Youth News

“Move Up” Sunday

On Sunday, June 17, students entering 6th or 9th grade in the fall will move up and start attending the Jr. & Sr. High Sunday school classes respectively. The rising 6th graders can also start coming to youth group that night.

Youth Snack Volunteers

If you are the parent of one of the rising 6th graders who will be joining youth group on June 17th, please consider signing up to contribute snacks on a rotating basis. Current volunteers are responsible for bringing snacks and drinks once every 6-8 weeks. You’ll receive a schedule for a few months at a time and a reminder from the church when your week comes up. Let me know if you are able to help.

Graduating Seniors

If you know of any students who attend CBC and are graduating high school this spring, please let me know who they are.

Who Do You Worship?

In Sr. High Sunday School, we are going through the book Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. This week’s topic was Why Should We Worship Jesus?, and part of the lesson dealt with what worship is and what it is not, including the issue of idolatry. Driscoll and Breshears write,

The opposite of worship is idolatry, or the worshiping of something or someone other than the One True God of the Bible alone. On this point, Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft has said, “The alternative to theism is not atheism but idolatry.”

The Apostle Paul touches on this in the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans, where he writes:

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Dealing with this idea of worshipping created things rather than the Creator, Driscoll notes an experience he had in India, when after seeing various temples and personal shrines erected to false gods, an Indian believer commented on the idolatry prevalent in the United States. Although Driscoll was at first taken aback by such a comment, upon further reflection, he realized it was true.

We picked up on this theme of idol worship in America at youth group on Sunday night by watching the following video that is played before each LSU home football game:

Read More

>

A Resolution Worth Keeping

The school I taught at in NJ recently asked me to write a short New Year’s-themed devotional for their school newspaper. I wrote about the difference between making resolutions and living like Paul, according to Philippians 3. Since it was geared toward Jr. & Sr. Highers, I thought I’d share it here as well.

James 5:16
January 22, 2012
click the image to download a pdf copy of the slides

James 5:16

January 22, 2012

click the image to download a pdf copy of the slides

Our 3:16 Foundation
January 15, 2012
click the image to download a pdf of the slides

Our 3:16 Foundation

January 15, 2012

click the image to download a pdf of the slides

The Beauty of Grace (Matthew 20:1-16)
January 8, 2012
click the image to download a pdf of the slides

The Beauty of Grace (Matthew 20:1-16)

January 8, 2012

click the image to download a pdf of the slides

Youth News

Next Youth Group is Sunday, January 8

There will be no youth group this week due to the continued holiday break. Also, based on the responses to the survey about possibly moving youth group to mid-week, we will keeping it on Sunday nights. This means that our next meeting will be Sunday, January 8. A new snack list for January-April will also be distributed soon.

New Sunday School Class Starting January 15

The Jr. & Sr. High Sunday school classes will be cancelled on January 8 so that students can attend the pancake breakfast and informational session for our children’s ministry.

On Sunday, January 15, we will be starting a new series in the High School class based loosely on the book Vintage Jesus: Timely Answers to Timeless Questions by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. We will not be reading the book together (although you are of course welcome to pick it up and read it on your own!), but we will be using the chapters as the outline for the class. The chapter titles are:

  1. Is Jesus the Only God?
  2. How Human Was Jesus?
  3. How Did People Know Jesus Was Coming?
  4. Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?
  5. Why Did Jesus’ Mom Need to Be a Virgin?
  6. What Did Jesus Accomplish on the Cross?
  7. Did Jesus Rise from Death?
  8. Where is Jesus Today?
  9. Why Should We Worship Jesus?
  10. What Makes Jesus Superior to Other Saviors?
  11. What Difference Has Jesus Made in History?
  12. What Will Jesus Do upon His Return?

College students and young adults are again welcome to join us as we study the person and work of Jesus Christ.

>

The Purpose-Driven Facebook

This is another post for my personal blog and something I’ve been brooding about for a while now. I encourage all Christian young people who have a Facebook account (or want one) to read it and to examine what they post and why they post it. It would probably be good for parents to read it as well in order to hold them accountable.

>

Is Student-Athlete Becoming an Oxymoron?

This is a post I wrote on my personal blog about the emphasis that we place on sports, especially at the high school and college level. I used to have frequent conversations on this topic with several people in NJ, and the brawl at the end of the Cincinnati-Xavier college basketball game on Saturday served as the impetus for me to put some of my thoughts in writing. I decided to post a link to it here in case the topic interested anyone.

tag. -->