NEW SERIES STARTS THIS WEEKEND

Ever wanted to ask God a question? Well, this series is based on ones you turned in and we have some great surprises in store for you with some fun and thought provoking stuff. Here's the line up by weeks and some of the questions that inspired them:

November 16: Dear God, who are you really?

• If you love everyone, why don’t you let everyone into heaven?
• Why do some people hear your voice and they don’t truly want to hear it and when people need to hear You they can’t?
• Why is satan’s voice louder and easier to follow than God’s?
• I feel like many things about walking with you are just becoming cliché. So many statements on t-shirts, cheesy emails …you know. So how do I get past the sermons I’ve heard ten times, the “fully rely on God” statements, the “Jesus freaks.” I feel like it’s all been done before. Can you show me things I’ve never seen? The fresh, the different, the new…not the cliché?
  

November 23: Dear God, why am I me?

• Why did you make me the way I am?
• What do you want me to do to live for you? Where do I need to be? How can I be your servant?
• Help!?
• Why am I a middle class white boy in America and not a 12 year old African girl in charge of raising my family?
  

November 30: Dear God, what's the deal with sex and sexuality?

• Why would you give us sexual urges at this age and then say no sex?
• Why am I so confused? Why does the bible say you’ll always love us, but then it says that you don’t love same sex pairings? Does this mean you don’t love me?
• Why is sex so bad? It’s a natural thing so I’m just wondering.
  

December 6: Dear God, why do people suffer?

• Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Is it related to the concept of “free will?”
• Why are you making life so hard for me? Is this a test? Please dear Lord, I need some help!
• Why don’t you just end all the pain and suffering? I know your suck an awesome God, You can do it.
• How come my friend was killed and I wasn’t?
  

Deember 13: Dear God.... ?

• this week will be decided during this series as more questions come in. Special guest speaker, Scott Berglin will be here this weekend. It's gonna rock.

MYSPACE IS BYE BYE SPACE

After a student leader meeting discussion on Sunday, we have canceled our myspace account.

There are 3 reasons:

#1. SIMPLIFY: We are communicating through e-mail, text message, myspace, facebook, twitter, and this blog with students and parents. This is too many inputs and some had to go. We decided myspace is the first to go.

#2. EASE AND RELATIVE PURITY OF FACEBOOK: We decided that facebook is cleaner and easier to use. There are no crazy backgrounds to navigate around, all the pages look the same, they are just as "private" if not more so than myspace, and we don't get ads like this one on facebook. This was in the sidebar of our encounter myspace page as I canceled it. Ridiculous!!!! Can we make a lie look any more sexually ridiculous than this one?


#3. LACK OF USE: We had not logged into or updated Encounter's Myspace page since last June and only received two complaints in 4 months.


SO......

• if you want some social networking and get pictures of events and announcements via message with us. TRY OUR FACEBOOK GROUP HERE.

• If you only want simple announcements via text, JOIN US ON TWITTER HERE.

• If you enjoy this kind of information, keep coming back to our blog or login via an RSS reader of your choice. I like Bloglines.
  

MEXICO

Wanna join us for 3 days of serving in Mexico? Well- good news, you can! Here's some FAQ's

WHEN? Sunday afternoon Nov. 9- Tuesday evening Nov. 11, 2008

WHERE? His Ministries Day Care center in Tecate Mexico.

WHAT ARE WE DOING? We'll be playing with the kids, building a new ministry sign or two for them, helping some local families, providing some great lunches, and bonding as we serve.

DO I NEED A PASSPORT? Officially you will be required to have one by the government in June of 2009. Before then, you may continue to cross with a photo id and an original copy of your birth certificate.

WHAT DOES IT COST? The 3 days will cost you $100.

IS THERE AN APPLICATION? Sorta. There is some paperwork you need to grab and get notarized. So if you haven't already done so, please come on by our high school room and pick it up ASAP.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact Brian by clicking here.

PARTY TIME

Hey Encounter people,

we have a sweet weekend in store for you on Sunday, November 9, 2008. We are teaming up as a student ministries and bringing in a great comedy team- ductape comedy. They'll make you laugh and maybe even cry- but only cuz your gut hurts. It's going to be a fun weekend and we'll have a great challenge for you as we finish up our series called "regeneration". So bring a friend and join us in Student Center A at either 9am or 10:45am. IT'S FREE!

NEW SERIES AND NEW SERVICE TIMES THIS WEEKEND

We're kicking off a new series this weekend in high school and we're going to two services. Here's the details:

1. HIGH SCHOOL HAS 2 SERVICE TIMES STARTING THIS WEEK:

• 9am
• 10:45 am.
  
• pick the one that's best for you and join us- bring a friend.

2. WE ALSO KICK OFF A NEW SERIES:


It's all about our passion to see a generation think and re-think what it means to follow Jesus. We're "inviting a generation to understand, own, and live out a life changing faith in Jesus" for the next 4 weeks.

DON'T MISS THIS SERIES. It's going to be awesome and we're praying that it will inspire and encourage you as you strive to both become and live more like Jesus.

SEMINAR SUNDAY

Anyone can talk like they live for Jesus. Some can even fake it in the way they behave, but start asking questions and the real truth comes out:

there are way too many non-thinking “christians” in this world.

Well encounter is here to change that. Join us for an afternoon of thinking and re-thinking this thing we call faith on a day we call seminar sunday.



We have 3 classes for you to choose from. Pick one and sign up. You’ll be glad you did.

1. THE ESSENCE OF IT:
   Whether you are just starting out your life as a follower of Jesus or if you’ve been trying to serve God for a while, this class is a great way to reinforce the basics of the faith. We’ll interact with your questions and cover the following essential topics: how to know you are “saved”, how to get the most out of church, the value of helping others connect with God, the power of prayer, and more. This class will help get you grounded in the essence of what it means to follow Jesus.



2. WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?
   Ever wondered: Where did the Bible come from? Where did denominations come from? When did people first start talking about the doctrine of the trinity? Who are the saints you hear about in Catholicism? if, so then this class is for you. A long time pastor and college professor named James Smith III is going to be here to answer your questions and challenge your level of normal. You’ll leave this class both smarter and filled with more questions too.



3. WALKING AND TALKING WITH GOD:
   Want to read your Bible but just don’t know where to start? Wish you could connect with God but need some help?
   Want to grab some new ideas to take your personal
   devotional life of prayer to a new level? If so, then this class is the one. You’ll learn some new and experience some tried and true methods that have helped people truly serve God all through the centuries. Take your understanding of prayer and the Word to a new level.
   

WANNA TWITTER?

If you'd like to get announcements over twitter or if you'd like to receive them over text message then you're in luck.

Encounter is now updating a twitter account with small group info, event details/reminders, and information on the weekend.

You can read our posts or sign up for an account via twitter here.


Also, if you don't want to check a twitter account, you can just simply follow twitter via text message. All you do is sign up for a twitter account, under devices sign up for data updates by entering your cell phone, and then go in and select which accounts that you are following that you want sent to your phone- IE: say yes to Encounterhsm for data updates!!!

Then BAM. You have instant cell phone texts of the latest data from encounter for FREE. You only pay whatever your cell phone charges for a standard SMS text message.

SO FOLLOW US NOW! AND TELL A FRIEND!

We also added a twitter feed in the right column of this blog and you can subscribe to us by clicking the "follow me" on twitter there too.