Youth Event: March 31st

Hey Everyone!! Just wanted to make you aware of our next youth event! It will be Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 6:30pm. It will be held here at the church and last until 8:00pm. We will be going through the "fuel" series and it will be a great opportunity for me to meet the youth for the first time! We'll also have pizza and play some games before we dig into God's Word!! So tell your friends and don't miss out!!

This years student ministry theme: "UNLEASHED"

A little over a week ago pastor Ted asked me to come up with a theme for our students this year, I was sitting thinking of a word that I could rally students around and that would connect with my first series of messages "Back to the Basics"(more about this in a future post). And then it hit me..."unleashed." This word drew my attention to Romans 6. Starting in verse 15 Paul is explaining that just because, as Christians, we are under grace does not give us the right or liberty to sin whenever we want to. He explains by telling us that, as Christians, we have been set free from the chains of sin and serve a new master....Christ! This does not mean that we will never sin but it does mean that as we grow ("ripen") in our relationship with Christ we will not want to sin. Of course we will be tempted by Satan and will occasionally fall, but we will quickly realize that is was a sin and repent before God.
This is such an encouraging passage that we no longer have to been attached to sin, but it also challenges us to grow in our relationship with Christ and to become the obedient slave that Paul talks about in this chapter. I highly encourage you to break out commentary and read Romans chapter 6 as Paul explains what it really means to be a Christ follower, it's good stuff (even though some of it is hard to understand).
With all that said this years overall theme for our students is "unleashed from sin, bound to Christ." I leave you with the words to a song by Steven Curtis Chapman called "Remember your Chains" that I think goes along with this post.

Remember your chains
Remember the prison that once held you
Before the love of God broke through
Remember the place you were without grace
When you see where you are now
Remember your chains
And remember your chains are gone

R3: Relate, Ripen, Reproduce

Hey everybody I just wanted to make a detailed post on the core values of the youth ministry at Petra Baptist Church. It's nicknamed "R Cubed' or simply "R3.'' So let me describe the 3 R's for you:

1. Relate - "Connect" - as a student ministry we want to connect students to Jesus! We want to provide an atmosphere for students to connect with God, church leaders, and other students. To do this we will be starting a Bible Fellowship hour on Sunday mornings and Bible studies on Wednesday nights. We are also planning a summer retreat and other events to just "hang out" (or connect) with students.
2. Ripen - "Grow" - we want students to mature in their walk with Jesus Christ! We want to provide students opportunities to interact with God's Word and godly leaders. We will do this through discipleship programs, providing opportunities to serve, and digging into God's word.
3. Reproduce - we want mature (ripe) students to take what they have learned in our ministry and share it with a lost world. We will accomplish this through prayer and various leadership programs showing mature students how to share their faith and duplicate their love for Jesus in others.

These are the core values in which every program is evaluated by. As a youth ministry we want to be intentional about everything we do. WE ARE NOT A BABYSITTING SERVICE! Our goal is to connect, grow, and reproduce believers to bring honor and glory to God. Please pray for our students and our leadership that we will see many students come to know Jesus and see them grow to share their faith in an unbelieving world.

"And he said to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'"
-Luke 10:2 (ESV)