December

Pastor's Pen

   
     We continue to have our “Youth Disciple Life Celebrations” about once every 3 or 4 months, featuring good food, fun games, praise music, and Bible Study. These sessions are usually on a Saturday night, from 5:00 to 8:45pm. I served as a Youth Minister in two churches, before starting to Pastor, and have since discovered that these evenings of food, games, worship, and teaching allow for way more than can get done in any one Bible Study session, without taking a whole weekend of activities, twenty-four seven, the way I used to do in what you may remember as “Youth Disciple Now Weekends.”

     The Theme for all of our “Youth Disciple Life Celebrations” continues to be “Building Healthy Relationships.” Each gathering is targeted for youth in the 6th through the 12th grades and their families. By making our meetings for every member in each youth family, we are able to do something unique and focus on each person’s family of origin as the natural place for seeing what God’s Word has to say about a number of varied relationships, inside and outside of the home. It has been a grand experiment so far, with lots of fun, faith, and family fellowship.

     Our first gathering focused on our “Relationship with God.” The plan of salvation was shared and each person had a chance to place their faith in Jesus to begin their life long journey of faith. But salvation is only the beginning of our “Relationship with God.” Key verses were studied and discussed within the group to discover together how to Trust God, in every area of our growing walk with Jesus. In fact, we dealt specifically with what Jesus said about overcoming worry and walking by faith everyday, with every situation.

     The second “Youth Disciple Life Celebration,” focused on “Relationships with Parents.” It was a valuable interchange to have youth, their younger siblings, and especially the parents included in a discussion of what the Bible teaches both to parents and to children about building stronger relationships with one another in the home. It was tremendously exciting to have children, youth, and their parents all interacting in Bible Study.

     Our most recent evening of food, fun, and faith, in these “Youth Disciple Life Celebrations,” dealt with biblical teachings on “Our Relationships with Authority Figures.” This study explored how the younger generation is to interact with people like teachers, law enforcement, the court system, government, and all other authorities, according to God’s Word, and even how to appeal to God’s higher authority, over all other authorities, willing to disobey men in order to obey God.

     On Saturday, January 4th, from 5:00 to 8:45pm, our next “Youth Disciple Life Celebration” should be a matter of great interest. We will do a character study on the lives of David and Jonathan to unwrap the tremendously important topic of “Building and Growing Strong and Healthy Relationships with our FRIENDS!” Youth value their friendships and should be taught exactly what God’s Word says about this personal and practical part of their daily lives. It is easy for “peer pressure” to pull youth to make decisions and choose actions to “fit in,” but God’s Word is filled with lessons on life long friendships that encourage youth to grow in godliness.

Working with You
For God’s Eternal Glory!
Pastor Kevin