SPEAKER_00: All right guys, thank y'all so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: I know that um this is a crazy time for all of you guys, and so it is not lost on us uh that you guys are here.
SPEAKER_00: And man, I just want to one say good job.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you guys are here, if you if you're here, um, you know, that you are doing great.
SPEAKER_00: And and I say that because I know being a parent is challenging, it's difficult.
SPEAKER_00: Uh man, I can't even imagine being a parent of a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: I got a three and a one-year-old, uh, and that's its own thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll uh check in in about 10 years and I'll let you know how it's going.
SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, so I I just want to commend you guys the fact that y'all are here, the fact that y'all are um obviously supporting your students and encouraging them to grow in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's just a really, really beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say thank you because as a youth pastor, you guys don't know how much of a blessing y'all are to me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because especially the previous church I was at was in Ferris, Texas, real rural, low-income, drug-riddled, crime-riddled community.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and man, like it was the most discouraging thing to feel like, man, I'm trying to reach these kids, I'm trying to just hit them with the gospel, I'm trying to call them to something more than their generational junk that they've only ever known and dealt with, just for them to go home and spend every other hour of their week in just a really broken, dark environment.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know in a world that's so crazy, it can feel like you have a long list of to-dos on.
SPEAKER_00: I want to raise them this way, I want to, I want to make sure I got to do these things so that they grow in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to leave the church when they get older.
SPEAKER_00: And then it's great.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about the practical things, but I just wanted to start by commending y'all for being here.
SPEAKER_00: Just showing up is one of the most important things that you can do as a parent.
SPEAKER_00: And the goal of tonight is not to load your calendar, uh, but because we prioritize partnership.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and what we mean by that is we believe discipleship starts in the home, right?
SPEAKER_00: We only get your students two hours a week, you know, three hours maybe.
SPEAKER_00: We get them for a week in the summer and we get them for a weekend at D now.
SPEAKER_00: We we only get so much time with your students, and we will try to use that to the best of our ability to pour into them and to help them grow on their faith.
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, we believe sustainable, healthy student ministry happens when we are partnering with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Like we are, we are throwing you the softball to hit the home run.
SPEAKER_00: We give you the tools, we cue you in on what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And um the statistics show that.
SPEAKER_00: Pew Research ran some different studies, and one found that when someone grows up in a highly religious home, about 82% uh still identify with their faith.
SPEAKER_00: They stay through when they grow up in a home that you know follows the Lord, makes it central to what they do.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but if you grow up in what they called a low religious home, that number drops to 47%.
SPEAKER_00: So almost half, dependent on how the parents set the tone when it comes to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Uh another study showed that um teens going into adulthood found something similar.
SPEAKER_00: 82% of kids whose parents talked about faith at home, treated faith as important, and stayed active in church, were still religiously active as young adults.
SPEAKER_00: 82%, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's cult counter to everything you see in studies and research and all the things today, uh, just from parents leading the charge when it comes to discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: And so we view ourselves as the B team.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're the pit crew, we're the the athletic trainers.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we want to maximize the time we have with students, but more than anything, we want to equip you guys to have those conversations, to model it at home.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's why we do things like post our teachings, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you go on our Spotify, you can look up FBC Bernie Youth, you can go on Apple Podcasts, uh, unless we have technical issues, which do happen from time to time, because I have two Bible degrees.
SPEAKER_00: I do not have a tech degree.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the guys who have tech degrees always try to make it easy for me and I still mess it up.
SPEAKER_00: So um, but we we post those teachings so you can hear what your student heard on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: And then after on Thursday mornings, we send a parent recap email so that not only can you see, hey, here's the high-level spots that we hit, but we also include some take-home discussion questions, some discussion practices so that you can have those conversations at dinner time on the car rides, um, just so we're not disjointed, so that we can give you all, hey, this is what they heard, and here's how you can follow up and just make it easy for you in such a crazy world.
SPEAKER_00: But all that begs the question then, what are you partnering with?
SPEAKER_00: Like who are we as a student ministry?
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we move to this little handy-dandy booklet here.
SPEAKER_00: So we had this done last year, around the same time when we did our first parent night last year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and this is our what we would call our vision.
SPEAKER_00: This is who we are as a youth ministry, this is who we're striving to be.
SPEAKER_00: And on that first page, you hear what we would call our vision statement.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that we, I I've shortened it since then.
SPEAKER_00: It reads a little bit longer on the paper, but essentially we exist to inspire students to be transformed by the gospel, fully surrendered to Jesus, and to make an eternal impact in their homes, families, and futures.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so the goal here is that we would not just be about behavior modification, right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't want kids to just act right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can act right and still be spiritually lost, spiritually dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have that piece about be transformed by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We want genuine heart change that can only come through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And we talk about fully surrendered, we live that uh we realize that we live in a town that by the grace of God is very churched.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there is a Christian culture in Bernie.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, however, cultural Christianity is not always a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And we realize, especially amongst our students, it's very easy for them to fall into this cultural stream of I go to church on Sunday, I go to church on Wednesday, but Jesus is compartmentalized to those two days and maybe a week in the summer and maybe like D now.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not the call of the gospel, right?
SPEAKER_00: Right, God's even when you talk about priorities, it's not just that Jesus would be the first thing on the priority list.
SPEAKER_00: It would be He's He's the paper that the priority list is written on.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we want to call our students to, that Jesus would be at the center of everything, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're not just asking you to put Jesus over your sports.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to be Jesus in your sport.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to take this into every area of your life because that's the call of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when you really start to see these students get a bigger view of Christianity than I just go to church because my parents tell me to.
SPEAKER_00: And then that last piece about making an eternal impact is that very same thing that we want them to realize, hey, there are some really talented and gifted kids here in Bernie.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've been, they have some amazing families, we have amazing opportunities, we have school systems that are incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you get to have so much opportunity if you're blessed to grow up in this town in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_00: And we want them to get a bigger picture of what they have uh and what they've been given.
SPEAKER_00: Like I want the picture to be bigger than I just want to make a lot of money and retire one day.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like so many students I've seen in Bernie, that their picture for life is I want to make good grades so I can get a good get into a good school, so I can get the good degree plan, so I can get the good job, so I can be wealthy and successful.
SPEAKER_00: And then then what?
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And you see so many of them get to college and they start to do these things that they've spent their whole life chasing after, and it's just like it's it's what the the writer of Ecclesiastes calls vanity.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's just a smoke, it's it's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want them to get a bigger picture for their lives than just I'm gonna work a good 65 years and then try to retire well.
SPEAKER_00: No, you are if you were a believer as a student, like your call is to make an eternal impact, right?
SPEAKER_00: To to to leave a legacy of faith in every area that you find yourself in that will last long beyond your life.
SPEAKER_00: And that starts now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we believe, and we'll talk a little bit about this.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'll save that for later.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to jump too much into my stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's our mission statement.
SPEAKER_00: That's who we are, that's what we strive to be as a youth ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we realize none of that happens, like we said, without the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We we need to create space for God to transform these students.
SPEAKER_00: And how we create that space is through what we call our five outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that will be on this next slide here.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll see that on the next page one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one more.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is really just our five buckets.
SPEAKER_00: Like when we assess student ministry, uh, and I would encourage you as you assess where your students at in their walk with faith, these are just five categories that we find in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't make these up.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saying that if you do these five things, then your kid's guaranteed to be holier than thou.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're just saying, hey, biblically speaking, these are five of the big areas when it comes to the Christian faith: truth, habits, community, evangelism, and service.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're just going to spend a little bit of time walking through that, uh, and I'll tell you about how we include that in our student ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so the first one's truth, right?
SPEAKER_00: We want to learn, and for me, I want to teach the word of God and we want to apply it to our lives, right?
SPEAKER_00: We get this from 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, that all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: So we teach exegetically in the student ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Even if we're running more of a topical series, every night we're gonna pick a text and we're gonna work through that text, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we believe that God has given us the word, uh, not only as his revelation of himself and his plan to redeem us, but also as a help to us, as a guide for living uh that's authoritative uh and that we are wanting to build our lives on it.
SPEAKER_00: We're wanting to teach our students to build our lives on it.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll hear a lot of people say, like, oh, you know, you kind of got to tone down the teaching for the kids.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, you want to be relevant.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna stand up here and give a seminary talk.
SPEAKER_00: But man, if our students can learn physics, like they can unpack the word.
SPEAKER_00: You know, physics pretty hard.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember a lot of it, but what I do remember I didn't enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: And so I promise your student can handle the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we do is we try to teach them that and then we try to show them how it's relevant to their life.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's what small groups exist to do.
SPEAKER_00: Our small groups are discussions of what we just heard, and then how do we go and apply that to our lives?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, we'll talk about this here in a second.
SPEAKER_00: We even give like little practices week to week on, hey, this is how we can try to apply this this week, and then come back next week and talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: So truth is one.
SPEAKER_00: And one great question for you to ask to assess this area, you can ask your student this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I like to ask students this if we're just having a conversation, but you can ask, hey, what is God teaching you right now?
SPEAKER_00: Not what did you just read in your Bible, not, you know, what did they talk about at church, but what is God teaching you right now?
SPEAKER_00: Because that kind of shows you a little bit about where you're at in your relationship with the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_00: Have I been, you know, having those mental eyes for God moving in the day-to-day and the average and the ordinary and the mundane and the busy?
SPEAKER_00: And as you start to ask that question regularly, you'll start to see, oh, God is moving.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not always paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: God does have something for me.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't always have ears to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And so then the second piece is habits.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to pursue holiness daily through our actions and through our rhythms.
SPEAKER_00: And we get this from Galatians 6, 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot be mocked.
SPEAKER_00: A man reaps what he sows.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't want to just learn the word, but we actually want to live it out, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can get a lot of head knowledge about what the Bible says and have no transformative effect whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you actually have to get it in you.
SPEAKER_00: Like information alone has never produced transformation.
SPEAKER_00: I lived a large part of my life knowing a lot about the Bible, uh, and it didn't change me squat, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, how do I actually get that into who I am?
SPEAKER_00: How do I how do I do that?
SPEAKER_00: We practice it.
SPEAKER_00: We teach our body, we teach our soul through these rhythms.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we include those practices in our emails that we send out.
SPEAKER_00: That's also why we give those handouts on most practices.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't do weekly practices for the dating series because I wasn't gonna be like, hey, go out and find a boyfriend.
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know how you practice that sermon that week.
SPEAKER_00: So we just nixed that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but most weeks we're gonna have a practice they can take home on a little half sheet uh that's just, hey, how do I how do I put this into practice this week?
SPEAKER_00: And so the question to ask here is how are you pursuing holiness today?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What today, if we believe that every moment of every day we're becoming someone, we're moving in one direction or another.
SPEAKER_00: There's no such thing as neutral, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your child is being discipled every day, every moment, every TV show, every class, every song, it disciples us in one way or another.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't say that to scare you, because I know it can be overwhelming, even as a parent with three-year-olds, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and you think what might be a normal show or a normal song, like you have to vet everything these days.
SPEAKER_00: But I say that to say that um even the average ordinary things can point their heart to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so asking, hey, what have you done today?
SPEAKER_00: Not that you're trying to earn or we just sung about that, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not earning, it's it's not about performance, but in what ways are you just laying your life at the feet of Jesus to say, Lord, will you change me?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what you're doing when you're reading scripture, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're not reading it like a textbook.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, I am submitting myself to this book.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not me doing things, uh, it's me actually surrendering.
SPEAKER_00: It's me, me laying down the way I want to do things.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is not me trying to twist God's arm into something.
SPEAKER_00: He invites me into prayer, and I believe that God does change, uh doesn't change, but he does uh respond to prayer, he does move, and prayer matters.
SPEAKER_00: But also prayer is me saying, Hey, my will is is at your feet, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want what you want, right?
SPEAKER_00: So all of these things are just ways that we open space for God to move.
SPEAKER_00: So then the third is community.
SPEAKER_00: We want to do life with other believers.
SPEAKER_00: Um we get this from Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
SPEAKER_00: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.
SPEAKER_00: But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
SPEAKER_00: Community is crucial and everybody has community.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, unless you're completely isolated, which is even worse.
SPEAKER_00: Um, your students' community might be people from their football team, might be people from school.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and when we talk about wanting to have godly community, we are not talking about wrap your kid in bubble wrap and they never go around anybody who doesn't believe.
SPEAKER_00: That's not practical or biblical.
SPEAKER_00: But we do say, hey, how do we create a space where their closest community, their people, their formative influences are in the church?
SPEAKER_00: And that's so important because there's statistics that show I believe it's around 14 or 15, parents start to plummet down the formative influence uh leaderboard, for lack of a better term.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you like it or not, that's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: They just start to look to other people to form their opinions, to form their authority.
SPEAKER_00: And we can't stop that.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't need to be scared, and that doesn't mean you punt responsibility as a parent.
SPEAKER_00: How do you respond?
SPEAKER_00: I want to surround my kids with as many godly influences as I possibly can.
SPEAKER_00: I want them in the church.
SPEAKER_00: If they're not going to listen to me, I want them to listen to a godly man uh who's walked where they've walked.
SPEAKER_00: I want them to listen to a youth leader who's trying to.
SPEAKER_00: I just want as many Christian influences around them as possible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and we obviously leave it to the Lord and we pray and we hope that as he's influenced or as she's influenced by those people, um, the cumulative effect will be to move them towards Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why we have small groups, right?
SPEAKER_00: Small groups are also conversational, they're communal.
SPEAKER_00: They, they, uh a lot of our groups do things outside of school.
SPEAKER_00: They go to games together, they'll go eat afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, usually we're at Waterbury way too late on Wednesday nights.
SPEAKER_00: We'll probably get home like 10:30 tonight at least.
SPEAKER_00: And um, we do D now and camp and fun events, right?
SPEAKER_00: That that is for them to be able to get plugged into community to meet one another.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and because we believe that that you need people, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're not meant to do this life on our own.
SPEAKER_00: And the next is evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sorry, I skipped.
SPEAKER_00: The question to ask for this one, ask, hey, who is speaking into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If you have a conversation with a student, who's speaking into your life right now?
SPEAKER_00: And they're probably gonna, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is all of us have someone speaking into our life, whether they're intentionally doing it or unintentionally doing it, right?
SPEAKER_00: When your student has a conversation with one of their peers about a relationship and how that's going, like that is speaking into them in some way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_00: And so, hey, how do we how do we bring you around people who are gonna speak truth into your life?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, truth with love.
SPEAKER_00: So then next is evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: We want to invite others into the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, 18, 20 says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the famous Great Commission, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the Great Commission is not just for missionaries, uh, and it's not uh just for adults, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Great Commission is for everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the key.
SPEAKER_00: If you were to look at our church membership and say, hey, which church members out of out of the whole pie chart, right, from birth to right before death, which ones are the most strategically placed to make an impact for the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think it is?
SPEAKER_00: Students, a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_00: They're in a high school with six hundred people uh in their class, not even the whole high school.
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about they're around thousands of other young people every single day, many of which are not saved, uh, and they get to be stuck together in a classroom for an hour, hour fifteen, how long are the block classes?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 90?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so an hour and a half.
SPEAKER_00: We you're never gonna get that opportunity ever again in your life, right?
SPEAKER_00: You go to college, you go to the workforce, I tell our students all the time, you are on the biggest, most open, and most influential mission field that you will ever be on right now.
SPEAKER_00: So don't waste it spending all your time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is one of my favorite quotes from a pastor, don't waste it spending all your time saving fantasy worlds when the real one's on fire.
SPEAKER_00: And so make an impact in your schools and your families and your futures.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, share the gospel, share your faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we have mission trips.
SPEAKER_00: We do gospel trainings, invite nights.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, this is one of the two areas that we've really honed in on wanting to grow as a student ministry this year.
SPEAKER_00: We feel like we really spent a lot of time last semester on truth, habits, community.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're like, hey, we want to start to send.
SPEAKER_00: We want to mobilize.
SPEAKER_00: We want our students serving, we want them sharing their faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so you'll see even what we teach on Wednesday nights, we spend a lot of time on sharing your faith.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a testimony night, really almost every third or fourth week this year.
SPEAKER_00: We really want to try and build that in our culture this year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so for the question that you can ask for that one is who are you trying to invite in, right?
SPEAKER_00: Who's your one?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you praying for right now?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you trying to reach with your with your um either testimony or with the gospel or who are you just trying to get to come to church?
SPEAKER_00: But who's that person?
SPEAKER_00: And encourage your student, hey, have at least one person on your mind at all times.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the one, this is the one.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll be amazed at what God will do through that.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, last one, and we're about to start wrapping up, I promise, uh, is service.
SPEAKER_00: We want to serve with a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we get this from 1 Peter 4.10.
SPEAKER_00: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
SPEAKER_00: So this goes back to that eternal impact thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: It says to use whatever gift you have received.
SPEAKER_00: So that's assuming that we've all received gifts, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your student is gifted, right?
SPEAKER_00: It might look vastly different.
SPEAKER_00: You might have the world's biggest extrovert could talk anyone under a table, or you might have the most quiet, shy, but loving, caring, genuine kid on earth.
SPEAKER_00: God gave it to them either way, but I want them to get a bigger picture for that gift than just a personality trait, right?
SPEAKER_00: Right here, 1 Peter 410 says you're supposed to use it to serve others because you're stewarding God's grace, right?
SPEAKER_00: It was grace that you received that gift.
SPEAKER_00: If you're good at playing drums, that's not because you were just good at learning to play drums.
SPEAKER_00: God gave you a gift to be able to hear music, to be able to play with rhythms, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're good at speaking or if you're good at finding the one who's left out, that's there because God put it there, not to be used on yourself, but to be used for others.
SPEAKER_00: And so we wanted to get a glimpse of that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we do these mission trips and service projects as well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're trying to grow in our mission trips.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to spawn more.
SPEAKER_00: We have our Mexico mission trip that leaves early in June that we still do have some spots for.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're also working on some different domestic trips, whereas I know uh, you know, sending a young student to a foreign country can be a lot, especially if they haven't been on mission trips before.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're trying to come up with some different options for domestic, whether that be like Colorado or New Orleans.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's plenty of opportunities as well as stuff that's local.
SPEAKER_00: But again, this is an area that we really want to grow in.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just external.
SPEAKER_00: Internal serving.
SPEAKER_00: One thing we want to grow in this year is a student ministry is internal serving.
SPEAKER_00: We want our students to serve the church that they're a part of.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that be through kids' ministry, VBS, Sundays, there's growth groups that go on that they always need leaders and teachers for.
SPEAKER_00: We have middle schoolers that go over there and help lead a class and they love it.
SPEAKER_00: As well as preteen camp, we always have volunteers that go and are leaders for that.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: And you can even serve here in youth.
SPEAKER_00: We we have a team that helps with connection, right?
SPEAKER_00: When a student comes in for the first time, I have students who I know they're prepared and say, hey, let me go introduce you to this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, let me introduce you to Michaela Mason over here.
SPEAKER_00: She's a high school girl at Bernie as well.
SPEAKER_00: Let y'all talk and they know how to get those students involved.
SPEAKER_00: We have tech, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've got sound and lights and stuff to run.
SPEAKER_00: And we have student-led worship.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what an amazing job.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, y'all have to see firsthand how Aaron has discipled these students and just the gifts that they're getting to use for the like that's one of my favorite parts of Wednesday is getting to see students up here leading their peers in worship.
SPEAKER_00: And so if your kid can sing, uh if they can play an instrument, we would love to get them plugged in and discipled.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great guide to learn from.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's all sorts of ways.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so the great question to ask here is where are you serving?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a place that you're plugged into right now where you're serving intentionally?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and if not, how can we find a place?
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's once a month, because again, statistics all over the place show one of the things that makes students' faith sticky is serving in the church, not just getting this consumer mindset that we see so often of like I show up to church to watch a show and then leave.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because eventually familiarity breeds contempt.
SPEAKER_00: If you think you're just there to take something in, the best preacher, you're gonna start to hear the same stories over and over again, right?
SPEAKER_00: The best worship, you're gonna start to get used to it.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you think that you're just there to consume, you're gonna miss what what God has ordained the church to be.
SPEAKER_00: And that's to build one another up and talk about making an impact in the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: Like we always talk about like adults making an impact in the youth's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I get our students to catch a vision for man, the next generation?
SPEAKER_00: We got a lot of Gen Zers in here.
SPEAKER_00: How are we reaching Gen Alpha?
SPEAKER_00: How are we going downstream?
SPEAKER_00: Because, man, y'all have seen it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, if I can get a college kid in here, all of a sudden, doesn't matter if I've told a kid something one million times, when the cool college kid says it, all of a sudden, it makes sense because they they listen.
SPEAKER_00: And so I could go on and on and on, but we want to develop this culture of serving.
SPEAKER_00: And that evangelism and that service aspect are two things we're really gonna try to invest in this semester.
SPEAKER_00: And so that is that is really who we are as a student ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot there.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's nothing new, it's nothing novel.
SPEAKER_00: It's just us trying to tell you hey, this is who you're partnering with, uh, and this is what we want to do when it comes to creating a space for your students.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm just gonna do a few little wrap-up details.
SPEAKER_00: And then if anybody has questions, great.
SPEAKER_00: If not, just hang out, enjoy yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We've got um, we've got pool if you want to go play some pool or something, um, and and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: If we're waiting for the students to get out of small groups, but one thing I mentioned it earlier, D now is coming up, and so um actually, yeah, sorry, D now is coming up.
SPEAKER_00: So you can scan this QR code.
SPEAKER_00: This will also take you to registration for D now.
SPEAKER_00: You could also, yeah, and we do have on that some more handouts that if you need to take with you, or you can go to the link, save it, send that link to anybody else you know.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot of parents that aren't here tonight, they're gone on vacation or whatnot.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you know of anybody who hasn't signed up, it really, really does help us to know ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00: Also, my wife and I are gonna be out for a decent amount of time right before D now.
SPEAKER_00: So we're really trying to get a lot of stuff done early so that we can be squared away, which some things are always last minute, but the more people we have signed up, the better we know when it comes to groups.
SPEAKER_00: Um, also, host home is a big need this year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, for reference, right before the break, we were sitting around 110 students.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that same time last year, we were at 70 and we ended up running 212 last year.
SPEAKER_00: So I am expecting every bit of 250 students, which praise God is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: But that puts a much bigger need for host homes, for transportation, for all the things.
SPEAKER_00: And we love host homes.
SPEAKER_00: We we love what um how God uses it.
SPEAKER_00: We we believe it's a great way for the whole church to get involved, but we have to have enough to be able to continue to structure D now that way.
SPEAKER_00: And so if anybody is interested potentially or knows anybody who's interested, um, also it it makes it easier on everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I have to ask a home to host 30 kids because I don't have any more, it gets really hard.
SPEAKER_00: And there are some saints who have big old mansions up in heaven, uh, or will have big mansions waiting for them in heaven uh because they've taken massive groups.
SPEAKER_00: But the more we can get, the easier it is on everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're interested in that, pray about it, please.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of other ways to serve as well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'll need volunteers for fun night, we'll need volunteers for food, for check-in.
SPEAKER_00: D now is by far like camp is easy.
SPEAKER_00: We just show up and it's there.
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
SPEAKER_00: D now is really our heavy lot of planning, a lot of organizing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but also it's one of the most rewarding things.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite part, favorite day ever year.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get emotional even thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's Sunday morning at D Now.
SPEAKER_00: The kids are there worshiping and just seeing that whole room light up with energy.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because man, I just want what they have.
SPEAKER_00: Like they just have this weekend, devoting their hearts, their minds to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the best.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you can be there at all, you will be blessed far more than anybody you get the chance to bless.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then also you'll see this little handout right here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh on the front is a QR code that Miss Andrea whipped up for us today.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just a little way that we can get some information, some feedback from you.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that you need as families, as parents, for us to pray for you for, uh, to partner with you, questions that you're wrestling with your students, resources that you might need.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a student who deals with anxiety uh and you feel like you are in the deep end with no floaties.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let us know so that we can come alongside you, we can pray for you, we can try to help in any way possible.
SPEAKER_00: Um, connect your student with somebody who will be a good mentor potentially.
SPEAKER_00: Um, lots of things we can do.
SPEAKER_00: And so this QR code will give you a space to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And then if you flip through, uh, you'll see a few different uh upcoming date pages.
SPEAKER_00: And this is our spring teaching schedule.
SPEAKER_00: So we just like to get at this out ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh take this, take pictures of it.
SPEAKER_00: This will tell you when we meet, when we do not meet.
SPEAKER_00: Um, really, the only week we have off in the semester is spring break.
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll wrap the churchwide stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We'll finish on May 6th.
SPEAKER_00: We will go one week later to the 13th, and we'll have like an end-of-year party, and then we'll have a couple of weeks off for graduation and all the things, and we'll kick back off into the summer.
SPEAKER_00: So you can take this.
SPEAKER_00: This is a calendar.
SPEAKER_00: We've also posted it on our Instagram.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's pinned at the top, so it's super easy to find.
SPEAKER_00: Um, also, if you want to get out your calendar real quick, I'll give you uh one set of dates.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have camp dates, so go ahead and you can put in your calendar.
SPEAKER_00: Camp registration will open at D now, the end of D now at the end of service on Sunday, and camp sells out.
SPEAKER_00: Camp sells out quick.
SPEAKER_00: Uh last year uh we had only ever taken three buses.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we opened it up and it filled up in two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And so we got a fourth bus, and then that one filled up in about two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would highly recommend we have a sale going on that first you know, week or so, or I don't remember how long do we make it run?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's one week.
SPEAKER_00: So you'll get in a lower price.
SPEAKER_00: Um the price is gonna be around five.
unknown: Sorry, it's not a good one.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's five, seven.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's mid 500 range.
SPEAKER_00: We we try to keep our our campus cheap as possible.
SPEAKER_00: We we pride ourselves on on trying to make it as affordable as possible because I know summer is crazy as expensive.
SPEAKER_00: We eat a lot of cost out of that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're able to sign up a week early, it's gonna get you, or that first week after do now, it's gonna get you a lower price.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd highly, highly, highly recommend to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because man, I don't know about a fifth bus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we can pull that off this year.
SPEAKER_00: So once it fills deposit down and registration, I think like one day.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not like we're gonna have to make it just make payments on it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can always, you know, I I will say in all seven years of my student ministry, money's never been a reason somebody can't go to something.
SPEAKER_00: So either way, if you have a friend or a student has a friend who wants to go or whatnot, we'll make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: But those dates are July 12th through the 18th.
SPEAKER_00: So July 12th through the 18th, we're going back to Estes Park, Colorado, YMCA of the Rockies.
SPEAKER_00: Uh speaker will be Drew Worsham.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so he's actually here in San Antonio.
SPEAKER_00: He was at the Rim Church for a really long time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he's still at the Rim or just local.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then Jared Wood Band will be leading us in worship.
SPEAKER_00: So you might remember Jay Wood from way back, my first D now here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he was a worship leader, and they're great.
SPEAKER_00: They're from Dallas.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it'll be a great time.
SPEAKER_00: So