, and we grappled with the question "Isn't God just mean and cruel?", the main thought being that bad thing happen to people, and how can we trust God through them?  We've also been doing a "Bible Scavenger Hunt" each week, asking the kids a question and then telling them which Bible book that it is in, and having them find it.  So far, we've had kids read the ENTIRE book of Revelation, the book of Acts, and this week, their question is from the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament.

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?

Student Ministry Recaps

September 19, 2010         High School Youth Group

• 13 students, 3 adults
• Theme:         Crazy Love: Chapter 3
• Overall:         Watched a recap of “The Last Lecture”, a Zac Smith Video, talked about what it meant to rejoice and to not be anxious.  Discussed the life of Paul and how he was the writer of those words (on rejoicing and anxiety), then watched the chapter video.  
• We are working hard to encourage the kids to read the chapter before Sunday night.  We're going to change up our schedule a little bit this Sunday.  

September 22, 2010         Middle School Youth Group

• 15 Students, 7 Adults
• Theme: Who’s the Man?  Is believing in God lame?
• Bible Story:         Daniel 3, Matthew 5:10-16
• Overall:         Games went well, kids were especially worked up.  Had some trouble keeping focus in big group and small group.  We talked specifically about how we need to encourage one another and stand for what we believe in.

Student Ministry Recaps

I want to apologize for not getting these up.  I simply have not made this the priority that it needs to be. 

Senior High Youth Group-Sunday September 12

• We had 16 students and 2 adults.
• We introduced the "Crazy Love" series  by reading the preface and chapter 1 as a group.  We spent some time talking about our inaccurate  views of God and how those false views affect our relationship with God.

Middle School Youth Group-Wednesday September 15

• We had 13 students and 7 adults.  
• Our second week in a four week series dealing with the bigger question, "Who is God?"....we talked specifically about the gifts that God has given us now.  Our bible story was from Genesis 15 and dealt with the promise that God made to Abram in the Old Testament that Abram would be the father of many nations.  During our small group breakout, we had an awesome time of sharing with our students about the way that God has blessed us with the opportunity for eternal life.  Several of our students got very personal about what's been happening in their lives and we closed with those students praying.  It was a pretty powerful night.
• We handed out a "Take Home" sheet for this week's lesson.  You can find it off to the right on this page, just click on the "Middle School Take Home" link and download the 9-22-10 sheet.

From this point forward, these will be posted by Thursday afternoons.