Youth News - February 2010

There are three men in the Bible who can serve as great models for all of us of the kind of Christians we need to be for one another in the Body of Christ – Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. Everybody needs a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy in their life – and hopefully we are a Paul, or a Barnabas, or a Timothy in the life of someone else!

Paul
Let's talk about Paul. He served as spiritual leader to so many believers and as a personal mentor to at least a handful. His desire was to follow God's call on his life and leave a legacy behind for the next generation of the church. Acts 20 shows his heart for a next generation of church leaders:

"I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears."- Acts 20.26-31.

Youth News
December 2009

The Christmas season is a great time of year! I love the music and I love the wonder and excitement that comes along with the whole holiday. Erin and I look forward to cultivating that sense of wonder for our son Caleb in the coming years.

But along with the wonder and excitement come hard times and harsh realities for many people. The holiday season reminds many of loved ones who are not here to share the moment with them. Others are wrestling with a deep sense of loneliness as they observe others who have families to share their Christmas with. There are those who are in hard financial situations and are trying to cope with being able to pay bills as they wrestle with the pressures of buying gifts. And lastly, there are those whose circumstances (and for some, their choices) have led them to the place where they don't even have a home this Christmas.

Youth News - October 2009

I dare you to spend just seven minutes in silence. Shut off your television, radio, or IPod. Remove all distractions from your midst and put down whatever it is that might distract you, and spend time listening for God in the quiet.

Mark 1.35 tells us that Jesus rose up early in the morning and went out to a desolate place to pray. Why do you think that He went to desolate, lonely, and solitary places (see also Luke 5.15-16)? Could it be that Jesus Himself was removing all distraction from His midst so that He could focus all of His attention on the Father? And if Jesus, being God in human flesh, spent time alone with the Father, it may be a great indication that we ought to as well.

Youth News

As I'm writing this letter, our youth group is looking forward to our missions trip to Maine, where we'll be doing construction work in people's homes, and we'll be doing a Vacation Bible School for children! Our purpose, as you may already know, is to serve and reflect Christ in all of our work, and that we would be a Spirit-filled and unified team that takes advantage of our privilege to show the love of Christ to others in need. By the time you're reading this letter, we will have already (Lord willing) been to Maine and are back home with many things to share of how the Lord moved in our hearts and lives on this trip.

Youth News

I recently asked our young people if our faith, the Christian faith, is supposed to be a personal faith or a public faith. It was sort of a trick question, because the answer is undoubtedly both - our faith is a personal and public faith! Our faith is all about knowing God, and not just knowing about God. It's about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But our faith is also a public faith - a faith that turns to action in our relationships, our churches, our homes, our schools, our communities, and our world.

YOUTH NEWS

Our Junior high youth group has been blessed with seeing a number of young people attending and being excited about this group and about their faith in Jesus. As a leader, however, my desire is not only to see the group grow larger but also smaller at the same time.

What do I mean? Well, you already know that it’s not easy to share your hurts, your struggles, and your prayer concerns with a large group of people; particularly if you are just beginning to know some of them. What are needed are trust and a sense of safety. These kinds of things happen in the arenas of close friendships, family, smaller fellowships, and shared experiences.

I am blessed to be involved in the youth ministry at St. Paul’s church.  We have been seeing a lot of young people get connected to our group to hear and discuss God’s Word on a week to week basis.  A number of our young people know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and are continuing to pursue a deeper life in Him!

Hello everyone!

Fall is here, school is here, and a life of activity is back at our church, as many of you are already well aware. Some of you may not know, but part of my fall schedule is getting back into chapel with St. Paul’s Christian School. Our school provides quality education from a Christian worldview and provides chapel once a week for our students to have a time of worship, a time to be taught in Scripture, and a time to discuss their faith in everyday life. Over the past two years, our teaching and discussion times have centered on various topics, but primarily the books of Genesis and Exodus – the history of our beginnings as a human race and as a people of faith in the true and living God.