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Welcome to the May edition of N.E.T.M.A. News where you’ll never have to say, “Nobody Ever Tells Me Anything!”
From the Youth Pastor
The Pastor has been doing an end of times study during the Sunday evening worship services that has drawn a lot of attention and participants. You can check it out on the church web site if you have missed them. Whenever we have well over 300 attending a Sunday night service, you know there is something going on. Everyone wants to know what to look for or when the end is coming. I can answer that. Well, not in regards to Christ’s return, but I can answer it in regards to the end of another school year. I have learned over my years in youth ministry the signs of the end of the school year. There is always a sense of excitement and anticipation around the Power House during this time of year. Is the excitement and anticipation beginning to build in your home or are there rumors of war, accompanied by grumblings and wailing and gnashing of teeth as the school year begins to wind on down? Prayer requests for grades always start to pop up more frequently during this time of year, along with praises that the end is near. Do you remember those feelings of summer approaching and you couldn’t wait any longer? It’s amazing to me how much we as parents tend to block out of our psyche as we grow older. We often forget what it was really like to experience that “first love” or that huge “zit” that was going to ruin our life. We forget what it was like to be a teenager because we have been so entrenched in our adult world. I have been reading a book during my quiet time called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. It has reminded me about a lot of things that I have forgotten over the years. Granted, it’s a book about men but not necessarily for men. My future daughter-in-law, (who, yes, as many of you commented after seeing her in the elevator with me in the Easter Pageant, is cute as a button!) saw that I had the book and said that she read it so that she could better understand my son when they got married. As with most books that I read, other than the Bible, there are things that I agree with and other things that I have a little more trouble with, but the premise is excellent. Eldredge invites men to recover their masculine heart, defined in the image of a passionate God. He invites women to discover the secret of a man’s soul and to delight in the strength and wildness men were created to offer. What’s my point? I think too often we as parents need a reminder that God created our teens to be wild and inquisitive at heart and we often squelch and suppress that at times. We forget what it’s like to dream big. We forget what it’s like to think we can conquer the world. My challenge to all of us parents is to step back and embrace our teen years so that we can help our teens through theirs. My challenge to parents is to take some time to “play”. Loosen up and have some fun. It may just open up lines of communication with your teen that you never thought would be possible. Rising 7th Graders and Youth Family Cookout
Each year we hold this event and it accomplishes several purposes. It allows us to meet our rising 7th graders and their families and to inform them about all the things they have to look forward to in the youth ministry. It allows us some time to kick back with some good food and fellowship, and it gives everyone some informal time with our summer interns before the craziness of summer hits. Everyone is welcome, but we want to be sure and get those rising 7th grade families involved. If you know of any who fit that description or maybe even families who are visiting with youth who could benefit from this event, please be sure to help spread the word. The cookout will take place from Important
The summer trips and camps are quickly approaching and we need you to be on top of it all. I know from personal experience of having four children, a wife who owns her own business, and being in the ministry, when you are trying to keep up with the events and schedules for your family it can be very hectic. Now let me put out a plea with you…imagine trying to do this for the youth group. We have close to one-hundred youth and adult chaperones participating in at least one or more of our three week-long summer trips, and I can’t do anymore to get the word out and remind you of deadlines than I am already doing. PLEASE be sure to keep up with the deadlines, final trip meetings and information necessary for the trips your student is participating in. You will be receiving more phonetree reminders and informational letters, but don’t forget about the youth web page for information. There is a tab for “Trips & Camps” that we will be updating even more frequently now that they are approaching.
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