Youth Fridays

Each Friday night I'm in Capricorn with our Youth. As I've mentioned before, we no longer have a youth minister; therefore my friend Meagan and I have stepped in to fill the gap. The gap is being filled but the glue is getting looser. I'm overwhelmed with this task (on top of Living Hope work) and I'd love for our church to have a youth minister... FAST! Please pray with me as we seek God's hand in sending us a strong, male youth minister.

We're going through the book: The Seven Checkpoints. Here are some topics we've covered lately.

Authenticity: Is your faith real? We did a blind taste-test of high-quality junk food to cheap-off-brand foods that are comparable. Pictured above are the products: chocolate, chips, soda. Each contestant tasted the two versions of their product and each contestant could taste the difference in quality of the product. The challenge and message was, "Are you real or are you faking it?"

This lesson was also paired with a short intro on Spiritual Disciplines. If you really want to 'get real' you've got to put practice into it. You've got to walk the talk! We left them with some tool and also had them practice a 'Bible Study Method' in small groups. We're trying not to just equip but also guide them in practicing these tools!

Last week we talked about the importance of Sexual Purity. These teens get a lot of 'abstinence talks' in this area due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; however, they're usually given statistics not Biblical reasons why you should remain pure ... and honestly, it's not about HIV, it's about obedience to the Lord, protecting your heart and emotions. I was hard on the girls this night. I'm tired of everyone beating up on the boys because they're visually driven. I'm ready for the girls to take responsibility for being the helpers God's created them to be - helping guys stay pure by the girls dressing appropriately, treating the guys with respect, building the guys up verbally and spiritually. In this culture especially, we see men mistreating women/girls all the time; we've got to rebuild the concept of 'family' and 'respect.' Gender-roles are all too skew here. Bottom line: Purity isn't about "how far is too far" - it's about "how pure can I be?" - body, soul and spirit!

Pray for Youth Fridays!