Beach Blessings #2

Another great weekend for our church this weekend!! First off Saturday night was awesome at the McCrary's! We had a blast at our fall festival!! There was great food, fellowship, and fun (just as promised)! We had a great turnout and I got to meet a lot of people that I had never meet before! Special thanks to all the McCrary's for letting us use their property and cleaning up after us! It was AWESOME!

Also we went back to the beach this past Sunday night to baptize one of our young ones! The really cool thing is that both times that we have been out there there has been another church out there baptizing too! It has just been really cool to see God's children follow Him in obedience in a public setting like the beach! Just as a thought anytime someone gets baptized in your church make sure you go out there and support them! It's a great time for the body of Christ (the church) to come together and rejoice with one another!

Youth Sunday & Other Events

Sunday morning November 8th our youth will take over the 10:30 am service! That's right we will be having youth Sunday that morning as youth run the show. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be asking (and encouraging) students in our ministry to run the sound equipment, read Scripture, sing, do motions, and other tasks to help serve that morning. I'll also have the awesome opportunity to preach from God's Word that morning.

I really want to encourage you and your youth to be there that Sunday morning and participate in this fun and exciting service!

Other events coming soon:

1.This Saturday is our churches Fall Festival at the McCrary's house! This is a great time for fun, food , and fellowship! We'll have all kinds of games for the youth, a bon fire, a hayride, and other exciting things. The event starts at 6:30pm and ends around 9:30pm. Directions can be found on our church's website at www.petrabaptist.com. Hope to see you there!

2. Beach Baptism service - Sunday night October 25th at 6:00 we will meet down at Mickler's Landing and have another beach baptism service! Please let me know if you or your youth would like to be baptized! Come down and support our brothers and sisters in Christ as we welcome them into the family of Christ!

3. Crazy Hat Night - Wednesday night October 28th our student ministry is shaking up the normal schedule with another theme night. We are encouraging students to come that night with some kind of crazy hat. They will be voted on based on creativity, size, color, and WOW factor. The best hat will receive a prize at the end of the night!

4. Prayer walk - Thursday night October 29th at 6:30pm our church will go out into the community and pray for people in neighborhoods around us. Meet at the church and be prepared to have God work in your life as you pray for other!

5. Thanksgiving dinner on church grounds - Sunday afternoon November 15th our church will sit down with each other and celebrate Thanksgiving by eating and fellowshiping together! More information to come soon!

6. Last night for Wednesday activities - Wednesday November 18th will be the last night of our church-wide activities (including youth programs and awanna programs) until early January. Take this time to enjoy the holiday's by spending extra time with your family and in God's Word! See you in January!

For any questions about our upcoming events please email me at Josh@petrabaptist.com or visit our website at www.petrabaptist.com.

Petra Parents!!

Hey Parents! Just wanted to let you know that you should receive our monthly newsletter tomorrow at your home (the same one that you have received via email)! Just to echo what the newsletter says I am trying to compile an email list for all of you so that once a month I can send you the newsletter via email. The cost and the time it took to send a hard copy out to everyone was massive and this would help me out a lot. If you do not wish to give out your email address that is fine just let me know and I'll send you a hard copy every month. Thanks for helping me out in this way, if you do not receive emails from me please let me know what your email address is so I can add you to my list! Thanks everyone!

American Culture & Effective Leadership

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that I have planned out two topics to talk about in depth over the next couple of months on my blog. I will be working hard to update these topics once a week, the topics include the following:

1. American Culture - I'm gonna spend some time talking about the culture here in America. Because I'm a youth pastor I'll talk a lot about youth culture but I do want to focus on other age groups as well. Some people just write off the concept of church and culture but I happen to believe that as the culture changes the way you do things as a church have to change as well. The good thing is that some thing never changes (even in the midst of cultural change) and that includes the Word of God and God's character! I'm excited to share some of these things with you in the next couple of months!

2. I had lunch with a great friend in ministry a couple weeks ago and he gave me a book full of useful leadership tips all of which are backed by Scripture. So I'll pick out my favorites and share them with you and I may even add a few of my own. These leadership tips will help you as you lead out in your church or as you lead people in the business world!

Be sure to comment on these posts if you have any questions, thoughts, or maybe a differing opinion and we'll talk about those in the weeks to come! I'm really looking forward to sharing things that are on my mind with all of you for the next couple of months!

Wednesday Night September 30th "The Main Event"

Hey Parents! Just want to let you know about our youth event this Wednesday night! It’s called “The Main Event.” It is a great opportunity for your youth to invite friends to come hang out and have a fun time. We will be meeting at the church at the same time as every Wednesday night (6:00) and then car pooling to either St. Johns Golf and Country or Johns Creek (still working out final details) to use their basketball courts and soccer fields. Once we arrive we will play some kickball as well as some other fun games & relays. Then the last 10 minutes I will share with them from God’s Word how they can come to have a relationship with Jesus! We will also be giving away prizes to teams and individuals including a Florida Gator basketball signed by Coach Billy Donavan for the student who brings the most friends! (they have to bring at least 5 friends who have never been to our church)

I’m really excited for the opportunity to share with your youth how to have a personal relationship with Jesus as well as building relationships through playing silly games with them. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to email or call me at josh@petrabaptist.com or 904.612.9799. We are looking forward to seeing your youth there on Wednesday night! Thank you!

P.S. – I’ll be sending out an email as soon as I know exactly which park we will be playing at!

Beach Blessings

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know about a really exciting event that took place this evening (Sunday 9/13). Our church met out at Mickler's Landing (a great beach spot here in Jacksonville) and me and our pastor (Ted Owens) had the privilege to baptize 11 people (8 of whom were students).

It looked like rain almost all day and the forecast said that there would be a 60% chance of rain this evening. But God provided sunshine the entire evening and we were able to baptize the 11 who had come. I had never seen or helped in a beach baptism before and the pastor and I struggled to fight the waves that were crashing unusually hard. But after all was said and done (and everyone was "dunked") we got to see the Gospel proclaimed 11 times and got to see 11 new Christians follow God's command to be Scripturally baptized.

What an encouraging time to see some of the seed's planted by the ministries in our church (awana, youth, and adult) come to fruition. It just goes to remind us that God is faithful and when His Word goes out it does not return void!

Make sure you check out our website www.petrabaptist.com for photos (coming in the near future)!

Petra on Facebook

Petra Baptist Student Ministry is now on facebook!! Just type Petra Baptist Church in the search bar in the top right corner (of facebook) and then become a fan!! I'll be posting status updates and upcoming events on the facebook page. Feel free to post whats going on in your life or post any questions you have!! I hope to see a lot of fans by the end of the week!!

Look for my post later this week (serious this time) about social networking sites like facebook and twitter and how to use them wisely!!

Wild Adventures

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for allowing your youth to participate in our summer events this year. They have been a huge success and have provided a way for me and our other youth leaders to get to know your youth. We have one more summer event planned this summer before we kick off our fall programming on August 19^th. We are going to Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA on August 12^th. Wild Adventures is a theme park with roller coasters and a huge water park. We will leave the church a little after 8 am and will return at 9 pm. The price of the event is $25 which covers admission. Please email me to RSVP by August 7^th and pay before August 10^th (you can pay after but you will have to pay full ticket price, around $35).

We will be providing breakfast that morning which will include breakfast bars, pop tarts, doughnuts, milk, & orange juice. Your youth will have to bring money for lunch and dinner at the park (I suggest $15-20). They will also have to bring their own money for any other events (arcades, fair type games, etc) that they wish to participate in at the park.

There is also a water park inside Wild Adventures! So have your youth bring a change or clothes and a towel so they can participate in this as well. Make sure their swim suit does not have any metal on it (this includes even small little metal rings that some suits have on pockets). If there is metal on their suit the park will not allow you to go down any of the slides. Also ladies must wear a one piece, a tankini, or a dark shirt and are not allowed to wear a bikini. If you have any questions or concerns about this please do not hesitate to call or email me and I would love to explain why our church holds this view.

If you have any additional questions about our last event, or any of our other programs, please feel free to email or call me at any time. Thank you for letting your youth partner with us at Petra Baptist church this summer!

Overview

Event: Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA

Time: 8:00 am - 9:00 pm

Cost $25 (Before August 9th) - Please RSVP - Bring money for lunch / dinner @ park ($15-20)

Thanks!

Josh Ness

Paintball July 29th!!

Dear Parents,

Our next summer event is July 29^th and we are going paintballing! We are going to meet at the church at 10 am and get back at 4pm. We will be going to a place called Paintball Brothers Inc. (address – 3906 CR 218, phone # 608-8299) out in Middleburg to play paintball. This event will cost $45 which includes, use of the tactical paintball field (the best in the Jacksonville area), all the equipment necessary (paintball gun, mask, & CO2), 1,000 paintballs, and lunch. You may bring your own equipment (gun, mask, etc) but it does not change the price (the field charges whether you have your own stuff or not). I suggest that you leave your equipment at home and just use what is rented to us. YOU CANNOT BRING YOUR OWN PAINTBALLS! For safety reasons the fields we are going to will not allow us to bring our own paintballs so you MUST leave those at home.

If you have never been paintballing before here are a couple things you should know:

• · Paintballs can hurt – make sure you wear layers of clothes to help protect your body. You must wear some kind of pants (jeans, camo, etc). I suggest a long sleeve shirt with another shirt over. Also no flip-fops you must wear closed toe shoes or boots. You will be wearing a protective mask (provided by the paintball place) to protect your face. The more clothes you wear the less the paintballs will hurt, but remember its July and the fields are outdoors….It will be hot! If you wear shorts or flip-flops of any sort you will not go paintballing with us! (Also bring a change of clothes for the ride home)
• · There are rules – The rules will be laid out in detail at the paintball fields from our instructor which generally include no short range shots and during game play never take off your protective mask (provided by the paintball place). If you break any of the rules laid out by the instructor at the field you will not play the rest of the day!

You can also check out www.warpig.com/paintball/newbie/by.newbie.shtml for an interesting article about paintballing from a beginner’s prospective.

Thank you so much for being a part of our summer events here at Petra Baptist Church! If you have any questions or concerns please email me at josh@petrabaptist.com or call me at 904.612.9799.

Follow Petra Student Ministry on Twiter

Twitter is the new craze in the social network world and we are jumping on the bandwagon! You can follow what is going on in our student ministry by visiting www.twitter.com/PetraStudents.

Some of you probably have no idea what twitter is so I'll explain. Twitter is a social networking site were you answer the simple question what are you doing (in 140 characters)? You can follow other people to see what they are doing and other people can follow you to see what you are doing. You do not need to be a member of twitter to see the posts just visit the web-address provided above to see what's new in our ministry (programing alerts, message recaps, etc)!

I'm writting an article about social networking sites (myspace, facebook, twitter, etc) and how we can use them effectivley as Christians. I'll also warn parents about what they can do to keep an eye on their youth as they enter the social networking world. I'll post that as soon as I'm finished.

Come follow us on twitter!

Pool Day!!

Hey parents!! I'm really excited about our next event this Wednesday (June 24th). We will be traveling to the Ocala area to a privately owned area with a pool, volleyball courts, fields, and a place to cookout! We plan on leaving the church around 11:15 am and return just before 5:00 pm. We will be providing lunch (hot dogs and hamburgers) around 1:00!! Don't forget to send $10 with your youth for this event.

Adult members of our church (Brigid Wallace, Roger Owns Jr., and Laura Owens) will be driving your youth as we carpool to the Ocala area. Our youth volunteers have been checked out by me and our pastor. Your youth's safety is our first priority!

Along with your youth's physical safety we also want to keep your child safe spiritually. That being said, we want everyone, especially the ladies, to dress modestly. This means no bikini's. Tankini's and one-peice swimsuits are fine. If a bikini is all your youth owns that is fine but they will be required to wear a dark t-shirt over top. We do this to protect the purity of the teenage boys that will be in attendance. If you have any question, concerns, or problems with our dress code please feel free to contact me at josh@petrabaptist.com or call me at 612.9799.

Also we must have a medical release for for your youth on file. You can print one out from this blog by clicking on the title of the last post ("Medical Release Form"). If we do not have one of these forms on file then your youth will not be allowed to swim!

Again I'm really excited about this event and look forward to seeing your youth at Petra Baptist Church this Wednesday at 11:00 am!!

Medical Release Form

Hey Everyone!!! I'm really excited about our summer events starting next week!!! In order for your youth to participate in any of the events we do this summer we have to have a medical release form on file for your student. I sent one out with our newsletter last week but if you have lost it or did not recieve the newsletter you can print it off our church website (just click on the title of this post "Medical Release Form). There will also be some at the church at the beginning of each event as well. Thanks for your cooperation....see you next week!!!!

Summer Events (For Parents)

Hey Everyone!!! Hope your having a great week so far!!! I just wanted to let you know about our events coming up this summer. During the 9-10 weeks of summer we have 6 exciting events here at Petra Baptist Church including: a video scavenger hunt, a pool day, bowling, kickball, paintball, and a trip to Wild Adventures in Valdosta Georgia!! These events start June 17th (only 2 weeks from now)!!! And the last event (to Wild Adventures) will be August 12th. You should be recieving a newsletter via email or direct mail in the next couple of days with some important information in it. Below I'll give you a brief overview of this summers events. If you want information via email or direct mail please let me know by sending me an email at josh@petrabaptist.com.

June 17th = Video Scavenger Hunt (Time: 6:00-9:30 / Cost: $10 / Place: Petra Baptist Church) - This is going to be a really fun event. We are going to split students up into teams and stick them with an adult leader and have them drive up and down 210 hunting for random things to take pictures of. Which ever teams takes the most and the best pictures wins! We will also be providing a desert at this event!

June 24th = Pool Day (Time: 11:00am-5:00pm / Cost: $10 / Place: Petra Baptist Church) - This will be an exciting day hanging out at the pool, playing football, volleyball, etc! We will be driving down to Ocala to Salt Springs - Ocala National Forest. There is a public pool there along with volleyball courts! We will be providing lunch that day having the classic hamburger and hot dog combo, as well as chips and drinks!

July 1st = Bowling (Time: 11:00am - 4:00pm / Cost: $15 / Place: Petra Baptist Church) - Nothing brings in independance day like a day at the bowling alley!! We will be going to Beach Bowl on Beach Blvd to bowl and have lunch! That's right lunch is provided at this event too!!

July 15th = Kickball (Time: 5:30-9:00 / Cost: $10 / Place: Petra Baptist Church) - We will be visiting one of our area baseball fields to take it over and play an intense game of kickball. One of our biggest concerns at an event like this is keeping your youth hydrated so bottled water will be provided at this event to help your youth have a fun time!

July 29th = Paintball - details are still being work out but as soon as everything is confirmed and locked in I'll give you an update of the time, place, and cost! Thanks!

August 12th = Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA - details are still being worked out in this event as well. It will be an all day trip probably from 8am - 9pm. But as soon as a couple more things are iron out I'll get that information to you!

**To attend these events we [Petra Baptist Church] must have a medical release form on file for your youth. There will be copies at the church at the beginning of each event and I'm working on a way for you to download them off this site so you will be able to print one off from your computer! Thanks for helping us in this area!

I understand that some of you will not be able to make it to all the events this summer. And that is fine! I know during the summer you have family vacations and other events planned but we look forward to seeing you here when you can be here so we can hang out with your youth and try to enocurage them with their walk with Christ!! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to email me! Thanks!

Youth Ministry 101

During my short stint at Boyce College I took a class entitled Youth Ministry 101 (taught by Gary Almon). It was a great class, I learned a ton and my desire to do youth ministry was multiplied! Three years later I find myself acting out what I had learned in that class and I find it more difficult then it was when I was reading that book or discussing the topic in class. I thought because of my background and the little experience that I had obtained that I was completely ready for the task ahead. And as I sit here at the church I believe the Lord has brought me to I find myself learning more and more about how youth ministry works in an administrative and spiritual way (I still think that I'm completely ready but I'm realizing that I don't know everything). I'm trying to narrow down curriculum, make contacts, find time to study & pray, plan future events, lead students and volunteer workers all while being a student, an employee and a worship pastor. I say this not to draw attention to my circumstance or to gain your sympathy (because many of you are in the same boat with overloaded schedules), I say this to remind myself and to remind you guys that it is IMPOSSIBLE to do ministry (or life for that matter) without a GROWING relationship with Christ! One of my biggest struggles is being consistent with my walk with Christ and I find at times when I'm not as focused on Christ, as I should be, the weight of my circumstances almost becomes unbearable and I question the call the Lord has placed on my life. And then the times when I'm growing I feel like I can tackle any challenge. I heard something this week that really put some perspective on this subject. My identity is found in Christ! It's not found in what I do for a living, who people think I am, or even what they expect from me, my identity is in Christ! I just wanted to encourage you to be consistent with your walk with Christ and make sure your meeting with someone or talking with someone about what Christ is doing in your life. To many times we talk about sports, school, relationships, and other things and we don't talk about the most important relationship in our life......CHRIST! Because when you're really growing in Christ and walking with him ever day then you will talk about Him and you will become excited about your faith.

Summer is Approaching

Hey Everyone!! Summer is almost here! I'm really excited about this summer and what we are doing here at Petra Baptist Church. In the next few weeks you will get a calendar of events which include paintball, a scavenger hunt, kickball, boating, bowling, and even a big trip to Orlando or Atlanta! I'm really excited about hanging out with everyone this summer! Make sure you're a part of what we are doing this summer at Petra Baptist Church! If you have any questions or need to contact me for any reason please email me at josh@petrabaptist.com!

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)