CP-Üth

We closed off our “The Gospel According to the Hunger Games” series last night with an awesome message from Crosspoint’s very own senior pastor (ok, maybe not for another week or two), Pastor Mark. We looked at Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:1 and King Soloman’s message to young people on how to live their lives. Soloman was a man who had everything: money, wealth, women, power, knowledge. But it wasn’t until he came to the end of his life that he realized it was all meaningless… because he didn’t live that life for God. Soloman encourages us to honor him in your youth. The “Hunger Games” series is essentially about young people doing extraordinary things; reclaiming the world for what it should be. This should be true in our lives as well. As Christians, youth or not, we should be constantly giving honor to our Creator and looking to change the world through the power of God; filling our areas of influence with his love. I thought this was a message I’ve always wanted to speak, but never had the words to do so. Mark did an excellent job and I was floored.

Also, big props to Brandon for helping with our “Blob-Tag” game and for his all-around zaniness. Thanks to Nats & Em for runnin’ the canteen, thanks to Jo & Angela for taking over a huge small group of girls last night, thanks for Chris & Ben who’re coming from university to help us each week, thanks to Tyler & Chris O for being awesome and puttin’ their big feet down, thanks to Judi for being a rock in hard place, thanks to my girl Catherine for being so pumped about her small group, and thanks to all the other leaders who weren’t there last night. I so appreciate everything you do.

Also, a big “good luck” goes to our leaders John Blackmore and Cassie LeBlanc who get married this week. They’ve been “solent but violent” as leaders and we as a youth group wish them the best in their nuptials this weekend. We love you!

Finally, I want to say a big, huge, humongous thank you to Pastor Tim, whose last sermon at Crosspoint is this Sunday. I have a vested appreciate for Tim because he took a chance on me one year ago. I’ve never done youth ministry, never even liked most youth, and wanted to be involved in a growing church with ministry that could use me. Tim took a big chance on me and saw potential in myself that I did not know was that. For that, I say THANK YOU and you shall be sorely missed. We’re really for Tim to leave but really excited for what God is going to do through him at Moncton Wesleyan.

Next Wednesday we’re cancelling Üth Nite to go and serve at BOAZ Ministries on Hawkes St in Nashwaaksis. This is the start of a new chapter for CP-Üth as we seek to serve more in our communities and areas of influence. I’m really excited for this and I sincerely hope our students get excited about serving people in their community. Woohoo!

Worship:
No One Like You - David Crowder Band
Here is our King - David Crowder Band
Consuming Fire - Tim Hughes 

Scripture:
Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:1
Romans 14:11-13

I heard it went awesome this past week. My wife told me Pastor Emily brought down the hammer and Martin & Co. We’re great during worship.

I’m really looking forward to this week as Pastor Mark, your senior pastor, speaks to us as we close up our “Gospel According to the Hunger Games” series. Also, I’m excited to return and see ally babies.

Don’t forget, on Wednesday May 30th we’re serving together at Boaz Ministries. We’ll drive from the church at 6:00pm and be back for 8:00pm.
Can’t wait!

We’re continuing on in our “Gospel According to the Hunger Games” series and this week we had the pleasure of Nathalie Estey speaking to our students again. Nathalie prepares very diligently and spends a lot of time listening to what God wants her to share; it’s really quite inspiring. Nathalie always has a challenging and inspiring Word for us and last night was no different:

As Christians, we’re called to live counterculturally; live differently; live better. Speaking from Matthew 5:14-16, Nathalie challenged our students to shine bright; to not hide out light behind that things that are in front of us. In fact, the darker the place the brighter our light shies. We can’t let the world we live in change us. Rather, we must change the world we live in. God is not a secret so we must share it; stop hiding him.

“God is not a secret! Don’t live like He is.” 
“God should not be a footnote in your life. He should define your life.” 

BAM! Powerful stuff. I love having leaders that can share what God has laid on their heart. Great stuff.

We had a fun game where guys and girls battled over the Price-Is-Right-esque game “More or Less”. Basically, the students had to decipher whether the item posted on a powerpoint presentation sold for more or less on eBay. For example, a “bottle with a ghost in it” was posted on eBay and the students had to guess whether this sold for more or less than $3500 on eBay. Stunningly, the bottle sold for over $50000! There were also a few other funny items like a haunted rubber ducky, tattoo of a casino on someone’s forehead, and friendship with a 40-year-old man that only sold for $105. 

We met a few new students this week and its always encouraging to see students invite their friends. I believe our students are eager to share what God is doing with the student ministry at Crosspoint and I’m encouraged that our ministry is creating a comfortable place for students to be introduced to Christ (even though standing for Christ can be very uncomfortable).

I am away next week but I know the evening will be in excellent hands as I’ve got an amazing crew of leaders that I am very proud of.

Worship:
Rooftops - Jesus Culture
The Time Has Come - Hillsong

Scripture:
Matthew 5:14-16 

Here’s a few shots from the incredible “Rally in the Valley” this past weekend. We had a crew of 25 people (including 5 in leaders) hop down to Kings Valley Wesleyan for a weekend of worship, fellowship, and insanity. I can vouch for the kids and say that this had been one of the best rallies held by KV in the past number of years. Big props to Dave Mason and his student ministry for, again, bringing the heat and putting an incredible weekend together.

Also, big props to our speaker Jeff Eckart who led us through the first three chapters of Daniel and was very impactful and challenging to our students, KV Worship for continuing to bring the best quality of worship music you can find in Atlantic Canada, to Brent and the stage crew for creating the most amazing stage I’ve ever seen at a rally, and to Jeremy & Jesse for inspiring us with beautiful art during our worship experiences.

Pastor Mark and I had the pleasure of MCing this years’ event and we had a blast doing so. But, after getting a tattoo live on stage in front of hundreds of students, part of me wonders if we’ll be asked to come back? Only time will tell I guess!

Here’re a few quotables from Jeff Eckart during the weekend that really struck a chord with some of our students and leaders: 

“If you feel God is calling you to something and its something you can do without God, it’s not God”

“Sometimes God doesn’t deliver us from trials but rather through the trial”

“It’s not where we go. It’s who we go with”

“When following Christ our lives should defy explanation”

“If you follow Jesus, the impossible is possible. The supernatural becomes the natural”

 ”Three areas where we pollute our lives: food, relationships, sexual habits (Daniel 1)”

Üth Nite @ Crosspoint: May 2nd, 2012

Last night, we started out first week of the “Gospel According to The Hunger Games” series. Apparently this Hunger Games thing is popular. And, if it’s making kids read more, then I guess that’s a good thing… right?

No, but seriously. I’ve read the books and seen the movie just to see what all the fuss is about. Admittedly, this 3-book series (aimed at teens and young adults) really does have an intriguing and original storyline, despite the oft-squeamish content, devoid of any cursing, sex, or drugs. And, like most “hero/saviour” stories, its easy to pick out biblical truths from it.

Before we got into our teaching time, I thought that we’d get into the spirit of the Hunger Games a little bit and participate in a rebel-rousing “Sock-Off” matchup. Riley Hoyt became the victor as she fended off about 19 other contestants in the sock-off matchup, then beat 2 other dudes in a “Trifecta Chop-Off”. Pretty impressive. She took home our coveted (coveting is sinful) CP-Üth Sock-Off Trophy. Her parents are very proud.

After crowning Riley the current Sock-Off champion, we went into our worship time where we were lucky enough to have some folks from Crosspoint’s Sunday morning team involved. SO, big thanks to Eric, Alex, and Alex for helping out and helping rock the socks off (unrelated to our game) of our students and leading them in worship. We carried the theme of “rescue” and “save us” from our worship and sang songs of gratitude to God for the sacrifice he made. He “came to our rescue”. Hallelujah.

We then went into our teaching time titled “volunteering as tribute”. If you’re unfamiliar with the Hunger Games series at all, here’s a brief run down of the storyline:

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl (between the ages of 12 and 18) to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. 
Twenty four teenagers participate in a “fight to the death” until only one remains standing, gaining a great amount of food and fame if they win. The younger you are, the less chance you have to be chosen; the older you are, the more chance you have of getting your name chosen in the lottery. So, when Katniss’s sister (who’s only 12 years old) is chosen by lottery and forced to compete for her district in the Games, Katniss “volunteers” to take her place. Essentially, Katniss is taking her sister’s place and sealing her own fate by competing in the game on her behalf so she wouldn’t be killed.

Can you see where we’re taking this? We correlated this part of the story to a passage of scripture from Romans 5:6-8 where we are told that, in a similar way, Jesus volunteered to take our place while we were still sinners. Jesus spared our lives by taking our place on the cross. Our lives, surely wrought with sin and failure, are saved from Christ’s powerful display on the cross. Like Katniss took the place of her sister and spared her life, Jesus volunteered to give himself up to eliminate all the sin in your life. He was embarrassed, humiliated, beaten, spat on, yelled at, and ultimately killed because he loved the crap out of us. He died so that we might live.

THE perfect example of the hero/saviour storyline.

Worship:
All Because of Jesus - Fee
Hosanna - Paul Baloche
Came to My Rescue - Hillsong

Scripture:
Romans 5:6-8 

This week at Üth Nite…
invite someone.

Hey, guess what?

We’ve got a new website coming soon.

Stay Tuned!

We had a magnificently fun evening at Üth Nite last nite. I won’t bore you too much with details, here’re some “point-form”highlights that made last night pretty special:

- we had a “pop-off” (which is run similarly to a “rap battle” where each team competes by challenging the other team by singing a line from a popular song. Each team go back and forth with pop-music one-liners until one team doesn’t complete the task in a 5 seconds (or repeats the same song twice). We started off with a boys vs girls battle, but the boys met their match within minutes. After that, we mixed the teams and it was quite the entertaining scene. 

- our worship team, let by a group of our talented students, was blessed to have MC MacGreggor for a few of our songs. Morgan rapped during “Our God” but also wrote her own rhymes and added it into DC*B’s “Like a Lion” which got the whole place moving. It was an awesome experience to see our students using their talents to give glory to God. Even more exciting is to see our students worship together and get excited to sing about their Creator.

- Nathalie Estey capped off our “LoveSpeechConductPurityFaith” series by talking about Faith. Using James 2:14-17 as her backdrop, Nathalie challenged our students to not make their faith just another thing in their lives, but make it THE thing their lives are built around. Living for Christ requires transformation; He goes before all things in your life.

- Nathalie challenged those who have not received Christ to finally take that step and raise their hands to accept Christ into their hearts. She also challenged those who have already made a commitment to Christ who needed to reestablish their relationship with him to raise their hand. And… sixteen (16!) hands went up to receive Christ.  Wow. That’s amazing. God is stirring up a generation of students who want to change the world with Christ in their hearts. SO EXCITING.

Big thanks to those who have helped with the teaching duties the last few weeks as we took time to learn, know, and live 1 Timothy 4:12. So, big props to Emily, Nathalie, Carolee, Judi, and John B for speaking into our students’ lives.

Also, our small groups are really starting to open up and get into our lesson plans. For this, I have to say a big thank you to all the small group leaders who are not only giving their time and energy coming to Üth Nites, but for putting their prayers and guidance to further our students’ lives for Christ: thanks to (*big breath)… Chris, Jo, Angela, John Br, John Bl, Cassie, Shea, Catherine, AJ, Ben, Nathalie, Emily, Bruce, and our floaters, Carolee, Jeff, Tyler, Jesse, Martine, Madeline, and Jessica. Crap, did I forget anyone?

We’ve got an incredible group of leaders that I could not accomplish this task without. I wish I could give them all vacations to the Bahamas. But I can’t. So I won’t. But I would. If I could.

Greater Things.

Jamie

You must have expected this, right?
A new 5-Week series coming next week…