her post drove an interesting thread that had a lot of misunderstandings about the Bible and Christianity.  So when things aren’t clear…lets go back to the source.   So launched a three-week series focused on the Bible. In this first lesson, we talked about foundational topics-in other words, learning facts about the Bible.

As part of our time in big group we tried a couple of worship songs with cd’s.  We’re in the process of forming a worship team to lead each week.  Canned music isn’t as good as musicians on stage, but for the first time there was a good response.

BIG GROUP:  We focused on 2 Timothy 3:14-17, which encourages us to recognize and remember that the Bible is inspired by God, helps us know what is right and what is wrong, and is used to prepare and equip us to do good things.

The message in these verses isn’t too difficult to understand, but it can be challenging to build our lives on its truth. These verses paint an accurate picture of what Scripture is and why we ought to embrace it.

There was lots of good conversation in our small groups… a real interest in learning more about the foundation of our faith.

Next Week:  How to Navigate Through the Bible

it was fun too this trip to take a group just two blocks east to the West Side Market to also experience firsthand the culture of a big city like Cleveland.  So proud of our team.  Well done!

Big Idea: Letting the Word Speak.  Tonite was very different and to a degree impressive. We had the adult leaders simply stand before the students and read the whole book of Ephesians.   We began with a couple worship songs and then began the journey.  At the end of each chapter the reader encouraged each person to…

Be still.  Listen for Jesus to speak to you.

It took 35 minutes to read through the 6 chapters.  We concluded with another couple of worship songs.  It was a incredible time.  First, in the reaction of silence from the students through the process.  They were engaged and focused.  It was good to have the adult leaders read these ancient words over them as we began a new year.

Best moment: As we concluded the evening we presented a bible to a young adult leader, Robert (Bert) Bales who is leaving at the end of the week for nursing school.  We’ll sorry to see him go.  Bert just completed his tenure in the US Army even serving several tours in the middle east.  He’s added a lot.  We huddle up around him and prayed over him.

Letter for Parents: Kroc Lock-In
Lock-In Permission Form

BEST MOMENT: One of our female middle schoolers made a decision to follow Christ during our small group time. her best friend and the small group leader were given the privilege of walking this young lady through the conversation.  there was a huge celebration in our space (and in Heaven!) for her decision.  It was a huge blessing to the visiting ministry team to know that God had used their time and talent to leverage and move one person closer in their spiritual walk.

What’s up next: next week we’ll be launching our LifeBook Saturation.  There’s already a lot of anticipation and it will be cool to see the impact locally.

and it two weeks its our first mr. christmas tree pageant.

Big Idea: Community.  This week our gathering time was focused on two thoughts.  1) to experience together (adults and students) big church an experiential worship of in preparation for Thanksgiving.  Many of our students aren’t connected to our Sunday morning experiences so we intentionally brought the groups together for a multi-generational time.  Center around three conversations between Pastor Rob Paterson and Pastor Tom.

black friday

destruction in joplin

First conversation: our thankfulness for our many provisions.  Centered between us having lots of stuff  (and getting more stuff  i.e. Black Friday) and having all our stuff stripped away (i.e. the stories from Pastor Tom’s journey through the destruction Joplin and Tuscaloosa).  As an response to that we had everyone use crayons/markers to draw images or write words on the paper at their tables and then discuss.

celebration of family and friends

messiness of relationships

Second conversation: our thankfulness for our families and friends. This was centered between our gratitude for having friends and families and even being thankful for our “cousin eddie’s” who create relationships that are complicated.  As a response we had an “open mic” that allowed students and adults to share publicly about someone that they were thankful for.

Jesus-Emmauel =God is with us

Jesus- His blood covers our sins

Third: conversation: our thankfulness for Jesus.  This was centered between on our beginning a celebration of Christmas in just a few short days.  The celebration Jesus’s birth, one of his nicknames: Emmanuel – God is with us.  And the tension that results in the reality that he came to offer us life through his death on the cross.   Our response was to celebrate with communion.  Allowing each table to partake in the sacrament.

There was much energy in the room because of all in attendance.  it was a great sight to see our students with other members of the church in a common experience of worship.  It was fun too to end the service with, what has become a tradition (we do have a couple ) a Christmas carol – O, Come All Ye Faithful.

After the students and adult leaders headed out to Trish and Rod Edmondson’s for a late evening hotdog cookout and a huge bonfire.  Lots of fun here.

BIG IDEA: If you want to hear from God, you’ve got to find a time, a place, and a plan for reading the texts (the Bible) He has for you.

This was Week 3 in our series on helping our students see that God has left us incredible truths and principles on how to live our lives. Since He is the author of life, it makes sense that He would be the best one to teach us how to live. As in anything we are serious about, we need to choose a time, a place, and a plan when it comes to learning from God.  This was a hard week as we dealt with the suicide of a student from Ashland.  Pastor Tom felt impressed to share about Jordan’s Caldewell’s life, though only three of the students present had ever met Jordan.  Jordan was a 17 year old senior at Ashland High School and died this past week.  Jordan’s last words on his face book were these: “What am I doing?“ and about five hours later, “Later“.

It is uncertain why Jordan made the choice he did.  But like many teens (and adults), the struggle to find purpose in life goes missing unless one comes into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  And even then there are times when a person struggles to understand all that life offers. The teaching time was somber but also encouraging.  Jordan’s untimely death offered a  moment to encourage our students to “be present” (there’s that idea from Pastor Tom’s bike ride!“  in the lives of those around them. It also reminded that those who follow Jesus need to be reading and studying his written word daily, the Bible (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) so they can offer hope and encouragement on our journey of faith.  This habit of studying the Scripture can be leveraged by establishing a…
Time: Morning, lunch, night, before homework…
Place: Room, kitchen table, back porch, in cafeteria before school…
Plan: Psalm a day, Proverb a day, bible in a year reading plan, make your own.

It was fun to see later in the night on facebook our key verse for today making the rounds on our students and adult leaders facebook posts. 

“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105

We had another attendance bulging night.  There’s a lot of energy being offer in our small groups…and the buzz is that some good Kingdom building things are happening.

As we ended the night, one of Jordan’s friend, Alex, shared some memories.  We offered prayers for the family as we closed out the night.

We did squeeze in a fun moment with a new game Heads or Tails from youth leader’s stash .

(Grateful to the good work of our friends at Watermark Community Church for the curriculum for this current series.)