Summer Camp: The Gorey Details (Jared)

So what is it that parents need, but always struggle to find? If you said, patience, understanding, or courage you would be right, but what we're going for today is details! Summer Camp is a chance for students to escape from their normal routine, experience God in a fresh way, create meaningful relationships, and make commitments that last a lifetime! But that doesn't matter if you can't figure out when summer camp is. So students if you're reading this, show it to your parents and if you're a parent here we go:

What:
Summer Camp is five days and four nights of worship, teaching, bible-study, and insane amounts of fun on the beach. It includes ten meals while at camp, lodging on the beach, transportation, a camp shirt, and session materials.

When:
July 5th - July9th

Where:
Lodging is at The Boardwalk Beach Resort in Panama City Beach, FL. The camp is put on by a company called BigStuf and you can get even more info at http://www.bigstuf.com/

Who:
Students who have just graduated from 6th-12th grades are invited to come. Friends are welcome to come as well. We have a limited number of spots for camp and it is first-come first-served basis. We start a waiting list for students after we are full. As for chaperones, we will have a student leader ratio of about 6:1.

Fundraising and the Cost of Camp:
We will be selling coupon booklets that will be available in the student center on May 10th. They will be sold for $10 and all $10 goes directly to your students camp cost. But thanks to an extremely generous anonymous gift to the student ministry, for the first 100 coupon books that are sold, we will MATCH the $10 so that a total of $20 goes directly toward your student's cost of camp. Having said that, if your student sells 10 books then camp is half-off. And if your student sells 20 books (as part of the first 100 books sold) then camp is FREE. Yeah, I said it, free. If your math is good then you figured it out, camp is $400 this year.

A $100 non-refundable deposit is due with the camp registration packet available in the student center. If you pay the deposit and your student raises all the money for camp, we will refund that deposit money to you. Your student can fundraise to earn the deposit, but just remember that it is first-come, first-served on camp spaces, so it may be wise to register first.

The final balance for camp is due on June 28th, but for those fundraising in order to get the matching funds you have to work quickly.

Did I forget something? If you have a question leave a comment. I'll answer it in the comments, and everyone will be grateful that you thought to ask.

The All-Nighter is Upon Us! (Jared)

It's back and it's bigger and better than ever. While you were busy picking your nose and texting your bf we were plotting how to take over the city of Charlotte for an entire night. The solution? Music, fun, and a bit of mischief: The All-Nighter!

We know you missed spray-painting the school rocks, coloring your friend's face blue, and driving around town at 4am so we're doing the All-Nighter again this year. Ron Alexander seems to think that we can pull off the scavenger hunt again. So this time, there are going to be even more teams competing and even bigger challenges. And just to get the ball rolling, here is the first clue:

It is the safest place in Charlotte. Find it and receive a surprise.
It's top is hard and it's bottom is soft, and although it is always in
motion, it is always in the same place.

The beautiful thing about the All-Nighter, too, is that it is relatively inexpensive. Last year it was $25 and this year the price will be comparable, and possibly less. Start thinking now about who you want to be on your team and even more importantly. Which friends from school, sports, or the neighborhood who don't go to church anywhere else you are going to invite! It will be right around the end of school so stay tuned for more details.

Flexy Beast (Jared)

The results are in! Although I can't say I'm terribly surprised...

The polls are now closed and the person most likely to stand in front of the mirror and flex is:
(drum roll please)

Cody Dermid! with 9 votes.

Mike Burton came in a distant second with only 5 votes. And the real girly-men turned out to be Cody Templin and Samuel Donahue, sorry guys.

Didn't vote in the last poll? Make sure your voice is heard by voting in the new poll in the righthand column.

FRYING PANS FOR EVERYTHING THIS SUNDAY!

Ok, let me just preface this post by saying that nowhere in the body of this text is there a picture of a cat, or any of any of it's...well...parts...(confused? read the post below!)  

Anyways, for those of you in high school, make sure you get there early this week.  Starting at around 10:40, there will be free breakfast for ALL high-schoolers.  AHHHH...free pancakes...what more could you ask for?  But breakfast is not the only thing we'll be "frying up" this sunday...

Don't miss out on week 2 of "FEARFACTOR...GO TO CAMP OR GO HOME."  Lets just say, if you dont like fried, or not so fried fish, this may be your last week!  It may look something like this:

Anyways, don't miss it.  We'll be continuing our series called baggage...see you there!

You can't do this when you're in charge (Jared)

Let me give you one more good reason to be a youth pastor. I know you are all on the edge of your seat here...

Robbie, Harrison, and I were getting ready for the "all staff" meeting this afternoon in the lobby of the new auditorium where we meet when we realized that Rob had previously set up a big pad of paper on an easel for Todd to use during the staff meeting. Now, at this point, no one else was in the room but the three of us. And I won't tell you whose idea it was, who did it, or who named it, but I will tell you that someone flipped past the first blank page and drew a mildly obscene picture on the second page. This way, the meeting would start out all serious, but the minute Todd flipped to the second page the entire staff would see the picture and laugh. What did we draw, you ask?

Here it is, couresty of MSPaint. Enjoy:

Baggage Video

Hey guys!
Here is the video we used this past week....

//BAGGAGE//

This past week was pretty amazing in student ministry at NLC. The middle school service started a new series about connecting disconnected people, and the high school service started a new series called "Baggage." I'd like to take just a second and focus on the latter.

The big idea was this:

"Until we learn to let God carry our burdens, instead of carrying them ourselves, our relationship with God, and our relationships with other will continue to deteriorate."

So for those of you who missed it, let me give you the brief summary of how to do just that. The key to giving your burdens to God is FORGIVENESS. Without forgiveness, we carry around things like bitterness, anger, resentment, jealousy, worry, and hurt. While in reality, if we would forgive the people or the situations that caused these feelings, we would be trusting God to handle them for us. When you do that, 3 results ultimately take place:

-Your Relationship with God gets closer, because you are learning to trust in his works, and not your own.

-Your realtionships with others gets a lot less complicated. Why? Because you are no longer carrying around these negative feelings towards people that have negative effects on your relationships.

-You begin to live in freedom. Not just pithy "I can do what I want" freedom. But the kind of freedom that Jesus talked about, when he said, "If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed!"

When Jesus died on the cross, he bought our healing. He died so that we could be free...free from worry, free from guilt, free from resentment, etc.

Now, does that mean these feelings wont come up? NO! But we can learn how to quickly give our baggage over to the greatest baggage-handler of all...Jesus Christ! And that's what we are going to be focusing on this week...so don't miss it!

Plus, FEARFACTOR is on again. We've got 7 people left. What are we going to do next...join us to find out! And don't forget...FREE BREAKFAST for all High Schoolers this Sunday...so come early. See you Sunday!

Some Good Pics

Check it out, these were taken by Heather this past Sunday.

And this one,

Pretty sweet, huh?

The Core of Our Teaching (Jared)

Hi Parents and Students! I was thinking about what to teach this weekend for our middle school students, because after Easter and a month and a half in the book of Mark the door is wide open for topics. So it got me reflecting on some the the most basic values and core beliefs about what we teach in student ministry. Here is an informal/incomplete list just in case you couldn't sleep...

1.) Learning to spend time with God (by reading the Bible, fasting, and praying)
2.) Learning to share our faith (in a way that is compelling)
3.) Learning to live in authentic community (this includes how to make good friendship and dating choices)
4.) Learning to live selflessly (especially by giving away our money, time, and love)

If all of this sounds vaguely familiar that's because it is based off of our three core values and SOAP. But at the same time, it's not just there so that we "fulfill the core values." Instead, it's that we authentically believe that the way to grow as a believer is to do these things and learn to be these people.

ps - why can't I vote in the "posing in the mirror" poll?

Mickey D's Anyone???

Just a quick FYI...for those of you who couldn't make it to our HSM (High School Ministry) "Grand Re-Opening" last week...man did you miss one beautiful worship leader! But besides the glorious beauty of one Cody Dermid, you missed out on an IMPORTANT announcement...MCDONALDS THIS SUNDAY!!! That's right, directly following our 11am service, ALL of the High Schoolers are piling up in vehicles, and hittin up some Mickey D's! No reason really, other than the fact that I LOVE MICKEY D'S!!! And i would love to have lunch with all you guys to get to know everybody a little better.

So, for those of you who are thinking...

-"It's too unhealthy..."

THEY HAVE SALAD AND WRAPS NOW!

-"I dont have the money..."

THEY HAVE A FREAKIN DOLLAR MENU! SPARE CHANGE?

-"I dont really like you Robbie..."

THAT'S OK, OTHER PEOPLE WILL BE THERE!

So no excuses, have lunch with us, this Sunday. We'll be back @ 2:15ish. See you guys on Sunday!!!

Coupon Book Update (Jared)

I just got done working on the coupon book for 6 hours straight. I'm not gonna lie, it's freaking exhausting. But I did get some good responses.
I got a strong yes from:
- Cafe Carolina
- The Golf Center
- Blooming Nails
- The Coffee Garden
- Robek's
- Boneheads
I've got possibilities with:
- The Divide (and their six other affiliated courses)
- Hot Tanz
- Shelley Keefe Photography
- Bellacino's
I also got some really strong no's, but what the point of going into that! And all this was in addition to some really good deals previously. Anyway hopefully all of this hard work will benefit our Middle School and High School students big time! Pray for me as I wear the "sales hat" this week.

Great Easter Sunday (Jared)

Wow, what a fanstastic Easter Sunday!
People came to faith in Christ for the first time. And the creator of heaven and earth condescended to us and was present with us as we worshipped Him.

We had a blast in Middle School, but I think everybody knows the real story of the day was the first Sunday morning high school service. By all accounts it was off-the-charts great! Thanks Robbie and all of the volunteers and parents that contributed time, sweat, and money to make this worship experience for high school students possible.

And to the students who came and participated, let me say that I'm really proud of the way you guys and girls step up, every time. Passionate pursuit of God never changes, even if the way we go about it sometimes does.

HIGH SCHOOL MINISTRY (ROBBIE)

I am soooo pumped to announce an all-new SUNDAY MORNING HSM (High School Ministry) SERVICE! It's been quite a while since we have had anything for the high-schoolers of Next Level on Sunday mornings, but come this Sunday...all that will change! Here’s three quick reasons why I’m excited about this:

-First, it’s consistent! Unlike with SNL, with us meeting on Sunday Mornings, we can carry this service on indefinitely, with no big breaks throughout the year!

-Second, it’s visible. Now the entire church will see, hear, and possibly even smell a ministry to High Schooler’s each and every Sunday. This will make it easy for our kids to remember to come, and even easier for them to invite their disconnected friends!

-Third, it’s GOING to be different!!! Without giving away too many details, all I can say is, nobody else would even dare to try and pull off some of the stuff we are going to be doing in HSM. Plus, it will be during only one of the service hours, meaning all the students who don’t want to miss service, won’t have to!

So, details in a nutshell are…

What: High School Ministry

Where: Matthews Campus Student Center

When: Sundays @ 11am, Starting APRIL 12, Easter Sunday

So, here’s what we need from you. If you are a high school student, it's simple, SHOW UP!!! If you are a parent, challenge your students to give this service a shot. If it means rearranging your Sunday Schedule, please do so your kids have the opportunity to be at this service. Our ultimate goal is to have our High School students coming to HSM one hour and either attending service or serving in other ministry areas during the other hour. This should work well with your schedules too, as we would love our adults to attend church one hour and serve the other hour. So, I look forward to all your help in this area! But even more more than that, I'm looking forward to Sunday, when HSM finally breaks loose! Maybe I'll see you there!