Northside Youth Ministry

QUEST 2009 is coming. It's our Fall Middle School Camp where we join 500 other students for a fun, crazy and inspiring weekend. This year we'll be at Camp Cascade from Oct. 30 - Nov. 1. The theme is "ReMix". There will be fun games, a great worship band and the speaker, Josh Mann, is a great communicator. Early registration is due by Sunday, September 27th, on that day turn in your registration form and your $50 deposit. The total cost is $105 if you register by 9/27. Call me if you have any questions!

Blessings,

Steve

Next summer we have the opportunity to go to an outrageously fun, life-changing youth conference called LIFE 2010. Every three years this conference is put on and every three years we join 6,000 other High School students at LIFE. It is a conference for students going into 9th grade through graduating seniors. This summer it will be located in Louisville, Kentucky. Below are some of the important details about LIFE.

WHERE: The Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky. We will be staying in a hotel next door.

WHEN: July 6-11

WHAT: The schedule includes an evening at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Main Sessions, Concerts, Activity Hall, Service Projects, Sacred Space, Food and much more.

COST: $950. This includes registration, food, hotel, airfare, ground transportation and Six Flags. We hope to fundraise at least half of this amount per each student. A $100 deposit is due by November 19th.

THEME: “Collide”- our faith should always be in movement and interacting with the world around us.

LEADERS: Pastor Steve and Theresa Erickson will be taking the youth to this conference. If we get a large group of students interested we’ll add more leaders. Students will be supervised during the trip and we take their safety very seriously.

MEETING: On Monday, September 21st @7pm we invite you to attend our youth parent meeting at the church to hear more about the LIFE conference and answer any questions you may have.

For more info check out www.life2010.org

I've been thinking a lot about God's grace lately. I believe that we must learn how to receive and release the grace of God. Grace is unearned and undeserved favor and love. Francis Chan says that, "God's grace takes us from the punishment we deserve to the blessing we don't deserve." Grace isn't based on our performance, it's received based on our faith in Jesus Christ. 

For years the blacks in South Africa were oppressed by the white people who ran the country. In the 1990's Nelson Mandela was elected President and the horrible practice of aparthied ended. Instead of punishing white leaders for their crimes they offered them forgiveness. All they asked was that they would openly confess the crimes they had committed. That is all Jesus asks of us, to confess our sin and put our faith in his grace and love to make us whole. 

Brennan Manning says, "The only reason that we're loveable is because God loves us." No of us deserve grace, but God gives it to us anyway, because that's just who he is. 

This Thursday from 6:30pm-8:30pm we're throwing a big fiesta party. I have 2 huge donkey pinatas that will be stuffed with candy. We're going to have a taco bar, a nacho eating contest, fiesta games and my friend Julio is going to share the story of how God has radically changed his life. Invite your friends, it's going to be awesome. 

This Sunday is Youth Sunday at Northside. We're in charge of the worship service. We need people to help with everything from greeting people at the door, playing on the worship team, serving coffee, reading scriptures, doing video announcements and acting in a skit. Sign-up Thursday night. It's all about serving our church! Everyone is invited, even if you don't usually come to church. 

I'm not perfect. You probably saw the February youth calendar and wondered if we were actually going to Laser Quest again this month. As awesome as that would be, it was actually a typo. I forgot to delete it from the calendar when making the new one for this month. Sorry, no laser tag, but we will do it again. We got lots of other fun stuff this month though. Ignite Service, DYC, Mission Impossible and Missions Night!

I just got back from a Spokane where I was taking a class at Gonzaga. We spent 3 days talking about the creative, about the right side of our brain, the side that imagines. I'm more of an analytical person than a highly emotional or creative person. However, I believe that creativity needs to be unleashed. Are you a creative person? How can we use our creativity to shape a Jesus Culture?

Imagine if you had a parent in prison and they couldn't get you a Christmas present?

This Thursday we have the opportunity to give money to help buy 2 presents for a 1 year old boy whose dad is in prison. With the money we give we will bring joy to a family in a difficult situation.

Remember to bring a few bucks Thursday night!