Journey Youth
IN THE KNOW
CURRENT SERIES: APOLOGETICS by FAITH ASCENT MINISTRIES
- January 25th: Apologetics and Evangelism
- February 1st: Super Bowl Party
- February 8th: Truth vs. Relativism
- February 15th: The Problem of Evil
- February 22nd: Christian Sexual Ethics
This will be a great series for our students. The Christian Sexual Ethics unit on February 22nd will lead us perfectly into our Blurred Lines series discussing love, dating, marriage, lust/pornography, and Christian sexual ethics. A quick note about sensitive subjects, including but not excluded to sexual subjects, we will always release the teaching outline to you many days in advance for you to make an informed decision of whether or not your student is ready for the material and we will release (as always) the audio to you in the days following.
I have taken a few things off of Faith Ascent Ministries website, mentioned below, for you to get to know their heart and passion a bit. For further information please visit their site at http://www.faithascentministries.com/
Mission: Our mission is to train Christian teenagers in conversational apologetics and relational evangelism before they leave home and to remove "intellectual skepticism" from the list of reasons why young people are rejecting the gospel.
Vision: We envision a world where Christianity is seen as scientifically, philosophically, and historically plausible and all Christian teenagers leave home equipped with good reasons for their hope in the gospel (1 Peter 3:15).
Good Answers to Good Questions. It’s normal for young Christians to wrestle with doubts and questions. Conversely, it's normal for non-Christians to wrestle with doubts and questions. Unfortunately, many of them receive superficial answers at best and condemnation at worst. We're teaching students to see that loving God and loving each other includes “giving good reasons for the hope we have in the gospel.”
Intellectual Appreciation and Preparation. Most Christian teens enter the marketplace of ideas with little to sell or trade aside from their personal feelings and experiences. By embracing the objective truths of Christianity and rejecting anti-intellectual sentiments we're teaching students to love God in spirit and truth.
Conversations, Not Just Conversions. All Christians should be engaging in meaningful conversations with non-Christians. However, not every conversation leads to an instant conversion. Some plant, some water, and some harvest. We're teaching students to value planting and watering in addition to harvesting.
Ice Skating @ Steinberg Skating Rink
This Friday night we are going Ice Skating at the outdoor rink you all love, The Steinberg Skating Rink. This place is timeless, or so I hear. :) So if you are available please make it out there with us and lets make it memorable.
This event is for the ENTIRE family. Not just your students and not just you and your students but their younger siblings as well. We will meet at The Journey and return to The Journey. That way you can drop them off and pick them up at the church. Pay attention to The City for updates on this event. We may change plans depending on the weather.
NOTICE
This is a cash only establishment. So be sure to stop by the ATM and get cash. There is a cafe there called Snowflake Cafe that you can purchase refreshments from as well… with cash only. ;)
If you have any questions please let me know. Hope to see many of you out on Friday night. Cheers.
Winter Jam Tour
Winter Jam 2015 Tour here we come! We are going to the Scottrade Center for Winter Jam, and the whole family is invited. Parents that means you and the younger siblings. We will meet and return to the Journey in case you can't make it and need to drop off your student and pick them up. We are meeting at 3:00pm to get to the event around 3:45pm to stand in line till 5:00pm when the doors open. This event does not have assigned seating as they are all general admission tickets. So we must get their early for good seats and so that we can all sit in the same area. The concert starts at 6:00pm and should be over around 10:00pm.
NOTE we are standing in line outside for a while. Please dress warm.
We set the end time at 10:30pm but understand we could be back before 10:30pm or after. We will have your student text you when we leave the Scottrade Center. If they do not have a cell phone they can use a leaders or another parents.
Super Bowl Party
ORANGE PARENT MEETING
We had our Spring Semester Parent Meeting this past Sunday night and it was great. We really had an awesome time figuring out how to partner together in raising your children spiritually and discussing the exciting things in our ministries future. The only thing that would have made it better was a higher attendance. :) It could have been the end of the Packers/Seahawks game, the Colts/Pats game, another meeting you had to attend, community group, or some other prior commitment that you had to fulfill but whatever it was we wish so badly you were there because we wish so badly to partner with you. We only had 6 of our 30+ families represented this past Sunday night.
So we are offering another opportunity for you to hear the vision of Journey Youth and to be introduced to all the new things we have for your student and your family. ;) Please plan to attend this meeting if you can. Also we planned the meeting for the second service so that you can still attend the first or third service. I deeply apologize if this interrupts your average Sunday serving.
The Meetings Agenda:
1. Journey Youth Philosophy
2. Moving To Sundays
3. Events: January through July
4. Approved Men/Women
5. Teaching Series
(Faith Ascent / Blurred Lines / Foundations)
Sunday, Jan 25, 2015, 10:00 AM
The Conference Room @ The Journey: West County
JUST A THOUGHT FROM ME
TIME MATTERS
(Stick with me here. You'll be glad you did.)
What if time was invented as a clever way to accomplish certain things in life that can only happen over time? Maybe that's why it's important to see time in relationship to the past, present, and future. If time was created, then time obviously matters. It has a unique purpose in the greater scheme of the universe.
In other words, it's no accident the earth spins on its equator approximately 1,000 miles per hour, causing the appearance of the sun to rise and set with mathematical accuracy. It's no accident the earth moves through space at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour, causing the seasons to change in a calculated manner. The entire universe has predictable rhythm,
What if understanding those rhythms could help you become more effective at making meaningful history with the people around you, or the children under your roof? The cosmos works together like gears on a clock. If we study it we can evaluate and predict how things grow, chance, and age. It seems obvious that time exists for a purpose. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe God established time as a platform so He could communicate something so complex that it needed to be presented strategically over time?
Why didn't God send Jesus as soon as Adam and Eve ate the fruit? He could have resolved the issue then and there... but he waited.
He used time.
He gave Abraham a son.
He let Joseph sit in jail.
He sent Moses to deliver a nation.
He let a nation wander in the desert for decades.
Have you ever thought about why?
It was as if God decided, "I can help you understand something with time that you could never really understand in a moment."
If a heavenly Father uses time to clarify and solidify certain values in our hearts over time, then maybe that's the best way to cultivate what matters in the hearts of our own children and the children we serve as well. The most significant gifts we can give the next generation are what we give them over time. That makes what you do this week, and next week, and the week after, strategic. As parents or leaders, it's important that we realize there are certain things that can only be communicated, understood, and discovered... over time.
That means what you do every week matters if you keep doing it.
We don't experience worth because we are loved once,
but because we are loved by someone over time.
We are not motivated to action by one phrase,
but by words that move us over time.
We don't understand the world through a single event,
but through a collection of stories over time.
We don't know we belong because of an invitation to something,
but because we have been welcomed in a tribe over time.
We don't discover how to live in a moment,
but we live when we experience the joys of life over time.
So as we partner in raising your child spiritually lets understand and remember that things... take time. And over... time, God will be faithful to us as we delight in Him and grow in his likeness. Mom, dad, take courage in the fact that what you are doing really matters. She hears you. He sees your heart. They feel your love in rhetoric as well as in tangible ways. They see you pushing them towards the Messiah and they will forever be grateful for your influence. I say forever because we ARE talking about forever. The eternity of the soul of the person you are raising under your roof.
And you and I take that seriously. Let's continue to love them and guide them to the King. Some of these things will take time, but it seems, that, (time) is the tool God uses to engrain in us his romantically emphatic story of his redemption and reconciliation of us, a broken people. Forever be glory to our King!
God, thank you for time.