Moving forward

Parents,

I do try to be as concise and to the point when I communicate with you guys on here, but from time to time I think its beneficial to share some thoughts concerning our direction and road map as a youth ministry. That’s my way of saying this is not going to be concise.

If you may remember, a year ago I explained our 2014-15 school year plan which included the idea of equipping your teens with opportunities to be active in their faith, specifically related to their spiritual gifts.  This was extracted from an Ephesians 4 mentality that we gain unity in Christ, maturity, and the fullness of who He is through obedient and intentional action.  It has been an awesome experience to see the different ways your teens have stepped up to lead, plan, teach, and serve in the name of advancing the Kingdom.  This mindset will continue to be a part of the DNA of this youth ministry as we move forward but over the past few weeks I have felt God calling us into something more.

     

This summer was one of the best I have ever been a part of while doing youth ministry.  I observed a tremendous amount of spiritual growth in so many of your teens.  From Knoxville work camp to IMPACT to camp and everything in between it was apparent that God’s spirit was moving in so many of their hearts.  With such a great summer comes the quite and sneaky temptation to be complacent.  

"Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth," -A.W. Tozer

For the 2015-16 school year we are going to be dialing in on what it means to be living out a life on mission.  The great commission isn't a choice for us to consider… it’s a command we are to obey.  In order for us to get to a place where this is reality, we must dive in to a passionate devotion to pushing ourselves deeper.  Now, before you find yourselves thinking “Yeah that sounds great and all, go ahead and challenge my kid to do those things”, let me say that this is beyond just your kid. You’ve heard me say it before and Im sure this wont be the last time but the most effective arena for genuine spiritual growth in a teenagers life, is within their own families. With that being said, I want to invite you into the initial step.  As communicated in the previous blog post, we will be gathering together this Sunday night to launch our small group for the semester.  Ill put the when, where and other tidbits of detail below but I want you to understand that we will be unpacking our direction together after we eat.   If you can make it, I believe it will be beneficial.   Even if you have no intention of being in this particular small group, you are invited to join us.  

I wont ramble on any further but I look forward to where God is leading us and hope you can make it Sunday.  And now a few dates and reminders:

This Sunday Night - August 30 — 6:00pm - at the building

Dinner will be provided 

Fall Retreat - October 2-4 - Mentone, AL

Hoedown - October 18th - Smelser’s home

A couple of things

Parents,

I hope everyone has had a successful transition time from summer to school.  I just wanted to make you aware a couple of different things real quick.  

Hang Night - This Saturday, August 22 - 6:00pm - 9:00pm

The teens will be gathering together at the building to hang out together.  They’ll need $3 to help cover dinner and drinks.  For those teens who have a desire to be on our leadership team (E4), and can make it, I have asked them to be here at 5:00pm to help plan and map out our direction for this school year.

Small Groups

To my knowledge, there is no official “sign-up” for small groups this year.  So, this is how this is going to work. As always, if you and your family are already connected with another small group, that is fantastic and you should continue doing so.  If you have been a part of this one, are new to the group, or don't currently have a small group… here you go:  

On Sunday, August 30th at 6:00pm we will have our initial small group kick-off gathering/meal.  All families of teenagers are invited to be a part of this group.  

If your family has not been a part of a small group in the past or if you are unsure if that is even something you would want to do, I would encourage you to at least show up to this initial gathering as we will be laying out our vision for where we want to go with this.  If you have any questions about this at all, please feel free to contact me.

Fall Retreat - October 2-4

We will be returning to Mentone, AL this year for our Fall Retreat.  Registration for that will open up around the first of September but I wanted to go ahead and get it out there so you could put it on your calendars.  

Wrapping up the Summer

LOCK-IN - This Wednesday, July 29th

We will begin the lock-in at 8:00pm at the building and pick up will be 8:00am Thursday morning.  If it fits your schedule to come get them earlier then obviously I am ok with that.... seriously, come get them.  They will need to bring $5 to help cover the cost of drinks, Snacks and some breakfast items.  

Lake Day - Saturday August 1st

We will be having our final lake day of the season this Saturday.  If girls could bring canned drinks and guys could bring side items to go with chicken, that would be splendid.  Starts at 1:00pm and wraps up at 7:00pm.

Good Bye Intern Party - Sunday August 2nd

We will be gathering at the building at 6:00pm to share a meal and some memories from the summer. I thought we could do a good ole fashion Money/Gift Card tree for them, so if your heart is moved to do so, you can come willing to donate to give them a little gift as they depart.  Food will be provided, but in order for me to have a good understanding of how many to expect, I will be sending an RSVP text later in the week.   

Camp departure, xbox cabin, wrapping it up

Camp 2015
If you have a participant in Camp this year, you will need to click HERE to get all the pertinent information to prepare for departure.  If you don't have a participant, you can ease on down to the next section.

This Wednesday night
We are going to mix things up a little for this Wednesday.  The girls will be having a sleepover at the Sunshine Pointe Cabin and the guys will be spending some time gaming.  

Girls
Meet at Sunshine Pointe at 5:30pm.  They will need to eat dinner before they come but plenty of snacks will be provided.  Pick-up will be 9:00am on Thursday morning.  If there is a transportation issue picking up (as I know many of you have real jobs you need to be at) let me know, and we can figure out how to get them home.  

Guys
They will meet at the building at 6:00pm on Wednesday night and will wrap things up at 9:00pm.  No need to bring anything.  

A few dates to keep in mind as we wrap up the summer.
Monday, July 27 - Enocity #3 
Wednesday July 29 - Lock-In
Saturday, August 1 - Lake Day
Sunday August 2 - Intern Goodbye bash

Sign-up, Females, Offsite Worship, Smores

Camp 2015

I promise this is the last reminder to sign up your camper if you have not already done so.  Deadline is THIS SUNDAY and cost is $115.  Click HERE to register!!

Girl's Night - Tuesday July 7th

Hunter will be hosting a girl's night at the building next Tuesday from 6:00pm-8:00pm

Wednesday Gathering - July 8th

We will be gathering together this upcoming Wednesday night at the Pierce home in West Circle for a night of worship and hanging out. It will start at 6:00pm and wrap up at 8:00pm.

Camping - Thursday July 9th

For those who are down for this sort of thing, we are going to take a little camping excursion to Blue Creek Camping site.  This is near the Holt Dam out Hwy 69 North.  We will meet at the church building at 4:00pm Thursday afternoon and return to the building at 9:00am Friday morning.  Dinner and drinks will be provided but if they want any additional snacks, they should bring them.

Sign-ups, Animation, Devo, Slide, and Independence

Greetings from IMPACT,

For those of you who have kiddos here at IMPACT, everything is going just grand and I sincerely see God working in each of our hearts.  I just needed to take a second to remind and inform of some things going on in the next couple of weeks.  First the reminders...

Sneedville Mission - July 8 - 12
Deadline to sign up will be next Wednesday, July 1st.  Cost is $60.  Money will suffice for sign-up.

Camp Registration:  
I neglected to say in the last post that camp is for those going into the 5th grade - High school graduates.  Deadline to sign-up is July 5th.  Cost is $115.  Register your little camper by clicking
 HERE

Happenings this Upcoming Week:

This Sunday Night June 28th
We will not be gathering together this Sunday evening.

Tuesday June 30th - Movie
For those who want, we are going to get together and go to a movie to see "Inside Out" next Tuesday.  As of now, it says there is a 1:50pm showing so we will plan on that.  Either drop them off at the building at 1:00pm and we will go from there or if it's easier, they can meet us there.  

Wednesday July 1st - Worship
We will be getting together for a time of devotion and worship

Thursday July 2nd - Splish Splashtastic
At 3:00pm on next Thursday we will be getting out the grand ole slip and slide and take to some H2O shenanigans.  After we finish, we will order pizza and have dinner together.  They need $3 and we will be done at 7:00pm.

Saturday July 4th - Lake Day
As usual we will be participating in the 4th of July festivities at Sunshine pointe.  Everyone is to bring canned drinks.  Starts at 1:00pm and ends at the firework's finale.  

Money, Mission and Waterfalls

Alrighty, I just have a couple of things to remind and some new info to roll out there to you.

Wednesday Night
UY will be meeting together this Wednesday night at 6:00pm but will not be meeting together next week.

IMPACT Money is Due
Remaining Balance for JR. - $130
Remaining Balance for SR. - $190

Sneedville Mission - July 8th-12
We are planning to return to Sneedville to work with the families and children in that community. The cost will be $60.  I really can't say enough about this opportunity to simply love people and be Jesus in a place with so little hope.  If any of you as parents are interested in joining us, please jump on in on this.  My vision is for this to develop into a family oriented missions point... so the more of you guys who can get connected there, the better.

UY CAMP - July 19th- 24th - Cost is $115 -  DEADLINE TO SIGN UP IS JULY 5th!!
I am giddy with excitement. Camp, in my opinion, is the greatest thing we do all year. There is just something incredibly special about getting away in God's great creation for a week together that just can't be replicated in any other way.  I say all of that to strongly suggest that you get your teen to be a part of camp with us.  We will again be returning to Fall Creek Falls State park in Pikeville, TN to spend the week together growing spiritually, worshiping and just having fun. You will need to register your teen online HERE and money ($115) can be given to me.  Checks payable to UCC.   Again, deadline for sign up is JULY 5th.