Buya AM 11:00 Service Only
September 18, 2008
After careful consideration and discussion with the Shoal Creek staff and the Buya Youth Leaders, I’ve come to the conclusion that starting Sunday October 5th, there will be only one Buya AM service offered at 11:00am on Sundays at Shoal Creek.
We have only been doing the two Buya AM services since May, and after 4 months we have found out that we are stretching ourselves to try to keep doing two. We feel that moving back to one service on Sunday mornings will help us gain consistency in scheduling our leaders. Doing this will also give us better student to leader ratios. The point of our Buya AM services has always been to build better relationships with our students, but we feel we’ve been struggling a bit as we try to stretch ourselves to cover two services each Sunday morning. This move to one is being done to help us sharpen our focus for this time that we have with the students.
We do realize that this could adversely affect some families that have commitments that allow them to only come to first service. If you are one of those families, we are sorry, but we strongly suggest that your Buya student become involved in the Buya Servant and Buya Plunge, both of which take place on the 1st and 3rd Sunday nights of the month. The Buya Servant Team and Buya Plunge are places where we really focus on going deeper into the spiritual journeys of our Buya students and it is oru hope to see all Buya students make it to those nights. Those nights are the times we can really stretch the spiritual journeys of our middle school students.
If you have any questions, please email (justin.talley@shoalcreek.org) or call (510-3859) me.
Crash Fusion
September 9, 2008
High school students are invited to the Backs Family home this coming Sunday night from 6:30-8:30. Fusion is a gathering of students that meets the 2nd and 4th Sunday nights of the month. On these nights, our only rule is you bring your favorite to-go food! Everybody eats together and then stays to discuss where God and Life try to come together for this generation.
It can be hard trying to figure out how God is supposed to fit into life and how life is supposed to fit into God. Normally, all anybody ends up is in a confusing mess. But at leasts we can be in a confusing mess together and not on our own. That’s what Fusion is about.
Directions here. Questions: contact Ben Koehn 816-738-1106.
The Elevate Mentoring Team (or EMT)
September 8, 2008
Another update about what we’re doing in our student ministries deserves its own separate post. The EMT is a movement within Shoal Creek that we are starting to become fundamentally relational with our student community. We firmly believe that students are spiritual orphans in a world that seeks to exploit any weakness it can find. The EMT is a group of people who desire to connect spiritually orphaned students into a spiritual family here at Shoal Creek. EMTs want to save lives and help students find their home with God.
Each month the EMTs gather to focus on one method or skill that will help them be able to go deeper with a student that they have built a relationship with. We want to invite any parent who wants to learn how to join their student on a spiritual journey to these training nights. Our next scheduled date isn’t in stone, but is looking to be late Sept. or early Oct. Please email me if you’re interested in attending (justin.talley@shoalcreek.org).
I’m personally extremely excited about the EMTs. I think students are dying to find meaning in this world and have unfortunately become targets for people/organizations with not so good motives (read this for an example, from Walt Mueller-leading youth culture expert http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/2008/09/random-thoughts-on-vmas-what-did-you.html).
Relationships are what are most meaningful in the lives of students. I’m asking any parent who is willing to take a risk and try to build a relationship with a student to contact me. We are providing ways to build life-saving relationships, meaningful relationships, with students, but we need the people that want to be on the giving end of it. If you at all think you’d like to give it a shot, don’t hesitate to let me know.
Notes from Sunday’s Parent Meeting
September 8, 2008
Here’s what you need to know…
Buya – There’s not really anything changing in the forseeable future, we’re just trying to develop a steady rhythm with the things that we’re already doing. Here are the highlights for Buya.
1. Buya AM “Conversations” – Each Sunday morning we have started having a structured small group time to help us going deeper with the relationships we’re building with our Buya students. Each month has a specific theme, and we rotate through 4 overall themes: God, Self, Family, and Friends. These times are where leaders and students get to talk in-depth about where God and Life meet, and each Sunday’s Conversations topic is designed to let students share about who they are.
2. Buya Plunge – On the 1st and 3rd Sunday nights of the month from 6:00-8:00 Buya students are able to come to Shoal Creek for an interactive spiritual experience. We go into the bible and look at what God is trying to communicate to us. We talk about how those biblical truths apply to our lives in small groups. We give Buya students the opportunity to worship God through music, painting, journalling and other methods. Plunge continues to grow and we’d love to have your student come try it out.
3. Buya Servant Team – Any Buya student who is interested in being more than just somebody who shows up should come be involved with the Buya Servant Team (BST). The BST exists to give the Buya students ownership in Buya, letting them decide the events we will do in the fall and in the spring. We also help Buya students discover their gifts and help them find ways to become better leaders. This fall the BST will carry out 3 events: 1 service event, 1 fun/outreach event, and 1 fundraiser to raise money for a mission trip or camp.
Crash – Crash is the high school expression of student ministries at Shoal Creek and it is seeking to make things simpler for this next school year. We believe relationship building is extremely important to doing student ministry, so that focus is influencing the way we do things.
Fusion – Every 2nd and 4th Sunday from 6:30-8:30 Crash students are invited to the home of other students for an informal gathering. At Fusion we want to focus on dialouging and discussing our faith, not just sitting and listening to a speaker giving a talk. Each week we will seek to figure out where God and Life meet through student-led discussion. Each night will have adult sponsers and mentors present, but it will really be the students that take the lead to talk about what faith is and discuss what a life with God might look like. Just bring your favorite to-go food so we can all eat together and you’re in the door. We like this idea because it really allows everybody to get to know each other instead of a big gathering that everyone just shows up to. The first Fusion will take place Sunday Sept. 14th at the Backs home (directions here).
Crash Leadership Groups – Because we really want to focus on our students becoming the movers and shakers in our high school ministry, we will be having a weekly leadership group that takes place to help the Crash student-leaders focus on growing in intimacy with Jesus Christ. If you have a student or are a student that wants to find a weekly group that really focuses in what it means to follow Jesus, this would be the place for you.
If you have any questions about any of this stuff, please feel free to call me, Justin Talley at 510-3859 or email me at justin.talley@shoalcreek.org.