Fall Retreat

Fall retreat is coming! UPDATE: The dates are November 11-13!

This is a major event in the student ministry, and just today Jeremy and I were working on the planning for the retreat. We would love for your student to be a part of the event. I know for some of you, this may be the first 'big' youth ministry event or the first overnight trip your student has taken with the church.

We will be going to Country Lake Christian Retreat Center in Henryville, IN. Our speaker for the weekend is John Gillis of eLife Ministries. Our worship band is Garrison Band. Follow those links to check out the speaker and the band. You can even listen to music from the band on their web site.

The cost for the weekend is $100 per student and $50 per adult. We provide forms at MiX and Shake, which should be returned to Sharlena with payment. Email or call Jeremy or I with questions.

See You at the Pole

Wednesday is See You at the Pole (SYATP), when millions of students across the US ar expected to participate in prayer. Wednesday a.m. I will be at Beaumont Middle School, assisting with their SYATP program. If your kids go there, encourage them to come out so I won't be looking at all strange faces (actually their faces might be strange too but they'll be familiar).

Wednesday night, in the place of our normal Shake and MiX programs, we will be going to a SYATP rally at LCA. The posted times are 6:30-8:30 for the event, so we should meet at our normal time of 6 p.m., but expect to be back later than normal around 9:00 p.m.

Ministering out of Context

Part of what we would like to build in our student ministry is community, and part of that comes with blurring the lines between church and the rest of our students' lives.

I would like to be involved with students on some level outside of the context of church property, so I would really appreciate it if you would pass along opportunities that you know I could communicate value to a student by being a spectator or cheerleader in their life. Some of them play sports but I don't want to limit it to that, although sports would be a good time to meet other students and hang with parents.

For example, I know one of our students is first chair viola in band, and she goes to a public school. I'd love to go see her sometime, especially if she has some sort of important event or recital. As a small group leader, you may be able to invest in students in the same way -- in fact you might be able to take or meet other guys or girls from your small group. That would provide a way that, with little planning on your part, you could build community among your students. Our other leaders, like for MiX, will be able to hang with students and parents, and meet new students as well.

I won't be able to make everything like these and I know you won't either. But I encourage you to be attentive to opportunities like this, and pass along info to me as well.

One thing I'll take a moment to note here is that I would like for us to avoid posting students' names here on the web site, so comment away about this topic and ideas, but if you have a specific student to write about, send that in an email!

Thanks for all you do!

Top Ten Characteristics of a Good Parent

Pastor Jim Martin shares hist list of top ten characteristics of a good parent. What do you think?
1-5 6-10

Youth Specialties

I've added a link in the sidebar to Youth Specialties(YS). They publish many creative ideas for student ministry and host conferences for youth workers. Their site hosts many articles relating to student ministry. Perhaps more valuable are their forums, where many youth workers share youth ministry ideas, frustrations, resources, theology, or whatever else comes up.

On Prayer

This month in MiX we are focusing on prayer. How can parents best encourage their middle schoolers to develop their prayer lives?

Small Group Leadership Meeting - 9/11/2005

This Sunday, September 11, all middle school small group leaders will meet during small group time. Students will remain in the Summit for a large group session led by Jeremy.

I look forward to this time to talk about the purpose of small groups in our student ministry, to discuss how things are going in small groups, and to collaborate better on how we can best minister to our students.

Thank you all for your leadership and servants' hearts!

After reporting to the Summit we will convene in room 183.

You can use the 9/11 Bible Study lesson a week later on 9/18.

Girl Talk

Girl talk is another blog by "A mother and three daughters who love the gospel and aspire to biblical womanhood." These ladies are the wife and daughters of CJ Mahaney, author and leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

They discuss passing on biblical womanhood to the next generation, current events, devotions, and various fun, positive family activities.

I encourage all of you ladies especially to check out this web site!

Dissecting Green Day

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding published this cultural analysis of the punk band Green Day. There most notable recent hit was Boulevard of Broken Dreams. As noted in 8 Things We Wish Our Parents Understand, this is a band with which some of our students connect.

CPYU publishes articles like these to help parents understand youth culture, and hot it shapes our students for good and bad. More information about CPYU can be found here.