Principles for Parents

This is from the Principles for Parents seminar we hosted in the spring and it was led by Herb Owen:

"We put our children in great danger when we allow them to operate under authority that is weak or distant or does not follow biblical principles.  The danger becomes far greater when we allow our children to be in a situation whre they are under the authority of no one at all.  We have then allowed them to be in a place of rebellion."

Something for us parents to think about as we draw close to the weekend and our kids start asking to go do this or that or stay at _____'s house.

Join The Contagious Team!

Contagious Youth will have a team for the Great Strides walk on September 12.  The walk is fun.  I don't get into walking but this walk is short and then ends with a party atmosphere, fun, food and games.  The best part is we are raising money and awareness to help with Cystic Fibrosis research.

If you are on the OBX and would like to join our team you are more than welcome.  The Contagious Youth team isn't just for students but also for parents, siblings, adults, friends, whoever wants to join in and help.

Those who know our family know that Great Strides is important to us.  So get off your seat and on the street and join the Contagious Team.  If you can't be here for the walk you are certainly more than welcome to help us reach our team's financial goal.

To join or to give go here.  Thanks!

Growing in Ministry

Our responsibility as parents and youth ministers is to help our kids, students, grow in ministry.  How do we accomplish this?  Here are a few ideas:

Teach them SHAPE

S – Spiritual gifts – as believers in Christ we have each been gifted by the Holy   Spirit and these gifts are to be used serving the church.

H – Heart – Using what we are passionate about to serve the church

A – Abilities – We each have abilities to be used in serving the church

P – Personality – We each have a unique personality that can be used in serving the church

E – Experiences – In life we each have different experiences we have been through that can be used in serving the church.  Even the bad experiences because God never wastes a hurt.

Model

Since more is caught than is taught it is good for students to see us serving the church.  What ministry are you involved in at your church?  Does your teen see you serving regularly at your church?  Perhaps, at family devotion time, share with your teen what your ministry is and why you love serving Christ and his church (without preaching).

Involvement

Look for opportunities for students to serve.  At NHC several of our students help in our Kids’ Zone each Sunday morning.  We also have opportunities to serve by allowing them to help set up and prepare for the youth group gathering.

As a parent we can look for opportunities to involve our kids in the ministry we are active in.  Bring your teen along to help, maybe not every week but enough for them to get a taste of what serving and why it is important to you.

Discussion
If your teen gets involved in ministry look for opportunities to “debrief” and allow them to share how they felt about the ministry experience.  Point out others who are serving and talk about their ministry together.

Tonight at Contagious

Great time at Contagious tonight!  The water was great.  Lots of Boars Head hot dogs were consumed.

We are looking at staying connected to Christ and growing in our faith.  Tonight was all about growing deep roots, Colossians 2:1-9.   Why do some students drift into youth group and then drift away?  Why do some students graduate from high school and walk away from their faith?  No deep roots.  

Here on the OBX we experience the occasional hurricane.  We see the damage of the wind and saturation of the rain and toppled trees.  The trees fall because their root system is shallow.  Same happens with us spiritually, we must make the choice and effort to grow deep roots in Christ so when the hurricanes of life come we don't topple over.  

Happy Birthday To Our Twins!

Seven months ago God blessed our family by giving us our twins through the miracle of adoption.

Happy Birthday Babes!

We are going August 19th. 

Registration ends August 12.

$70 for ticket and bus ride.

Connection Groups

Taking an Unexpected Turn

Sometimes in life we think we have it figured out.  We have our plans, dreams, ideas of how things will be.  More often than not there are unexpected turns in the road, events and circumstances that we don't plan on.  

Here is the skeleton outline of an article that I'm working on:

• Remember God is Sovereign (Jeremiah 29:11)
• Remember to Pray (Matthew 26:39)
• Remember Your Call (Matthew 28:18-20)
• Remember your Family (Ephesians 5:21 - 6:4)

Any thoughts?

Last Night at Contagious

Last night we had a great time at Contagious.  It was storming so we had to move our gathering from the beach back to NHC.  We cooked and consumed many Boars Head hot dogs thanks to our sponsors!

Students were playing ping pong, cards, golf (some sort of card game).  Some middle school girls created their own game out of plastic bowling pins and bowling ball.  I'm not sure how their game worked but they were having a great time.  Students sat around and visited with each other and our YM team.  All of this was going on while we had music videos from Interlinc on the flat screens.

Rich and I put our heads together and in about 5 minutes came up with a game idea:

• Use one old "see and say" from the church nursery or yard sale
• Divide students into teams by age
• Take a volunteer from each group (play as many rounds as you like)
• Take a "volunteer" from the YM team to compete as well
• Pull the handle and the contestant must imitate the animal.
• Students vote by cheering for their favorite in each round
• Have a final round with the winner of each round
• Give a cheap prize to the winner (we gave the winner Mt. Dew)

This game could have been a flop but for some reason the students loved it and voted to keep it and not "trash it" (I was fully prepared to smash the "see and say" on stage if they voted "trash it)  The game had nothing to do with the lesson it was just about laughing  together.

We took a look at John 15:1-8 and took a look at Abiding (remaining in Christ).

• Trust the Gardner
• Pruning makes new growth
• Grafting is good
• We can reach and climb with support

Students then broke into small groups to discuss the lesson and talk about applying it in their own lives.  

Next Sunday we will continue the study on Abiding.

Day One of Impact Outer Banks

Day One:

84 Students

10 Churches from 4 denominations

10 teams made up of students from different churches (I have one student from NHC on my team and the rest are from other churches.  A great way for students to form relationships with other believers at their school)

Mission Circus where the Mission sites shared what will happen this week (orientation)

Teams came up with their names and made a team flag

Excellent lunch cooked for us by the good folks at Duck UMC

Fun afternoon at the beach

Tomorrow the team I'm leading heads to the Crisis Pregnancy Center to wash down some cribs.  Hopefully we will have a little slide show/video to share tomorrow night

Tonight at Contagious

Great time with youth group at the beach tonight.  Many Boars Head hot dogs were consumed by the students and some of the Nags Head lifeguards helped us wipe out the hot dogs. 

Tonight we talked about friends and then broke up into small groups for prayer.  

• Friendship with God should be our first priority
• We all need a friend who is truthful with us
• Love should be the basis of our friendships

Tomorrow some of our students will be participating in Impact Outer Banks, a week long missions event.  We have about 70 students divided up into 10 mission teams and each day each the teams will do a different local mission project.  In the morning we have a worship time together then head out to our mission sites and then back together in the afternoon for some recreation time together.