Here are the notes from our January 2013 Adult Youth Leader Meeting:

YLM’s

Held on the first Sunday of the month at 6pm. Only one exception: Feb meeting is Feb 10 @ 12p (BYOL)  It is important for every leader to come to most or all of these meetings.  Look at your calendars and plan these dates for the rest of the year. Please let me know if you cannot make it to more than 2 of these meetings.

Student Leadership Meeting

Will begin next Sunday and on the 2nd Sunday of each month (BYOL)

High School Only

Purpose: to get the youth involved in planning events and running ministry opportunities

Need each High School Life Group Teacher to recommend at least 2 students from your class before Wed...

Student Life Curriculum

I have renewed the curriculum we have been using for Life Groups. It is called Prime and it challenges students to focus on their personal relationship with God through practical applications and prepares them for life after graduation.

Please continue to use this material to pull your teaching from every week as it is a part of a curriculum that will take a student through the entire Bible in 6 years.

Discipleship Groups

Casey and I are starting 1 intense Disciple Group each in January. If you want to help, please let us know.

Follows the Multiply curriculum announced by David Platt and Francis Chan near the end of 2012.

Max participants per group: 4 plus a Discipler.

It is a 6 week study and requires the Discipler to have nothing else on his/her plate. To invest 6 months of their life and their family’s life into these disciples.

Goal: to prepare them to disciple others when they leave you.

Wednesday Nights

Startup this Wednesday Night!

Beginning 3 week Series: Babel (XP3)

XP for this series: Detox from Technology (Detailed explanation attached)

ALL Small Group Materials attached for you to have ahead of time

Parent Cue Attached that I will be communicating to parents

Last Wednesday night of each month will be: a draw event or an XP or a service project or a student led service

Events

Jan 23 (Wed) Student Led Service

Feb 3 (Sun) Super Bowl Bash Details: Right after church Tailgate Lunch & Flag Football

Feb 15-22 School Breaks

Mar 22-24 Disciple Now (Leadership Rocks, FBC Jonesboro) - David Nasser/Kristian Stanfill

Cost: $39pp for first 50 (lunch included) - T-Shirts not included.

Times: Fri (7-9pm), Sat (9am-3:30pm)

Lodging is being investigated...opportunity to stay in a church nearby for free.

Mar 29-Apr 5 NC Spring Break

Apr 22-26 SC Spring Break

Jun 10-15 Youth Camp - Centrifuge @ N Greenville U, Greenville, SC

Discount Cards Info needed…:)

Summer NEED to plan Summer events now...will discuss at next meeting.

Sept 13-15 Fall Retreat - Confirmed with FFA Camp - it’s the only weekend available through Nov.

Dec 26-31 Winter Ski Retreat - Details and exact dates to be determined

Our next YLM is scheduled for Tuesday, February 28. More details will be coming about what, where, when, how, why...

Do you remember this message?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mweFiS6Z_WU

I remember it well.  In a time when it seemed like our kids were being kidnapped left and right. Actually, I was a kid at that time. I am using this as a reminder for you (and me) to contact your students in your small groups (primarily Wed Night Groups). Look at who has not been here and call them, email them, text them, fb them, drive to their house and knock on their door...the more follow-up we do, the more they realize how much we care about them.

I will email each of you roles for Sunday Morning and Wednesday Night so you can make those contacts.  I will also email you the All Youth Directory if you need it.

We are in our 2nd week of Guardrails, "Swerve", and here is the Bottom Line: Your friends will influence and possibly determine the direction and quality of your life.

Our Sermon Illustration for Wednesday night will be a little messy...here is the gist of it...

We don’t have to do what a fool does to be affected by a fool’s actions.

Have you ever heard the term shrapnel before? Maybe you have but you’re not quite sure what it means. Shrapnel is, by definition, “fragments of a bomb, shell or other object thrown out by an explosion.” In other words, shrapnel is something that can hit you through no involvement on your part at all, except for the fact that you were close enough when the bomb went off or the shot was fired to get hit by what went flying.

For this illustration, we will go outside.  In order to help our students experience “shrapnel” we are going to use a watermelon and a mallet. I will set the watermelon on a sturdy table (Mookie's pallet table), and ask for five volunteers to stand in front of me. I will give each volunteer a plastic poncho and have them stand about 8-10 feet in front of me. We will have the rest of our students surround the table and count down from 10, and then I will give the watermelon a good whack with the mallet. I will have towels available for everyone afterwards...:)

Shrapnel is what we are in danger of when we spend time in the company of fools. Maybe we aren’t the ones who have made the bad decision, but because we are around, either physically or by reputation, we are affected by another’s actions in a way that can be detrimental.

Does anyone have a mallet? Can anyone pickup a watermelon for me? If we cant find a watermelon, we could use a couple of honey dew melons or cantelopes.

The new Small Group Questions have been uploaded on our website. Just go to http://thecrossroadsfamily.com/, click the Ministries tab, then the Youth Leaders tab...

That's all I have for this week.  As always, please let me know if you will not be here Wednesday night so I can plan ahead for your absence...

See you soon!

Mondays...they go by sooo fast, don't they? Here it is Tuesday, and I just remembered this blog.


Here is what is happening tomorrow (Wednesday, 2/8).  We are beginning a new series called "Guardrails". Here is a brief overview of this series:


Guardrails are “a system designed to keep something from straying into dangerous or off-limit areas.” Just like the guardrails we see on the roads we drive on everyday, the guardrails we place in our personal lives are designed with a simple purpose—to create a useful barrier in order to protect us from a potential danger. We don’t often spend a lot of time thinking about or paying attention to them, but when we need them, we are very glad guardrails are there. In the same way that guardrails protect us on the road, when we establish them in our lives, they can help to both protect us and direct us. Most likely our biggest mistakes in life could have been avoided if we had guardrails steering us in the right direction. The goal should never be to see how close we can get to a guardrail without crashing but rather to respect their presence, keeping a safe distance from veering “too far,” in the wrong direction.


Session 1: Shift (tomorrow night)

Guardrails are part of our every day experience. Whether we are walking, biking or driving there are guardrails all around us to protect us from those off-limit areas—areas where we could drop off the edge or crash into something. But where are the guardrails in our actual, everyday lives? We have to establish those personal guardrails ourselves so that we can back up and stay on the safe side of a potentially dangerous situation. 

This is what we want to relay to the youth...that they need guardrails in their life!  BTW, thank you Jason for building the guardrails for our set...they are perfect! You'll agree when you see them Wednesday.


Your Small Group Qs are on the website for you to print and review before tomorrow night. If you are not going to be here, please make sure to let me know so I can plan accordingly.


Also, look at your role sheets. If there are some kids that you have not seen in a while, contact them. Let them know that you miss them and invite them to come tomorrow night...if you need contact info, I can give that to you...
That's all for now, see you tomorrow!

Orange Conference

Check out this video...
If you want to go to the Orange Conference with me, let me know!

Wednesday 1/25/12 Review

Great night overall, even though I was a bit hyper.  Casey was in the back the entire time trying to keep me on track...:)

Bringing a few chairs back in seemed to help tighten the group a bit too.  What did ya'll think? Comment about your thoughts if you would...

I want to continue to encourage Nic to keep up the ONE80SMN.  It's a great thing for the youth to look at.  We just need to perhaps remind and encourage the youth to take a gander at it...

Thank you all for keeping up with your rolls. We may change the format of the Communication Cards now that we are meeting in groups.  I will have some visitor cards for each group for those who are not on your roll. I will also have a signup sheet with events listed on them that each group can pass around to get people to sign-up for our upcoming events...

Speaking of rolls, some of us have been contacting youth who have not been here in a while, as well as contacting those that are coming infrequently.  THANK YOU! I have had several students come up to me and tell me that they really appreciated that!  Please keep it up!  Facebook them, text them, email them, twitter them (whatever that means), call them? Write a short note to tell them that we miss their presence.

Overall a great night!

Things to remember for next Wednesday, February 1:

1. Try to be here around 6 if possible and do not talk to any other adult.  Instead:
    A. Go upstairs and play some games with someone in your group
    B. Pull one of the youth to the side and ask them how things are going, how their time with God has been
    C. Look for someone you do not know and introduce yourself, get to know them
    D. Grab all the members of your small group and do the hoky poky...okay, maybe not a good idea

2. During the singing...sing. Clap your hands. Worship the Lord however you do that.

3. Complete your roll as you see youth in your group instead of taking time out of your small group to do that. If there were some you missed, go back to the roll after the group time and fill it out.

4. Spend more time asking questions in the small group time than talking. Dig in.

That's all for this blog...let me know if I can do anything, get anything for you!

Greetings Leaders!  This is a new blog that I have created to make sure you are getting the most up to date information possible!