80's Night Recap

We had an awesome time last night at our 80's night event!  The funny thing is that most of the kids that attend weren't even born then, but they did their best to make it work.  We had some 80's music playing in the background and did several events that were popular in the 80's.  We had a Rubik's cube battle (to finish one side!), a quick Tecmo Bowl game, and a Rock, Paper, Scissor tournament.

For our worship time, we did worship tunes from the 80's like "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", "Awesome God", and "As the Deer".

The message portion of the evening was handled by our intern, Justin Dietche.  I worked with him this week to help him develop this lesson.  We centered around the idea of "fads" and how the 80's were a very stylistic decade.  It was here and then gone before we know it (which is a good thing for a lot of what came from the 80's - mainly clothes and mullets!).

He set things up with that premise: the world around us is constantly changing, but God never will!  If we place our trust in things of this world, or try and please people in this world, we will always be coming up short.  But if we strive to serve a God who as in Hebrews 13:8 is the same yesterday, today, and forever we will not be let down!!!  Or in James 1:17 we are comforted in knowing that we serve a God that doesn't change like the shifting shadows!  Our God is unchangeable, and unmovable!  He will NEVER go out of style.  We will never look back and say, "What was I thinking???", with God.

The majority of his lesson was based on that thought.  He then wrapped things up with an analogy of God, us, and a car.  Many times Christians view God as an annoying "back seat driver", telling them what they can or cannot do.  Others might even put Him in the "trunk" of their lives and take Him out whenever they need him (like a spare tire).  Still others might have Him in the front seat with themselves and enjoy the company, but never truly give over complete control of their lives to Him.  What he encouraged the teens to do was to "pull over" and allow God to take the wheel of their lives and give Him control of where they would go.  To completely trust in the One who can see the end before the beginning!  The One who has a plan and purpose for their lives and loves them dearly.

The mental picture of us wearing completely outdated clothes, listening to old music, and playing old games, was a great help in having the teens see the difference between a fad (80's), and an unchanging loving God!