Moving…

Wanted to let you all know that this blog has now moved over to blogger, and you can find it at:
http://ebenezersynergy.blogspot.com

See you there!

Lesson Loop 9.8.11

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: “Galatians – applying the gospel”
We took some time to really apply the gospel to our unique life situations. Students wrote on a 3×5 card what their biggest struggle/temptation/difficulty is right now (without their name), and then they were redistributed for students to pray for the person whom the card represented. The students also had to spend some time thinking of how Christ’s life, death and resurrection applied to this situation.

Then when we came back together I shared from my heart how God has been applying the truths of the gospel to my heart over the last 6 months with Preslie’s situation.

My prayer is that we begin to see how the gospel ties into EVERYTHING we do and EVERY challenge we face.

LUCID: “Worship: Inside and Out”
This was our final week in our series on Worship. This was a time to really emphasize what we have been talking  - that worship is our whole lives, and not just the time on Sundays and Wednesdays when we come together in the church building. In fact, we have no right praising God with our lips when we refuse to worship Him with our lives during the week.
Our text was Psalm 15, and we saw 10 ways that someone worships God in that text.

1. walks blamelessly
2. does what is right
3. speaks truth in his heart
4. does not slander with his tongue
5. does no evil to his neighbor
6. casts no slur on his fellowman
7. despises a vile man
8. honors those who fear the Lord
9. keeps his oath (even when it hurts)
10. lends his money without interest

Lesson Loop 3.31.11

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: “We’re in this together” (Galatians 6)
We started with a neat team-building game called electric fence, where the students had to help each other over the rope as it was raised higher and higher. It was neat to see certain students rise into leadership and see them work together. This tied into our lesson which was about how we need each other. We must be united as the body of Christ.

Modern society places way more emphasis on technology and knowledge than they do on relying on one another. If we are not careful this can have a negative influence on the body of Christ as well, as we are all more prone to “go it alone” than we are to work together, stay accountable and help others.

We specifically highlighted how Galatians calls us to help one another as we each struggle with sin. We need accountability, and we need to have enough guts to obey God’s Word and ask our friends the tough questions about how they are doing. We also need to do this humbly and gently as the passage says, lest we come across self-righteous or we fall into sin ourselves.

The passage calls us back to self-examination, since we often find it easier to point others faults out than recognize our own sin.

Students left with the challenge to find one close friend they can confess their biggest struggle to and ask for prayer.

LUCID: “Walk Humbly With Your God”

We focused on the 3rd part of Micah 6:8 and how this is the worship that God wants from us.

We considered how we can walk humbly by examining Christ’s example in Philippians 2. Here are a couple things we pointed out:

1. True humility comes when we are united with Christ, changed by His love, and filled with the Spirit.
2. We discussed how unbelievers can be humble to a certain degree, but they are not capable of the deep humility that Philippians 2 calls us to. In fact, none of us can have Philippians 2 humility without God renewing our mind and giving us the mind of Christ. 
3. In order to have a mind renewed with the humility of Jesus we need to spend time with Him!
4. Jesus showed humility in this way: 

• had it all but made himself nothing
• lived as a humble servant
• died a criminal’s death for me

Students left with the challenge to think about the person whom it is most difficult to act humbly towards.

Lesson Loop 7.29.11

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: Water Night!

We had an awesome time throwing water balloons and sliding down a big slip-and-slide, but before we did we heard from the missions team who shared testimonies about what God did in their lives on the trip to New Mexico.

It was great to hear how God was teaching them the entire time, and I think it was a challenge to those who heard.

We also had a guest worship leader from Cedarcrest BFC (Jason), which was a blessing.

 

LUCID: “Living Sacrifice”

We began a new series on worship, and the main point was how worship is so much more than the formal worship time we have at youth group and church on Sundays. It involves our whole life, and most specifically, our obedience to what God has called us to.We took note of several ways God tells us in the O.T. how we are to worship Him:

1. mercy, knowing God (Hosea 6:6)
2. justice, righteousness (Amos 5:21-24)
3. humility and repentance (Psalm 51:16-17)
4. obedience, purity (1 Samuel 15:22)
5. right living, encourage the oppressed, defend orphans and widows (Isaiah 1:11-20)

 

“Underage” Use of Facebook

I don’t know how many of the middle school parents know about our Synergy blog yet, but I read this in School Library Journal, a professional resource I use at the library. We all know the potential misuse/abuses with Facebook, and not to be suspicious, but kids are curious. The study says 7.5 million “underage” kids (under Facebook’s 13 year old age requirement) use Facebook, and 5 million of those are 10 and under.

I have first-hand experience with this myself. My 11 year old cousin made up a birthdate that put her older than me (graduated from Penn State Class of ’99!) so that she could get on Facebook with her friends, after my aunt had said no. Being 11 and not supervised, she has no clue what all’s out there, the viruses, let alone inappropriate behavior possible. She even sent me a message saying , “Shh! Don’t tell Mom!” (Of course I did tell mom.) I know, in her mind, it’s a harmless site, like Webkinz that she used to spend hours on. A place where she can talk to friends, take quizzes and play games. But there’s still too much potential for misuse/abuse, especially when kids aren’t being supervised or haven’t been educated on privacy settings, what not to “click” and all the new potential safety risks with our increasingly online generation. And my cousin? Despite being a “good kid”, she got into a fight with a friend at school, and the two girls started arguing online. The principal had to call my aunt and the other girl’s mom to talk about cyber-bullying.

I’m not suggesting you always be suspicious of your child, but be aware of their curiosity and face it head on so they don’t go behind your backs.

Lesson Loop 3.31.11

 

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: Special Worship Night
We had an awesome night just crying out to God in prayer, singing His praise in song and participating in communion together. I really felt as though God was moving and working in the hearts of our students, and all that glory goes to God!
We used the “Lord’s Prayer” as our template, and so we prayed:

“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name…” – praise God because of who He is.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” – pray for God to change our world (physically and especially spiritually).

“Give us today our daily bread…” – Prayer Requests and Popcorn Prayer

Personal Prayer
* “Forgive us our debts as we forgive others…”

* “Lead us not into temptation…”

 

LUCID: “Satan, Get Behind Me!”

We focused last night on how Satan attacks us. Sometimes his presence is obvious – in those things that are openly evil – witchcraft, etc…

Far more often though we engage in satanic activity without even realizing the seriousness of it. The Bible uses some strong language to show us that Satan gets the upper-hand when we choose sin over what God has for us. Here are 5 areas that we considered:

1. Love of $$ (1 Tim. 6:9-10)
2. Disobeying Parents (1 Samuel 15:23a)
3. Lust (Proverbs 5:1-5)
4. Gossip & Seeking Attention (1 Timothy 5:11-15)
5. Ignoring  God’s Will (Mark 8:33)

After we considered these sins which give Satan a foothold, we broke into growth groups and talked about which area each student struggled the most with.

I really enjoy having the students get into small groups to apply the lesson, and I think it is something we might do more often.

Words of Hope Radios

Last night we announced the results of the Lucid Service Series Penny War to raise money for Words of Hope radios. (We hope this isn’t the first time you’ve heard of the penny war, Lucid Service Series or Words of Hope, but if so… definitely ask us!) Just wanted to say a big thank you to parents and way to go to the students…

We raised enough money to send 8 radios to Niger for people to hear the gospel where they might not otherwise have the chance!! And there was still about $20 left over (not enough for another radio) that we’ll be sending to Iran toward radio programming in that nation. Next Service Series will focus on the 30 Hour Famine coming up at the end of April. (By the way, kids who were definitely participating were able to pick up fundraising packets this week!)

Oh, and the other “important” info (started with the best news)… BOYS won. They raised $195.16 and the girls raised $144.60! Great job to both sides!

2 seminars coming up

There are two upcoming seminars which will be helpful for youth parents and youth volunteers.

Here they are:

The College Transition:  Your purpose, your faith, and your community

March 20, 2011: 2pm-5pm The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg Pre-registration: $10 student/$20 max family · All seats at door (if available): $15 per person Register online

This seminar is designed for college-bound high school students (9th-12th) and their parents and will address the transition from high school to college. This multimedia seminar is engaging, interactive, and challenges teenagers and parents to think deeply about the most crucial questions to ask before entering college. Designed to focus on the unique pressures and influences students face in higher education, this seminar and related support materials will help students and parents better understand and prepare to face these pressures and challenges from a distinctively Christian perspective. Youth leaders and Christian School teachers are also highly encouraged to attend. Derek Melleby is the Director of the College Transition Initiative at CPYU and the Coalition for Christian Outreach. He is the author of the just released book,  Make College Count: A Faithful Guide to Life and Learning and co- author of The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness. His seminars have been presented across the country to students, parents, educators and pastors. For more information on this event, please visit http://theconnectionministries.org/events/the-college-transition or call 717-545-9500.

Hope and Healing for Broken Kids  A one day training event from CPYU

REGISTER TODAY! Walt Mueller invites you to CPYU’s one-day training seminar for youth workers, educators, parents, pastors and counselors. Saturday, April 9, 2011 8:45am-5pm Monroeville Assembly of God Church 4561 Old William Penn Highway Monroeville, PA 15146   Click here to learn more. Click here to register.

Presenters Rich Van Pelt is the National Director of Ministry Relationships for Compassion International. Rich has expertise in dealing with struggling adolescents, crisis intervention, and postvention-helping kids and parents navigate some of life’s toughest stuff. Marv Penner, CPYU Associate Staff, heads up Youth Specialties, Canada and is director of All About Youth and the National Center for Excellence in Youth Ministry. In addition to his teaching, speaking and writing, Marv specializes in parent/adolescent conflict resolution, sexual abuse recovery, eating disorders and marriage and family issues.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex (a post by pastor Mark Driscoll)

Parents – check out this post by Mark and Grace Driscoll, and share what you think.

http://feeds.theresurgence.com/~r/TheResurgence/~3/O5oxq9Si50c/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-sex

Lesson Loop 2.26.11

This week in our Student Ministry:

THIRD PLACE: “Esther: The Hidden Hand of God”
We only have one more week of studying the book of Esther, and this past week we looked at:

God’s Just Sovereignty (from chapter 6-7)

• GOD WILL REWARD RIGHTEOUSNESS (SO BE HUMBLE)
• GOD WILL PUNISH EVIL  (SO BE PATIENT)
  

We then looked at Psalm 131, which could serve as a commentary for the story of Esther. In Psalm 131:1-8 we considered -

•Because god will reward righteousness, we should not fret (1,7,8)

•Because god will reward righteousness, we should walk humbly with Him (3-5)

We talked about how our world is messed up, and injustice is everywhere. But one day Christ will come to earth and set up perfect justice. Hallelujah for that.

Until that day, God desires to use us to be agents of change to bring about justice in the areas we can, and trust Him to be the sovereign God in the areas we cannot control.

LUCID: “Angels and Demons”

We are in the middle of a series on the Supernatural and Spiritual Warfare, and this past Wednesday we talked about common misconceptions about angels and demons; then we split into groups and each group looked at a different Scripture that revealed something about either angels or demons. After that we jotted down what the Bible had to say, and ended with encouragement from Romans 8:35-39

Romans 8:35–39 (ESV)

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

*We must always remember that “greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world.” No supernatural force (angel or demon) could ever separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ.

So while it is important to study angels and demons from the Bible, we should not be consumed with them and we must remember Christ has given us the victory already in the battle that Ephesians 6 talks about.