Amped Student Ministries

(H)SELF

2011-09-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

So lately I have really been trying to control my human tendency to be selfish. Through the last few months God has been making it clear that I have everything I need and SO MUCH MORE, yet I still want and think I need. I "need" (emphasis on the apostrophes ["need"=want]) to be recognized, noticed, acknowledged, exalted.

These past 3 days the staff here at The GBC attended the Newspring Leadership Conference at Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. It was a day full of 7 of the best known pastors in America. It was 8 hours of sermon after sermon spoken by church leaders for church leaders. Needless to say, it rocked my world.

Of all the pastors that spoke, the one message that hit the closest to home for me was not from one of my "favorite" pastors. Don't get me wrong, I think this dude is amazing, but he's not one I typically watch sermons of online. His name is Craig Groeschel. Craig spoke on (coincidentally) my favorite verse in the whole Bible. That verse is Acts 20:24. At first I thought "Sweet! I'm definitely going to relate to this since he's using my favorite Bible verse." Well, I was right, but not for the reason I thought it would be. Here is the verse:

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

- Acts 20:24

Craig broke this verse down into 4 points. I'm not going to type every point he made, but I am going to share the 2 things that absolutely destroyed me and my ego.

First, his fourth point was selfless passion. He talked about how we say that we agree with this verse, but it's so easy to say and extremely difficult to live. Think about the first sentence "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me...". Who have I been kidding all this time I've been a Christian and lover of this verse?! Of course I consider my life worth everything!

Second, he made a chart with 3 levels - Me, We, and God. The Me level is all about those who want to make a name of themselves. They want to be noticed. We is all about the "look at our church and the difference we're making." This is a step up from Me but still selfish. Finally, the God level is focusing all attention, all glory, all acknowledgement, and all exaltation on our Creator. After explaining all of this, Craig asked people to stand if they felt like they were in the Me category, then the We, then the God. Here's where I'm going to be very transparent: I stood on the Me category. Sad but true. The Holy Spirit had hold of my heart saying "You're always wanting people to notice you." I couldn't argue. I struggle with being noticed by more than just 6-12 graders and their parents. That's crap! The Bible says in Colossians 3:23-24:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly in the We category as well. I am so proud to be part of such an AMAZING church, and I let it be known, but then again, I'm taking the emphasis off of God, making it sound as if our church is awesome because of Us rather than God.

In closing, I just got out of the shower. I do a lot of thinking while taking a shower, mowing my yard, anything that has a constant noise to block out the world's noise all around me. The Holy Spirit just gave me an amazing idea that I will not go into major detail with but would like to share the main point of what I believe He is telling me to make into a sermon series.

"FLESH" is "SELF"spelled backwards with a silent H. Hence the title of this blog: (H)SELF.

A spelling coincidence? Perhaps. Coincidence that I thought of it? Not a chance. That was all God.

I just hope and am striving to make it to the God category level where Kingdom-minded selfless passion is all I know.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

- Galatians 5:24

STEP UP

2011-07-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? - 1 John 3:17

Hey GBC,

I can't tell you just how much I LOVE MY CHURCH and how much it excites me to see all of you stepping up to serve our community. For example, we distributed over $2,000 between four ministries that are literally changing lives thanks to the pennies your children brought in at VBS! I just watched a sermon last night talking about how we are to serve the non-Christians, the less fortunate, the poor, the hurting, the lonely and how everything we do for "the least of these" (http://bit.ly/duc0Tf) is free for them. We are to expect nothing back. But, obviously, it isn't free for everyone. Pastor talked about this on Sunday when he mentioned there being many needs in our area. To a "normal" church this may sound like we are begging for your money. Nope. I just want to encourage you to step up and help those in need in our area. Get involved in all that we have going on here - between the soup kitchen that 5:16 does once a month, Angelfood meal donations for families in need, Celebrate Recovery on Friday nights helping those with hurts and hang-ups, AMPED's upcoming trip to Evansville Christian Life Center, etc. There are so many people in need all around us, and we offer so many amazing ministries here at The GBC to help them. Go to our webpage here: http://bit.ly/o6MQVm if you would like to get in touch with any of the ministry leaders. Just speaking from a personal standpoint, our students decided they want to do more than just go and serve for a day at the Evansville Christian Life Center on July 20. They want to bring items that the center uses every day to serve the less fortunate. We have a list of these items on the Welcome Center outside the sanctuary as well as a drop off box just inside the doors at the church.
Let's step up. Let's Be The Change.
Love. Grow. Serve.

Bart Wagner
Student Minister
students@thegbc.net

NUMB3RS

2011-07-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

READ THIS FIRST:
http://bit.ly/ojdMoJ

Believe it or not, I'm constantly being given a hard time about my obsession with numbers when it comes to attendance. One thing is true: if you are so worried about attendance that you spend all your time figuring out how to get people to church but never actually heavily invest time in God's Word with them, preparing them, discipling them, and just plain getting to know them, then the numbers obsession is a stumbling block. But we should never be happy with just having the same kids/people in our youth groups/church each week. Proof: http://bit.ly/5NHTMv I heard this in a sermon that I watched this week, and I am actually going to preach about it in one of my sermons this fall: God is exclusive in that there is only ONE way to Him (http://bit.ly/3cURCT). God is also inclusive in that He invites us all to walk through that door known as Jesus. We as the Church can NOT be content with keeping our faith to ourselves. We may have a personal relationship with Jesus, but it is NOT to be kept quiet! Our motto in AMPED is making disciples that make disciples that make disciples that make disciples...etc. You get the point. (Making disciples that make disciples [for short]). I love how the guy (a high school pastor) ended his blog: "If that’s what being “all about the numbers means”…then yep, I’m all about the numbers, just like Jesus and the apostles. I want more…" Awesome. Jesus was always on the lookout for the lost, hurting, and lonely. Let's mirror that here at The GBC. He also never turned away or ignored anyone in need of His saving grace. Neither should we.

Bart Wagner
Student Minister
The GBC
www.thegbc.net

School's Out For Summer!

2011-06-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well, so far, it's been an awesome summer. VBS rocked! I still find myself singing the songs. Carrie Butler and I led the students (incoming 5th graders through outgoing 8th graders). We had between 45 and 50 each day just in our group alone. Wow, she was a huge help! Thanks Carrie!

Last Wednesday we rented a 12 foot outdoor movie screen and watched Transformers out on the grassy knoll. The students loved it! Thanks Kevin, Richelle, Carrie, and Meagan for helping set up the BIG screen and serving snacks, drinks, and cleaning up!

You may notice how much we appreciate our volunteers. That's because they ARE the backbone to our ministry...any ministry!!!

Reminder: this next Wednesday 6-7:30 is Human Air Hockey. It's one of AMPED's favorite games. Basically we put an enormous tarp in the grass and cover it with baby oil, shampoo, shaving cream, chocolate syrup, and anything else slimy and slippery we can get our hands on. We then take a watermelon (the "puck") and smear vaseline all over it. Two teams line up on each side of the tarp. When I call their number, members from each team rush out and try to score the "puck" through their goal.

AMPED and parents: Don't forget about "Just Lunch" at Sandy's on Thursday, July7 from noon to 1 p.m. Yes, it is what the title says: Just Lunch. It's a way for us leaders to meet with the students off the church campus to see how their summer is going, what they're up to, etc.

Wednesday, July 20 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. we are going to be serving at the Evansville Christian Life Center. Personally, I am most excited about this event. This will give our students the opportunity to serve the less fortunate in our own community and see that there are many people in need all around us.

We will be leaving for our summer mission trip to Newport, TN on July 31 and returning August 5. The average household income in the state of Tennessee is 43,000 a year. The city of Newport is just half that. While there, we will be hosting a kids club for two days to minister to younger children and also doing home projects for the locals the other two days. Please keep AMPED in your prayers, as this will be an eye-opening trip!

Jackie and I have been meeting with our small group leaders for this fall, and they are on fire! Parents, your kids will be in good hands with these leaders! We have also started a student leadership program. We've only chosen two students to start with. After all, this is new to us as well. The goal of AMPED is to make disciples that make disciples. We have been watching for about the last 6 months or so, and the two we chose to start with have shown very good leadership capabilities. These include: good attendance to class and events, serving others, having a good attitude, praying and speaking up during lessons, and, of course, love for Jesus and giving Him their time daily. We have given them some material to study throughout the summer and are meeting with them periodically to touch base with them. We are very excited about this!

And finally, the LOUDHOUSE Back-to-School Bash is Sunday, August 21 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. We will be grilling out, having blowups, and worshiping Jesus. I'm stoked for this because each Sunday evening after this, we will be having LOUDHOUSE weekly! This will be AMPED's very own church service. We will be beginning and ending with worship as well as a sermon given by your's truly each week. We will also be taking up an offering.

Sorry for the novel. There is just so much going on in AMPED and at The GBC! The best is yet to come!
Love. Grow. Serve.

Bart Wagner
Student Minister
students@thegbc.net

My Jesus high

2011-04-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm still (happily) feeling the effects of the high from Sunday. Wow, this place was so excited about God's calling. It was so amazing to see people step up to join the church. We 100% believe God is calling us to go mobile, but that does NOT mean we don't need your prayers! We can't make this decision without Him, and we can't try to do it on our own even after we are out of this facility and in a new one.
Hebrews 11:6 says: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
It is obvious why I put this verse. We always hear about the first part, but we must also look long and hard at the last part: He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Church, if we want a facility that will better accommodate our ever-growing needs and ministries, we must passionately ask Him what He wants, and most importantly: how we can be used!
Before I end this blog, I just want to say one thing to all my GBC fam: I love you guys. I've never felt so much love, nor have I heard other people say the same so much as what I do now. There is a reason we are growing both spiritually and in numbers. Because we aren't doing church for church people. We are following the Great Commission.
Have a great week. Be praying for Easter and inviting EVERYONE!!!
The best is yet to come. Hosanna!!!

30 DAYS TO A WHITER SMILE!!!

2011-01-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

      I have an obsession. Call it O.C.D., peculiar, self-conscious, whatever. But when it comes to my teeth, I am obsessed! A normal day for me is brushing, flossing, and using mouth wash 4-5 times. I have no idea why. It's something I have dealt with for about the last 10 years or so. So before coming into work today (while brushing of course), I was thinking how my obsession relates to our walk as Christians. At this point you're probably thinking "this dude is off his rocker." Allow me to elaborate.
      First I had to ask myself "Why do I do this?" The question wasn't at all hard to answer.
1. When I smile, I want people to see my shiny ivories. I want people to think "wow, he has pretty teeth."
2. I don't want people to think "holy crap, his breath reeks!"
      Then it occurred to me how hard I work to hide what's behind that "pretty" smile. I'm putting up quite the facade. Although much of what I think never becomes vocal, the smile I work so hard on is just a cover-up. When someone just really ticks me off, I try to just flash the pearly whites and walk away. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing, but it causes me to hold it all inside...which leads me to my next point of this bizarre blog.
Last night at AMPED I issued a challenge that will start this Monday, January 24. It's called the "A.P. 30 Day Challenge". My lesson was all about the benefits and biblical reinforcement of having an accountability partner (hence the "A.P.") I mainly pulled this lesson from two verses - one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament:
1. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 - Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
2. James 5:16 - Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
We discussed how when it comes to choosing an accountability partner we can't just settle for whomever. It takes one important thing...PRAYER! We must ask God to send the right person our way. It also takes time. People don't just earn our trust over night. Trust is time-proven. Just like when investing, we don't choose a single stock that's only been around for a year. No, we choose a mutual fund with a good track record. (Thanks Dave.) We also need to find someone who is on the same page as us spiritually. If that person isn't living his/her life for Christ, we may be good for them, but they will just be a stumbling block for us. You will NOT find a suitable accountability partner in gossip groups! One thing we've tried to ingrain in our students heads is that if someone is gossiping to you, they WILL gossip about you. An A.P. must be trustworthy and discreet. And finally, once the A.P. is in place, we must get past the mundane and surface level conversations. We must move beyond:
   "Sup?"    "Nuttin"
                                       "How's it goin?"    "Fine."
                 "Think it's gonna snow today?"    "Hope not."

      So what's the A.P. 30 Day Challenge? Starting this coming Monday, January 24, our students must choose someone to pray with a minimum of once a day for 30 consecutive days. They will each be given a sheet of paper that they both must initial each day after praying together, and they must both pray! Each one prays for the other. After all, that's what an accountability relationship is - two sided. They can pray together one of two ways: either in person or verbally over the phone...no praying via texting! At the end of the 30 days, we will be taking those that didn't miss a single day out to eat to celebrate.
      Obviously, without giving them ample time to pray and find the A.P. that's right for them, they don't have to be 100% transparent. The point of this activity isn't to find a life-long A.P. It's to get them in the habit of having one, holding that person accountable, being held accountable, and praying and caring for someone other than themselves.
      Jackie and I would appreciate your prayers for the next 30 days for AMPED. We believe this will be an eye opening and life changing month for them.

Bye Bye 2010

2011-01-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

        After a little downtime stuffing my face, spending time with family, and opening presents, it was time to get back into the swing of things with our December 29th LOUDHOUSE. This LOUDHOUSE's theme was "TRANSFORMED". We discussed the before and after effects of knowing Jesus and how through Him our lives are completely and forever transformed. The band started it off buy playing and singing "What I've Done" by LINKIN PARK, which by coincidence (or was it??? ;-) hmmm...) is the theme song to the movie TRANSFORMERS. Get it? TRANSFORMERS...TRANSFORMED. There ya go. Our guest speaker was Josh Dilbeck. Josh blew everyone away with his amazing testimony of how God completely broke him in order for the transformation to take place. Ryan Harpe followed up with a great message and an invitation to accept Christ. 5 students gave their lives over to Jesus that night! One student even said it helped him/her in a MAJOR crisis he/she was dealing with in his/her life. Praise God! After giving out the prizes to those whose name got drawn, Jackie and I had one more surprise for them. With money that AMPED had earned by buying and selling LOUDHOUSE bracelets along with a very generous donation from a couple who mean very much to me, we were able to buy our students something they kept hinting about even though I told them we didn't have the money. At the end of LOUDHOUSE we told them they had an hour to hang out downstairs, eat, play pool, the Wii, air hockey, and then told them there was one more thing. We then flashed up on the big screen their new toy: a brand new XBOX 360 and KINECT! They went nuts. The hardest part was peeling each of them away from it so someone else could have a turn. haha!

        Well, 2011 is here. Here are just a few of the upcoming events:

1. This Sunday at 6 p.m. downstairs in the AMPED High School room we will be having a mission trip meeting for this summer for parents. Afterward from 6:30 to 7:30 we are having an UNSEEN meeting for all parents and volunteers. Please come and let us know where you would like to help!

2. February 4 we are going to Louisville to Winter Jam. 10 big name Christian bands for $10!!!

3. February 11 is our second annual UNSEEN.

4. February 25-26 is our trip to Nashville for Acquire the Fire (ATF).

For more info, please see our calendar on www.thegbc.net under Ministries-Student Ministry-Calendar or e-mail me at students@thegbc.net.

p.s. Easter at Gibson Southern is just around the corner!!!

November 19 to now update

2010-12-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

Well, we had our Vertical Excape lock-in November 19 and 20. Wow, it was a blast. There were over 30 that attended. I honestly was a little scared going in to it thinking that after climbing for a couple hours that the kids would just be worn out and bored. Oh how they proved me wrong! They literally climbed from 9 at night until 7 the next morning. I practically had to pry some of them off the wall when it was time to leave. A BIG thank you goes out to our volunteers who helped: Kevin and Richelle, Britt, Michelle, Erica, Ryan, Julie, and Shawna. Thank you all for staying up all night and helping. You guys rock! After taking some of the kids home, Jackie and I got home at about 8:30. Needless to say, we crashed. Exhausting but soooo much fun. Our students told be that night that I better plan on doing this at least once a year...or else. Then came Thanksgiving. After eating myself stupid, we began a new Sunday series on Evangelism (this week's was called "Come and See" and a new Wednesday night series on Hope. We normally try to stay consistent with Sundays and Wednesdays, but Jackie came to me and told me God has been putting something on her heart about hope - especially with Christmas coming up. After all, that's why Jesus came to Earth - to give us hope! Sunday's lesson was from John 4:1-42 where Jesus talks to the lone woman at the well. She is so blown away by Jesus knowing everything about her that she goes and tells the townspeople to "Come and See." Wednesday Jackie completely brought it with her message on Hope. I even saw multiple Facebook statuses from our students about how awesome it was. You could tell that God was totally speaking through her. I love my wife! Well, that's all for now. Journey to Bethlehem is December 11 in Washington, IN. We are LEAVING at 5:15 p.m. and returning around 9:30 p.m. If you don't know what this is, here is the website.

This past week

2010-11-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

This past week has been exciting. Wednesday we had 31 students for AMPED. One thing is becoming apparent: with the average of 30 - 35 students each week, we are out of room! This is definitely a good problem to have. It just makes me even more excited about our 4ward campaign. Wednesday we talked about the upcoming events. The excitement from these students is overwhelming! They are on fire! One thing Jackie and I have been doing is talking with a lady that works at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. We are trying to come up with a night where we can take AMPED down there just to visit with the sick (non-contagious of course) children around Christmas. We took a vote Wednesday - the vote was whether to have our AMPED Christmas party (where we bring a $10ish gift to trade) or instead spend the $10 on a less fortunate child and bring them something instead. The vote was unanimous that we serve the less fortunate! We were blown away at the selflessness of our students! Sunday our lesson was "Watch Your Mouth" where we studied James 3:1-12. We learned that just as we can't draw fresh water out of salt water, we also can not (even though we do) let negativity flow from our mouths and live a worldly life and claim to belong to Christ. We must discipline ourselves daily to watch what we say in order to be His example. We had each student write on the back of their hands where they could see it James 3:10 which says: Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. We learned that just as a forest fire is started by the tiniest spark, just one negative comment can blow up beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Gossip spreads like wildfire. The students admitted that they deal with this both personally and with other people on a daily basis. One thing I've learned and shared with them is that no matter how old you get, it will never stop, but if we make it our priority to not be the cause of the negativity, it will make our lives so much easier and pleasing to God. Now for just a couple announcemnets:
1. Friday/Saturday November 19-20 is our Vertical Excape lock-in from 9 p.m. - 7 a.m. We will be LEAVING the church at 8:30 p.m. Parents, by all means take your kids down and pick them up in the morning if you prefer. All students MUST be there at 9 so they can take the safety & belay course. This is mandatory if they are wanting to climb. Also, the $35 and the waiver (permission slip) MUST be turned in by Wednesday, November 17 because they require that I pay 100% of the attendees cover charge in one lump sum.
2. Pioneer Day at Robin Resenbeck's (our Children's Minister) parents' house is Saturday, November 27 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Cecilia, Kentucky. The $10 and permission slips are due Sunday, November 21 so we have an accurate count so they know how much home-cooked food to prepare. We will be stopping on the way down for breakfast at McDonald's (or something similar), so they will need $5 or so for that.

That's all for now. AMPED is growing, and the students are having a blast. I'm so thankful for this group!

Heading into Fall 2010

2010-08-19T12:25:00.001-07:00

I must start off by saying this: I LOVE OUR CHURCH!!! There is so much going on here at The GBC, and I am so proud to be a part of it! This past Sunday we had our quarterly business meeting where we talked about the future of our church and moving "4ward." It was so awesome to see all the excitement everyone has surrounding our future. Now for news about AMPED students ministries:

Before the business meeting Jackie and I had a meeting with the AMPED parents. It went great. I love it when the parents get just as excited as the students! We discussed what our plans are for the remainder of 2010 - both in teaching and in activities. Parents, if you weren't able to make it, I have a printout of the upcoming events, but if you have any questions, please see the website. ALL the information is on there. Go to www.thegbc.net, click the ministries tab, click students, and you can select Calender, UNSEEN, LOUDHOUSE, etc. You and your students can even leave prayer requests that come directly to my email.

We are so stoked with the direction our ministry is heading. The students are bringing friends every week, and we are growing like crazy. Yesterday at AMPED we had two girls that came just because they heard how awesome it is. How cool is that?! They heard it from an ex-AMPED student (now in college), and took it upon themselves to check it out. They had a blast and were so much fun to have! We played human foosball. Basically it was a game to promote team building. They had to hold hands to get the soccer ball in the goal, but couldn't detach hands and had to stay in a line. The point was to see that they had to work as a team in order to get to their goal. We followed up the game with a lesson about the upcoming LOUDHOUSE Back-To-School Bash and how we MUST work as a team to make people feel welcome and loved. The students were so stoked. Every one of them wants to volunteer. They realized that LOUDHOUSE isn't put on for them - rather, it is put on by them for others. It's their way of serving their fellow students.

This Sunday we will continue our seven week study of "Truth or Dare." In this series we are learning the truths of money, media, being nice, authority, self-control, and words. We will end with a lesson on Living the Truth. We are learning these truths and how they affect not only ourselves but also the people around us and then daring them to change the way they think and act.

In case any of you parents don't know Julie Treadway, please introduce yourself if you weren't able to make it to the meeting. She is an amazing woman of Christ. We depend on her so much because of her love of Jesus and her desire to see as many people in this fallen world come to know Him. We are so thankful for her.

Also, as we head into Fall busting out of the seams with the number of students we are gaining, we have made the decision to pass 5:16 college ministries off to someone who is a tremendous man of Christ. That man is Chris Miller. Again, if you don't know him, let me introduce you. He is so awesome. Jackie and I really got to know him this year in Honduras, and he blew us away. I promise your college students will be in great hands! God has told us that with our ever-increasing number of students we are gaining, we need to step out and concentrate strictly on Jr. and Sr. High. God continues to blow my mind by sending people like Julie and Chris our way with the love of students and their betterment in mind.

Another awesome thing is that Jackie is working with Heather Rowe and Carrie Butler in PRAISE. PRAISE is a new ministry here at The GBC for students wanting to use their dancing, singing, acting, etc. talents for the glory of God. Jackie grew up dancing, so she's definitely in her element here!

We have so much coming up this Fall/Winter that my head is spinning, but I absolutely cannot wait! Please be in prayer as we continue to - with God's help - mold the students into disciples of Jesus. We can't do this ourselves. He is our Rock. We are just two messed up people that have been chosen to have the amazing responsibility of mentoring our students to reach out to others to further the Kingdom of God.

Bart Wagner
Student Minister
students@thegbc.net

BUSY SUMMER PLANNED!!!

2010-05-06T10:58:00.002-07:00

HEY YOU GUYS!!! Quick update on what's coming up with AMPED & 5:16: First of all, Youth Sunday and LOUDHOUSE is Sunday, May 16th. We will be honoring the graduating seniors that morning during second service. Way to go guys! That evening's LOUDHOUSE theme is "Gossip Killz". We will be talking about why people gossip and the dangerous effects it has on people. Secondly, it looks like our Summer trip for high school and college is going to be July 8-10 at King's Island for Spirit Song. It's a 3 day event packed full of tons of big name Christian bands along with tickets to the park (including the water park!). Another awesome thing is the 2 week trip to Honduras in June. "Did you say 2 weeks?!" Yes. Yes I did. The second week is going to be our typical going out into the local communities putting on VBS. The first week though, Jackie and I are leading our students down to put on a VBS just for the Faith Home orphanage (which is where we stay every year.) The most amazing part? Our own students will be doing the discipling! Each day will have a different theme and lesson by one of our own followed by separate female and male break out sessions to discuss what we just heard. One HUGE blessing is that Anette Scott will be going with us. Why is this so HUGE? She's a full on fluent Spanish teacher! We will also be performing our new skit "Set Me Free" both weeks. We couldn't find the song in Spanish so Anette got it translated and Jamie Rowe is going to sing and record it for us. Thanks Earl! The students are blowing me away with this skit. We have 6 demons, a tempted and lost girl (Jackie), the typical Jesus Grant, and Christian as Satan (no offense buddy, but you make a great Devil!). That's about all the big stuff. With all of that plus VBS here at The GBC, we don't hardly have time for anything else! Heck, a few of us will be working VBS here all week which ends on Friday and then will be leaving that night around midnight to travel to Louisville to fly out for Honduras. We're going to be exhausted! Oh well, God called us to it. He'll get us through it!

Update

2009-07-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

What's up? Wow, I haven't blogged for quite a while. Well, here is what has been, is, and is about to be going on with our youth here at the GBC:

In June, quite a few of us went to Honduras. It was mine and Jackie's first time to go, so we didn't know what to expect. After a week there, we fell in love with the Honduran children and weren't ready to come back home. It truly was a life changing experience for everyone, whether it was their first time or not. We all grew much closer spiritually that week. We made some new friends whom we didn't even really talk to here at church. The trip really opened our eyes to just how magnificent we have it here in the States. Praise God for supplying our financial needs and allowing us all to go.

Lately we have been doing fundraisers for our whitewater rafting trip to Gatlinburg July 23, 24, and 25. We have had cookouts and babysitting. We have found that the cookouts are what brings us in the most money. It's hard to raise a decent amount of money for each student when there are so many working each fundraiser. That's why we have continued the cookouts. As far as babysitting goes, it's not a huge money maker, but it's a blast. The kids we watch apparently have energy on reserve! Other than a fundraiser, we look a the babysitting as kind of a community outreach, in that it allows parents to be able to get away for an evening to themselves and have cheap childcare (It's donation based as well as the cookouts). All of the money from each fundraiser get divided equally among each student who worked. Our next babysitting will be this coming Saturday (July18), and the next cookout is the following day (July 19). So bring your kids Saturday night and go out to eat, to a movie, etc., and grab a burger or hot dog after either service Sunday!

As stated above, we will be going whitewater rafting in Gatlinburg, TN July 23, 24, and 25, but that's not all we'll be doing. We are going to camp, go to Wonder Works, and basically do anything they want to do. It'll be a blast.

The GB Summit is July 27, 28, and 29. Our youth will be helping run the cameras and video. Wednesday night we get to do our "Everything" skit in front of everyone. We thought we were only going to get to do it at one of the many workshops, but now over 1,500 people will get to see it!

Also, I just ordered curriculum for the start of our college ministry. We are very excited about this because currently our church offers nothing for the college age. We just had 5 graduate and are ready to take their descipleship training to the next level. We have also noticed other college aged people within our church who we would love to come. We are hoping to reach others outside our church as well.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to not take so long to blod next time.

Bart Wagner
Youth Minister
Ft. Branch GBC

consumed with Your majesty

2009-04-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we all just got back from the youth convention Acquire The Fire in Indy this past weekend. I, as well as everyone else, feel like it was a much needed event spiritually. We had some rededicate their lives to Jesus. Seriously, I wish everyone could have experienced it. There were around 15,000 youth that attended. Conseco Fieldhouse, for that day, became God's house. It's unexplainable just how powerful that place was that day. I consider events like this as kind of a pep-rally for our soul...and that it certainly was. We all grew much closer to not only God but to each other. We were all crying our eyes out worshiping the Most High. The Holy Spirit was alive in that place. It really is an unexplainable experience just being in a place filled with thousands of Christ followers. I am so proud of the teens. There was zero drama the entire weekend...no whining, griping...at least none out of the ordinary! haha It was the most amazing time. Thanks so much to our chaperones: My (Bart's) mom, Rob and Karen, Kevin and Richelle, and Andy. Thanks to you all for making this experience possible. Our prayer for that weekend and for our everyday lives is: Father, will you come, and open up our eyes, fill us with your heart, renew us with your life, consume us with your majesty. Glory, honor, and power belong to You.

DATE NIGHT FUNDRAISER

2009-03-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

We had the "Date Night" fundraiser this past Saturday evening, and it was a blast. I believe we had 18 kids, but it felt like 300! haha It's amazing how much energy young kids have! Everything went great, and the youth had a terrific time. This was an excellent fundraiser for us for two reasons: 1. It gave parents a chance to get away by themselves allowing us to help in our local community (all parents need this - just ask Pastor Steve!) 2: It gave each youth responsibility for the night. I was stoked to see how well they did with everyone's children. And for all you parents who asked if we are going to keep doing this, the answer is yes. We do not currently have another one scheduled, but don't worry, we will! We have a whitewater rafting trip coming up in July, and we are wanting AMPED STUDENT MINISTRIES T-shirts, so we will have more Date Nights for you. The youth that helped got to split the proceeds evenly making it much more affordable to attend Acquire The Fire. Thanks to all the parents that trusted us with your children!

Acquire The Fire fundraisers

2009-02-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

So the bakesale fundraiser went over quite well. We sold all but 5 items. I'm glad to see the youth working to help pay their way. This is good for them (not to mention for their parents' checkbooks). After all, that's how it works in the real world. Preparation is vital in my opinion. Does this mean they need to work their teenage years away? No. They need to enjoy that freedom, but responsibility and work are always good to have thrown in every now and then for something they want. I believe, in general, todays teens have too much just handed to them. It hasn't been that long since I was in highschool, and I had friends that got everything handed to them as well. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that I have seen the ramifications - ones that include constant phone calls from debt collectors to parents still bailing them out at the age of 25 and beyond. I believe that if we just help to plant the seed of responsibility now, it could continue to grow without them even realizing it's origin 5, 10, 20 years down the road.

STOKED!!!

2009-02-19T19:09:00.001-08:00

HEY YOU GUYS!!! As the title suggests, we are totally stoked to be the new Youth Ministers. We felt God calling us to youth ministry from the very first week we came to check it out. For those of you that are part of our youth, you guys are amazing. For those of you who aren't, our youth are amazing. For those of you who would like to be, our youth are amazing. That's all for now. Did I mention that our youth are amazing? Well, they are.