This past week I received an amazing e-mail from one of our parents concerning an ORANGE moment they had with the teenager during our communion service.  Thought I would pass along the note:

Ryan,

I wanted to let you know about something pretty awesome that happened during yesterdays service.

I was sitting with my son who is a 6th grader listening to Terry’s sermon. When Terry introduced his main verse I handed my son a Bible and had him find the verse for us.

He found it with no trouble and we read it together as Terry read aloud.

At the end of the service Terry gave an invitation for communion. I asked my son if he would like to participate in this special time. He said he did.

We went up together and got our elements are returned to our seats.

I asked him if he would like to take the communion together and he said that would be good.

He then said, ‘ I will pray first’. He prayed for us to never forget the gift God gave us in His Son on the cross and thanked God for communion as a time to remember what was sacrificed for us.

After he finished I prayed and we took communion together.

What an incredible time of sharing such a great part of the service with my son. It set up a really good rest of the day for the two of us.

On the way to lunch after the service we had a nice discussion about Terry’s message and talked about the different points Terry had made regarding worship. I asked him if he understood each area and if he had any questions. He had a much better understanding of it all than I had expected and we had a great discussion.

I was glad that he was able to be in the service so we could share this time and I was glad that I had taken the steps to encourage him to experience the entire service.

I now have a clearer picture and greater appreciation of what you have talked about when you stressed the importance of ‘Orange Moments’ with our children.

I look forward to more of these in the future.

Have a great day!

This is my prayer for all of our students and their families.  That they would grow together in Christ and closer to each other.  That mom and dad would play and active role in being Deuteronomy 6.4-9 parents:

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

1. Rent-A-Teen.  This past Sunday we are kicked off our Rent-a-Teen fundraiser.  This is an opportunity for the church to help toward camp and for you to raise money.  We will have a sign-up list for church attenders to place their names, phone numbers, work they need done and the date they are needing it.  You then can walk by the list at any time and check to see if you are available for any of those dates.  If you are, mark off their name and give them a call.  The money you make for that job will go toward your camp account.  We will try to have the adults pay directly to the church.  If the church attender hands you a check, have them make it out to Grace Point Community Church with your name on the memo line.   Adults can also call the church office and the names of the students we have on our list will get a call to see if they are available.

Here are a couple of opportunities. If you are interested, please call the church office or e-mail Ryan at ryan@gracepoint.cc with the one you can do AND then CALL the contact on the sheet to make arrangements with them.

· Mathis Life Group (John or Christy Mathis), 740.972.3124. looking for High School student to help with childcare on May 22^nd and/or May 29^th at the church.

· Sabrina Reno, 740.549.0212. Looking for High School student to help with childcare on May 2^nd.

· Steve Ogle, 740.548.7718. Looking for MS or HS student to help with childcare on April 27^th (6:16-8:15 pm)

1. Harbor Point Garage Sale.  On April 25^th, THIS SATURDAY!!!!, we will have tent set up at the Harbor Point (Galena) Garage Sale.  We are looking to sale food items.  If you are available anytime between 7 am and 5 pm we could use your help.  You can also help by DONATING the following items:

• Bottled water (200) –we have 2 cases donated
• cans of pop(100)
• candy bars (150)
• small bags of chips (100)—we have 50 bags
• cookies/baked goods (individually wrapped)—have some people, but need more
• hot dogs (150)
• buns (150)

This Friday we need help at 6:00 to help set up for the garage sale. We will be meeting at the VanPelt’s house (5266 Harbor Point Dr, Galena, 43021). If you could help just that day we would appreciate it.

1. Childcare.  The National Day of Prayer is on May 7^th this year.  We are excited about having a service this evening devout to pray and praise.  With that, we are in need of childcare workers.  If you are available on the evening of May 7^th, we could use you (students).  Money will be donated for your service which will go straight into your EPIC account.

Please RSVP if you are able to help with ANY of these opportunities and if you are willing to donate for the Harbor Point garage sale.

Just to clarify how the funds will be broken down, moneys made at the garage sale will go to help offset the cost of the bus (transportation) for camp. We are charging $100 per camper for the bus, but it cost about $165 per camper. This money will help us make up the $65 difference. Money from the other events will go straight into your student’s account.

These are just a few ideas we have set up to help out.  Please look for other ways you can raise the money (I know of a couple of students who have sent out support letters to friends and family!). 

1.  Identification with drug culture

• drug-related magazines or slogans on clothing
• conversation and jokes that are preoccupied with drugs
• hostility discussing drugs
• collection of beer cans

2.  Signs of physical deterioration

• memory lapses, short attention span, difficulty concentrating
• poor physical coordination; slurred or incoherent speech
• unhealthy appearance; indifference to hygiene and grooming
• bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils

3.  Dramatic changes in school performance

• marked downturn in grades–not just from C’s to F’s, but from A’s to B’s and C’s; assignments not completed
• increased absenteeism or tardiness

4.  Changes in behavior

• chronic dishonesty (lying, stealing, cheating); trouble with police
• changes in friends; evasiveness in talking about new ones
• possession of large amounts of money
• increasing and inappropriate anger, hostility, irritability, secretiveness
• reduced motivation, energy, self-discipline, self-esteem
• diminished interest in extracurricular activities, hobbies, church activities

If your student is displaying any of these signs, it would be wise to dig deep into the reasons for such behavior and changes.

Reference:

Feldman, R. S. (2008). Development across the lifespan (5^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

The Question being asked, How can I get my teenagers to understand the long-term effects of their actions and decisions now? My teenagers are so focused on TODAY its like talking to a wall.

Walk into the EPIC Room (the student ministry room at Grace Point Community Church, Lewis Center, OH) on a Sunday morning at 11:00 am and instead of seeing 40-50 Middle School students screaming and being loud, you will see students sitting quietly next to each other engrossed in texting their friends.  What amazes me most is when students, who are sitting RIGHT NEXT to each other are texting each other.  I recently asked two girls why they were texting and not talking to each other while sitting on the same couch elbow to elbow.  Their response:  it was easier to text!!!

Our society is developing a non-verbal communication which we have seen for the past few years but it is only getting worse.

Here are ways we can began changing this in the lives of our teenagers:

1.  Schedule regular MEDIA time outs.  It can be for only an hour or an entire evening.  I even knew a family that would go MEDIA-FREE for one whole Saturday a month.

2.  Sit down and have family game nights.  Use some of the classics like Sorry or MY favorite, Candy Land.  Better yet, play games that focus on being verbal (Scattergories, Taboo, etc.).

3.  Take time, either at dinner or in the car running your student to an event, to ask your teen questions.  Alternate from SILLY questions (what is your favorite TV character and why?) to some pretty DEEP questions (If you could change one thing about you what would it be?).  A great resource to help with this is Table Topics Cubes.

What ever you can do to get your student to drop the cell phone and actually speak is worth writing down and redoing over again.

Habakkuk 1:5
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.

As I sit here looking at this blank page thinking about how to respond to why Habakkuk 1:5 is my favorite verse I really have to think. I first saw this verse written on a card that someone had given to me. I don’t know why I got a card and I don’t know why they had chosen this verse to put on it but they did. Truly I think God was trying to tell me something like he always is. I know this may seem kind of cliché but its true. God can tell me so many things and do this through so many different ways it blows my mind. So I finally figured out that God wanted me to listen to him and hear this message he was trying to send to me but for some reason the connection was off and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his line that was broken. This was about a year ago and truly sometimes I still fell like I don’t know why God wants great things to happen in my life. Over the last couple of years I’ve felt off and on that this connection between me and God was off. It seemed like I was doing all the right things but yet I never really heard God. I don’t think it was because he wasn’t talking but because I wasn’t paying attention. God can do so many things in your life to get your attention back and he got mine, but on Sunday mornings, or on retreats but in normal day life it really wasn’t there. Through the past couple of weeks God has been speaking to me almost constantly. Making me try to listen to him. He obviously wants great things to happen to my life but I have to allow them to. I have to give him every part of my life. And even though I say I may have I probably haven’t. I’ve always had this picture of my heart. Not a

heart like this ♥ or the actual one inside my body but my heart. It’s kinda like a house and I can see different aspects of it. There is sometimes this big wall built around it so that no one can come in but that has been crashed down multiple times and has been rebuilt just as many. Then there is a welcome mat and the front door is open. I always picture God walking in to this “heart” and looking around. There are some rooms that the door is wide open, some that the door is closed but they are unlocked, some that they are locked but the key is around the knob, and some that are locked and the key is hidden to where no one can find it. This doesn’t represent what God can see in my life but more of what I allow him to see. God doesn’t want any locked or even shut doors in my life. He wants me to open up each one of them and to show him all of me and give it all to him. That is always the hard pat. This verse is one of the best promises I think God could have given the human race. It’s this promise that God will use you in life in things that you cannot imagine yourself in or even the world being in. God is showing you that he will make your life helpful to the world and great. God promises that you will be great even a normal 16 year old girl like me. I truly believe that God will always be there for me and will make my life great. Just the knowledge that God loves me, the weird, nerdy, teenage, girl to change the world in one way or another just makes me fill up with joy inside. Knowing that God will use me makes me excited and ready. Yeah it might not be the prettiest time in my life getting to the point God wants me to be; actually I can pretty much tell you that it won’t be pretty. To reach that point God is going to put me through struggles that I may think I will never get out of but that is part of the experience. It is not always the easiest thing to say that I will go through difficulties but that is what I strive to do, to say this and really mean it. I bet that no one would ever want to lose anyone in their life, or give up anything in their life just because someone says that it is going to “make them happier”. At the time that doesn’t seem right. But it is right. Maybe that is why I like this verse so much. It promises me that if I do give all that I have to God that he will make something amazing happen in my life. It encourages me to push forward so that I can make it to the place God wants me to be. Someone once told me (I think it may have been you) that it may be beautiful on the mountaintop but what your looking at is the valleys that you have gone through and that is what the beauty is. This is why I like Habakkuk 1:5, it’s my promise and constant reminder that God wants every aspect of my life and that if I do give him everything that he will use me in ways that I can’t even imagine. There has always been that struggle and so its nice to be reminded of this.

Thanks Elizabeth for sharing these thoughts!!!

As a parent, please read the Today show article by clicking here: Teens and Cell Phones

Pay careful attention to the end of the article where they give practical ways to monitor your teens cell phone usage.

For a better look at the survey taken go to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

NOTE:  This year’s High School Winter Retreat will be on Purity.  Please get your student signed up.

Also, a Parent Forum (P.A.T.H.) is scheduled for January 18th from 3:00-5:00 pm at Grace Point.  This month’s topic, Unraveling the Internet.  Parents–DON’T miss this event.

Here is the outline I used in the teaching:

THE FIGHT CLUB (1): The Home Front

Bottom Line: Honor opens the door to relationship.

TEACHING OUTLINE

INTRO:

Every family is weird in its own special way, and every family fights.

No matter what we fight about or how we fight about it, family fights are hard. They often hurt us more than we want to admit.

TENSION:

We can never change our parents and we can never leave them.

We can change how we react to them.

TRUTH:

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’–which is the first commandment with a promise–‘that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth’” (Ephesians 6:1-3 NIV).

The quality and even the length of our lives depends on how we treat our parents.

APPLICATION:

We are called to honor our parents no matter what.

For some of you this may be easy. For others it is more difficult.

You cannot be your parent’s parent. You cannot discipline them until they behave the way you think they should. You can only choose to fight for a relationship regardless of their actions and words, and honor them in spite of their decisions.

LANDING:

What does honor look like for you? How can you honor your mom and your dad tonight as you go home? How can you continue to honor them throughout the week?

It was an amazing weekend, with a lot of emotions as students faced how they deal with their parents.

I am excitedly looking forward to this Sunday!

We are kicking off a new series this weekend titled, FIGHT Club.

The Fight Club series gives you and your students something to fight about, actually fight for—your relationship with each other.

Week 1:
The Fight Club series exposes the truth about family life: All families fight. We just fight about and for different things, and we fight in different ways. Some families are very vocal; others quietly stuff their frustrations inside. But regardless of how families fight, every family decides what they are going to fight over. Fighting about rules and issues will always drive us apart, but there is another way. What if we began to fight for relationship? What if our sole objective was to know each other and to honor each other? The Good Fight encourages students to stay in the fight and never give up on their relationship with their parents.

Week 2:
When it comes to God’s intention for family, there are no ambiguities in Scripture. God desires for children and parents to turn their hearts toward each other and have a relationship. In order to have the good relationship God intends, we have to first learn how to change the fight. We have to stop fighting against “their way” and start fighting for a relationship. We have to surrender our right to be right and take up a new cause. We must prioritize relationship regardless of the cost.

Week 3:
This week is the final conclusion to our parent series. The goal of this week is to help students see the responsibility that they have to pursue a relationship with their parents. Some students have been hurt by their parents and they are living out the cycle by seeking to hurt their parents in return. This week we will look at the life of Absalom, who having been hurt, used the remainder of his life for revenge. We will see the outcome of Absalom’s choice and raise the question: Is this really the best way? Can students begin to break the cycle by refusing to use their influence as sons and daughters to inflict pain on the parents who may have hurt them? Can they be the instruments of healing in the lives of their parents?