My Annual Report

Here is the slideshow of some of the highlights from this school year's ministry.  Hope you enjoy!

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The mental picture of us wearing completely outdated clothes, listening to old music, and playing old games, was a great help in having the teens see the difference between a fad (80's), and an unchanging loving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

Battle of the Bands

What an awesome night of music and fellowship we had on March 5th!  Five bands from all around the region came together at Foursquare Church in Rhinelander to "Battle it out" for an opening spot in this week's concert.  I will post some of the bands here.  A big congrats goes out to End of December as they were victorious!  You can see them this Friday night at our Remedy Drive concert.

Purity Banquet

What a wonderful evening we had Saturday night!  30 guests and a handful of volunteers made this year's Purity Banquet a night to remember!!!

The evening began for most of our attendees with a limo ride through beautiful Rhinelander.  Then we had our resident photographer, Sarah Hall snap portraits of them so they could remember the evening for years to come.

Thanks to Kim and Ann Prom, we had a wonderful three course dinner that included Chicken Cordon Bleu.

The message portion of the evening centered around, "Getting to the Root of the Problem".  We were able to deal with all aspects of purity in a very "PG" way!  The object lesson was a tree that I made to illustrate that very point.  Many times in our lives we try and "pluck" the "bad fruit" from our "trees", only to see them grow back days, weeks, or months later.  What we tried to get across is that by dealing with the root issues of sin, that would take care of the fruit problem.  Not only in the short term - but the long term as well!

We had a teenage couple share their testimony of how accountability counseling with Kim and I has really allowed them to remain pure.  We are greatful that God is using us in their lives and that HE is the one allowing them to stick to their pledge of purity!!!

We closed the evening off with a pledge of purity.  It was a five point pledge that was based off of Ephesians 5:3-4 and the points were:

1. To keep my body pure in every way.
2. To be in God's Word daily.
3. To be committed to my prayer life.
4. To deal with the root issues in my life, not just pluck to fruit off and move on.
5. To be aware of EVERY word coming out of my mouth.  I commit to building others up - not tearing them down.

Once again, it was an amazing evening and we pray that the Holy Spirit will guard and enable the people that attended to stick to their commitments.  That they would be able to live a life of purity!!!

Love (Monday night recap)

Well, Valentine's day was on Monday this year so the logical thing to talk about at Youth Group was "Love"!

We started by talking about what most people are thinking about when they think of Valentine's day.  Cards, Chocolate, Flowers, and being romantic.

An interesting thing that we did before my message was play a game of charades.  We took the candy hearts and the teens had to act out the words on the hearts (don't worry, we took out the bad ones!).  But before the game began, we had them each act out an emotion.  They were: Bored, Anger, Love, and Pride.  The interesting thing was that if the people didn't cheat and "draw" a heart, acting out Love was by far the hardest emotion to portray.  That led nicely into my lesson for the night!

I asked the question, "What does love look like?".  Does it look like the picture to the left?  That's what most Sr. High students equate with the word love!

I also asked "How can we see love?", and, "How do we find love?".

Of course, I had to bring my lovely wife Kim up front and share about our love for each other!  (I also presented her with her flowers and chocolate - score one for Chris!)  But seriously, I touched on several different points about our relationship and they were:

1. After 14 years of marriage, I'm still madly in love with my bride!
2. She makes me a better person!
3. She accepts me for who I am, and as I am!
4. She knows ALL my weaknesses, faults, and imperfections and she STILL loves me!

Kim & I in 50 years!!!

We then looked at our main portion of Scripture - 1 John 4:7-16.  The main verse that I looked at was verse 10, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.".

This passage in 1 John answered all the questions that I posed before!  We find love and see love in the God that IS love!!!  God in His very being IS love (1 John 4:8).  When we realize how much God loved and loves us it is truly humbling!  Because all four of the statements that I made about Kim, are true about God as well.

1. After 17 years of being a Christian, I am still madly in love with my Savior!
2. God definitely makes me a better person!
3. God accepts me for who I am, and as I am! (no perfection needed to be accepted)
4. Most importantly, He knows all my past, current, and future sins - AND YET HE STILL LOVES ME!!!

That, my friends is love.  When we become a Christ follower and allow Him to flow through us, we will show to this world such radical love that they won't know what hit them!  They will have to stop and wonder why we would love the way that we did!

But why isn't that happening?  I think we all know that answer.  It isn't happening because all of us, myself included, DON'T love consistently like God does!  Probably because we CAN'T love like God does.  My challenge was and is that we would allow God to flow through us.  That we wouldn't keep a record of wrongs.  That we would turn the other cheek.  That we would love sacrificially the way that God did and does.

We can see love!  We can define love!  It is all wrapped up in one picture...

Monday message recap

Well, I'm a little behind in posting this as my normal day of posting was interrupted by the celebration at Lambeau Field!!! Here I am standing on the front steps right before we went inside and saw the Packers return from Texas with the Lombardi trophy. The reason that I bring that up is because that is what my message was about on Monday - The Packers!!!

Now, it wasn't a review of the play-by-play from Sunday night as the Pack won their 4th Super Bowl. It was just an illustration for the point that I was trying to make.

That point being, even through devastating injury after injury (14 on IR, three during the game) the Packers pulled through and played at a very high level. It was a testament to the management of the team to have the right guys on the team. It was also a testament to the "back up" players that were there who stepped in and carried the load. Many of which no one other than extremely die hard stat guys would even know their names.

We looked at the Biblical account of Moses and Joshua. We picked up the story with one of the first times we see who Joshua is in Exodus 17 where Moses tells Joshua to fight the Amelekites. This is the cool story (and another completely different message!) where Moses held out his hands and while he did so, the Israelites would be winning. Whenever he dropped them, they would begin to lose.

Another example was when Moses was going up to get the 10 Commandments, we see that Joshua is his aide. This idea was what I was trying to get across to the teens - Joshua had a mentor and it was Moses.

You see at the time Moses was the rock star! God used him in unbelievable ways, from the plagues to the crossing of the Red Sea. The people ALL knew who Moses was, not so much with Joshua. But Joshua was learning, growing, and gaining trust with both Moses and God! He was being prepared to be the next leader!

Then in Numbers 27 we see that Moses and God both make his transition official. Moses lays his hands on Joshua and commissions him.

Well, we all know what happens next, Joshua found favor with the Lord as one of the two spies that gave a good report of the Promised Land. He was the leader who walked THROUGH the Jordan. He was in charge as the Israelites conquered the land.

We saw the effects of a man who was willing to be used by God. A man who was prepared when his time came. A man who affected an entire nation, a nation that followed his example and worshiped God.

Perhaps one of the greatest final words ever in the Bible is found in Joshua 24 where he is addressing the nation. He challenges them to "Pick a team!" and then lays it all on the line - "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord".

It goes on to say that the nation continued to serve the Lord after his death. He left a legacy.

So going back to the opening illustration, when one player would get hurt - another would be ready to take his place on the team. Not only taking his place, but performing just as well if not better than the person before him. Performing well enough to win the Super Bowl.

So the question that I left the teens, and now leave with you is two fold: who's your Moses, and who's your Joshua? Who is pouring into your life? Who is holding you accountable and building you up in the Lord? Also, who are you pouring yourself into? Who are you grooming to be the next spiritual leader?

We need to be prepared to do battle. We can't leave all the work for our Pastors and "Church People". Are you ready to "get in the game" if your name is called? Or are you hoping that someone else will do it? Let's all be ready, prepared, and chomping at the bit to affect this world for Jesus!!!

Testing, testing, 1-2-3!

Just giving the whole webcam/mic a run through here!