Good morning friends!

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to report on this week :( Our Sunday School hour was a congregational meeting, and Impact was cancelled for the second week in a row due to weather. 

For what it's worth, we are still planning to move into our in God's Image material on March 10-17. This year we will again be focusing on being fearfully and wonderfully made, and how we are supposed to view dating in a world that places so much emphasis on having a significant other. 

Thanks for being such wonderful supporters of your children and this youth group! I appreciate all of you! 

Good morning friends!

This past week in Sunday school, we continued to learn about Organic Outreach and specifically raising our "heart temperature" one degree for the lost. The idea behind Kevin's teaching was that we can all identify if we are loving the lost well. He uses a scale of one to ten to designate this, and his challenge was to find a way to raise your temperature by one degree. If you are at a 4 don't think about being a 10, just try to get to a 5. To simplify it even further, Kevin (and I) want people to think a little more about evangelism. Not tons, but just enough to where you might consider changing a patter of though or a behavior to be more loving to those who don't know the Gospel.

IMPACT was cancelled due to weather and my crippling fear of students driving home in the dark and in a whiteout! We will also be going through In God's Image in March as usual. Right now we are planning to talk openly about the differences between men and women in light of how God made us, and how that can be practically applied to dating in a high school context. 

​Thanks for stopping by again! 

Good morning everyone! 

In Sunday School this week, We talked about the "law of love." Kevin Harney challenged us to love those around us better. When we look around us at our fellow people, we should see them as precious because God sees them as precious. This is difficult in practice though, because we tend to be a tad bit judgmental. Those that look different, act different, or believe different are generally a bit harder to love. Kevin encouraged us to see others as valuable and worthy of the kind of love that God has for them. This mindset instantly makes us more likely to do evangelism, as we want people we love to know the good news!

At youth group, we listened to our good friend Francis Chan again, who challenged us to examine what we believe about the Holy Spirit. It's no secret that the RCA isn't exactly famous for its emphasis on the Spirit, but FRCZ does a pretty good job of reminding us that there is something special about having God inside of us. We challenged the students to think about what their lives would look like if they let the Spirit truly lead. We recognized that often times this is much easier said than done, but it is definitely worth it in the long run. 

Next week we will continue both of these series! 

Thanks as usual for checking in!! See you next week! 

Good morning friends! 

This past Sunday in our Organic Outreach class, we talked about "the two degree rule." The basic premise is that most churches (if they are honest) tend to direct the majority of their programming inward. What I mean by that is most churches focus their money, time and effort on those who are already believers and within the church. The two degree rule doesn't suggest forming new programming that is outreach focused, it instead encourages churches to shift the existing programming two degrees outward. If we do meals on wheels for our church members, why not elderly people in our community? If we have a class or a speaker that would benefit the community as a whole, why not invite everyone? I think the students responded pretty well to this message, and i found it to be fairly convicting myself. 

IMPACT was a weird one. We only had about 12 students in attendance becuase of the super bowl and festivities surrounding it. Every year I challenge the students to imagine what it would look like if they were as interested in their faith as they are in the superbowl or the events surrounding it. Having half the group absent this year made me chuckle a bit, considering my message would have probably been most applicable for those that didn't attend! Not that I judge though, it is the superbowl after all (the worst one in the history of superbowls, but a superbowl nonetheless.) So those that were there had a good time relaxing and eating pizza! 

Next week we continue with Organic Outreach and the BASICS series by Francis Chan! 

Thanks for keeping up to date!