The Year So Far

It's been awhile since I last posted, but we've been busy! Here's a few highlights from the year so far:

January

After the epic Christmas party, we kept it low key with a game night.

February

In February, we helped prepare and serve the dinner at the college group's outreach activity: a comedy night.

The girls also had a Valentine's Day Party. We decorated cupcakes and made valentines for everyone in the group.

 

March

We surprised Haylee with a 16th birthday party!

Isaac was really into it.

April

In April, several of the girls and the guys served at the Annual Kindred Hearts Ladies' Tea.

Photos by Star Hill

We also held our first Parent's Meeting, where we introduced our purpose statement, vision, and objectives. We also discussed current issues in our culture that affect teens, current issues in our group, and the youth group calendar of events.

May

This month, we had planned two sleepovers, one for the guys and one for the girls, but had to cancel due to too many other things going on at the time. Several of you enjoyed Family Camp with your families.

June

June was a crazy month! We were involved with teaching classes, registration, decorating, snacks, games, and music for Vacation Bible School from the 10th through the 14th.

 

 

The following Sunday was Youth Sunday! Pastor Joel preached on the "Christian Family," which became a sermon series. We sang two special music songs as a group, and the girls also sang a special music song. and managed every aspect of the service from leading the songs to passing the offering plates.

July

Teen camp got the month off to a great start. Junior camp followed, and we ended the month with a graduation party for Brittany.

Photo by Mikayla

August

The much anticipated Fun Trip took place the first few days of August, the 2nd-4th. We drove to California early Friday morning, and spend the day at the beach, stopping for dinner and a tour at a Chick Fil A owned by former members of our church. Saturday we spent the day at Knotts Berry Farm. Sunday, we enjoyed the church services at Lighthouse Bible Fellowship, where we'd been blessed to stay at their facilities for the three day trip.

 

What was your favorite of the activities so far this year? What do you hope we do before the year is over? Let us know in the comments!

Summer Youth Group Pictures

During the summer, we're being hosted by families in our church. We've enjoyed a beachball-random-question game, playing at the park, and an outdoor movie, to name a few of the highlights. Here's a few pictures from some of the nights: 

We're studying the topic of Truth, and discovering it applies in very practical ways to our lives. 

There's lots more pictures you guys have taken on facebook, I just haven't had time to steal them yet. Look for them on the SEVBC Youth Group Facebook page soon!

What's your favorite memory from the summer youth group so far? 

Summer Bible Program Pictures

We're most of the way through our Summer Bible Program! 

Off to Camp!

The teens are off to camp this week! Pray that they'll have a blast, learn, and grow. Pray that they'll take away much that they can apply to their everyday lives to grow closer to God every day.

An example of an example

The blog post before this one features the viral video by Jeff Bethke, "Why I hate Religion but Love Jesus." Soon after this video went viral, the Gospel Coalition blogger Kevin DeYoung wrote a critique of it. 

At first, I was disappointed and saddened that DeYoung felt a line-by-line criticism was necessary, and some of his points seemed petty considering that Jeff clearly stated he was using "religion" to mean "false religion," and he wasn't against all organized religion. As one commentator on the post stated "Why don’t we, as reformed folks, make a better video instead of simply moaning and complaining because he didn’t cross all of the doctrinal t’s that we would have crossed. I just simply do not understand how we can hold to the belief that God elected and saved us based on no work of our own (i.e., we are nothing and He is everything), yet still be so proud as we gleefully point out the sticks in everyone else’s eye."

However, I re-read DeYoung's article, and I had to admit a some of his points were valid. For example, we really can't reserve the right to define "religion" however we want to, even with the best of intentions. I won't summarize all of his points here, but I hope you'll read his entire article for yourself.

Then I noticed an update to the article, and clicked over to read it. Jeff had initiated contact with DeYoung after reading his blog post. I hope you'll read DeYoung's update for yourself, but I thought this summed it up well:

A friend wrote to me yesterday and said, “This is a good test for both Jefferson and for yourself. Is he the kind of guy who would be willing to write a critic with humility? And did you write the piece in such a way that the one being criticized would feel comfortable chatting with you?” I hope we are passing that test. Through the years I haven’t always aced this kind of exam.
I hope everyone reading this blog will share Jeff’s heart and mine for getting the gospel out as far as we can and as right as we can. I look forward to seeing Jeff’s next video.

I think Jeff is a good example of accepting criticism humbly with a teachable spirit. I do wish Kevin had responded more Biblically by going to Jeff first, before airing his concerns on the internet. However, I think the situation has shown the best of both men as they both learned from the experience. 


How do we respond when we're corrected? 

Religion or Relationship

"Religion says Do, Jesus says Done." 



This is what the video description says: "A poem I wrote to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion. In the scriptures Jesus received the most opposition from the most religious people of his day. At it's core Jesus' gospel and the good news of the Cross is in pure opposition to self-righteousness/self-justification. Religion is man centered, Jesus is God-centered. This poem highlights my journey to discover this truth. Religion either ends in pride or despair. Pride because you make a list and can do it and act better than everyone, or despair because you can't do your own list of rules and feel "not good enough" for God. With Jesus though you have humble confident joy because He represents you, you don't represent yourself and His sacrifice is perfect putting us in perfect standing with God!"

Youth Group Outreach

“The King will reply,‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"Matthew 25:40

As the youth group has read and discussed the book "Crazy Love" for the past several weeks, we've been motivated by God's crazy love for us to extend that love to others. One practical way we want to show God's love this Christmas season is by distributing Christmas Care Packages to a few families in our communities in need. Each care package will contain food, paper products, toiletries, some holiday items, and the gospel.  

From now until December 17th, the youth group in collaboration with Food For Families is collecting donations for the care packages. Please consider spending just a little extra this week to purchase some of the following items: 

• tins of ham
• boxes of candy canes
• canned vegetables
• canned fruit
• boxed mashed potatoes
• tea, coffee, hot chocolate
• Christmas goodies, such as nuts, pretzels, chocolates
• pasta
• cereal
• boxed cookie mixes
• personal care items, such as shampoo, soap, and toothpaste
• Christmas napkins, paper plates, cups 
• facial tissue, toilet paper

Please bring your donations to church on the 11th and place them in the Food For Families hamper in the foyer and the tote in the cry room, or bring your donations to your mid-week small group (most likely, someone from your small group will be working at the church during the week, and could deliver your donations for you). 

Thank you for partnering with us to bring the gospel to our communities! 

Brian and Emily Conley, and the Southeast Valley Baptist Church Youth Group

"If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." James 2:15,16