Are We Friendly? Take the Quiz!

One of the advantages to a small church youth group like ours is that it allows us to get to know everyone. No one should feel lost in the crowd, or like no one will notice whether they come or not. We can be a close-knit group the intimately invests in each other's lives.

But along with being close-knit comes certain challenges. How do newcomers feel when they visit our group? We will never be a perfect group, and we can always find opportunities to grow. Making people feel welcome is a group effort in which each of us can play a part!

In my devotions last week, I read a section of Romans 15. Verses 5 and 7 lept off the page at me:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

 First, it's hard to justify rejecting someone because they don't look, act, or think like I do, or like I think they should, when I think about how Christ has accepted me and loved me even when I was an enemy of God.

Second, accepting others brings praise and glory to God! That's exciting! I want to be a part of bringing unity, so that "with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Results: 

According to the author...

• "If most of your answers are fours or fives, great! Your group is accepting and open to newcomers and has potential for growth. 
• If most of your answers are ones, twos or threes, think of why it's wishful thinking to expect newcomers to feel accepted in your group. 
• On paper, list actions or attitudes that would move your answer to fours or fives. Then for starts, choose one action or attitude to work on your 'acceptance ability.'"

The quiz results are anonymous, but if you want to share, tell us how you scored in the comments below. 

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!"