Cove Student Ministries

Weekly Blog Update!!!

2011-10-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

What an exciting time at The Cove Student Ministries. We are wrapping up our current series GOOD SEX tomorrow night for High Schoolers and Sunday morning for Jr. Highers! Alex Wierda will be speaking Sunday morning! HOOT HOOT!

This last week we witnessed over 45 students on Wednesday night!

This week Laurie Harrah is will be sharing her testimony and we will be talking about grace!

Also, it is our first go around with Tail Gating before youth. We will open the barn at 6:00 and will be serving hot dogs and chips along with sodas! This will run from 6:00-7:20pm and then after that we will be in youth from 7:20-8:45pm!

AND don't forget to bring your friends!

ON THE CALENDER!
October 31st we will be having our annual costume and karaoke party! It will run from 6:30 to 8:30!

November 6th we will be doing a Night of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. There will be worship music, prayer time, and a short message to raise awareness for the persecuted church! We will start at 6:00!

Next week we begin our new series "Change Your World in 52 Days!" We will be looking at the book of Nehemiah and how God used an ordinary person to change the world!!!

News and Updates for The Cove Student Ministry

2011-10-06T11:31:00.000-04:00

Hey Students and Parents,

What an incredible week we have had at The Cove! I have been saying for a year that God is moving through our student ministry and it is clearly evident!

We have some exciting stuff happening in the next couple of months.

We begin our next IDK in three weeks! This is a series all about questions people have about the Bible, life, and in general! We are going to use the Bible as the answering point because the Bible is the standard and we will not go below it for answers! If your student has a question they can facebook it to me(J-Bird) or send it to me in an email at jhollis@swisscovechristian.com .

Across the world hundreds of thousands of Christians are suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. If you were to ask any of those Christians what we can do for them as a church they would say please PRAY for us! So on Sunday November 13th we are partnering with thousands of other believers and praying our persecuted Brothers and Sisters in Christ. It is the official International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church! We will be holding it in the Barn. More info will be out soon on it!

For our last announcement we will be holding a Karaoke and Costume Party at the Barn on October 31st! It will run from 6:30PM to 8:30PM!!! There will be treats, music, pumpkins, corn hole, and other cool stuff to do!!!

We had over 48 students attend The Way last night!

This week our focus was on Boundaries. We asked all of our high school students to take a survey on the topic of sex. We received about 35 surveys back. The number one question our students had was how far is to far!

This is a HUGE question to have to answer and as we stated to the students we are only going by what God's Word has to say about it. Because God's Word is the ultimate Truth.

We looked at Matthew 5:27-30....By reading this passage we see how far we should go. When we start lusting, that is a boundary for us. If we start to lust when we hold someone's hand, then we know we should not even hold someone's hand.

Our small group leaders delved deeper into this topic with your student.

I am excited about the next few months in our Student Ministry! God is really moving through them and I see the Kingdom of God expanding tremendously in the next year!

Weekly Update!

2011-09-15T15:18:00.000-04:00

Great things are happening at The Cove. We are heading into Week 3 of our seven week series on Good Sex. The Holy Spirit is definitely moving through our students! More on Good Sex Week 3 later this week!

We had a rockin' night last night at The Way as over 45 people were there to worship and participate in Good Sex! Jenna Weirda led us into worship of our incredible creator and rocked the place out for Jesus. I am very encouraged that students are using the prayer wall!

I just wanted to do a weekly update for everyone!

This is Hemant!

For High School Students the first Wednesday of every month is 99cent Wednesday! What that means is you are suppose to bring $1.00(Holla) to The Way. We support teen student overseas in India by the name of Hemant! We try to raise 25.00 each month to send over to him! He is a pretty awesome student for the Kingdom of God! Let us know if you want more info on Hemant!

Also, Saturday September 24 we will be doing a service project at our campus. It will be open for Middle School and High School students! We will be working on the barn and also working on cleaning up the trailer in the back of the church property. Since we are using the trailer now for small groups we need to clean up! We will start working at 9:00 in the morning and we will end it at 1:00! Lunch and drinks will be provided for every student! Let me know if you will be able to make it! You are never more like Jesus, then when you are serving His Kingdom!

The Progressive Dinner Gut Bomb Pillow Fight Night is NEXT WEEK! I am pretty excited about this event. All Junior Highers will need to be at church before 6:30! We will be leaving the church at 6:30 on NEXT wednesday. You will need to bring at the most $20.00, plus a friend! Parents we are going to be in need of vehicles for this day! Please send me over an email if you will be able to trolley some AMAZING jr. high students around for a hour and half!

As we head into Week 3 of Good Sex it is not to early to start preparing for our next series IDK(I Don't Know). This series is going to give people a chance to ask questions about the bible, life, family, or anything they want and we will try and answer all of the questions. If you have a question feel free to leave a comment below or send a message to Justin Hollis on FB!

Well, until next week!

Good Sex Week 2

2011-09-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

Hey Parents and Students,

I am excited about Week 2 of Good Sex! The first week of Good Sex we looked at culture we live in when it comes to sex. We also took a dive back in time and looked at the culture of Jesus' day and we realized that sexually, not a lot has changed since then.

This week we will dive into more of an intense topic as we discuss "Sexual Identity."

To sum up Sexual Identity, it is how we experience our sexuality, and what we think and how we feel about that. And then what we do about it.

This weeks topic has a lot to do with hormones-Testosterone and progesterone!

For parents, here are a couple of questions students ask themselves when it comes to sexual identity...Also this list has not changed much in the last 50 years!

Am I normal?
Are my sexual responses normal?
Why do I get nervous around people of the other gender?
Why do I get turned on so easily?
Do I get turned on so easily?
Why do I feel guilty about my sexuality?
Am I a sex fiend?
Am I gay?
Could I turn gay?

When it comes to Good Sex, we as a student ministry are going to take the Word of God as the the standard and we will not sway in our teaching from what the Word of God says. In the midst of these questions half the church tends to get laryngitis. It is time we begin to give students sound, biblical answers to all of their questions.

If you have any comments please feel free to post below in the comment section or email me at jhollis@swisscovechristian.com .

Weekly Blog Update

2011-05-09T17:51:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, it is great to be back up and running.
Click here to listen to last weeks message done by guest speaker Alexander Wierda! Alex did an awesome job of talking about why our relationship is far more important than the rules of of being a Christian.

Check out this quick video we made and it will go through news and announcements! Hope everyone is doing awesome!

Thoughts from The WAy 4/6/2011

2011-04-07T13:32:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone...sorry it has been a couple of weeks since the last update! But, we are back and ready to update you on everything to do with Cove Students Ministries!

Here are a couple of announcements.....

We are doing our monthly LATE NIGHT for 8th-12th graders on Saturday Night the 16th of April. We are going to play a big game of capture the flag and eat PIZZA!!! It should definitely be fun.

Also if you need to do Youth 4 Hire to pay for CIY MOVE you need to contact me IMMEDIATELY!

On WEDNESDAY APRIL 20th we are INVITING parents of Junior Highers and Senior High Students to come out to the Barn to watch the movie PASSION OF THE CHRIST! We are asking people to come at 6:00!

Last night was a great night as we started our new series FAMOUS LAST WORDS.

We are looking at the last of our dying Saviors words he said while hanging from the cross.

We were led in worship by Julia Coppock, Destiny Bennett, and Mark Casper on the guitar. It was a great night of worship and it is absolutely awesome to see students worshiping the one true savior of the world.

There were around 40 students in attendance for The Way.

The verse we look at was Luke 23:34 and it says:

"He said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing'"

It is absolutely amazing that after being beaten, mocked, and flogged Jesus in all the pain that he was in did not yell or ask God to give physical pain to the people who had done this to them, but asked for His Heavenly Father to forgive him.

Absolutely powerful......

Jesus prayed for the people who put them on the cross....We can learn so much from this simple prayer. We all have been hurt in the past and some of us are still wounded from that time in our life. As Christians we need to PRAY for those who have hurt us! I know this is hard to do, but we are called to pray for the ones that have hurt us, Luke 6:28

"Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you."

Wow, powerful words from our Savior.

We also need to reach out and seek restoration if at all possible.

This was a powerful night and I believe the Holy Spirit is working on our students. We have several students who have been hurt in the past and are in need of guidance on this tough subject.

I am excited to see how this series plays out!!!

Practical Atheist Week 2 Thoughts

2011-03-10T17:42:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone,

Here is the audio message for Week 2 of Practical Atheist....click me click me!!!

This is going to be a quick blog today.

What an incredible night last night at The Way!!!!

Our power flickered off and we lost our screen for a few minutes, but last night Satan was not going to stop the Holy Spirit from moving!!!

It was a powerful night as we looked at 10 qualities of a lukewarm Christian. Here they are in no specific order!

10 characteristics of a lukewarm Christian:

1. Crave acceptance from people more than acceptance from God.
2. Rarely discuss their relationship with Christ with others
3. Do whatever it takes to alleviate their guilt
4. Think more about life on earth than eternity in heaven
5. Gauge their morality by comparing themselves to others
6. Want to avoid the penalty of sin without changing their lives
7. Only turn to God when they are in a bind
8. Give whenever it doesn’t hinder their standard of living
9. Are not much different from the rest of the world
10. Want the benefits of what Christ did without conforming to who He is

That is a tough pill to swallow, but it so true.
We had 13 students last night say last night they were not going to stand and look like the rest of the world last night. They made a commitment that they no longer want to be a lukewarm Christian, but live a spirit filled, passion filled life for Christ.

The Holy Spirit is moving through The Cove!!!!

For Further Study

To use this resource, simply select one or two questions from
each category below you think will help your group discussion.
Alternatively, you can use these questions and Scriptures in your
own personal devotions during the week.

Open

How do people typically react when they meet a celebrity or
famous athlete? Why do you think these are typical reactions?

Explore

Read John 12:12-19.

This passage details Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem where
a multitude of passionate people came to greet Him.

What had the crowd heard about Jesus? (12:12)
How did the crowd greet Jesus when He arrived in Jerusalem?

(12:13)
What title did the crowd give to Jesus? (12:13)
What prophetic event took place in this account? (12:14-15)
What had been written about this event? (12:15)
When did Jesus’ disciples realize the significance of these events?
(12:16)
What did the crowd do when Jesus raised Lazarus? (12:17)
Why did many of the people go out to meet Jesus? (12:18)
How did the Pharisees react to this event? (12:19)

Reflect

What did you hear about Jesus that led you to seek Him?
Why do you think Jesus should be the ruler in our lives?
When is it difficult for you to allow Jesus to take His rightful place
as King in your life?
In what ways can we honor and worship Jesus as King?
What are some practical ways we can earn the opportunity to
discuss our relationship with Christ with others?

Apply

How does your passion about Christ compare with the passion the
crowds exhibited in this passage?
What specific areas of your life can your surrender to Christ that
will result in a stronger passion for Him?

Practical Atheist Week 1 Message

2011-03-07T18:17:00.003-05:00

Here is the message from last week! Hope you all enjoy it. We will post the new message after every Wednesday night. Just click the link below!

Practical Atheist Week 1 Audio Message

Thoughts from The Way 3/2/11 and a further study on Fearing God!

2011-03-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry the delay on the blog post. I want to thank everyone who reads the blog. It is encouraging to see how many people a day come to the site to check it out.

At the bottom of this blog post is the study for this week for Practical Atheist!

We had over 40 High School students show up!

Stack em up was great. You can see pictures of that game on the face book page.

The Way rocked the other night! Melinda and Julia Coppock led us in worship and it was incredible. I love worshiping Jesus when it feels like the people leading you in worship are also worshiping.

We started our Practical Atheist series. The whole idea behind the series is 94% of Americans believe in God or an universal spirit. If 94% of Americans believed in God and lived as if God existed, America was look like a totally different country. The plain fact is we have the majority of people who believe in God, but live as if He does not exist.

The definition of a Practical Atheist is: Someone who believes in God, but lives as if He does not exist.

This week's topic was I believe in God, but I do not fear God.

We like to have a cafeteria style Christianity. We pick and choose what we want. I will take grace, but hold the judgment. I want the blessings, without the obedience.

God wants us to have a reverent fear of him. To be in fear of God, is like a HOLY WOW!!!
We need to be in AWE of God and His majestic presence. He is the God who created the heavens and earth....WOW...He is the God who raised Lazarus from the dead...AWE....He is the God who turn Saul into Paul...WOW...He is the God who sent His only son to die on the cross for all of man kind...AWE!!! You get the picture. We should fear God with a reverent AWE.

When we fear God, two things will happen....

We will learn to serve God wholeheartedly WITHOUT any conditions. You will serve God, because you love him. You will serve God, because He has showed you grace and mercy. You will serve God, because you have a reverent FEAR of God. And because of that you will start to develop obedience.

In the book of John it is written, "If you love me, you will obey my commands." Abraham went to sacrifice his son Issac and showed his fearful obedience to God. He loved God so much he SERVED God without any conditions!

The second thought is...

If you truly fear God, your life will be completely RUINED....in a great sort of way! No longer does the ways of the world influence. No longer do you care what people think about your religion. You have a different mission in life and that is Jesus Christ. Your life will be forever changed!

It was a great night and also on Sunday morning for Jr. High it was great too! We have a lot of great responses for the message and small group time! God is moving through The Cove!

Here is the "Further Study"

Open

During your childhood or teenage years, describe the most disobedient thing you ever
did? How did your parents react?

Explore

Read Ecclesiastes 12: 9-14. Solomon concludes the book of Ecclesiastes in this
passage by saving his most important piece of wisdom for his final thought. (12:13-14)

How did Solomon conclude this book? (12:9-14)
What did the Teacher do with his knowledge? (12:9)
For what did the Teacher search? (12:10)
How did Solomon describe what the Teacher wrote? (12:10)
How did Solomon describe the words of the wise? (12:11)
What did Solomon say about books and study? (12:12)
What is a person’s whole duty? (12:13)
Why did Solomon tell his reader to fear God and keep His commandments? (12:14)

Reflect

With what mood would you say Solomon concluded this book?
What is the relationship between fearing God and keeping his commandments?
How we can benefit from the wisdom of other Christians?
In what ways can you be a teacher or advisor to at least one other Christian?

Apply

What specific areas of your life are you struggling to obey God’s commandments?
Who do you need to seek out for the wisdom they could provide in helping you with your
areas of struggle?

Practical Atheist!

2011-02-22T18:58:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick intro into our new series Practical Atheist!

Here is a question for you...Are you who you say you are?

Enjoy!

Quick News and Announcements

2011-02-22T09:29:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone,

I hope all enjoyed an incredible four day weekend!!! I am sure your parents really enjoyed y'all being home for FOUR days!!!

Any who, life goes on......

I must apologize because the other day when I did my weekly thoughts for The Way, I missed a couple of shout outs. I am sorry if I forgot to mention you so here goes....

Justin Perez, a big shout out for winning the game. You dominated all the women in that game. I almost think you looked at the answers before playing, but oh well!

Destiny Bennett, thank you for stepping up and singing last week. It was great to see you up on stage leading us in praising to our amazing God! You rocked!

And Kelsey Michelle, who shared her testimony last week. I am not sure how I forgot to mention this one. You did an awesome job explaining on how you have trusted God through out the last year. Keep taking those steps and the Holy Spirit will continue to guide you!

CIY MOVE deposit is due Wednesday March 2nd at The Way. It is $100.00 dollars!!!

This week Melinda Coppock is going to be speaking and I am excited about how Jesus is going to use Melinda again. She is going to be finishing off our series Forward Motion!

Our next series is going to be starting next week and it is called "Practical Atheist." You may be wondering what a "Practical Atheist" is? Well, it is someone who believes in God, but does not live their life in the same way! It is going to be a powerful series and God is going to continue to move through our youth.

This series is going to get deep spiritually and I pray for conviction by the Holy Spirit. This is going to be a great series to bring your friends too!!!

Resurrection Sunday is only 9 weeks away!

Later.....

Thoughts from The Way 2/16/11

2011-02-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

What a great night it was at The Way!!!

First off, I need to say Jesus is awesome and He is moving here at The Cove!

Thank you Julia Coppock for leading us into worship with our Savior last night!!!

We had over 50 people once again last night!

We are doing the series Forward Motion and are in the second week of it. Last night we talked about the Holy Spirit. As Christians that was God's gift to us. He knew that this life we are living was going to be hard. So God gave us the third part of the trinity, the Holy Spirit.

As Christians we tend not to understand the role of the Holy Spirit. It is almost magical, but also mystical. But, it is as real today as it was 2,000 years ago when believers were being baptize and receiving the Holy Spirit.

As we take steps in our Christian we need to seek out the Holy Spirit. We need to try and be in tune with the Holy Spirit. It is here to teach us the truth of God's word. To teach us truth in this world. And to also be a comforter.

The question is then, how can you be in tune with it? As Christians we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit by our prayer time. By our quiet time. By our meditation of scripture. We have seek Christ out and through that, the Holy Spirit will speak to you and use you in incredible ways.

It was a tough talk last night, but small groups were awesome!!!

I am excited to see how the Holy Spirit starts to speak in all of your lives.

Here are a couple of questions for you to answer. You can comment below or post on the http://www.facebook.com/CoveStudents?sk=wall#!/CoveStudents?sk=wall&filter=2

What is your view of the Holy Spirit?
Has the Holy Spirit ever spoken to you? And if it has, what did it say?
If you are doing the 40 day Bible Study, have you been able to feel the Holy Spirit work on your heart?

I am excited about next week as Melinda Coppock is going to finish off our series Forward Motion....

See ya!!!

Renew!

2011-02-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to do a quick check in and see how everyone is doing on the Renew Bible Study?

I really believe that if you dedicate 15-20 minutes a day to God and seek him out through this study, he is going to work in your life and it is going to be evident to you too.

Props we need to go out to several students who have told me they are excited to get the other half to the study.

Couple of questions for everyone.....

How has God showed himself to you during this time of study?
How is God working in your life?
What can The Cove do to better serve you through this study?

Well, I look forward to Wednesday night as we continue our message series, Forward Motion. This week we are looking at the Holy Spirit!!!

Later!!!

How can....

2011-02-08T18:18:00.001-05:00

As parents and students begin to read this blog more and more I have just a few thoughts and questions. I want to make this blog as effective as possible for The Cove Student Ministry. So I ask a few questions and it would be great to get a response from parents and students.

First question, Parents, how can I use this blog to better serve you? It is our goal within Cove Student Ministries to help equip the parents and partner with the parents on raising their student in Christ. How can we better make this happen?

Students, oh how I love students. What do you want to see from this blog?

To answer these questions all you have to do is click the comment button down below. As much feedback as possible would be great!!!

Tomorrow night we are meeting up front instead of the barn, but we will be going into small groups after our Prayer and Vision Evening. I want to encourage everyone to attend that!

Hope to hear from ya'll....later!!!

IMPACT 2011

2011-02-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

What a trip Impact was down at Florida Christian College. I give props to FCC and their students for putting on a great event.

Alex Weirda and Amos Smith totally rocked as the emcees for Impact!

The Aaron Pelsue band totally rocked the place for Jesus!

Robin Sigars was the speaker for IMPACT this year and did an incredible job presenting the gospel and also challenging the students to take that next step in their faith.

His two main points were:

Who is your Captain?
Who are you in Christ?

It was an awesome two messages that really hit home to the students to make a difference in your life for the Gospel of Jesus.

And then the football....We had a blast playing football. I need to give a couple of shout outs to Brandon Warren and Chandler Kehoe. These two students were awarded the sportsmanship award for both of our teams. They stood out and above and beyond during our five games that really exemplified a Christ-like nature on the "field."

Peyton Galbrith is a beast on the field. A broken ankle and all and she only missed two plays.

The jr. High teams has a bright future in Impact! I am excited about the next couple of years with them.

I am gettin old and did not play as much as I use too. But, I was still as sore as if I would have been playing the whole game.

Jr. High team went 4-1!

The high school team went....

Overall this trip was absolutely awesome!

For those of you who went, please feel free to comment on the trip!

Thoughts from The Way 2/02/11

2011-02-03T12:19:00.000-05:00

It was a great night to be at The Cove! I want to thank Ryan Hartman, Jacob Davis, and Danny Leonard for leading us into worship with an amazing God.

We had over 50 people there last night.....awesome

We announced the CIY MOVE conference. The dates for that is July 17th to July 22nd. More info coming on that subject!

I believe this series Forward Motion is going to move everyone to want to be closer to Jesus!

Life requires us to take STEPS, not to take LEAPS!

Many STEPS in our walk with Christ can equal a leap, but you have to take STEPS!

We all think that Jesus set the bar high for us and expects us to take leaps and not steps. Yes, Jesus did set the bar high, but he wants you to take steps instead of leaps....

In Mark 8:34-35 Jesus talks that we need to deny ourselves and pick up the cross. This is a every day thing, not a one time thing. Every day we take a STEP to deny our self and follow Christ!

In John 8:11, Jesus tells the adulterer to leave and sin no more! I honestly do not believe she went home and set up good boundaries and never struggled again! I believe every day she had to take STEPS in her life to "sin no more." It was a process for her and it is a process of STEPS for us.

Jesus also tells us to "Be perfect, for our Heavenly Father is Perfect"(Matthew 5:48). There were a couple of girls that thought they were perfect and we sowed that one up last night! To be more like Jesus we have to surrender our lives every day. IT is not a one time decision to strive to be like God. It takes many steps!

But every leap is made up of daily steps. No one jumps and arrives instantly. It starts off with the forward motion of a step.

We passed out our 40 day Bible Study on Renewing our relationship with Christ. God has done many things in forty days. I am encouraged at how many of y'all took one.

God is moving at The Cove!!!

Also in two weeks we will be doing the "Unusual Talent Show." If you have an unusual talent, let us know!

PARENT CUE FOR FORDWARD MOTION!!!

2011-02-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

Parents, the Parent Cue letter is used as a tool to help connect with your student. Read over it and if you have any questions, feel free to email or call me. This is awesome material to use to help further along your students faith!

Forward Motion:
Series Overview
We’ve all made resolutions and set goals, but too often we fall short of what we expected to accomplish. Unfortunately it’s often the same when we try to become the Christian we really believe God has called us to be. We fall short of the goal and become increasingly discouraged. In this series, your student will learn that following Christ is more about the small steps we make every day, not about the huge leaps of faith that we think we need to make. They will set a goal, determine the first step and then make it. The series will end with a celebration!

Session One (include date)
So many times we look at our lives with great expectations, thinking we should be leaps from where we are. We expect perfection. We expect to arrive at some level. The reality is that following Christ isn’t about leaping to instant perfection. We’re walking with Him daily--a walk that involves steps, not leaps. Following Jesus Christ is about the small steps we make every day, steps of obedience, steps in relationship with Him. Sometimes those steps are small, sometimes they are big--but they are all still steps, moving us forward.

Session One Parent Cue: Following Christ is about steps, not leaps. This week your students will be introduced to the myth: that Christianity is all about taking big leaps of faith. They will encounter some of Scripture’s most daunting verses, and wrestle with what it means to have a life of consistent spiritual growth. Each student will set a goal for himself or herself, and the next few weeks they will revisit their goals. Discuss with them what you think may be some unrealistic goals you have for yourself.

Session Two (include date)
The goal of every Christian is to become more like Jesus. But the problem comes when we think we’re going to achieve that today. It’s a lifelong journey, a process, a walk. Following Jesus is about the steps we take every day, and as Christians, we have divine help in taking those steps--the Holy Spirit. What is the step God is asking to take? What’s holding you back from taking it?

Session Two Parent Cue: The way you get from where you are to where you want to be is one step at a time. This may sound ridiculously obvious, but we all forget it. We want to go to the gym one time and look like a model; we want to make one smart comment at work and be promoted right to the top. But we know deep down that isn’t the way things work. The good news is that in our spiritual development, God has not left us alone to work out the mess. He has sent His Spirit to guide us. This week, students will look at the power of the Holy Spirit to guide their paths, and they will make a plan for beginning to take the first step toward their goals. What is an obtainable goal that you can work on achieving this week?

Session Three (include date)
What if you acknowledged the steps you took every day in your own “walk” with God? What if you realized that even though you may not be where you want to be, you may be exactly where God wants you to be, learning the things you need to know one step at a time? It brings a lot of freedom, doesn’t it? But not only that, what if we started celebrating not only the steps we take every day, but the steps those around us do as well? Because what may not be a big deal for you, may be huge for someone else. And all that celebration begins to turn into one big party.

Session Three Parent Cue: Celebrate the steps you take in your relationship with God, and celebrate the steps others take as well. It’s all about celebration, not the cheap kind of celebration that comes from making a big deal out of nothing, but the real party that comes naturally when we know that we have made even the slightest move in the right direction. Your students will talk this week about what it looks like to encourage each other and celebrate with each other whenever they make progress toward one of their goals. What are some specific areas of growth you have seen in your teen in the last couple of weeks, months or even year?

Forward Motion

2011-01-28T22:35:00.000-05:00

I am excited about our new series we are doing at The Cove. It is called Forward Motion and it is all about taking steps in our walk with Christ. We recently celebrated a new year and with a new year comes new year resolutions. My wife Nikki hates new year resolutions because most of the time people do not keep up with them (She is probably going to be mad because I just used her in my blog). But, it is so true, we never, hardly ever keep our resolutions. We always set goals and resolutions, but many times we fail to keep and reach them. Unfortunately, it is the same in our Christan faith. We strive to be the Christian God has called us to be and we fail. And once that happens we tend to get discouraged. In our new series we are going to be talking about the steps we need to take as a Christian in our walk with Jesus.

We often want to take leaps in our walk. That typically happens at MOVE, Believe, or when you on a mission trip. The problem is when that happens we tend to fall back off the "spiritual" mountain we are on after a couple weeks. In the first session we are going to be talking about taking steps of obiedence, and steps in our relationship with Jesus. Sometimes those step are going to be big and sometimes small.

If our theme for this year is FOUND PEOPLE FIND PEOPLE, we must work on our relationship with Christ. See y'all Wednesday!