XA Youth Ministry Weekly Update, 9-7-2011
Sorry to get the update out so late this week! I took Labor Day off as Sara worked and I had the kids all day and yesterday I took a day trip to Southeastern with Chris Sult who is a prospective college student there! Needless to say that today will be a catch-up day and my next task will to sort through all the emails that have piled up over the past several days!
Tonight (Wed) the worship band will rehearse 6:30-7:30. I will meet very informally with any other students to talk through some of our upcoming events and opportunities for the year, sort of a focus group type thing that is helpful to do once I a while.
Next week we will begin our regular Wednesday schedule. Note the time changes:
6:00-7:00 pm- Worship Band Rehearsal (Pastor Ron)
7:00-8:00 pm- Creative Ministries Team Rehearsal, also known as “Sticks” (Jackie French and Student Leaders) OR “People without Shoes” (Jon and Chris…see Exodus 3:5)
“People Without Shoes” is a team of students who will work on humorous videos or skits that will either supplement our teaching, work on special projects, or simply enhance our time together through the ministry of laughter. Keep in mind that Jackie’s group will work on performances that will likely involve the same group of students over a period of time where as what I will be doing will be more flexible in involving different students week to week.
This will put us meeting 30 minutes before and/or after the adult Bible Study which runs from 6:30-7:30, but as those who were involved last year should appreciate, it eliminates the need to meet on another night of the week or arrive early Sunday afternoon before INSIDEOUT!
This Sunday morning (9:00) we will begin a video driven series by Francis Chan entitled “Surrender”. This will be a very challenging series on what living for Christ really means. This first week we will be discussing materialism and what it means to surrender our stuff!
At INSIDEOUT on Sunday evening (4:30-7:30 we will conclude our “Dear Galatians” large group/small group series. The session description and a discussion question for families is below! We will have some pizza available and for our AfterGlow we will go play some volleyball at Wrightsville Beach Park!
Just a reminder to parents, but during the school year, INSIDEOUT is our small group ministry. In fact, the whole time we spend together is specifically designed to help build relationships with God, adult leaders, and other students and I can’t emphasize enough how important this is in the spiritual growth of a teenager. What we do at 9:00 am is a great time of teaching and well worth the effort, but due to time constraints and the “formality” of Sunday mornings, relationship building happens much slower and “Sunday morning only” students are more likely to remain on the outskirts of our ministry. I mention this not to make any one feel guilty, but to simply make sure that it was understood that the various pieces of our ministry are not “interchangeable”!
Finally as of Wednesday morning we still have two spots left for Caswell, Sept 17-18 (possibly more since there are still a few who haven’t turned in anything other than a t-shirt size) Keep in mind that once full the possibility of adding more decreases each day. So make sure you communicate with me ASAP and get registration and $55 (or scholarship request) in if you haven’t already! More info and med forms will be sent this week!
Blessings!
Jon
Session Three: With Love (9/11)
So with all this talk about what it does and doesn’t mean to be a follower of Christ, does that mean that a Christian doesn’t do anything? Not exactly. It’s not always about what you do, but your reason for doing it. For example, are you reading your Bible because you want to love God and others more, or are you reading it to prove how spiritual you are to anyone who asks? It’s the “why” factor. So are you doing what you’re doing because you’re motivated by love—love for God and love for others—or by something else?
Session Three Parent Cue: In your everyday actions as a follower of Christ, what is the motive behind what you do? Does it flow out of a gratitude of what God has done in your life or is it more of a “I have to do this” motivation?
