The Good Fight Series

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

Week 1: March 4th, 2009
The Good Fight 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 a 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: March 11th, 2009
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.

ATTENTION PARENTS!!! Parent Event Nights
Week 3: March 18th, 2009 Jr. High and their Parents ONLY
Week 4: March 25th, 2009 Sr. High and their Parents ONLY
We are changing things up a bit as we are inviting the parents to experience a typical youth night in the student ministries! We will be doing goofy games, showing hilarious videos, have an awesome worship experience, great lessons from the youth leaders and be part of a small group with other parents that have the same struggles which will be lead by their child’s small group leader! This night we are going to share with the parents about this “Good Fight” and how they too can fight for their relationship with their child! This is an event that you will not want to miss! We hope to see you there!

NO YOUTH GROUP THIS WEDNESDAY!

Hey just a reminder that this week Wednesday, February 25th there will be NO student ministries. A few times a year we take a break in order to give our leaders a breath of fresh air and refine our program so you all have the best experience possible each and every week!

We look forward to seeing you and your friends next week as we begin a series that we are pumped to share with you all! In "The Good Fight" series we will learn how to fight for a relationship with our parents instead of against. This is a hard battle that we all face but the victory in fighting for a relationship with our parents pays huge dividends as God makes an awesome promise to those who do! Come and get equipped for this amazing battle next week!

Reflection Series

REFLECTION:
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Many of us see what we’re not instead of who we actually are, don’t we? We see someone who burned dinner or spilled juice on the carpet. Someone who lost her car keys—again. Someone who is not the right height or weight. Someone plagued with could-have-beens and if-onlys. These disappointments and imperfections are why we want to cover up who we really are. We want to make sure that the world around us sees only the version of us that we want them to see. But the Bible tells us we are children of God—loved and treasured exactly as we are. Over the next two weeks, we are going to challenge your child to take a look at him or herself and dare to be real.

Week One January 7th
The first week we are going to set up the series by talking about the masks that we all wear. Most of us know we can’t be perfect at everything, but we do have certain areas where we want to appear like we are. We want to be desirable and valued. We want to feel we are worth something. But in order to get those things, we feel the need to cover up who we really are. This week we will encourage the students to begin to allow others to see him or her for who they really are. We want them to be free from hiding behind masks.

Week Two January 14th
Practice makes perfect. How many times have you heard that? How many times have you said it? Just like it takes practice to be a skilled musician or softball player, it takes practice to be content with the real you. This week we will share with the students just a little bit about what our heavenly Father thinks about him or her. We want to encourage them to practice seeing who God sees when he or she looks in the mirror. Because when we learn to see ourselves as God sees us, we can be free to live without the mask and be who we truly are.

We are excited about this series and hope to see you there! 8th graders Don't forget that you move into the High school group this next week and they meet from 7:00pm- 9:00pm!

A Christmas Story Series

A Christmas Story:
Christmas is such a crazy time. Students are busy dreaming about what they want to get, and parents are shopping frantically for what they want to give. We all become consumed with malls and wrapping paper. It’s a Wonderful Life and How the Grinch Stole Christmas play on TV and Santa Clause poses for pictures with every excited (and screaming) child. At church we tell the story about shepherds, angels and a manger, but so often the significance of the story is lost because it seems like just one more holiday tradition. Or we’ve heard it so much that we don’t hear it anymore. Our upcoming series is going to tell the Christmas Story—but in a slightly different way.

Week One: Herod December 3rd
We began the series last week by looking at the life of Herod, a man who had everything. He was powerful and in control. But when it comes to the Christmas story, Herod missed the point. When he heard about the baby born in a manger, he felt threatened. We talked about the danger of the Christmas story. That’s right, danger. Because each of us, like Herod, must determine how a little baby in a manger thousands of years ago threatens our security and shakes us out of our comfort zone?

Week Two: Simeon December 10th
This week we will talk about Simeon—a man who lived 114 years consumed with only one thought. Simeon wanted to see the Messiah. He knew that God was going to fulfill His promise, and he was wiling to wait as long as it took to see the promise fulfilled. This week we will encourage students to live like Simeon, patiently focused on the one thing that really matters.

Week Three: Mary December 17th
We will conclude the series by looking at the lives of Zechariah and Mary. Zechariah, a religious professional, used all his skills and abilities for God, but somehow missed the power of God when He showed up in Zechariah’s life. When God promised to work a miracle, Zechariah was skeptical. But when an angel came to tell Mary that God was about to do the impossible, she praised Him for His great plan. This week we will begin to see how God can use us for something bigger than ourselves if we let Him.

EXPERIENCE:
This month, think about a project that you and your family can do together so that you can be a part of something bigger than yourselves.

You may want to consider one of the following options of helping out families in our community:

Community Pregnancy Center: Is a wonderful organization that helps women who are pregnant or have young children. They are always offering strong support physically emotionally and spiritually to help these mothers get on the right track. You can help out with diapers, clothing, cribs, strollers and monetary gifts etc. To contact them call 419.636.5692.

The Sanctuary: Is a homeless shelter in Bryan that can use clothes, food and toiletry products to help the homeless. The Sanctuary is located at 214 S. Main St. on the square and can be reached @ 419.636.2460

Toy’s for Tots: This is an organization that will take toys to less fortunate families. There are drop off locations in many cities. One Bryan location is at The Farmer’s and Merchants Bank on main street in Bryan.

Food Pantries: Every community should have several drop off points for can goods and other items.

Less Fortunate Families: We all know families that are struggling this year maybe you could brighten up their Holiday season and surprise them with anonymous gifts on their front porch.

Elderly: If you know some elderly people in your community help them out by shoveling their driveway and salting their steps so they don’t get hurt.

You may want to present the idea of a project to your student and let him or her have ownership in the process! If you need any help in please feel free to call or emal us!

Jeremy Brown 419.553.0500 Jeremy@newhopecc.org
or
Nate Bristol 419.630.5018 Nate@newhopecc.org

Exploring our GodView

What comes to mind when you think about God? Who do you believe God is? How do you believe God interacts with you personally and with your world? These are questions we are going to be addressing over the next three weeks. You see, every one of us has a Godview whether we think about it or not. For many of us, it’s just a vague impression formed when we were younger. For some, it’s an image of Someone against whom we have a strong resistance. For others, God is personal and mysterious, offering an adventure to anyone ready to pursue a relationship with Him. While we can never really know everything about God—because He’s that big and that mysterious—the things we can learn about Him shape the way we respond to whatever life brings. That’s why author A.W. Tozer said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Week One- November, 5th 2008
No matter who we are, we all have a Godview. And the way we think about God affects how we interact with our world. Many people struggle because they have a negative or distorted view of God. This first week, we will take a look at the life of one of Jesus’ closest followers who struggled for the very same reason. In the end, we want to challenge students to begin to see how their view of God shapes the way they live.

Week Two- November, 12th 2008
Many of us have a distorted Godview because we think God’s primary goal is either for us to be good or for us to be happy. While there may be some truth in those statements, if we see those as His primary goals, then we walk through life with remarkable–and self-made–expectations. Then, when those expectations aren’t met, our faith is shattered and destroyed. This week, we want students to see that following God is bigger than our expectations. Following God requires surrendering control.

Week Three- November, 19th 2008
The tendency for each one of us is to think we have God all figured out. But this week is about one simple truth—we don’t. This week we want students to see how the more they come to know God, the more they will realize they’ll never really know Him completely. There is always more of God to know. He’s that big, that mysterious, that amazing. At the close of this series, we hope your student will walk away with the desire to pursue a relationship with God and to know God more every day.

We hope that you are ready to explore this awesome series with the rest of us this month at the Edge on wednesday nights. Jr. High 6:30-8:30 and High School 7-9!

Wise Choices with Friends!

Hey Everyone! I have a youth leader that impresses me every week with her love and absolute dedication to her students. Darcy Adams has more youth ministry experience than I and her wisdom and insights carry a lot of weight… So I ask her to write this week’s blog article as she sums up alot of what we have learned in the past two series:

A few weeks ago, I was driving along and all of a sudden, words pop out of the radio! Have you ever had that happen to you? The words are so relevant to your life that you just need to stop the car along the road and listen carefully to catch the rest of the words? A “God sighting! ” (That’s what I call things that other people call coincidences.) Some of the words to the song were …… “Heal the wound, but leave the scar…. A reminder of how merciful you are…” ( Point of Grace)

Up until that moment, I always looked at scars in my life as negative. My scars were huge ugly reminders of all my mistakes and poor decisions. And, by the way, I have some really big ones!

I was voted the “most likely to succeed”, called the “All- American girl” in High School and was Valedictorian. I was State Champion in track and a National class runner in college. I went from that level of success (with great goals and a solid Godly path) to being noncompetitive in running and barely able to get passing grades partway through vet school. I was fighting internally to believe whether I was good at anything! I used to say, I had my feet knocked out from underneath me, like it was the fault of someone or something else outside of my control.

Now, I realize that was not what happened, but it was a series of bad decisions on my part that took me off my desired path and destination. Nate and Jeremy talked aobut how the direction of your choices, not you intentions, determines your destination. If you are not careful, your path will not be what you dream of when your vision is clear and focused on God. Each and every decision is important because it puts you on a PATH. The hard thing about this is that it's not always easy to see when you are on a new path. At first it may seem that nothing negative is happening when you make an unwise decision. Because the consequences are not always immediate, you may think you are going to be fine. Unfortunately, once you realize that you are on a different PATH it may be too late. My dream was at least to make it to the Olympic Trials, and for me, that could have happened- but I never made it. What is worse, I could never go back and do things over again. That was my only chance. I never graduated top in my class in vet school- and again, it was too late. I also had failed relationships- including marriage, all because of some very poor decisions.

I know that we all make mistakes and will continue to make mistakes, because we are human and imperfect. But it is important to find and stay on the right path. In the latest series Nate and Jeremy have emphasized the importance of community. God has given us friends, family and mentors that He desires for us to have authentic, real and genuine relationships with. As we are transparent with other Christians there is a place of guidance, healing and support. You see God guides us through life using His people as His hands and His feet to a hurting world.

Life will not always be easy and the path that you know is right will not always be clear and smooth and visible to you. But with your personal “vertical” relationship with Jesus Christ and your genuine “horizontal” relationships with others you can have success in becoming all that you were created to be. Then you will be able to have peace and joy and the ability to praise God in every good time and in every storm as well.”

Darcy Adams

At last, someone who "gets" me!

Right now in my life I am blessed with this life of Freedom and am loving it…

• No parents telling me what time to be home
  
• No coach telling me what I can and cannot eat
  
• No teachers demanding homework
  
• And no girlfriend demanding my time and money LOL

But there is a problem with this life of freedom. I go home at night and share all my stories with… myself. Kind of pathetic… In the midst of this freedom I experience this hole as though something is missing. That hole is the fact that I don’t have the family to come home to. I don’t have deep friendships in this new area. That hole is because I don’t have community.

You see relationships are tough and sometimes we would just love to be free of them and the demands they have on our lives. However, if you give it enough time loneliness sets in and we realize that we don’t just desire solid relationships… we need them! We are willing to endure the hurt of relationships because we all fear being the woman with nothing but her 50 cats.

God cares about our community in fact He created it. When He was creating and speaking His creation into being He admired and declared “it is good!” But there was one thing in the midst of His creation that wasn’t quite right and He said “it is not good for man to be alone!” God could have easily said “Dude, Adam it’s just you and me kickin’ it in paradise forever!” But that is not what happens God recognizes our loneliness and desires to fulfill our longing for others. So God creates Eve who is like him and is meant to be Adam’s helper.

Listen to Adams response: “This at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!”
Adam exclaims, “THIS AT LAST,” as though he knew something was missing. “Someone who has my same bone and same flesh… she is not a giraffe or a monkey she is like me! FINALLY SOMEONE WHO “GETS” ME and HELPS ME!” Do you ever have that overwhelming desire for someone who would take the time to hear you and that someone would understand you and have that someone who “gets” you! They know your insecurities; they know your fears and doubts, yet, love you still the same.

If God cares that much about our relationships and our community don’t you think that we should care enough about it to deepen the hundreds of relationships that He has created and placed all around us? God desires that we would pursue Him together as the body of Christ. So challenge you with this, pursue honest relationships with people that “get” you and people who can help you grow closer to Christ.

Nate Bristol
Student Ministries Assistant Pastor