One quick phrase to parents...

If I had just one thing to say to parents...

"Raising your kids in the church is good, but not enough; you NEED to raise them in Jesus!"

Many adults realize this too late, while watching their kids walk away from the church. Perhaps, they thought that it was a good thing to get them to church for the youth events, Sunday School, youth group, etc. and it is, but sadly it won't stick if all they have is church and no Jesus.

When they are in youth group; I tell them personally over and over that they won't survive on their parent's faith. They won't survive on their student pastor's faith. They won't survive on their pastor's faith. At the end of the day, they will only survive on their own faith and that is their choice! They are the only one who can choose Jesus!

As parents, I know you desire that they will choose Jesus and not falter along life's path. Though, powerless on making their decisions for them; you are at a monumental point in their life! If they just see you living out your life for Jesus! If they see that you put Jesus first! If they see that you love Him and that you love them!

You as parents, have the best advantage of raising them in Jesus; you clock more time with them than the church and the youth pastor ever will be able to! Yes, we are here to help raise your students in Jesus and in the Word! We are here for you when you don't know what to do! We desire to work alongside of you, while investing in your kid and pointing them to Jesus. We desire to see your student get it! To own his or her's faith! To see them living out their life for God! For them to be able to stand on their own when they graduate high school; while not graduating the church at the same time! We are here for you!

Please if you're a parent, take this to heart! I really don't desire to see any God loving parent, come to a point in their life where they say "I raised them in the church, but I didn't raise them in Jesus."

Youth Christmas Caroling

Christmas Caroling is always fun and rewarding! Back in August, I decided that we were going to make this a must attend event for our youth. The event was a youth driven Christmas success. We invited people from the church to join us, and we even had a neighbor from the community join us. Two groups went out trying to successfully hit 11 homes across Green Bay. Loaded with gifts of cookies and ornaments, each group made their visits. What happened during and after; I could not put into words! But I will try to hit just some of the moments...

We had shut-ins that spent their whole day waiting for us to come, and were so excited to be visited. We spent so much time at each place, that we went close to an hour over what we planned. We had amazing people make us lots of hot cocoa and had plates of cookies for us. One of our planned visits, would have been a little too late for them; so while at one house we sang carols over the phone! I was bummed we didn't make it there, but was thrilled that we could at least be an encouragement to her.

Afterwards, I was able to get a few reflections from the youth. How the older people looked forward to it. That they had fun. Below I included a clip of We Wish You a Merry Christmas from my group, as well as my group photo and a photo of ornament decorating!

Packer Game at the Ott's House

The game ended up going from prime time to noon! So right after church, we rushed home!!! The game was a fun one; with the Pack pulling it out in the end. Always great when you have a youth event that the home team wins. We grilled hot dogs, and ate tons of food. AND I would have never guessed that fruit snack were the most popular snack! The guys threw the pigskin during halftime in the snow and the ladies stayed warm inside watching youtube videos. Fun afternoon

Turkey Bowling!

This past Wednesday evening, we had a Night of Thanksgiving! The headliner game was Turkey Bowling. I have never done this before and had no clue how it would turn out. It was an awesome idea and the youth had a blast, not to mention their parents and the kids also had fun afterwards. Here is a video of my wife and she even got a few bumper lanes...