If you did not get an information sheet on Sunday night you can download one by clicking the link below. Please be sure to read over the information on this sheet – it is important.

• Download the Info Sheet and Packing List

If you have not filled out the standard {2:42} permission slip and medical release form, please go the the forms page and print those out as well. Have them with you on Friday when you arrive at Danny and Laura’s house at 6 p.m.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

In case you didn’t get one on Sunday, or in case you lost the copy you received, you can now download the Fall 2011 Calendar simply by clicking the link below.

Some things to pay attention to:

• October 16: Youth at Piney Acres and the Jones’ from 5–8.
• October 26: The final deadline for ISYC is due. $60 if you’ve already registered, $115 if you have not. You can download the ISYC waiver by clicking here.
• November 4–6: Indiana State Youth Convention
• and more!

Hope you’ll download your copy today!

Click Here!

The Jesus Creed for Students is the youth version of Scot McKnight’s book The Jesus Creed, and it centers around Jesus’ statement that the center of Jesus’ ethic was the command to love God and to love others.

Happiness and the Jesus Creed

For most people, the one thing they’re seeking in life is happiness. Happiness–while desirable–is often centered around getting what you want. The best guess of the youth group was that happiness is related to getting what we want about 98% of the time. I think they’re right. But is “getting what we want” the one thing that’s most important in the Kingdom of God?

According to McKnight, to be blessed rather than happy is a far more worthy goal. Which begs the question, “What does it mean to be blessed?” I posed that question to the senior high students. When we thought of people who are “blessed” in our life, we thought primarily of people who seem to “have it all together.” People who are smart, and well off, talented, and generally able to do whatever they want. A few people came to mind who were blessed because they had persevered through trials and hardship, and these few people point us toward the people who are blessed in the eyes of Jesus.

Looking at Matthew 5:1-12, we looked at the people who Jesus names as blessed. The poor in spirit, those who are mourning, the meek, people with a hunger and thirst for what is right and just, who are merciful and pure in heart, who pursue peace and endure persecution in the name of Jesus and his kingdom. For Jesus then, to be blessed is not be happy because we get what we want, but to be the kind of people who remain faithful even when life presents us with temptations and struggles.

So how do we become that sort of person? How do we live to be blessed by God and not simply to be happy? That’s where the Jesus Creed comes in. When we live to be people who love God first with every fiber of our being, and who love others as ourselves, we cultivate the soil of our heart in order the the spirit’s fruit can blossom in our lives. In a sense we begin to train our unreformed “fleshly” selves to listen and act more readily to the leading of the new heart that Christ has given us.

For our group, that means we are committing to be people who recite the Jesus Creed daily. When we wake up and when we go to bed, when we leave our house and as we go about our day we have agreed to recited the following:

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One.

Love the Lord your God with

all your heart,

all your soul,

all your mind,

and all your strength.

The second is this

Love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

I’m excited to see how this will shape my own heart and life, but more importantly how it might shape the heart and lives of the teens of {2:42}.

How about you? Would you commit to follow us as we study the Jesus Creed and recite throughout your day?

How do you think it might shape your life differently? 

1. When you wake up.
2. When you go to bed.
3. When you leave your house.
4. Whenever it comes to mind throughout the day.

The Jesus Creed is:

“Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One.

Love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

and with all your strength.”

The second is this:

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

There is no commandment greater than these.

-Mark 12:29–31

If you want to read ahead and have your own copy of the book, next week’s we’re studying chapters 3 & 4!

This weekend is our annual camping trip and we’re returning to the old site in Anderson for a weekend of fun, hanging out, and hearing from God. If you are going, then the cost is $25 for food and gas.

You will also need a permission slip and medical release form if we don’t have your medical information on file this year. Click here to download the forms and bring them with you on Friday.

We also have packing lists that you can download if you click here.

It should be a great time! Hope to see you all there.

2011 Camping Trip Packing List
2011 Camping Trip Permission Slip & Medical Release Form

Tickets Cost $10

Register for the show at

http://242.nlcfonline.com/goodmusicgoodcause

Tell your friends today!

We have been working to gather details and information to pass along to everyone who is going to the Pine Ridge Reservation this summer. On Thursday, April 21 we are going to have a meeting at 7 p.m. where we will give you what information we have thus far and answer questions for parents and trip attendees.

I thought it might be helpful for everyone if we knew what questions people have already. So if you have questions, please ask them this week. Either post it in the comments below, or send me an email, or give me a call. This way, I can be putting together a more effective meeting for the 21st. Here are some topics I already have written down for us to discuss.

• Fund Raising Information and Schedule
• Your Current Trip Balance
• A Preparation Schedule
• Work Details

This is your chance to add to our agenda. Pass this along to your parents if you’re a student, or to other family members who you know are going on this trip. I’m excited pass along to everyone the details as they have developed to this point.

Joe

PS. Don’t forget to post the things you can do to the Jobs Board at church so that people in the church can put you to work and help you raise money for the trip.

• When do you stop eating? On Friday, after your lunch, you are doing eating until 6 p.m. on Saturday night when we break the fast together.
• When should I show up at the church? We’re meeting at the church at 6 p.m. on Friday and spending the next 24 hours together.
• What do I need to bring? Please bring clothes, sleeping gear (sleeping bag, pillow, etc), and toiletries as well as a bible and your collection envelope.
• Do I need to have a permission form? Yes, please download the general permission form and fill it out for the Famine. Bring it with you on Friday.
• What are we doing this Sunday at youth for the famine? We are going to prepare things for the coming Famine. We’re going to pray for our efforts to raise money and talk about the plans for the weekend. Rather than having a small group of people planning it – we’re going to work together to create our weekend event.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you’re looking forward to loving others by not eating for 30 Hours!

So I’ve been working to update the look and feel of the {2:42} website. The old theme was ok, but it was never really complete and it didn’t take advantage of some new technologies that would have made it better. This one’s not finished, but what’s left is mostly tinkering with things and adding little bits of flare here and there. Over time this look will evolve more than be replaced and that seems like a good thing.

Overall the goal was to make the site more readable and easier to navigate. So poke around and let us know what you think.

Q: What sorts of stuff do you think should be included in the {2:42} website?

If you are going on this trip, please download this registration form, fill it out, and turn it in with your $75 registration fee to me by Sunday, March 13. We NEED people to register by this date so that we can move forward with planning the rest of the trip and so that we can know how many people are attending.

As we have listed before, the cost of the trip is $550 and that covers food, transportation, and lodging for the week. Please be praying about your participation in this trip. If you feel led to be a part, and are concerned about the funding please talk with me about it before dismissing the trip altogether. Especially for the teens of New Life, I have had a number of people already come to me and tell me that they would be willing to help someone with the trip financially.

Again, I can’t overemphasize how excited I am to go on this trip. It will truly be an opportunity to see the face of Jesus in the people there and I promise it will change your world for the better.

Pastor Joe

Download the Form Now