ncbcsrhigh parents’ info

Why I love Sr. High Ministry

Tonight’s youth group experience was a powerful reminder to me of why I like being the Sr. High youth pastor.

Sr. Highers are so capable, enthusiastic, dedicated, and motivated! Here are some examples just from tonight.

1. Worship was 100% done by students: selecting, practicing, balancing sound, formating power point, and integrating it with the rest of the night.

2. The student’s testimony was fresh, raw, passionate and real. How many adults would commit major sins and then get up in front of their peers within days to confess and challenge them?

3. Jon totally took the initiative in this lesson. He had approached me some weeks ago, saying that God had been challenging him and teaching him some things from his Word that he’d like to pass on to the group. His commitment to being a student of the Word challenged more than just his peers you can be sure.

4. Irene got up tonight and announced a new ministry that she and 4 fellow seniors had started: a weekly inner city kids ministry at the HD Youth Center. Without any adult involvement or prompting they’ve made arrangements to be there with crafts, snacks, games, tutoring, and more every Tuesday afternoon. Starting yesterday!!! Their initiative and desire to make a difference in the world is outstanding!

5. The game that was planned was appropriately crazy. They approached me with the idea on Tuesday, wanting to make sure the night had a fun element. Again, it was all their initiative.

For many of these students, Sr. High is their first opportunity to have the maturity, the skills, a degree of independence (and often wheels!) to really begin to put their faith into action like never before. It’s so fun to be a part of these formative years, which hopefully launch them on into life at full-speed.

Being around them spurs me on to greater faithfulness.

Now can you see why I like my job?

Why I’m excited about this school year!

The new youth group year is off to an amazing start. It’s been awesome to see so many of you coming back to the group—some of you I haven’t seen in years! Welcome back! Some great things are happening in our youth group. After a year of adjustments and growing pains, there’s a sense of excitement I haven’t felt in years.

Why am I so excited? Seven things just happened that make me super-excited about this fall:

1. Last Spring’s Retreat was totally run by the seniors. This had never been done before and their great planning and leadership made a huge impact on our group and was the start of the momentum.

2. Our summer trips: Mexico, SEMP, and Summit were all three “homeruns”. Everyone came back with a greater love, commitment and appreciation for each other. Leadership was developed on these trips that has continued to the present.

3. Senior High Sunday was amazing as NO ADULTS were involved in leading our church in 4 worship services. The impact you guys had on our church was powerful. Even pastors told me they were challenged. Many adults were moved to tears by you guys’ powerful ministry.

4. The Camping/Canoe trip was incredible. We camped indoors and really got to know the freshmen and new people better than ever before. The Tournament of the Quads was a hit and God allowed our campfire traditions to happen despite the rain. Saturday was gorgeous and amazingly none of the 40 canoes got tipped over. jk!

5. Leadership. We surveyed the group two weeks ago and over 40 people said they want to be involved in leadership within our group this year. That’s an amazing amount of people who are ready to take our group to the next level. Plus we have some great new sponsors who have come on board as well.

6. Quads are becoming families within our youth group. Each Quad is developing their own personality and leaders are stepping up within the Quads all over the place.

7. We had our first quarterly Worship Marathon last Sunday and everyone seems to be serious about taking worship to the next level in excellence and realness. Creativity is on the rise, we even have hilarious video announcements starting!

And there’s even more! Four more things are just on the horizon that make me even more excited:

The upcoming Senior Class Retreat, where they’ll get to help plan the year
Re-launching our Sr. High website so we can connect with each other better
Launching small groups for spiritual growth, and
Starting our leadership training and development.

Parent Resource Page

Perhaps THE expert in helping parents to understand teen culture is Walt Mueller. He just started offering a monthly parents’ page. I may subscribe to it if it seems like something you parents would appreciate. I would be allowed to email the page or post it on this site each month. So CHECK IT OUT and let me know if it’s useful!

Youth Office Hours

We’ve had some reports and concerns from parents regarding students downstairs being unsupervised. The Youth Area Hours are as follows – you can be assured that an adult will be downstairs during these times:

Sunday:

9:00 am – 11:00 am

6:15 pm – 8:00 pm

Wednesday:

5:00 pm – 9:30 pm

During the week, either Pastor Mark E., Pastor Mark F., or myself are in the youth office from 9:30 am – 12:00 pm and then from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm, but we do not keep normal 9-5 hours, so you should call ahead to make sure one of us are actually there. There are also occasions where an activity has been scheduled such as worship team practice, or Brain Scratchers, or an accountability group. Those groups are supervised by an adult/sponsor.

Other than the hours posted above we cannot guarantee that your student is being supervised, and we discourage youth area usage during off hours simply due to the fact that students are downstairs unattended. If you know that you will be with your child downstairs in the youth area the entire time they are there that is okay as well.

I hope this clears things up for everyone. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact Mark Forstrom mark.forstrom@newcovenantbible.org or Mark Eades mark.eades@newcovenantbible.org or call the church 395-0021.

Thanks for your cooperation!

-Dea Jo Aldrich

NCBC Youth Secretary

395-0021 ext: 221

http://www.newcovenantbible.org