GPCC Year in review

Usually, the masterful Brian Eberly produces our church's year-in-review video for our annual celebration. But this year, due to a lack of computer resources (i.e. 6 year old macs w/ no hard drive space make for poor DVD production), I inherited the task. Fortunately, the good people of Grace Point had many pictures for me to use.

Our celebration is tonight, but for those who don't go there & those who missed the gathering and want a glimpse of this last year at Grace Point, check it out.

GPCC 2008 Year in Review from Aaron Geist on Vimeo.

Before I Resign

Encouragement is powerful. We are commanded to encourage one another, and yet sometimes it comes few and far between. This weekend, Brian and I received a copy of a student's paper on youth ministry from one of their college courses. The student had written it, reflecting on their own past in our ministry and as a high school student. It floored me, and encouraged me enough to keep going another 5 years! (no I wasn't thinking of quitting :)

Brian and I share this with you to remind you that you never reap in the same season that you sow, that it takes time to make faith our own, and to never underestimate the role of relationship in the lives of students. You can read the text of the letter from Brian's blog...the link is below.

Years ago, as an intern of Jon Knapp, he told me to create a before I resign file. Put in that file cards, notes of encouragement, and anything else that reminds you of what God has done through you. When that day comes that you think that you're having no impact, go to the file and be reminded of what God has done, and that ministry takes time.

This note is going in the front of that file!

Letter from a student.

Teen Sex

That may be the most shocking title this blog has ever had, but equally shocking and encouraging is the new research published by The Heritage Foundation on Parents and Teenage Sex. There are few other topics—save the choice we make about God—that have such lasting impact than our sexual activity.

I encourage you students, parents, and youth ministers alike to read the full study here. I'll summarize a few of the points I found troubling and helpful:

On Sexual Activity:

• Almost 2/3 of high school seniors have engaged in sexual activity. (That goes beyond sexual intercourse.)
• 2 out of 3 teenagers that had sex said that they regretted the decision and with they would have waited longer. (Wow!)

On Consequences:

• The chance of getting an STD doubled for those engaging in sexual activity at age 13.
• Sexually active teen girls are 3 times as likely to become single mothers and 40% of those will give birth outside of marriage.
  
• Sexually active adolescents are half as likely to be in a stable marriage.
• Mothers who began sexual activity at ages 13 or 14 were more than twice as likely to live in poverty.
  

On Parental Influence:

• When asked "Who is the most influential regarding your decisions about sex?" (depending on the age breakdown within teenagers) 39%-59% said parents. Only 5%-8% said religious leaders. (Wow! I can say a lot as a youth worker, but the most influential person in a teens life is their parent! Parents...I'm praying for you!)
• Parental factors that appear to offer protection against the onset of early sexual activity include: intact family structure, parents' disapproval of adolescent sex, teen's sense of belonging to and satisfaction with their families, parental monitoring, and to a lesser extent, parent-child communication about teen sex and it's consequences. (They say to a lesser extent because those parents who exert "excessive or coercive" control might lead to negative outcomes.)
  
• Parent-child connectedness is measured by the level of satisfaction parents & teens feel in their relationship, the amount of warmth, love, affection, and the level of parental involvement in their children's lives.

On What a Parent Can Do:

• Avoid sending ambiguous and mixed message about teen sex.
• Convey clearly to their teens their values on this subject.
• Focus on imparting clearly defined values. Simply discussing sex does not necessarily protect teens.
  
• Seek to strengthen their relationships with their teenage children.

We certainly have a difficult job to do as parents and youth workers, especially when you factor in the extent at which our culture at large give us freedom to do and explore whatever we want. We no doubt need to bathe our actions and conversations in prayer when it comes to speaking about sex. But be encouraged at how strong your influence is in your relationship with your child!

Students have a tough task as well, facing peer pressure, cultural influences, and their own desires. Students, this article isn't just for parents. Ask yourself, "How is my relationship with my parents?...What do they really think about all this?...Do I listen to wise advice and consider the consequences before taking action?"

Mexico Media

I finally have some more stories from Mexico, but this time it's not just from me. Yesterday, our Mexico team used the sermon time during our church services to share stories of what God did in and through us.

You'll find the 40 minute session along with our PowerPoint slide show links next. I've also embedded the 4 minute video slide show that Zach made. Soon, I'll post the 20 minute version that he and Caleb spent so much time creating.

The PowerPoint file is in the 2007 version. If you don't have that version, click here for a 2007 viewer.

Mexico Sharing Audio - MP3 File
Mexico Sharing PowerPoint - PowerPoint 2007 File
Mexico Pictures - These are the 'best' 500 out of the 1600 taken!

Back in the saddle

An eternity past once again. Life has been busy. This past month has been great, but with plenty of preparation. We took our High School group to the beach, had our first Mexico Mission training session, co-taught an Understanding & Parenting Teens seminar, alongside what just seemed to be a busy month anyway.

I'm sure I'll blog on all of these things soon, but alas, I've got some work still ahead of me today.

But, what I've got to share is our new camera. Prices on Canon's Rebel XT line are falling pending their discontinuation, and I've got a few friends with the same camera. Compound that with our 6 year old camera throwing a green swatch of pixels into every shot and it was time for an upgrade.

I'm not terribly well versed in the language of aperture, exposure, and shutter speed. But from what I know, I thought I'd try some shots in manual mode. What the heck! I mean, it's digital right?

Anyway...enjoy.

Day of the Town - part 2

We finished our day of the town at Bridgetown last night. It was a wonderful evening. You never know what to expect. In fact it was the first time that a homeless person ever gave me money. It was just a penny, but wow, what a neat lady.

Pictured here are Amy & Breann (youth leaders), Brady & Nicole (students) and Alison making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the evening. Along with the sandwiches, we served homemade chicken chowder soup, biscuits, cake and coffee.

I had the job of Disney duty which means sweeping up the trash under the bridge. It is one of my favorite things to do there because you get to walk around and see all that is happening. You also get to stop and have conversations with different people while at the same time letting people know that they are important enough to have a clean living space.

Alison and I along with my brother and two rockers from church helped lead worship for our gathering of cross-denominational servants. It's so cool when people from different backgrounds get together in unity to be the church and not worry about our differences. It made me reminisce of leading worship in Mexico. Both are a beautiful picture of what Jesus prayed for in John 17.

Back from Mexico!

Okay, so I never blogged to say that I'd left for Mexico...sorry :)

Ali and I, along with our youth group, spent an amazing 12 days in Mexico with missionaries Tim & Kathy Johnston. We participated in building a house, building a dorm type building for the missionaries, church ministry, a VBS, clothing and food distribution, house visitation and much more!

It was an exciting time in our lives for ministry but to also watch students gain a greater compassion for the poor and understand God's heart for them.

I'll share more soon, but I wanted to let you see the pictures and video. Hope you enjoy!

Check out the pictures here.

High School Pastor (and some other things as well)

Blogging is great. I love blogging...which is odd for someone who never got above a 'C' in High School English. Maybe I like it because I can write about what I want to write about. (And if I feel like ending a sentence with a preposition, I don't get marked down!)

But sometimes life is just too short for blogging. This past month and change has been a whirlwind for me. From graduating college (yes, the diploma finally came in the mail) to exciting changes in my role at church. But the one thing I haven't blogged about much (if ever) are my parents. The last few weeks have been especially hard as my mom's fight with cancer takes its toll. Though today, you would think that she had the energy of what she had months ago! Praise God! My dad has been a wonderful husband and a great example to me as he's taken much time off of work, even missing Father's day at church to be with his wife.

I guess all that to say, life's been busy...but good.

Now to what the title of my blog suggests:

For the last nine years, I've been serving with the high school group at my church. First as a volunteer, then as an intern and latest as a pastoral assistant to the youth pastor Brian Eberly. After two years of leading the high school group under the guidance and direction of Brian, our church is on the move!

We've been looking for a children's ministry director for a year now and the solution is finally here! Brian will still be the middle school pastor but also shift part of his time to overseeing the entire development of family ministry (birth - 18yrs.). We hired two wonderful women (Keli and Luanne) to direct the younger kids (birth - 5th grade) and I was voted in yesterday as Pastor to High School students.

It is exciting in so many ways.

I believe it was about ten years ago that I first felt the passion and desire to serve in this role. After a few missteps and a lot of guidance and perseverance, that day has arrived. (Although I've been doing what I want to do for years now without the title! :) )

I can't believe that I get to have this role in the church in which I was raised!

I am grateful to Brian for his decision to follow the expanding responsibilities laid in front of him. Had he said no...I'm not sure what my blog would read today. He is a great friend and cares deeply about the students.

In many ways, my job will not change though I will have more responsibility in setting the vision, direction and tone of the ministry and I know that there are many new responsibilities I won't even find out about for a while.

But I am very excited. I work with a great church staff. I serve alongside a great youth staff, and the students I serve are growing and serving in ways I wouldn't have in my own youth.

Want to check out our youth group? Just click here: www.180students.com. And if you'd like, feel free to pray for me. I could use it!

Winter Youth - Day 2

Wow, I'm tired. I stayed up way too late.

Yesterday was a challenging day. I haven't processed it all yet. If I could try to summarize day one, it would be live your life for an audience of one. Day two is harder, but I think it would be don't trade the gospel for pleasure or performance.

Eric talked again about those people who after knowing Christ for a while (or grow up in the church) base their "How am God and I doing?" question by pointing to how they compare against other's live...and how much time they spend reading their Bible, going to church, etc.

He drew a picture with the heart of the gospel in the middle and two kinds of people, one on each side. The right side were those who have Jesus + pleasure and the other was Jesus + performance. On the pleasure side their sin is overt, obvious, their goal is happiness and they abuse grace, using it as a license to sin. The performance side's sin is covert, not usually seen as sin, their goal is worthiness, and they abuse grace by not using grace.

The point is that the gospel is offered to both. In fact, many (most?) of Jesus' teachings were such that those who were the obvious sinners always got the point, and were found forgiven. Yet those who 'had it all together' missed His message.

Eric's final point was great. If you don't realize, don't know that Jesus already won, already satisfied it all, then you will just be performing a cycle in your life. You will try to do a bunch of stuff to gain God's favor. When you sense that there is no hope in that, you will turn away, seeking pleasure. When you find that pleasure is empty, you come back to trying to read your Bible better and slip right back into performance mode.

I hope I've spoken well of what Eric shared. It was challenging and a great new way of sharing very old ideas. He's set us up for tonight's talk with this.

The start of the gospel is accepting His acceptance of you.

Hope you have a great day.

Winter Youth - Day 1

If days two, three, and four bring the same fight and strength of message that came from day one, I'm in for not only a real treat, but a lot to consider as I head back to real life.

For starters, we had a great time with our group, much of the day hanging in our room, Safeway and conversing about subjects from God to how bad the boy's room smelled. Leading us in worship this year is Future of Forestry (formerly Something like Silas...and don't ask me about their name!). So far, they are doing a great job energizing us, helping us spend time listening, and singing some of the greatest hymns to a bit more modern sound. (Think U2, Chris Tomlin) Dave the horn guy is the MC. He's pretty cool. I hope that he can continue to mix up his routine.

Our first session speaker was Craig Gross of the not so often together Craig & Jake, and of XXX Church—an organization that calls itself the "#1 Christian Porn site" with its goals being to be an aid to people struggling with pornography.

Anyway, Craig told a few stories about different people down the road of sin. His main point was that sin is fun, but that it is fun for a season, and when we don't end it now, we don't know how that season will end. His stories emphasized that well!

(Real quick here, the theme of the week is The Gospel with light and dark being painted at the different sessions—Craig painting darkness and the way out, Eric Knox painting for us the light.

Eric is great! He shared the story of a guy on Venice Beach who could keep 15 plates spinning on 15 sticks. He talked about how for many of us, the Christian life becomes plate spinning. We become a Christian (or grow up one) and begin to add things to our life to, well, be a good Christian; things such as Bible reading, praying, going to church and the like. Not that these things are bad, they're great, but many do theses things "not to experience God's grace, but to gain God's grace." And worse yet, we do these things so that others will know that we are good Christians.

He shared the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector from Luke 18. He told how the Pharisee's was a plate spinner, comparing his deeds to all the other people he was not like. However, the tax collector laid low and said "I am the sinner." He didn't even say that he was one of many sinners, just the sinner. He acknowledged his need for God.

Eric asked us what would reading your Bible look like if you didn't have to read it? What would going to church look like if you didn't have to go to church? What would praying look like if you didn't have to pray. Because the truth is that we don't have to do these things as Christians. And any feeling that we have to do these things comes from a sense of basing your Christian life on others and their view of you.

Wow, this them echo's our pastor's saying of "Live your life for an audience of one."

I'd share more, but I've got to go wake my guys up and get to the first session for the day!

Merry Christmas

Wow! I've had a hankerin' to blog for some time, but just haven't found the time. From the amazing wind storms of last week, our church staff Christmas Party, to all that went along with Christmas, it has been exciting.

Saturday, Ali and I spent much time making onion and clam dip, my dad's famous chocolate-chip cookies and strawberry cheesecake squares. Sunday morning reminded me of my Costco days, getting up to be to church by 6:45 am. We played a special number written by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. That was fun. Jon Knapp rocked out!

After church, Ali and I went to my parents for my dad's side of the family get together eating a wonderful dinner, singing Christmas carols and exchanging gifts. It seemed that after a short nights rest we awoke, and went to Ali's parents for the morning. What a wonderful relaxing time!

We drove to my parents in the afternoon for time with my family and Matt & Annie, (Also wonderful) :) and capped off the night with my family and Ali's family all over at her cousins' house for quite a feast. I am so lucky that my families love each other so much!

Today I counted up Christmas gifts, money I had from my birthday 6 months ago (and yes, nobody wished me a happy half-birthday), and some gift cards and I got an 8GB Nano! Woohoo! Thank you all who gave me this present! I've had lots of fun already and even figured out how to put my Google Calendar on the iPod.

Ali and I are cleaning and packing for Winter Youth, a 4-day high school retreat at the Jantzen Beach Red Lion (I know...I'm really roughing it!) with around 1,500 students and leaders! It features great speakers, bands, worship times, a choice of seminars, and of course, the annual trip to Old Navy for the amazing clearance sales. Last year, two of the guys and I bought the same jacket!

I'm brining my laptop, so hopefully I'll find some time to blog.

I hope you had a great, restful Christmas.

Aaron

Blessed

What a great time of year. I love Thanksgiving and the rain and the beginning thoughts of the first snowfall.

We (in youth group) spent this last Sunday being thankful and realizing how much we are blessed. To help us out, we watched a Rob Bell Nooma DVD entitled Rich. In it he says that he gets tired of seeing all the bumper stickers that say "God bless America." God has blessed America, Rob says.

He goes on to tell us that if the church would practice giving a full 10%, the church would have something like an extra 100 billion dollars. He says that if the church just took 20 billion of that, we could take care of the basic food and water needs of the world. And by the way...20 billion is how much Americans spend a year on ice cream alone!

So we are blessed. I should be thankful. Only 8% of the world has a car. We are rich. So instead of wanting more things, I hope that my attitude changes so that I am completely content and thankful to God who has given me all I have, even my breath.

Happy Thanksgiving. May you see that you are blessed by God who shows compassion and unfailing love.

Tithing

I just read an interesting article on tithing. It probably doesn't begin to fully broach the subject, but has a good spirit in it's point.

To read it, go here.

Ever sat through a long sermon?

Copyright © Dan Piraro | Bizarro.com

Unity

We had a unique (dare I say it should not be) experience last night at youth group. For our monthly second Wednesday worship (2W2), we spent the night just reading, singing, praying and then took communion.

It was a stretch for some students, but I know others and the leaders benefited from the night. We sat in a circle and interspersed songs with Ephesians 4 and 5 along with time to reflect aloud on what we had read.

It was neat just coming together to be unified in a few things that the Church is called to do.

Retreat

First off, my congrats to Jon for his return to the blogging world. Seriously though, he had a good post.

I have got to comment on our mid-school retreat this past weekend. It was incredible. We saw mid schoolers open their hearts and bodies in worship to God, and He truly used the weekend to direct the course of their lives. May they continue on the course and not be won over by the daily grind. Check out a great video on Brian's blog of the worship time. I'm sure you'll be seeing the whole retreat video soon.

"How 'bout that?!"

Just had to quote Marko on this one. Cool? Cool!

at my church, they’re in the midst of a teaching series on doubts. in a nice attempt at creating a bit more of a communication loop, they invited people to text message questions during the sermon — questions about points that needed more clarification, or about related doubts and questions. at various points during the sermon, the teaching pastor stopped and some of the questions appeared on the screen, where he read them out loud and took a stab at responding to them. it brought greater clarity to some of the issues being addressed, and brought up some great ancillary discussion. for a large church, this worked way better than having an open mic where people could ask questions, as it was substantially quicker, and allowed for some pre-screening of the questions. it also allowed people to ask questions who would not normally make their way to a mic to ask something in front of a room of 1000 people.

Seniors '06

If only this was a post about me graduating...ah, the day will come.

Tuesday, two of the graduated Senior girls in our youth group stopped by church to say hi. We talked for a bit and then they left. Somewhat to my surprise, they drove by my office window about 30 minutes later saying goodbye.

Hmm...

Just a while after that, Brian walked out of his office to come over my building for a coffee warmer. He discovered that we had been hit!

Those girls!

I will miss them and the other seniors from the group. They have been a great class. They've gone through some tough times together, led the group well, and continue to follow Christ closer each day.

Thanks all you seniors for the good times!

Oh, by the way, this is my new car. A black 1998 Subaru Legacy GT wagon. Oh yeah baby.

Invisible Children

I know its been a while since I've posted. I'm finally on Spring Break and so excited! There is so much I could talk about. I recently watched Crash, which brought up many racial issues. It makes you seriously question (if you haven't already) whether or not racism is dead. (Obvious answer: no.) What makes it good though is that the movie makes you think about the little ways you might show racism in everyday life. I can't recommend the movie "officially" on account of language, but it was a good watch.

Now to other important matters. On Thursday, I had the privilege(?) of watching the movie Invisible Children. It highlights a major problem going on in the Sudan and Uganda.

After 17 years of war in the Sudan, the people have become weary of the fight. Consequently, people are no longer joining the rebel group trying to take down the government. Because of this, the rebel army has gone into Uganda and abducted children ages 5-12. The rebels kill some of the children, mame others, and force the rest to begin killing people themselves. The children become brainwashed into anger, fear, and a life of killing.

Because of the fear of abduction, thousands of children from the small towns and tribes walk miles into the cities each night so that they can find safety and shelter. After their sleep, they walk home the next morning to continue life.

I can't describe the sickening feeling I had after seeing the terrible injustice that is taking place. There are ways to help, which are listed on the web site. I've posted the movie trailer too in case you want to watch.