Growing

Hey Everyone! Man I've been slacking! I've missed two weeks.....and haven't updated you at all about what is going on here in the youth ministry at Petra Baptist Church! So I wanted to post about what God is doing in our ministry.

We started a Sunday morning study called Back to the Basics teaching the students the basics of the Bible so that they can have a better understanding of the Bible as they read it. Our first week we had three students, the next week we had four students, and this past week we had seven students! Every week new students are coming as we begin to see growth in our student ministry. I want to say thanks to the students who have been coming and I want to encourage those who are not coming to get plugged in to what we are doing on Sunday mornings.

Be sure to check the blog out in the next couple weeks as I lay out what we will be doing this summer (including paintball, adventure landing, Suns games, and other events)! Have a Jesus filled week!!

Back to the Basics

Hey everyone!!! Just wanted to say thanks to those who came out on Sunday morning (leaders and students) for our first ever Sunday morning Bible Fellowship Hour!! We played some games (gorilla, man, gun and the rhyme game) and then opened the Bible to Matthew 21 and talked about the significance of Palm Sunday!

I wanted to write this post to let everyone know about a series of messages that I will be teaching on April 19th at 9:30am. It will be entiltled "Back to the Basics" a study to understanding the Bible. I will be basing it on the book 30 Days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders. This book takes the reader through the story of the Old and New Testament while also hitting on 10 great doctrines of the Bible. I think it will give our students and good overall view of the Bible and give them a good foundation to begin to grow their faith upon. I also recommend the book for seasoned Christians. I went through it about 2 years ago and it was a good refresher for me! Again this series starts April 19th at 9:30; this week we will not meet at 9:30 because the main service starts at 9:30, come and join us on Easter!!

I wanted to leave you with the chorus of a old song by a group called 4HIM called Basic of Life that I think go really well with this post and this series of messages.

We need to get back to the basics of life a heart that is pure and a love that is blind. A faith that is fervently grounded in Christ the hope that endures for all times. These are the basics,we need to get back to the basics of life

Get Plugged In!!

Hey Everyone!! Just wanted to start off by saying that we had a great night last night at the Fuel youth event. Had some pizza, played some guitar hero, and played taboo to get the evening started off. And I have to give a shout out to team 1 (the team I was a part of) because we won taboo!! Then we begin to learn about the Trinity through the Fuel DVDs. We learned that we will never truly understand the Trinity, and that's ok because we are saved by faith! We had some good discussions and then sang a couple worship songs! Thanks for coming (students) and thanks for your prayers (church)!!!

I also wanted to use this post to tell everyone that this Sunday will be our first Bible Fellowship hour (aka "Sunday School")! It will be held from 9:30 to about 10:15ish in the building next to the sanctuary. This Sunday we will have doughnuts and some drinks and students will have the opportunity to win CDs and t-shirts through a couple different games that we have planned! Then we'll sit and talk about the significance of Palm Sunday and the Resurrection. This BF ("Bible Fellowship") hour will be every Sunday from now on with one exception......Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday (April 12th) our normal service will be held at 9:30 and we will not have our normal BF Hour.

We really want students to be involved in this program on Sunday mornings. It will be a time to hang out, play some games, and learn from God's Word! I'm really excited about what God is doing here and what He plans to do in the future!! Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to see what God is going to do next!! See you this Sunday morning!!!

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)