COST: $15 per person in advance or $19 the day of the event; food not included with cost of the event
FEATURING: Article One, Rick Smith, indoor pool with 80′ water slide, inflatable games, pizza and pop, 3 and 3 round robin, basketball, indoor soccer, dodgeball, and “Hold the Ropes Room” for prayer and writing to locally based missionaries.
Come together to be a part of the larger community of Black Hills area students and “rock out” with FireFlight, Remedy Drive, and Abandon as part of The Hope Tour, sponsored by Christian Life Center. Go here for the details and to purchase your tickets!
Time to get your hands on another book that we’ll be reading / discussing together for our November gathering. If you want in on it, purchase or borrow “Shift” by Brian Haynes. You can check it out here.
Bethel Assembly of God and several other area churches are partnering together to host this community-wide, student, evangelistic event which will feature live music with hip hop artist, Michael Fugitt and more, several inflatables, food, and special guest, Mark Entzminger — all for FREE to students of our community/region.
Where: Bethel Assembly of God, 1202 N. Maple Ave
When: Gates open at 5:30 pm; event starts at 5:45 pm; event is over at 8:15 pm Cost: Free (including hot dogs and inflatables)
For more information, contact Pastor Gerad at gerad@northpointsm.com or at the Bethel Offices: (605) 342-5415.
All student pastors in the area are encouraged to challenge students to be a part of the national See You @ the Pole event on Wednesday, September 23rd. For Rapid City area schools, we are promoting a 7:30 AM “meet-at-the-pole” time for students (all schools). Visit the official site here for resources and more information: syatp.com.
Also, plan on bringing three-to-four student leaders with you to a Tuesday night, September 22nd, one-hour gathering at Destiny Foursquare Church, 927 E. Philadelphia Street, @ 7:00 pm. Our rally speaker, Mark Entzminger, will be challenging and equipping students to help them better prepare for the following day.
Here’s local footage from students participating in the 2007 See You at the Pole event…
Looking for a student event that’s about more than flash and hype? I’m excited to introduce you to the EXIST, a different kind of event hosted in Denver, CO, this winter season. As described on the web site…
For some it will be a time of learning how to press in and hear God through and in worship, through the Word, and with each other. For others it may be a venue for expressions of love to or from God through song, the gift of poetry, art or… Exist is about you sharing God with others.
The three things we want you to take home from Exist: learn how to enter His presence, practice being in His presence and teach others what you have learned.
I first heard about Twitter two years ago when I was researching for a parent Internet workshop I was preparing to teach. When I found out that the purpose of Twitter was to supposedly answer the question, “What are you doing now?”, I actually laughed about it. I made fun of it in front of my class! But then I signed up for an account and tried it out. The rest — as they say — is history.
You can now follow me at http://twitter.com/shawnmichael. As you can see, I’m pretty much fully immersed in the “NOW” culture that is Twitter.
If you need a little help with how Twitter functions, take a second and watch this…
HOW HAS TWITTER BEEN A RESOURCE AND A TOOL FOR ME IN YOUTH MINISTRY?
* It has helped me network with youth workers locally. I can keep in touch with what local youth workers are doing outside of our monthly network meetings. Depending on what they are tweeting, I can find out what they are teaching, what they are struggling with, how I can pray for them, and — yes — what they are eating for lunch and other trivial things that people tweet about. But I see value in ALL of it. I like getting to know people outside of their youth-ministry-world, too.
* I can also follow leaders in the field of youth ministry. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gleaned some of my best ministry ideas in the past couple of years from my Twitter stream. In addition, I’ve even been able to send short comments to them and, in some cases, hear back! What fun!
* Lots of great student ministry sites utilize Twitter. Be the first to hear about new content, prizes, and youth ministry ideas that they have to offer.
* Keep parents/guardians informed and updated on student trips. Parents can now get updates from camp, youth convention, weekend retreats, etc. in real time and it is as easy as sending a text from your phone.
* Students ministry pics and video are also easy to publish… through services like TwitPic and 12Seconds.tv or even simply posting links to Flickr, YouTube, or any other media site.
* Stay current on just about any topic. Twitter is a great way to keep up-to-date on youth culture, local news, youth training events, etc.
* Get quick answers to general questions. Sometimes if you post a question, you’ll get answers within minutes. For example:“Does anyone have a good resource for teen counseling in the event of a family loss?” “Looking for an extra pop-up tent that I can borrow for camp next month. Any ideas?” “Is there a good online resource for junior high small group curriculum?”
* Get travel help when trouble arises. True life example… I texted the following: “The interstate is shut down due to snow. Anyone want some surprise overnight visitors on the eastern side of South Dakota?” I had about six invites to stay overnight within a couple of hours. Not bad at all!
* It’s a tremendous way to share prayer needs. Think about it: your requests immediately go out to all your followers and they are praying within minutes. How cool is that?!
I could keep going… Twitter has opened up a whole new world of resources for me. I hope I’ve encouraged some of you to, at the least, give it a try. If so, let me know! I’d be glad to help you get started.
Our group of students just got back from a trip to Creel, MEXICO. As one would expect after a momentous trip, these students are ready to take on the world. They saw a different part of the world that most of them had never experienced, served those that were in need in big ways, and jumped out of their comfort zones with leaps and bounds.
I want to harness this energy and keep the momentum going by challenging them with stories of others who are using their gifts creatively to change their world. Here are four that I’m going to be highlighting in the next few weeks with my students… maybe you could, too.
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This first one hits close to home (for our students) and yet has a potentially very far reaching arm. Jason Salamun is a friend to our student ministry and a local church planter here in Rapid City, SD. He’s shared with our students before at our Wednesday night rally services, so most of our students would recognize the name or, at the least, his face.
Jason is doing something simple, yet profound. He’s challenging himself to lose weight and, in the process, he’s challenging his online community, friends, and family to donate a dollar per pound that he loses in the next three months to one of six great causes listed on his site. I think it’s an awesome idea; check it out at ThisMustChange.org.
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The Laundry Love Project (LLP) grabbed me from the first time I watched the following video. LLPs are regular opportunities to help people who are struggling financially by assisting them with doing their laundry. Relationships are built, and LLPs become small communities of common concern in which participants often find that they receive assistance and benefit with other areas of their lives. LLPs are just one of several initiatives of the JustOne nonprofit organization.
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The Freeze Project is another simple idea to challenge our communities with social injustice issues. The idea is to have a group of people gather at an area and do a pre-determined group “freeze” in a very public, high traffic place — an action made popular by Improv Everywhere — and putting a twist on it to bring awareness to social injustice issues. Nice!
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Here’s another one that seems particularly relevant to my group of students right now. We just got back from distributing shoes (and food, clothes, etc.) to the Tarahumaran Natives in the mountains of Copper Canyon. The idea behind TOMS Shoes was founded on one premise: “With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One.” What a profound way of doing business.
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Take these ideas and challenge your students with them. Maybe do one of them as a group, making it your own. Or just challenge students with these stories so that they can be encouraged to change the world with their own God-given ideas and gifts. Imagine what change could be affected through the Gen Y generation!
Join us @ 8:30 am on every first Wednesday of the month at the Alternative Fuel Coffee House on 620 Main Street in Rapid City. Come early and get some coffee; we’d love to meet you there!
The first hour of our gatherings are focused on youth worker fellowship and prayer and, starting at around 9:30 am, we shift to a training / discussion time. All are welcome.
