Every year we put on our nice clothes and celebrate the year. 2016 was no different! We had what is fast becoming a tradition – a chocolate fountain, with amazingly good Belgian milk chocolate! With more dessert than we could possibly consume we were ready for a great night. Some of the awards were serious, and quite a few were just outright ridiculous.
Every year we get dressed up and have a great night celebrating the year. This year we jumped on board a double decker bus and headed for a restaurant. The youth community has never looked so fine! Young men and women dressed for a night of celebration, great food and great company. Throughout the night we remembered some of the lighter moments of the year – from drinking too much milk (Nick) or trying to explain a complex situation by including chocolate (A.J.). There were the more serious moments recognising God’s work among the youth community throughout the year.
It seemed like a good idea to get 30+ young people together and ask then to take a series of rather random photos! It wasn’t quite chaos, but it was chaotic. Check out a few of the images below. Well done ACTIV8 – it’s always a blast when we get together!
Youth Ministry doesn’t just happen! It takes a whole team… not just our awesome leaders but people who pray, feed, drive and do all manner of things to help make Youth Ministry happen. Annette and I have always counted it a privilege to work with such an awesome team. So to say thank you we put on an Afternoon Tea. Twenty years of working in her parents restaurant, has meant Annette loves hospitality and knows how to make some pretty awesome food! It was great to able to host the wider Youth Ministry team and enjoy good food and good company. Thanks again for all the many things that you guys do in helping make the Youth Ministry at Parklands Baptist…
John Ortberg in his book the Life You’ve Always Wanted breaks up the process of confession into a six step process. First step – preparation. We begin by placing ourselves in the care of the Spirit and asking for help. Key point – to see sin as God sees it (agree with God ) involves the Holy Spirit – it involves taking time to be still and let the Holy Spirit show us the parts of us that God wants to work on at the moment. We tend to be too hard or too soft on our sin so we need the Holy Spirit to show us the sin from Gods perspective. We need the Holy Spirit to have a…
At the start of every term the Youth Ministry team gets together. We debrief the term that’s gone and get ready for the one to come. It always involve food, laughter, fun and prayer. This year our theme has been taken form the Hobbit books (and movie) “An Unexpected Journey”
For those who are interested , last Sunday we played a rap song by Shad called Rose Garden. It came from musing on why Mark sandwiches the story of the death of John the Baptist into the middle of the sending out of the disciple’s story in Mark 6. There was a sense that Mark wants us to eat a ‘reality sandwich, toR know that things don’t always go easy or the way we want. He wasn’t promising us a Rose Garden. Listen to the song, and let the lyrics wash over you, and you’ll see what sticks. And for those who want to know what he said here are the lyrics : I didn’t promise you a rose…
Last year we had our first ever Unplugged Camp – a chance to get away and spend some time getting to know God – using different Spiritual Disciplines. This year we didn’t get away, but stayed put at church and committed to digging deeper into the riches of God. It is always amazing and encouraging to see young people seeking God an in such ways as stillness, confession, solitude and silence.
PIZZA Night…..over 30 young people making pizzas and of course eating them. Great work team and great patience as we rotated in and out of the kitchen. I never knew that Baked Beans was an option for a pizza topping!
