Happy halloween parents!

Last night in youth group we had some pizza, played some board games, learned a hymn, and wrapped up our series in James by talking about fighting for peace!

We began the evening by eating some Peppinos and hanging out for a bit before gathering for some worship. Eli led us through “Be thou my vision” and we found out rather quickly that it was unfamiliar to 90% of the students, so we learned a new hymn! :) After worship we paused for prayer, thanked God for His provision, and dove back into James.

We ended our series on living radically for Jesus in Chapter 4 and spent some time reflecting on what it means to be peacemakers. All of us have been in fights before (whether verbal or physical) and we know how hard it is to stop fighting once we start. We start fights for all sorts of reasons, but James boils it down to our “desires at war within us.” If we desire what we don't have, we tend to fight. If we focus solely on our needs or wants, we fight. If we are hurt, or scared, or feel out of control…we fight. James makes it clear that Christ followers should not live this way though.

We jumped back to the end of chapter 3, and took a look at the context for James’ strong language on fighting. He ends the previous chapter by calling for us to be peacemakers. When we find ourselves in fights, Jesus calls us to make peace. We spent some time in debrief groups talking about how that might look in practice, and challenged students to avoid fights with friends or siblings, and if they can't avoid them entirely, fight for peace instead of fighting to “win.”

Next week we are shifting gears a bit to a new study called “with you” that focuses on how to be a good friend to those who are grieving, lonely, in need, or need hope. That should take us right to the end of the year, and I’m excited to dive in!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week

Happy Monday parents!

Last night in D-groups we ate some mac n’ cheese, spent time in prayer, talked about the value of the Sabbath, and then did our best to practice some Sabbath rest and delight!

The weather last night was amazing, so after some quality time outside playing crossnet and spikeball, we gathered to pray and have our large group time! After prayer, I opened with the question “what is Sabbath?” We finally concluded that Sabbath was a day of rest, but when I asked “what is rest?” things got a bit quiet. A brave soul eventually shouted “sleep!” and while they aren’t wrong, that's not all that rest can be! So I rephrased a bit, and asked “If you had a whole day where you could do anything, what would you do?” That got a better response, and answers like hunting, minecraft, and scrolling through instagram came up. When I asked “How do  those things glorify God?” things got a bit quiet again :)

I wanted to make sure that our middle schoolers were also grasping the concept that Sabbath is more than a single day, so we transitioned into the Bible project video. This video does an incredible job of showing God’s intent for Sabbath, and the layered significance of the number 7 as it relates to Sabbath for the Israelites.

Every 7th day was Shabbat, but that's only the beginning of the story. The Sabbath is just one of 7 festivals that the Israelites practiced each year, each one anticipating and celebrating rest. Every 7 years, the people of God would let the land rest, forgive debts, and liberate slaves. Finally every 7x7 years, on the 50th year,  they celebrated the year of jubilee, and restored land that had been lost, and took a whole year to look forward to the ultimate rest offered by Christ’s coming.

So we reflected on that for a while before I invited them to take the remaining half hour and delight in God, the beautiful weather, and the people that were with them.

I’m finally getting to the point where I know names and faces, and I am so hopeful for the relationships that will be built between students, their leaders, and God. As the schedule has leveled out a bit, I am heavily considering moving to a weekly youth group format for more consistency as the structure we hoped would pan out in D-groups hasn’t quite happened. I’ll try to keep you all in the loop as to when that shift to weekly youth group and more intentional discipleship offerings elsewhere actually happens.

Next week in youth group we return to James to talk about fighting for peace!

Thanks for checking in! I hope you have wonderful, restful weeks!

Good morning friends!!

Last night in youth group we defused some bombs, had even more slushies, played some dodgeball, worshipped and prayed together, and talked about taming our tongues! It was a full night!

One of my favorite party games to play with youth groups is "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes." Its a game where one person is the "bomb defuser" and a group of people nearby called "bomb experts" use a manual to tell the defuser what to do to defuse the bomb! It's a game that requires clear communication and teamwork under pressure, and that fit in really well with our lesson for the evening! If you want to see the game in action, this is a great video!

After a few successful defusals, we went upstairs for some dodgeball!

After heading back downstairs, Eli led us in some worship!

Our large group lesson focused on James 3 and taming the tongue, and we talked about how impactful our words can be. Most students could remember a time where someones words hurt them, and the brave ones admitted that they could also remember a time they used hurtful words. We talked about some of the metaphors that James uses to describe our tongue, (a horse's bit, a ship rudder, and a small spark that can start a forest fire.) Even though our tongues are small, they are immensely powerful things, and our words matter! James reminds us that the words we say are a reflection of what is in our hearts, and that the same tongue should not bless God and curse people who are made in his image.

Our debrief groups went well, and we reflected on how different life might be if people didn't use their words to hurt one another. We thought it would be a whole lot better!

Next week I will be preaching in the morning to close our "Breathe" series, so we will turn back to the Bible Project in D-Groups to talk a little more about the sabbath! You can preview our video here!

Thanks for stopping by and checking in!! Have a wonderful week!

Happy Monday friends!

This past week in D-groups we spent some time just hanging out and getting to know one another, praying for each other, and learning some more about the Bible as a whole!

Two weeks ago we began talking about what the Bible is, how we came to have our modern translations, and why it's important to be reading it often! This week we continued that theme by reflecting on the overarching plot of the Bible as a whole, and why it's important that we know it!

We began by trying to list as many major plot points as we could from memory, starting with creation and moving toward the resurrection. I was so impressed by some of the little details that our students remembered! We made it from Adam and Eve to the fall, touched on the tower of Babel, the flood, Abraham, and a few random stories that took place before talking about the coming of Jesus! Then we turned back to The Bible Project to help fill in the gaps!

One of the major goals in this teaching series is to help our students understand that the Bible is accessible to them, and doesn't need to be a "chore" to read - especially the Old Testament. The OT is full of amazing stories about Kings (both good and bad), faithful prophets, and all sorts of very relatable characters but they are often lost in between the long genealogies and seemingly outdated laws. Two weeks ago I told our students about the prophet Elisha, who also parted a body of water, made an axe head float, raised a child from the dead, and even had bald jokes made about him that resulted in a bear attack. Those stories are fascinating and insightful, but we seldom hear about them! This week we talked about the evil king Eglon in Judges 3, and how even stories that mention poop can point toward God's faithfulness to his people in the grand story of scripture! As silly as it may seem, I saw one student reading her Bible aloud after our large group teaching time!

Those same books that have hard-to-pronounce names also contain the context we need to understand why Jesus' coming was so unbelievably significant. This teaching series also meshes really nicely with our upcoming Walk Thru the Bible event on November 12, and you can find those signups here! Having a greater understanding of the story contained in the Old Testament gives such a deep appreciation of how Jesus fulfills the law and prophets.

Next week in youth group we are going to talk about the importance of taming our tongues!

Thanks for checking in!!

We had a blast last night!

We discovered that we have a working slushie machine, played some Crossnet, spent some time in prayer, read some Max Lucado, and Noah forgot what time it was!

For our lesson time, we are continuing to work through the book of James and spent some time in chapter 2 this week talking about how Jesus doesn't play favorites. We made a distinction between having favorite people (like best friends) and playing favorites (which excludes others, and is hurtful.) James uses the analogy of a rich man and a poor man in his letter but if the Bible were written for a modern audience, that distinction would probably be more like cool vs. uncool, or popular vs. unpopular.

One of my favorite things to do as a youth pastor is go "back to the basics" of spiritual living, as it's easy to miss the forest for the trees in faith. One of the ways I love to do that is reading older students Max Lucado's children's books! So to drive the point home, I read You are Special to our students.

If you're unfamiliar with this story, it follows the life of a wooden person named Punchinello. I threw a quick summary at the bottom of this post if you're interested in that :) Just hit "Read More" under the pictures to reveal it.

While people don't go around sticking visible signs of approval or disapproval on one another, we live in a world of likes, hearts, and comments of disagreement. If we are going to be radical followers of Jesus we need to recognize that all people are made in God's image, and treat them as such.

Normally we would have had debrief groups too, but I was a dork and misread the clock, so we hung out and played games for the last half hour of youth group! I'll do better next time :P

Thanks for stopping by and checking in! Have a wonderful week!