NO HIGH SCHOOL ON THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

This weekend come and bond with your family. We'll see you on Sunday Dec. 2nd. at 10:30am OR 6:30pm. Happy Turkey Day!!!

TURKEY OLYMPICS

This wed is pretty much a food fight.  Come and bond with us if you like.  Any high school student  is welcome from 7-8:30.    Everything from turkey bowling to mash potato sculpting.  Should be fun. Should be crazy.  See you there.

SMALL GROUPS CANCELED

In light of the current Fire Emergencies around our county. WE ARE CANCELING small groups for Wednesday night, October 24, 2007.

If you have needs yourself or as a family, please notify the office and we'll do our best to help your needs or e-mail me: brian at journeycom.org and I'll do what I can.

Next week is still currently our 80's party as planned and our small groups will resume as normal on November 7 unless otherwise noted.

You're in our prayers.

HELP NEEDED ON HALLOWEEN

This October 31st from 6-9pm. Journey's high school ministry is in charge of watching two jump houses during the Fall Festival at Journey. Normally we uses students to do this. Problem is, this year we're trying to reach out to our non-christian high school students and providing an outreach for them. So, we need some parental help in the gaps.

Can you man a jumpy house for an hour for us so our students can reach their friends instead of watch over the jump houses? If so, please contact Aundrea in the office by dialing 619.464.4544 and asking for her and signing up. Thanks!!!

Oh.. and here's some details for your students if the want come to our 80's night. Just give the flyer below a click and it will be readable and have all the info you need.

thanks for your prayers and helping hands.

HELP, MY KIDS ARE ONLINE- ALL THE TIME

Two articles of note came up today and as I head home after youth group, I thought I'd take 5 minutes a just point you to them before I forget.

1. Josh Treece, our middle school pastor, had heard a lot of feedback from parents about what to do to help protect your teen online. He found a helpful article and posted it here. You should check it out.
   


2. Then tonight I noticed this article on myspace by Josh Griffin. Here's an excerpt:
   

   The simple fact is that, like it or not, your students are online. They are going to be gathering where their friends are. They will log into MySpace, Facebook or AOL (and whatever’s next) before most of you have had your morning coffee. With that in mind, how can you help students navigate the world of online social networking?

   
   

UPCOMING WEDNESDAY NIGHTS

Our next 4 Wednesdays are like this:

• OCTOBER 3- Small Groups. Guys are from 6:30 to 8:30pm in student center A... and cost $3 for dinner. Girls groups meet in homes from 7-9pm for the most part. Let us know if you want to get your student involved and we'll get you the info on directions and such to make sure your student can be with us!

• OCTOBER 10- Small Groups!

• OCTOBER 17- GLORIFY: A worship/communion/prayer night in student center A from 7 to 8:30 pm. Any high school student who wants to join us from this night is welcome.

• OCTOBER 24- Small Groups!
  

SEE YOU AT THE CROSS

This Wednesday there are no small groups because we are meeting at Foothills Community Church in El Cajon to join several hundred students from all over East County for a night of music, prayer, and a challenging message. Please drop your students off at Foothills no later than 6:55 pm and then pick them up at 8:30pm. It should be a great night and you as a parent are welcome to join us if you like.

Our theme is "Pray For Change" and we'll be challenging students to pray this night and every week of this school year for change in four areas:

• in me
• in my friends
• in my campus
• in my world
  

NEW SERIES STARTING THIS WEEKEND

The series is about our core values or purposes. It's called, "... and I meant it." and we said, "It's going to be Awesome... and we meant it!!!" Here's the breakdown for the next 5 weekends.

• Week one: "I said I'm living for an audience of One... and I meant it."
• Week two: "I said I love you.... and I meant it."
• Week three: "I said my lost friends matter to God... and I meant it."
• Week four: "I said I want to be like Jesus... and I meant it."
• Week five: "I said it's better to give than receive... and I meant it."

Join us for this series on SUNDAYS AT 8:30 AND 10:30 AM in Student Center A.

RIDE TO CHURCH FROM JAMUL

Hey parents,

Anyone know a family that comes to Journey from Jamul? We have a high school girl who wants to serve on our worship team but has trouble getting to church on the weekend. She's looking for a ride on Sundays and even Wednesday nights if that's possible so she can attend a small group. If you know someone who might already be headed to La Mesa from Jamul, perhaps we can create some carpool love.

Shoot brian an e-mail to encounter@journeycom.org if you have some connections.

THANKS!!!

CHANGES TO SUNDAY MORNING 8:30AM HOUR

SUNDAYS IN HIGH SCHOOL AT JOURNEY COMMUNITY CHURCH

OUR SUNDAY MISSION:
To provide a worship service for high school students in East County that is practical, relevant, engaging, and fun while challenging them to fully devote their life to following Jesus.

WHEN WE CURRENTLY MEET TO DO THIS ON THE WEEKEND:
Currently we meet at 8:30 and 10:30am on Sundays.

THE PROBLEM THIS CREATES WHEN TRYING TO FULFILL OUR MISSION:

• Most high school students and their peers are asleep during those hours. The 8:30 hour was not designed for a high school target.
• The most common excuse we get for students missing church on the weekend is, “I slept through it.”
• Our student leadership team must arrive at church at 6:45am to help us prepare and practice to put on a quality program for their peers.
• Visitors: the only way a visitor comes to journey in our high school program is if someone spends the night at a peer’s house and then comes in the morning with them or if their whole family is visiting. Those two scenarios make up almost 90% of our visitors.
  

A POSSIBLE SOLUTION WE WANT TO TRY:

• We would stop our 8:30am service, and as of October 28th, begin to offer a program at 10:30 am and at 6:30 pm instead.
• This would allow us to still provide a weekend service that is parallel to other Sunday programs and a service that is at an hour which is more conducive to high school cultural norms, thus allowing our students to invite their peers, much like the adults already do at journey.
• Our 6:30pm service would also offer a significant change in “atmosphere”. We will run our normal Sunday program for an hour and a half from 6:30 to 8:00pm. However, we will also offer some “hang out time” before and after by opening our doors and encouraging students to come as early as 6pm and stay as late as 9pm if they’d like to hang out in our café, play some games, or just meet some new friends.

WHAT SHOULD AN 8:30 AM ATTENDING FAMILY DO? Well, there are a multitude of reasons someone chooses the 8:30 am service for their family. We don’t want to hurt them, we’re really trying to help students and their peers follow Jesus in this change. Here’s some possible solutions.

• Become a 2 service family. Come at 8:30 am and serve in children’s ministry or in the café or usher or wherever during the 8:30 hour and then send your high school student to us at 10:30am and you go to main and meet after.
• Sleep in and become a 10:30am family.
• Stay an 8:30am family, but allow your high school student to catch up on sleep so they can come to our 6:30pm service instead.
• Stay an 8:30am family, but allow your student to serve in children’s ministry etc. during the first hour so they can come to our 6:30pm service.
• Stay an 8:30am family and have your student join you in the main service and then they can come to our 6:30pm service.

WHAT ABOUT HOMEWORK AND RIDES?

1. We find that students will make time for what they value. Some students have a habit of doing homework on Sunday night. This is something they would have to change if they were to make Sunday night a viable solution for them. Perhaps it means doing it Sunday afternoon instead.
2. As for rides, students seem to manage to carpool their way to all kinds of activities. Our hope is that students will do the same for Sunday night- much like they might for a movie or something.

WHY NOT FRIDAY NIGHT?
We seriously considered this option (it would be better for our high school pastor Brian too) and even did an experiment with it last year with our student leaders. We had meetings set up for every 2 weeks before the Friday service where we had dinner together and then we would attend the Friday service together. After trying to make it work for 3 months, we had to give up. This is not a good time for a program at church, simply because of so many other options available to students in our area during that same time. Saturday has the same problem.

WHAT ABOUT COLLEGE GROUP?
Currently the college ministry meets in the high school room on Sunday nights too. Starting on October 28, college will be utilizing another room on campus.

OUR CONCLUSION:
No change is easy and no change is perfect for everyone. Our hope and desire is to help students grow in their faith while giving them a realistic chance to invite a friend too. We hope we lose no students and that this transition is one where as a team (both high school ministries and the families represented with in it) we will make the necessary sacrifices and changes to see this transition be a success over the long haul.


Questions or concerns: Please don’t hesitate to ask our high school pastor, Brian Berry- by phone at 619.464.4544 ext. 237, by e-mail at brian@journeycom.org, or by appointment.

SMALL GROUP KICK OFF

Small Groups Start tomorrow night in Student Center A from 7 to 8:30pm. The cafe will be open for drinks and nachos and stuff if you want to send a few bucks along for grub. We will meet as a large group- all the girls and the guys together and spend some time finding out who will be in what small group, setting some small group expectations, and playing some get-to-know-you type games.

If your son or daughter wants to be in a small group, this wed. is the night to start. Then on Sept. 12 and 19 we'll have small groups in homes for the girls and in Student Center A for the guys. Directions will be sent home on Wed night and available from our church office as of Thursday this week.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP

This wed. night from 6 to 8:30 at Brian's house is the student servant team school year kick off. We have 4 teams: a production team (weekend sent and program), a praise (read music) team, a tech team (read sound and lighting and videos), and a people team (greeters and cafe).

If your student wants to get involved, they should have already gotten an application from us. If not, they can pick one up and you can e-mail Brian @ brian@journeycom.org for directions to his house. Students who have already turned in an application should already have the information e-mailed to them by Tuesday.

BE A KID AGAIN

On Sundays, we're in a fun summer series about kid stuff. The first week was on DREAMING BIG, last week was on LAUGH OFTEN, this weekend is BE CURIOUS, and next week is FORGIVE QUICKLY. It's been tons of fun and we'd love to have your student join us. We meet at 8:30 and 10:30am on Sundays in Student Center A.

DODGEBALL

This Wednesday is Dodgeball. We meet in Student Center A at 7pm and we'll be done by 9pm. No you don't have to have a team. Yes you can come and just watch. $5 is the cost for prizes and ice cream we're giving to everyone.

IS THIS HELPFUL

Hello parents,

As you can tell, this blog has not been updated in about 2 months. I have received very few complaints about this, so I'm wondering how helpful this resource really is in the first place. I think having a place on the web where you can come to get information about our youth ministry would be helpful, however it appears to be not very useful.

for a while, I was posting all my message outlines and such so that parents could see what students were learning in our high school group, but I think that was a lot of time very few people seemed to enjoy. So I stopped.

I'm thinking about using this site as an updated announcement section, where I could post regularly the calendar issues you might be concerned about, like upcoming events, some praise reports, maybe a photo re-cap, etc.....

So, if this sounds good or if you have thoughts as the value of this web blog. Please comment on this post or e-mail me at "brian@journeycom.org". I'd love to hear from you if you 're a parent of a high school student at Journey.

WEDNESDAY- ONE NIGHT OF PRAYER

This Wed, May 2nd we are not meeting in normal small groups. We instead are joining high school students from all over East County for an evening of prayer and worship. It is the night before the "national day of prayer" when our nation is challenged to spend the day, praying that God will move amongst us and thanking him for the ways he already has.

We're meeting from 6:45 to 8:30pm at El Cajon Wesleyan Church. Please drop your student off directly at 1500 East Lexingon Avenue, in El Cajon, 92019- NOT at Journey. Click here if you need a google map from Journey to El Cajon Wesleyan.

ALL IN- WEEK 1

Our student ministries version of the JOURNEY UP series started this last weekend and will run parallel to the main service on Sundays.... finishing with our own Student Ministries version of the Big Event on Sunday, May 27th. Ours is called, "All In" and we're challenging students to decide to bet all they have on God. To go "All in- all for God, all the time"... kinda like someone who is willing to risk it all in a game of poker. Instead, we're willing to and challenging students to bet their whole life on God.


This week we looked at 2 very famous passages of scripture... one called the "Shema" in Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and another when Jesus quotes it in Matt 22:34-40.

The main premise we worked from was this:

LIVING ALL FOR GOD, WILL CHANGE ALL OF ME.

We concluded that this requires we wrestle with 2 questions:

#1. DO I WANT ALL OF GOD OR JUST THE PART OF HIM I’M COMFORTABLE WITH?

#2. DO I REALLY WANT GOD TO USE ALL OF ME, AND CHANGE ALL OF ME?


We then discussed 5 main areas where we will see change and drew a parallel to the 5 purposes we are challenging students to embrace with their whole lives as the foundation of Encounter.


LIVING ALL FOR GOD, CHANGES MY AUDIENCE. (GLORY)

I no longer live for myself, or to please people, I live for God.

LIVING ALL FOR GOD, CHANGES MY PERSPECTIVE. (GO)

I no longer believe that it doesn't matter if people live for God or not. Their present and their future is very valuable to God and what they bet their personal life "chips" on matters to God and thus it matters to me.

CHANGES MY BEHAVIOR. (GROW)

This is not so I begin to please God, it is because my focus has changed. Change is the natural result of a life connected with and directed to God.

CHANGES MY COMMITMENTS. (GIVE)

When I'm ALL IN for God, then that means ALL in. It will affect how I spend my time, my money, my resources. All of me.

CHANGES MY TEAM VALUES. (GET TOGETHER)

Neither the Shema nor Jesus' summary in the greatest commandments were given to individuals. They were given to the "community of believers." We have not been called to follow God alone, we've been called to do so as a community. We all rise and fall together. This task we call "journey up" is not going to be accomplished by one individual. It is only possible when the community of faith gathers around. We are part of that community.

INTERNET POSTING ADVICE

Hey parents,

Here's a MUST READ article you should grab a beverage and some undivided time to look over with your son or daughter. It is well worth the read on what should, and should not be, posted on the internet or myspace or a blog or whatever. It also has two VERY effective commercials imbedded in it you should watch together.

The website the above article is on looks good to me. I'd recommend you give it a look and a regular read... especially with this internet savvy generation.

Working with you to raise Godly, wise teens...

Encounter

TALKING WITH YOUR TEEN ABOUT THE SHOOTINGS

Just last night my 9 year old ran into a news cast about the Virginia Tech shootings. He responded like a 9 year old. More amazed by guns than aware of the tragedy. We had to debrief this event together in light of what he'd seen and heard at school.

High school students will have a very different response with a variety of emotions. If you find yourself struggling with what to say, this might help. Our middle school pastor, Josh, posted a link to a great article on our junior high ministry website that will fit with students of all ages. You can find it here.

SPRING RETREAT REVIEW

We had a great Spring Retreat last weekend. We took about 30 guys to the desert and about 35 girls to Coronado. The guys went through a book called, "Posers, Fakers, and Wannabes" by Brennan manning and the girls went through a book called, "The Sacred Romance" by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge. If you want to read what we talked about, both books are written and applicable to adults and students alike.

As a quick summary, we challenged the guys to be Real, Secure, and Devoted. We challenged the girls to realize that they are Loved, Called, and Complete. It was a spiritually moving time for both groups.

In addition to that, the girls got their nails done, hung out at the beach, enjoyed the Coronado sights, went on a ferry ride, and even saw Gwen Stefani shopping!! The guys built a trebuchet (huge thing that throws big rocks like 200 yards), went hiking, had huge bonfires, and learned how to safely shoot a gun and explode stuff. Great memories all around.

Here's a picture of the guys trip. We'll add one from the women soon.

EASTER AND THE WEEKEND AFTER

EASTER.... we have main church services at 7:30, 9, and 10:30 am. HIGH SCHOOL WILL ONLY BE MEETING DURING THE 9 and 10:30 hours.

NEXT WEEKEND.... We're on our spring retreat. SO, THEREFORE there will be NO ENCOUNTER on Sunday the 15th.

We'll be back in full swing with SMALL GROUPS ON WED. THE 18TH and on WITH ENCOUNTER ON SUNDAY THE 22nd.

DATING/SEXUALITY Q AND A

This last Sunday in Encounter we had an all Q and A morning. We were finishing our dating/relationships/sexuality series that we do once a year for our high school students. This year it was called, "He loves me, she loves me not." It was the final of 4 weeks.

We had a grip of questions that were turned in on cards from the weeks before. I answered every one of them in a booklet we gave the students that morning which we encouraged them to read and use as a follow up bible study during the week. One of the few mornings where my outlines didn't fill the trash cans!!

I offered some of those same written thoughts- verbally- to hopefully spark some interest in them to read the whole thing later at home. Instead of a formal adult leader panel discussion up front on these same questions, we had leaders speak from their table where they were in the room to the entire group as Sarah and I facilitated the discussion. We were trying to engage their questions in a conversation with them. Not preach our dissertation to them. I think it worked.

I also interviewed a girl in our ministry who has been coming every week during this series who is 8 months pregnant. You could have heard a pin drop. It was both hard to hear her story and a GREAT testimony to the grace of God for a young woman who is trying her best to turn around mistakes she says she's made and some that others have made around her that have HUGE consequences for her. I was SO proud of her. I was so PROUD of our students for clapping in support of her keeping this baby and staying in youth group. It took GIANT guts to share what she shared and in her own words- no notes- just her heart, which allowed me to share mine with our group and remind all of us to create and embody a place where ALL students are welcome to seek Jesus and embraced here by God's people.

It was a day where I was proud to be a youth pastor. I felt like we touched on real needs, challenged students to consider where God can meet them, and let their voices be heard.

Here's the questions they asked. They speak volumes about the world teens live in today. We broke them up into 3 categories: Relationships, Sexuality, and Christian dating. [If you want the answers I wrote to them...you can come by Encounter this Sunday and pick them up.... or just look at the contact info in the sidebar and shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you a PDF of them... it's too much to post here (18- half page's worth). ]

RELATIONSHIPS

1. In the 7th and 8th grade my best friend ever was having an intense sexual relationship with a senior in high school. I was there for her through all the pain. Every night she would cry to me on the phone about their problems and how she loved him. I suffered a lot of pain through their relationship and I can imagine many people are going through or gone through this. How can you help out a friend who is going through this and help yourself?
2. Why do you think people cheat?
3. Best way to get over a guy/girl?
4. How do you stay proud to be single when all your friendships are in “relationships”
5. How is it that people don’t realize that relationships, at this point in our life, are just NOT NEEDED?

SEXUALITY

1. If we have already had sex, should we stay out of relationships till we’re married because we might be too tempted to have sex again. Only if I wanted to stop!
2. Is it true that it is harder to be pure when you’ve had sex before than it is when you’ve never had sex before? Why? -Curious.
3. How do you tell your homophobic grandma you’re bi or maybe homosexual? This may not go with the lesson, but I would like help.
4. I’m a girl. So is it immoral to want to have sex, and possibly fall in love with another girl?
5. If I was raped when I was 14, am I still a virgin?
6. If you are raped and get pregnant, is it ok to get an abortion?
7. After being raped, I have never really gotten the help I need. What are some things I could do to overcome this pain, anger, and frustration?
8. How far is too far?
9. If you say no to sex, is it wrong to say yes to other things?

CHRISTIAN DATING QUESTIONS

1. What does equally yoked mean? And when do you know two people are? The person I’m dating became a Christian a couple of months ago. We both have prayed about dating and we both didn’t get clear answers.
2. When or how do you know you are equally yoked? I find it hard to be serious and pray with my girlfriend but we are fine praying alone about whatever… any advice?
3. Why is sexuality in our society so twisted by the media?
4. I always hear the bible verse, “do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” How do I know when it desires?
5. How do you glorify God while dating?

DATING SERIES #3- DRAMA FREE LOVE

This week we talked about how to make a relationship Drama-free. This means a relationship that doesn't have a bunch of gossip, regret, and selfishness at it's core. One that is healthy and encouraging and fun is the goal. As we entered our discussion, here's some things we reminded the students were "premises" we held to that shaped the discussion.

Premise 1: My sexuality and my soul are inseparable.


Premise 2: Dating leads to marriage. Prediction: Someday, you will marry someone you dated. None of you will end up in an arranged marriages.

Premise 3: Dating, involves sexual attraction. Biblically speaking, sex, and most of what leads to it, was designed by God for marriage, not for dating.

Premise 4: The Bible has ZERO uses of the word “dating” in its pages.

Premise 5: If you want principles on dating from the Bible, your only option therefore is to examine texts that deal with pre-married individuals, or couples with sexual attraction in the mix, and apply it to dating.

Premise 6: The “relationship drama” that is common to dating and even marriage, can be avoided by following a Biblical model for relationships with sexual attraction in them.


After clarifying those statements, we then discussed the following 5 observations we got from Proverbs Chapter 5 on relationships:

1. LISTEN TO THE GOD FOCUSED VOICE OF EXPERIENCE- IT WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF HEART ACHE AND DRAMA. (prov 5:1-2, 7)

QUESTION: Who or what influences my dating choices?

Rate the following from 1 to 10. 1 being most influential, 10 being least.

• Friends
• TV, Movies, Music
• Ads and Magazines
• Bible or Faith
• Godly couples
• Parents
• My own experiences
• Fear of STD’s or pregnancy
• Other cultures around the world
• Internet, myspace, online groups

2. GUARD YOUR SEXUALITY. DATE THE PERSON WHO GUARDS YOURS TOO. RUN FROM THE ONE WHO SEPARATES YOUR SEXUALITY FROM YOUR SOUL. (prov 5:3-6)

1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

QUESTION: How much of my self worth is tied to the image I have of my body? How much sexual expression do I want to save for marriage? How much do I hope my future spouse has saved? Is this my plan I hope God likes or His plan that I’m choosing to embrace?

3. BE DISCIPLINED IN YOUR DATING HABITS. SAY NO OFTEN. USE YES WISELY AND CAREFULLY. YOUR REPUTATION WILL SPEAK FOR YOU. (prov 5:8-14)

QUESTION: What kind of history and reputation do I want my dating life to create? If my dating life starts to get ungodly, am I prepared to dump my date?

4. REMEMBER THE GOAL IS A GREAT, GODLY, SATISFYING, MARRIAGE AND SEX LIFE. HOLD OUT FOR IT. (prov 5:15-20)

QUESTION: Will I wait for Godly sexual intimacy or will I give it away in the “public square” of dating?

5. DRAMA FREE DATING IS DONE IN FULL VIEW OF GOD. SEEK TO HONOR GOD IN EVERY DATING EXPERIENCE. (prov. 5:21-23)

QUESTION: Is my dating life moving me closer to, or farther from my relationship with God? If I am disconnected from God, why would my dating life be any different? What do I need to do to get/stay connected with God?

SPRING RETREAT

The Spring Mens and Womens Retreat for high school students is coming up fast. It's the weekend after Easter, April 13-15 and our students are excited. We're taking 25 girls to home in Coronado and 25 guys to the desert. There will be lots of fun, bonding, great spiritual discussions, and an overall life changing experience as we try and help these teens embrace their full potential to be young Men and Women who embrace their full potential to live a god honoring life. Full brochure and details are available in Student Center A. Cost for girls is $135 and for guys is $110. $50 non-refundable deposit saves your son or daughter's spot. Feel free to e-mail us if you have questions at the e-mail in the banner to the right.

WED NIGHT SCHEDULE

• This Wed, March 28th is a worship/prayer/communion experience in the high school room from 7 to 8:30pm.
• The following 2 wed nights, April 4 and 11 there is no group due to Spring Break.
• Small groups start back up for the final round before summer on April 18th.
  

DATING SERIES- this is Ludicrous

This last weekend we looked at the negative side of sexuality. We tried very hard to help students understand that, if handled wrong, it produces some horrible regrets. We looked at a classic passage of scripture in Genesis 19, but not as an instruction of anything but what NOT to do and more importantly... WHY they did not want to go there.

We started with the Ludacris song in the post below. We noted this conclusion about the chorus: "Runaway Love is like a Runaway Train- reckless and sure to cause a lot of damage to a lot of people. " We also interacted on these 4 questions.



We then discussed these 2 things about the Bible:

1. The Bible is not “historical fiction”. It is, in part, a record of the good as well as the very evil acts of those who claimed to be following God and some who clearly did not. (Luke 1;1-4)
2. The Bible is not “irrelevant today, especially to our sexually charged culture” It is much needed today.
   

After examining how badly EVERYONE in Genesis 19 messed up the idea of Healthy Sexuality, we examined Romans 12:2 and 1:18-28 to the following 5 conclusions about Thinking different: the road to avoiding regret.

1. DON’T’ JUST FEEL, THINK! A lot of pain in our world has been caused by poor sexual choices. (We looked at the content of this website to experience the pain of what happens when we just feel our way through our decisions without thinking them through.)


2. THINK ABOUT TOMMORROW, NOT JUST TODAY: Sexual choices have multi-faceted consequences- both in this life and the life to come.
   


3. THINK IMPACT: Sexual choices rarely only affect the people immediately involved in the choice.


4. THINK GODLY: The Bible’s commands for how to behave sexually are not made up by an sex-hating, anti-fun, prude of a God who has chastity at the center of His concerns. They actually are designed to produce a great, Godly, healthy, satisfying sexual experience.

This week we'll look at Proverbs 5 and seek to find some clues about how to experience the joys of sexuality as God has designed it to be expressed.

THIS IS LUDACRIS

This weekend will be part 2 of our dating series. We're going to analyze the lyrics of a Ludacris and Mary J. Blidge song about the pain caused, at least in part, by sexuality that is controled by someone other than God.

Here's the song if you want to preview the weekend:

DEFUNKING SOME FUNKY IDEAS

This last weekend we started a new series that will last 3 or 4 weeks on sexuality and dating and relationships that involve those two things. It's called "He loves me, She loves me not".


This week we were trying to dispell some commonly held myths.

MYTH #1: MY SOUL AND MY SEXUALITY ARE SEPARATE.

TRUTH= They are inseparable. (see Matt 15:17-20 and 1 Cor. 6:15-20)


MYTH #2: SEX IS ABOUT SEX.

TRUTH= No, it’s about directing all of my sexual passions with purity. (See 1 Tim 4:12, Ephesians 5:3)


MYTH #3: SEXUAL SINS ARE THE MOST HORRIBLE OF SINS.

TRUTH = all sin is a perversion of God’s Truth. God doesn't have categories. (Romans 3:23-24)


MYTH #4: THE IMAGES WE GET OF SEXUALITY FROM POP CULTURE ARE NORMAL.

TRUTH= you rarely, if ever, see normal behavior or healthy images of sexuality in the media. (See 2Cor. 11:14 and Proverbs 5:1-8)


MYTH #5: WE’RE JUST DATING.

TRUTH= Dating is the beginning of a road that ends in marriage. Don’t take it for a joy ride. Respect the finishline.


MYTH #6: MY SEXUALITY CAN NEVER BE WHOLESOME AND BEAUTIFUL AGAIN.

TRUTH= all sin is redeemable through Jesus. (see 1 thessalonians 4:1-7, 1 John 3:1-3, and Rom 6:23)

DESSERT AND DODGEBALL

Wed, March 7 we'll have some dessert and play dodgeball. Just for fun. It's a great night to bring a friend and let them get to know us. It cost's $3 and will be at Journey. Feel free to come watch and laugh if you want.

SPRING RETREAT

Our Spring Retreat is coming up April 13-15, 2007. We are sending the women to a house in Coronado and the men to the desert for the weekend. We'll laugh, we'll bond, we'll have 6 meeting times to talk about God honoring men and women. This retreat will be a memory maker and a life changer- students have not stopped talking about it since last spring when we first did this trip here. If you're wishing your son or daughter had a chance to talk openly in a loving environment about the issues that they deal with, then this is the retreat for them.

Cost is still TBA and a full brochure will be available on Sunday, March 11. Turn it in ASAP because space is super limited on this trip. About 30 spaces per gender. So, save the dates... it's sure to be a retreat your student will love and we pray will bless your family with the overflow of what God does in the life of your son or daughter.

UP AND DOWN TRIP DETAILS

final reminders for all you parents. Your son/daughter should have received a check off sheet from us last Sunday but here's the last minute details for those looking for them:

• be at church by 7am tomorrow.
• eat breakfast before you arrive.
• bring $ for two fast food dinner stops and any snacks you want to purchase in the rollercoaster or snow parks.
• pack the stuff you'll need for the snow
  
• return to church to pick up your student at 10pm on Sunday night.

ok.. I think that's all. My emergency cell is on the brochure or you can get that number from me when you drop off your son or daughter.

NO ENCOUNTER THIS WEEKEND

There's no encounter this weekend because we're going to go on our "Up and Down Retreat". We're taking 50 people to Magic Mountain one day and then to Snow Summit the next. We'll be back up and running on a new series starting next weekend, Feb. 25th. We'll be launching a new series for 2 weeks called "EXHALE" and Sarah Merk will be teaching it. It's a series on finding rest in our stress filled world.

OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN PART 4

This weekend was part 4 of our series on breaking bad habits. This weeks title:

AN OUNCE OF HUMILITY GOES A LONG WAY.

Here's an introductory summary of what we talked about:

By now, if you’ve been in this series, you should be well aware that sometimes you make mistakes... and sometimes, some of them are habitual. The pattern we find ourselves stuck in is usually... though we don’t like it.... called an addiction.

Truth is, we all have addictions. Some of us are addicted to procrastination. For others it might be pessimism or anger or gossip or lust or porn or food or hatred or judgementalism or drugs or video games or money or myspace or __________. But no matter what our addiction we know at least 3 things about it:

1. They are habits that we recognize as unwanted, but are hard to change.

2. They do not change until we humbly come to grips with the truth that they are a controlling problem and that we are totally done with continuing in them.

3. They not only hurt us, but they hurt others too.

... that last one is a doozy. We like to believe that our problems are just that... OURS and they don’t affect others. Problem is... it’s not true. Our decisions- both good and bad- impact those around us.... Today we’re going to examine how and what we should do about those downstream from our poor choices.

THESE THOUGHTS RUN PARALLEL TO STEPS 7 AND 8 OF THE 12 STEPS TO RECOVERY:

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.


FROM THERE, WE LOOK AT THE STORY OF ZACCHAEUS IN LUKE 19:1-10. WE GAVE SOME BACKGROUND INTO WHY THE ROLE OF CHIEF TAX COLLECTOR WAS SO HATED AND HOW IT IS THAT ZACCHAEUS GOT TO BE SO WEALTHY, THEN WE MADE THESE OBSERVATIONS ABOUT ZACCHEUS:

• He wants to be with Jesus
• He intentionally makes a move towards Jesus.
• He responds immediately to Jesus’ words.
• Neither his response, nor the response of Jesus is popular with the society around them.

WE TALKED ABOUT HOW THESE ARE ALSO TRUE OF US WHEN WE WANT TO SEE GOD BRING ABOUT REAL CHANGE IN US. WE ALSO NOTICED THAT ZACCHAEUS' RESPONSE TO JESUS HAD SOME BACKGROUND TO IT. HE HAD OBVIOUSLY BEEN THINKING ABOUT HIS OWN LIFE BEFORE MEETING JESUS, THUS THE REPENTANCE. THEREFORE, WE TOO NEED TO:

1. Examine myself first. (matt 7:1-5)
   
2. Humbly confess my own failures. (James 4:6-10)

(we then gave students a time to examine themselves and confess some sins on cards during a 4 song worship set and place them in baskets up front under a cross. Lots of students did this. It was in part, a response to this song we also played that morning by a secular band that we made some observations about their lyrics and this song from)



AFTER WORSHIP, WE MADE THESE TWO OBSERVATIONS:

When I become aware of my own sin I need to:

• Seek to fix relationships I've wounded with my own sin. Here we noted that Zacchaeus does what is physically necessary to reflect his inner spiritual change. (Rom 12:16-18, Matt 5:23-24)
  

When someone who is aware of their own sin, seeks forgiveness from me:

• Forgive those who have hurt me. Here we noted that Jesus responded to Zacchaeus by giving what is spiritually necessary in response to his physical life change. (Matt 6:14-15)
  

SEMINAR WORTH ATTENDING

Every year we host a seminar at Journey to designed to help youth workers understand how to best encourage and understand teens. It's called the CORE and it's put on by Youth Specialties. It's an outstanding day of training and this year, on Saturday, February 24th from 8:45am to 1:15pm. It's all about helping hurting kids. Click here for their website.

I think this would be a TERRIFIC seminar and investment for you as a parent, not only in helping your own teen, but in helping and understanding their friends as well.

HERE'S A SUMMARY OF THIS YEARS CONTENT:

• Learn how to RECOGNIZE and RESPOND to hurting kids.

Most often, kids will talk to the people they trust—not necessarily the person they're "supposed" to talk to. While the first step in helping hurting kids involves building a trusting relationship, there is much more that is needed to meet their needs.

In three essential sessions, the CORE will unpack the issues that will equip your team to effectively minister to hurting kids, and work to prevent further hurt from taking place.

• Session 1: Understanding Their Hidden Hurts
  This session will address some of the sources of adolescent pain, look at how Jesus reacted to people in pain (either from the actions of others, or from their own actions), and how you can partner with parents, the community, and other ministries to create a safe place for students.
• Session 2: Critical Skills for Tackling the Tough Stuff
  During this session you'll learn more about the five big issues you'll likely encounter when working with kids who are hurting, and how to address them in a way that brings healing, including: family breakdown, addictions, self-injury, suicide and depression, and crises such as death, natural disasters, accidents, and more.
• Session 3: Successful Response Strategies
  It's not enough just to know what to look for in hurting kids. You need to be ready to respond to their pain. In this session you'll learn what you can do to help them heal, how to effectively refer students to a professional when needed, and how to protect yourself in these situations.

Sounds like a sure thing. I wouldn't miss it if were you. It's like getting CPR trained in case of an emergency. It never hurts to be well trained when a teen is in real trouble- be it yours or someone elses. You can shoot me an e-mail at brian@journeycom.org if you'd like to go and we'll get a group going. Our rate will be a little less than if you register online directly, so be sure and register through us.

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN PART 3

This weekend we continued in our 3rd message in a series of messages on the 12 steps to overcoming bad habits. I'll post them here weekly so you can stay up to date with what we're talking about. The full outline with scripture and such is what we passed out to students in service. They also, as always, get a follow up bible study on the back of the outline too. Today's message was titled:

WE ALL NEED COMMUNITY

A BASIC OVERVIEW OF WHERE THE MESSAGE IS HEADED:

Lies. There are lots of lies we tell ourselves that we’d really like to believe:

• If I had a little more money, I’d be happy.
• If I had a body like so and so, I’d be content.
• I could win the lottery. -Ok.. so that’s not a total lie, but it’s more lie than truth.

Anyway... one of the lies we like to tell ourselves is that we can solve our problems on our own. That we don’t need anyone else to help us get out of the rut we find ourselves in. Oops... I won’t do it again is what we tell ourselves.

However... not only is this a lie that hurts us, it hurts those around us too. When we do not open up our lives to others, it only keeps them from opening up to us. As a result, we all feel the need to keep faking it, acting like we have it all put together when we don’t- for fear that others might “find out”. It’s an ugly lie.

Reality is: WE ALL NEED COMMUNITY. Real community. Real faith, really lived out like the Encounter Banner Says... trust us. It says it. Faith Lived Out. That cannot happen if we bury our problems. It won’t change us individually or collectively, and that is a horrible idea.. Real change starts with you AND me

The 2 of the 12 steps we were examining this week were these:

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

THIS PASSAGE PRETTY MUCH SAYS IT ALL:

Prov. 28:13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Prov. 28:13 You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them. (message paraphrase)


HERE'S THE BULK OF THE MESSAGE:

WE CANNOT CONQUER BAD HABITS ALONE. WE TRULY DO NEED COMMUNITY HELP.

Confession is not just a private help, it a prerequisite to healthy community.

3 Benefits of not keeping our struggles a “private matter”:

1. We no longer feel alone
2. Guilt cannot grow when we have nothing to hide. Sin does not grow in the light, but it flourishes in the dark.
3. Our commitment level rises because our risk level went up a notch or two also.

We spent some considerable time examining the prostitute who comes clean with her problems with Jesus and before the religious leaders of the day in Luke 7. We talked about how she was broken, repentant, and fully aware of her own sinful condition and contrasted it with those who thought they had it all together instead.

WE CANNOT CONQUER BAD HABITS WITH VISIBLE CHANGES, IGNORING THE MAIN ROOT CAUSE(S): (CONFESS AND RENOUNCE)

3 bad habit crushing actions of those who are truly done with sin.

1. Sincere personal regret.
2. Daily sacrifice.
3. Anticipation for a better tomorrow.

UP AND DOWN RETREAT

Feb. 17-18, 2007 we’re going up and down roller coasters and ski lifts. Here’s the scoop. We meet at church on Saturday morning at 7am. Go to Magic Mountain. Spend the night in a hotel near Big Bear. Get up on Sunday and go to Snow Summit. Come home 10pm Sunday night. Cost of the trip is $100 and will cover a t-shirt, breakfast and lunches, lodging, gas, and admission to Magic Mountain. Two dinner stops and a optional lift ticket/equipment rentals at Snow Summit are additional fees and are detailed in the brochures available in the high school room. (as soon as I figure out where I can host the pdf, I'll link a brochure here too) If you'd like to drive as a parent, please contact us. You need a vehicle that is reliable and either 4 wheel drive or has chains to do so. Space is limited, so talk to your student soon. This is a great trip to have fun, bring a friend, get to know some new people, and break down some of those barriers that keep students from coming to youth group.