46 posts tagged “youth ministries”

Tonight my co-small group leader Laurie and I hosted a "Girl's Night In" for our small group girls. We had the girls over to my house for a super yummy pasta dinner and to watch the movie "Up". We had 6 out of 10 of our girls show up and we had so much fun together. We are all still getting to know each other and this event was prefect to talk and just hang out. Dinner was great and the movie was so funny, i really enjoyed it! These girls are so awesome and willing to love and care for Laurie and I. It's so sweet!

I really believe in nights like tonight. It's the time we spend with youth group kids outside of youth group that counts. Showing them they are special enough for adults to make time for them. Special enough to have someone take notice of who they are and want to know them better. I really am getting my footing in this group and I feel like i have come leaps and bounds over the past few months in getting to know the kids and making sure i spend time with them outside of youth group.

I really feel the Lord has put me in this church, with this youth group and with these girls for a real and powerful purpose. And tonight i saw a glimpse of what God wants to do. I keep having to remind myself that this isn't the same group of kids i used to have, and that they will never be the girls i had before. And that things will be different and that's ok. God has a plan and I am learning with each Wednesday night and each youth event that everything is new and i need to not dwell on the past or wish for things to be the same. Because i am learning that staying the same is boring. I am so thankful for the Lord pushing me into a new world with new teens. He knew better then i did, and this is where i am needed and where God needs me to be. Here i am Lord use me in any way you wish to love these girls and to show them the love of your Son! I'm ready and I know these girls are ready to be used by you too!

Tonight all of us youth leaders were left to run Canvas as Pastor Dan had the night off. He works so hard and makes such a BIG difference in teens lives, that I am so glad he was able to have a night off. So of course since Dan wasn't their i planned a really big messy game! haha, Dan knew about it, but i'm not sure how he would have reacted if he was actually there. We played "Snow Relay". Living in southern California these teens don't get to play in the snow like teens on the east coast. So i thought i would bring a little snow fun to Canvas with a bucket of paper confetti. The teens sat in circles and were each given a cup. They had to pass confetti over there head to each other to fill a bucket. This made for great fun since the confetti did not want to stay in the cups, but rather flouted away every time they poured it. The teens had a blast! After the game was over they all enjoyed a little snow fight. It was awesome to see them play like little kids again and have so much fun at youth group. The mess was so worth it!

After the game we had a guest worship leader and speaker. I think it was nice for the teens to see other people in the church interested in them and wanting to be a part of their lives. They know all of us leaders love them, but they need to know they are loved and appropriated by other church members and staff. So often youth groups are shoved aside by adults in the church and brushed off as not a "real" ministry that the teens feel separated from the church, and after high school never become a part of the church. So having others outside of Canvas come, serve and love the teens was a blessing!
When we were almost done for the evening three count them three teens were baptized! Now that is AWESOME. We have had four teens baptized in the past three weeks. God is working in this group, teens are bringing friends to youth group and teens want to be baptized or make new commitments to Christ. I am so blessed to be apart of what God is doing at Discovery church and Canvas!

Pastor Scot gave a great lesson on Temptation tonight, he also showed a really hard hitting video. Check it out by clicking here. 

The Battle Within week 3
Bottom Line: We are tempted to believe we know how God works and how we think we can work Him.

In the boxing world, sometimes things aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes the winner is known before anyone walks into the ring. Sometimes the outcome is pre-determined by a person who has manipulated things behind the scene. Sometimes a fighter takes a dive. Sometimes a boxer throws the fight. And if each one of us were completely honest, sometimes we try to work things as well in our fight with temptation. And who or what we are manipulating isn’t the temptation, it’s God.

Scripture References: Matthew 4:5-7; Psalm 91:12; Exodus 17:2-3

Question for the week: Are you cooperating with God or are you manipulating him?

Tonight was a night full of fun and rejoicing. We started of with a super fun game of "Balloon Battle". Daniel and I blew up 120 balloons and broke the teens up into four groups. The teams need to protect their balloons while trying to pop the other teams balloons. Needless to say the kids had a blast and balloon shapnal was every where. After games and a AWESOME time of worship lead by Pastor Ben, we headed down to the church sanctuary to witness one of our youth group guys get baptized! He made a commitment before the Lord and all of Canvas to live his life for Christ. It was amazing to be there at that moment in his life. The teens cheered and clap has he was baptized. What a wonderful choice for a young man to take in his life. So proud!

Tonight was week two on the Battle Within. Here is what Pastor Dan taught on:

Bottom Line: Every time you’re tempted, your confidence in God is at stake, not just your self-control.

When facing temptation, it seems like it’s always about the choice, the decision, the temptation. But it’s always about more than that. It’s not just your reputation or your innocence that’s at stake—it’s your confidence in God. The lure of temptation makes us question whether we can really trust God to come through for us, to be there for us, to provide for us. We begin to think He’s not in our corner, that He’s not looking out for us. But what if we began to see Him there? What if we realized that whatever is luring us away really has nothing to do with what we think it’s about, and there’s a deeper issue, a trust issue, at work? It might completely weaken the pull of that temptation, and it might help us get to the heart of what is really going on.

Scripture References: Matthew 4:1-4; Deuteronomy 8:3, 11-14,17

When you stop trusting, you stop obeying. And when you stop obeying, eventually you stop believing.

Tonight was awesome, there was just something special happening tonight. I was standing in this room full of teenagers and we were singing songs of praise to God. When all of a sudden i stopped singing and just sat down and listened. I lost my breath, because as i just sat and listened I could hear ALL and i really mean all of the teens singing. It wasn't a group of teens mouthing the words, it was a group of believes pouring their hearts out to their Savior. I was in awe! Truly in awe of the Lord and what He was doing in this place. I have been in large groups of teens singing praises, but i had never seen so many hearts open to the Lord singing with every fiber of their being. It was truly an amazing moment. I only wish you could have been there to see and feel it. Almost indescribable.

After our Christ centered worship time we continued in our study on doubt. Here is what Dan taught on:

Bottom Line: Faith grows when you learn how to view doubt through both what you know and what you’ve been through.

So what do you do when a doubt is too big? How do you handle a doubt that you just can’t seem to move past? You look back. You draw on the things you do know, the things that God has shown you. The things you have learned about Him in the past, both through information and experience. And you hang on to those things you do know, even when you’re left with questions about the things you don’t. Once we are able to see what God has done and is doing through both our experience and our knowledge, we are better equipped to manage the doubt.

Scripture:
Psalms 13:1-2 & 5-6
Psalms 71:16-17

It was an amazing night and I had a great time with my small group we went about a half an hour of time while discussing this topic. It really hit home to my girls and they had a lot to say and ask. They are awesome. Each and every week I have just grown deeper and deeper in love with these teens and this awesome ministry!

Raise your hand if you’ve ever doubted God. Everyone got their hands up? That’s because it’s human nature to doubt. It’s just in us to ask questions and to reevaluate. A lot of times doubt gets a bad wrap because of its ability to make us negative, and because we think once we start to entertain it our entire system of belief will collapse. But doubt, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. When used in the proper way, doubt helps us formulate an authentic and personal faith. That’s why it’s important to learn to express our doubts to others and to deal with them in the context of Christian community, so that God can work with our doubts to help strengthen our faith.

Tonight we started a new series on Doubt. Who among us don't have doubt? And i know that it's something most teenagers deal with. I am super excited to see what Pastor Dan will be teaching and how this will effect the teens. We started out the night with a fun game of "Human Knots" The kids loved it and all the teams except for one was able to undo their knot. In the end everyone had a great time, even if it was hard.

I really enjoyed talking with my small group about doubt and the struggles they have in their lives. This series is coming at such a good time in their lives, if they can over come their doubt and fully rely on God as a teenager, it will be a great beginning to their lives. It felt like we didn't have enough time to talk about all that we needed to and I am so glad that we will be doing this series for a few weeks, because i know my girls need it. Please pray for our youth group as we go through this series, let them see How Great our God is and how much He wants to be in their lives.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
Matthew 11:12

It’s easy for all of us to unconsciously slip into the mentality that our words, thoughts and actions only affect us. That it is only our world and our kingdom that is affected. But there is a much bigger picture! Whenever we make decisions in our lives to live in the kingdom of God, we are participating in God’s ultimate plan to bring the kingdom of God permanently to this world. Every time we make “upside down” decisions, we are demonstrating to a watching world what it will be like one day when God makes everything right once again. Every decision matters and affects a much larger picture.

That is what we talked about tonight at youth group. It was our last night in the "Upside Down" series. This series has been eye opening and challenging for the students as well as for myself. Truly making me think about how i live my life and what changes i need to make. We didn't have very much small group time tonight, but that was ok, because Pastor Dan had a great message and even an awesome video for us to watch. The night was powerful.

We started out with a giant game of "Guess Who?" and then had a special guest lead us in worship. Ben Kolarcik, our worship pastor lead us in worship tonight. It was awesome, I love to hear him on Sunday mornings, and it was a treat to have him at Canvas tonight. The kids really enjoyed it as well, it was most defiantly a blessing! Thanks Ben for taking time out to be at Canvas tonight!

Tonight was another powerful night at Discovery Church. It is amazing to see God moving in teenagers lives.

Tonight was Discovery Church's High School Ministries (Canvas) Open House. We had youth group as usual, however the parents got to be included and see how we run our Wednesday Nights.  It was beyond awesome to meet the parents and make connections. To both Daniel and I all these kids are new and so are their parents, so i loved the opportunity to meet their parents now and start building relationships not only with the teens but their parents as well. The best surprise of the night was Russell Wood a teen from our old youth group came with his mom and sister to check out our youth group. He wants and needs a place to fellowship with teens and learn more about Jesus. I was so excited to see him there and I am hoping that he will call Canvas home!

After greeting parents i started our game for the night, "Are you smarter then your teenager?" it was my version of the Newlywed Game, just based on the parent child relationship. The game idea came from Pastor Dan and working with him on it was great. The parents got really into it and had a great time, however in the end shockingly the teens knew more about their parents then their parents knew about them. But there was one awesome father daughter team that just rocked it and knew a lot about each other, you rock Tim and Emma!
After games we had some great worship and then Dan spoke to the teens and their parents and gave a powerful lesson on Deuteronomy 6. After the evenings events were over i had the great blessing of being able to talk to a group of parents. It was amazing! The night went great and I really feel more a part of Canvas each and every week i am there. And now knowing the parents just gives me more connections and a foundation in our new home church. Please pray for these teens and their parents. In today's world there is so much stacked against them. It is my prayer that as a youth leader that i can partner with these parents to help them raise amazing Christ honoring teens.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Titus 2:3-5

I have so loved being a part of our new church, Discovery Church. and am so pleased to be used by God in their Student Ministries. Daniel and I have dived in and are really loving these kids and the ministry of this church. Well this group is much bigger then our old group. I was used to having about 10 to 15 kids to get to know, care about and disciple. Well now there are about 50. I am excited that we will be starting small groups this week and i will be getting my own little group of high school girls. Instead of trying to connect with each and every kid. So with such a large group and being a new leader it's been a little hard to get to know people. So i decided to invite a few girls to have ice cream and hang out. Well I had hoped and prayed that God would bring at least five girls to Cold Stones tonight. Well God being God he answered my prayer and took my small request and went above and beyond. To my shock and surprise 13 girls showed up just to hang out! I didn't even think that many girls even knew who i was.

We spent the evening chatting, eating ice cream and learning about each other. It felt so good to be with teenage girls again. I have missed working in youth ministries and have had a saddened heart from not pursuing my passion. I had started to question if this was my true calling, and was wondering if youth ministries was really were God wanted me to be. As I drove home a sense of peace and excitement came over me. I am where God wants me to be, He has given me a gift to speak to teenage girls about His Son and to disciple them and train them to become women after God's own heart. I am excited to see what God is going to do and what His plan for me is in this ministry. Tonight was the confirmation i needed. So now I'm ready, I'm jumping in with both feet, use me God!