Dear parents,

From calming storms to healing a paralytic, we have covered some incredible miracles of Jesus in our Sunday School series. We wrapped it up this week by exploring how Jesus fed thousands of people in Mark 8-just a few pages after he fed another huge crowd! We saw how Jesus satisfied the people’s hunger through a miracle that was motivated by compassion.

This week, find some time to talk with your teenager about how God meets our needs. Here are some questions from our lesson that could help fuel the dialogue:

• Think back to last year. Are you more or less compassionate today than you were then? Why and how have you changed?
• What are some of the ways God has provided abundantly in your life?
• What are some ways that God has called you to meet the needs of others?

If you’re looking for a family activity, consider fasting from all media for 24 hours. Commit to slowing down together. Plan a family game night. Spend time cooking a meal together. Talk about how our society can get so wrapped up in immediate satisfaction that we get in the habit of not trusting God when we don’t see an answer right away. Talk about what it means to trust God and wait on his timing.

Thanks again for having your teenager involved in our small group ministry!

For HIS Glory!

Jeff

Announcements for the week…

• Wild Wednesday & Costume Party – This Wednesday, Oct. 26, 6:30pm, Gym – Games, prizes for the best costumes, and a devotional from one of our high school students, Noah Randolph.  Encourage your teen to come join us and bring a friend!
• Secret Church – Saturday, Nov. 12 – 6:30pm until 10:30pm – I’m looking for a house to host this night of Secret Church.  Please email me ASAP if you can help.
• Chris Tomlin Concert – Thursday, Nov. 17 @ Hope Church – Tickets are $25.  We have 19 tickets remaining and are limiting our ticket sales to youth only for now.  We have enough chaperones lined up and I want to save the remaining tickets for as many youth as want to go.  If your teen wants to go, make sure they get their money in soon.

Hello youth parents!

This week we launched a new series in our Sunday School classes, focusing on miracles Jesus performed. Our first lesson centered on Mark 2, when four men carried a paralyzed friend to Jesus. They couldn’t walk into the house because it was crowded, so they climbed to the roof, made a hole, and lowered their friend into the room. We saw how Jesus shocked everyone by first offering spiritual healing to this man-before providing a physical healing.

I’d encourage you to find time this week to talk with your teenager about spiritual health and how God is able to provide spiritual healing for our sins. Ask your teen about this week’s passage from Mark 2, to see if any part of the story made a significant impression. What would it have been like if your teenager saw this healing in person? Would your teenager have been one of the four people who cared deeply about their friend?

Here are some additional questions from our lesson that you could use during your conversation:

• Why did Jesus heal people? What was he trying to prove or communicate through healings?
• What’s one way you can help other people learn the good news that Jesus can provide spiritual healing in their lives?

As a family, you have the opportunity to keep spiritual health a priority-even in the middle of your busy schedules. Schedule a time for family prayer or devotion. Read a Bible story or pray for each other. Even if it’s difficult to change your schedule and all spend time together, consider the high priority that Jesus puts on our faith and the rewards of spiritual growth as a family. Have a blessed week!

For HIS Glory!

Jeff

Announcements for the Week

• We’ll be making our annual trip to the Mid-South Corn Maze on Saturday, Oct. 22, and we need your help!  I need parents who can go with us and serve as chaperones.  If you can help, email me ASAP.
• If you haven’t downloaded our latest newsletter, download it HERE.

Dear parents,

This week, our Sunday school classes wrapped up their four-week series on loving God and loving others. In this final lesson, we examined the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. It’s a familiar story for teenagers who have been raised in church, and even many non-Christians know the importance of being a “Good Samaritan” to people in need. In fact, we’re so familiar with the teaching that we may fail to realize how radical Jesus’ words were.

The people who heard Jesus’ story would have expected either the priest or the Levite-a temple assistant-to help a person in need. After all, the victim was Jewish. These two religious leaders were Jewish. They would be considered “neighbors,” right? But the person who offers assistance was a “despised” Samaritan. He had compassion on this Jewish man, and he turns his compassion into action by dressing the wounds, transporting the man to an inn, and covering all the costs for this man’s care and accommodation. Jesus confronted stereotypes and prejudices while challenging his audience to turn compassion into action.

I’d encourage you to take a few minutes and talk with your teenager about this week’s lesson. As always, I want to offer some questions that you could use during your conversation:

• When was the last time you were a “Good Samaritan” who “stopped” and helped someone in need? Why did you make that decision? How did it affect you and other people?
• Jesus told this parable 2,000 years ago, so exactly how is it relevant to your life today? Which elements feel familiar, and which elements would you change if telling this story to a current-day audience-especially if you wanted to have the same impact Jesus’ story had on his audience?
• Think ahead to life after high school. How might the idea of “loving your neighbor” change? What new challenges might you face as you put this commandment into practice?

This has been a great study for our small groups, and I pray our discussions and readings in the Bible have had an impact on your teenager. Please let me know how I can continue praying for you and your family!

Also, make sure to download a copy of our October newsletter HERE.  Plenty of info on some great stuff coming up.

For HIS Glory!

Jeff

Hey Parents,

We’re continuing our Sunday School series on the topic of loving God and loving others. Jesus’ response in Matthew 22:34-40 to a religious leader asking about the greatest commandments has served as our foundation for these conversations. In this particular lesson, we examined the second greatest commandment-love your neighbor as yourself, which comes from Leviticus 19:18.

The more we love and worship God, the more we view life the way he does. Our love for God feeds our love for other people. Loving your neighbor as yourself is rooted in an understanding of who we are in Christ. The second greatest commandment actually has two components: Jesus wants us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

When we love God as the creator, to whom everything belongs, we recognize that we’re not an accident and we’ve been redeemed through his Son. How can we not love ourselves? God made us and saved us! We have value in Him. In this, we can look outward and love others as we love ourselves.

I’d encourage you to take time this week to talk about this lesson with your teenager. Feel free to use these questions to fuel your dialogue:

• What does it mean to “love yourself?” How is this expressed in a healthy, Christ-like way?
• Which people in your world are easiest to love, and why? Which people are toughest to love, and why?
• Think of one person in your “world” who is hurting right now. How can you show your love for this person in the coming week?

Thanks for your support and prayers for our ministry. Have an awesome week!

For HIS Glory!

Jeff

This semester, we’re walking through the book of Philippians on Wednesday nights in Youth Group.  Last night, we took a look at Philippians 2:12, which commands us to “work out our salvation,” which led to some good discussion about what it means to exercise our faith.

This coming Wednesday, September 21, I’m planning on walking through on Philippians 2:14-16, which commands us to “Do all things without grumbling or complaining.”  Pretty tough command.  As I started reading through it and jotting down some notes today on those verses, I got to thinking about all the things in life that I’m guilty of complaining and grumbling about.  From unfortunate circumstances, to bills, to arguments with others, to failures in my own life – the list could go on and on.  And what I also realized is that most of the time, my complaining was self-centered: I didn’t get my way or someone didn’t agree with me.

And yet, God’s Word commands me not to complain or grumble about any of it.  My thoughts were, “Seriously?  Any of it?  Why?”  And as I dug a little deeper into the Bible, I was reminded of passages like James 1:2-4, which teaches that those circumstances and struggles produce a stronger faith, and Romans 8:28, which reminds me that God is in control of each and every situation that I find myself in, and that He’s at work through it all.

So why not complain about our situations, our struggles, our circumstances, our disputes, or our bad days?  Because God is working in and through everything you’re experiencing.  And when we find ourselves complaining and grumbling, it leads to gossip, resentment, selfishness, and more anger, instead of godliness, forgiveness, understanding, and compassion.

This week, I want to challenge you to keep track of every time you find yourself grumbling or complaining about ANYTHING life throws at you.  If you’re like me, your list may end up being pretty long.  And in each and every situation, pray to God that He’d give you guidance and understanding to know how to respond as He wants.

For HIS Glory!

Jeff

Hey youth parents,

We’ve started a new four-week series in our Sunday School on the topic of loving God and loving others. It’s based on Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 22:34-40, commonly called the Great Commandment.

We encouraged our teenagers to consider what it means to love God with everything they have, and to see how that love is the source and the fuel for their worship of God. Worship runs so much deeper than singing songs. It’s about living a lifestyle that honors God.

I’d encourage you to talk with your teenager this week about the lesson. Here are some questions you could include in your conversation:

• Why do you love God?
• Is the “outcome” any different if you obey God because of fear or obligation or if you obey him because of your love for him? Explain.
• What do you think it means to love God with all of your heart? How about loving God with all of your soul? What about with all of your mind?

Thanks for your continued prayers for our ministry. I really appreciate it!

For HIS Glory!

Jeff

Announcements for this week…

1.  Wild Wednesday is this week, September 7th @ 6:30pm in the gym.  Free pizza, games, and a word from God’s Word!  Encourage your teen to come join us and to bring a friend!

2. 5th Quarter & Dodgeball Tournament – Friday, September 23 @ 9pm.  Check out the September newsletter for more info.

It’s an epic battle, one of far reaching avenues that destroys friendships and ruins pathways. The knives come out and the guns are fired and there is a man dead….. Ok, ok, so maybe its not that bad, but still pride is one of the few sins that God seems to have an intense hatred towards.  As Jeff mentioned in his sermon tonight, Satan (aka Lucifer),was an angel that had tremendous power. He was considered the morning star as Isaiah 14 puts it. Yet, he got prideful and the next thing you know he is eating dirt down on earth.

As I sat there listening to Jeff’s message something hit me, we all have pride in our lives. It doesn’t matter what we do and if we succeed at something, we will always be proud of our accomplishments. The other day I was feeling so proud of the fact I had spent an hour on a drum song and mastered it. The question becomes, is that pride bad? Is that the kind of pride that God’s Word warns us against and that we should avoid? In a sense no, but this can grow into sinful pride.

What Jeff talked about in Philippians is to be humble like Christ, to totally give up your own self. To forget about you and devote your whole life totally to God. Thus when we become proud of an accomplishment it should be because God enabled us to succeed. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”  Philippians 4:13. When it becomes a problem is when we think that the accomplishment was solely achieved by us. That it’s only because of me that a certain project worked. If so, then we have lost focus on what God wants of us. To be unified in Christ means to be him in our actions. One of his greatest attributes was humility.

Are you ready to be a true believer? Can you swallow your pride? I admit I have trouble. When I drum it is intensely hard for me not to become conceited. You receive those compliments and it just makes you feel so good about yourself. Yet, what I do, and what I am asking you to do as well is this: Stop, Look up, pray to God in your head that “I am a sinner and would be nothing without You.” If you can do that honestly and full of passion you are more powerful than Satan, and honestly, who doesn’t wanna give a swift kick to the head demon?

May your spirit stay strong!

Noah