5 Reasons to Volunteer at Challenge
—by Jennifer Kvamme, Hastings, MN
Every other year hundreds of adults give up their 4th of July week to volunteer at a conference for thousands of wild, high-energy teenagers—some of them year after year after year! Why make the sacrifice? Well, for my husband and I, volunteering at Challenge has never seemed like a sacrifice, but rather a privilege. There are five main reasons why I’ve found myself eager to be a part of it: Read the rest of this entry
Graduating or Sending?
Graduating and Sending are very different. Which will you be doing this spring?
If you spend the next several months talking to your seniors about graduating, we frame their thinking primarily in what is ending. It’s a finish line.
If instead you talk to your seniors about where God is sending them this fall, it will help them to frame their thinking far more missionally. Read the rest of this entry
BUMP Translated Back Home – Super Bowl Style
Arriving home after BUMP week brings a participant a well-earned night’s rest in their own bed and a heart stirring with the words “new normal” and “missions begin now.” Capitalizing on the freshness of the message to translate BUMP back home, Jon Pausley, youth pastor at Liberty EFC in Pella, IA, began preparing his youth for a Super Bowl XLVIoutreach party.
Combining a desire to create a less threatening environment for evangelism with full support of the local church body, inflatables, pizza, food and pop, Jon’s youth group, “Journey Student Ministries,” threw an event to remember. In their own halftime “show,” the group performed the University of Northern Iowa’s “Interlude Dance.” Read the rest of this entry
Game Time: Transitioning Seniors to College
We’ve entered into the season where many will be thinking and talking about college basketball. March Madness is a great reminder that very soon you’ll be transitioning your seniors onto a college campus. Use the hype of March Madness to your advantage by allowing every news highlight on any of the college teams to spark this question:
What are we intentionally doing as a church to prepare our students to transition from our community onto the college campus?
Read the rest of this entry
Great Summer Urban Mission Experience
The EFCA’s Bridging Urban Mission Project (B.U.M.P.), as week-long urban mission experience for Middle School, High School and Collegians has been around for over 20 years.
But, this is no same ol’ same ol’ BUMP. Our new BUMP National Coordinator has brought a facelift to BUMP in several different ways, including opening up new BUMP sites with two different exciting church plants in Philadelphia and Detroit.
At the same time, April has preserved some of the things that make BUMP unique. For instance, BUMP remains to be church-centric, meaning we always partner incoming teams with a local urban EFCA church.
Registration closes March 15th. So don’t delay on making inquires.
Find out more about BUMP HERE!
| Baltimore: June 24-30 and July 8-14 Los Angeles: July 15-21 New York: July 21-28 St. Louis: July 14-21 and July 21-28 Twin Cities: July 14-22 Detroit: July 28-August 4 Philadelphia: July 8-14 |
Immigrant Hope for Students
Immigrant Hope is a ministry of the EFCA that equips Christians to love and serve the immigrants in their community by guiding them through the immigration system. There are millions of immigrants in the United States and more arriving daily. Many of them are unfamiliar with our language and culture and struggle to understand and follow our complex immigration laws.
Immigrants often find themselves in serious trouble because of a misfiled form or a misunderstood question. With a little training, church members, including youth, can help their neighbors, friends, and family navigate the immigration system, and show them the love of God in the process.
Working with Immigrant Hope can help students make the transition from knowing about God’s calling to living it out. Immigrant Hope is also a great resume builder: a social service program that includes experience in law, social work and cross-cultural communication. Your students can gain valuable skills and experiences while acting as God’s hands and feet in their community.
For more information contact Ben Johnson: ben.johnson@immigranthope.org
Disciplemaking Genius of Jesus – Part 8
By Bill Allison and Dave Garda- Cadre International Ministries (Posted with permission.)
See also: Part 1, Part 2,Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
Which one below is discipleship and which one is disciplemaking? Why?
What’s the difference between discipleship and disciplemaking?
Why does it matter? Read the rest of this entry
TIU Student Leadership Conference
This last week I was at the Trinity International University for EFCA week. I had the chance to meet with Katherine Goehrke who is the Director of Leadership Development at TIU. Katherine and her team are doing a great job of developing Emerging Student Leaders who as part of their development get to dream up and develop a Student Leadership Conference for 10th, 11th, and 12th grade high schoolers.
If you are close to the Chicago land area consider brining students to this conference. At $50/student it is one of the most affordable conference I’ve seen (price includes meals, housing, t-shirt, and a pair of TOMS shoes.) You can’t beat that!
Being Supportive in a Denominational Setting
As I denominational leader I found myself interested in a recent post on Slant33 hosted by Barefoot Ministries entitled “In a Strong Denominational Setting How do you Support Your Denomination.”
I’d love to hear your thoughts and any ideas you have for the EFCA.
Lost in Translation: Why Students Need an Alongsider
Students’ struggle is not lack of information it is lack of translation.
When we don’t see change in a student’s life, we often think the problem is that they must need more information. Even if we don’t believe this is the problem, it is often how we seek to solve it. We give them another message.
The truth is what most students need is not more information. What they need is to see how that information has been translated into someone else’s life. The problem is they don’t know how to implement the truth they’ve heard into their lives. They need a model. They need an “Alongsider” who will draw them close so that they can experience how this truth (information) has been integrated into the life of someone they trust and respect. A person who knows them well enough to help them in the early stages of implementing and applying the truth into their own way of life. Read the rest of this entry
