JCX Tuesday 6/29/10

We met last night … it was good! The End.

Ok, really … it was very good! Great conversation, great worship through song, great energy and a great group of people. Here are the details:

---Started the night with a time of prayer. We have been practicing praying out loud, eyes open, say what you are feeling inside to God, no “dear Lord” or “Amen” types of prayers. Four of our leaders from our Dream Team lead this time and did a spectacular job. Lots of things written down and lots of great, honest, raw prayers. Loved it!

---The teaching focused on Hell. We looked at Luke 16:19-31, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. We focused on the chasm in the story. We talked about how that chasm is in the heart of the rich man and how he chose to live a life of hell. That lead to a discussion about the chasm’s we have in our lives.

---I love our leaders group (the Dream Team, as I call them). They step up and do some uncomfortable things. I say uncomfortable because it’s not easy to lead a group in prayer or get in front of the group to speak or be an example to others who know you really well but that’s what this group is doing. Thanks everyone!

---CIY is full and I’m pumped about the group going. A lot of new faces and a group of great hearts.

---Angels game and Catalina still have open space for you. Interested? Sign up soon.

---We gave Samantha Squires the camera last night and this was the result:

JCX ... the last 3 weeks

It’s been 3 weeks since the last update here. I have an excuse … do you want to hear it? Well, I’m telling you anyway! Went to Hurricane Harbor with the high school peeps 3 weeks ago, Disneyland 2 weeks ago and Soak City with the 1st-4th graders last week. Therefore … no updates for you! BUT … I will catch you up right now.

***First … we welcomed our new Freshman into JCX. We did so with a fashion show. We had each one dress up in some clothes from our “weird clothes for shows” closet. It was great watching their personalities come out. Of course, there was the guy who wore the dress, but I must say … he wore it with passion! Each Frosh was connected to a D-group. Our groups welcomed them and really encouraged them. Looks like we didn’t scare the Frosh away … so glad!

***Second … we said goodbye to Lynne Brewster. She has been working with out youth, at YCC, for over 15 years. It’s tough watching someone who loves youth so much to move on but it was time. She and her husband will be doing some traveling and spending time together. Honestly, I think she will be back because in youth ministry you just can’t stay away. Lynne is a HUGE Diet Coke drinker … that was her gift from us:


***Third … speaking of saying goodbye, we did that to Josh and Adriana Oz. They have been working with our youth for 2 ½ years. It has been such a great privilege watching them connect with our youth and helping them learn and grow. We will miss them! A funny moment while we were announcing that they will be leaving; Josh didn’t give his D-group a heads up. As I’m sharing with the group that Josh and Adri will be leaving, his group yells out in shock and this awkward moment ensues. It was priceless!

***Fourth … We always have a moment where we just slip back to our “lets do this because it’s just dumb” mindset. We ask 3 of our youth to pull out as many tissues from the tissue box as they could in less than a minute without using their hands. Here’s proof (thanks Cole):


***So … now you know and knowing is half the battle! G.I. Joe! Some quick thoughts … CIY is full! A waiting list is now available to put your name on starting tonight @JCX. The Angels game is still open and Catalina still has some space available too. Sign up with a deposit and hang with us!

***Have you read about the kickback days? It’s a day that we are inviting you to come and hang with us. We will set up something ridiculously cool to do or you could invite us along with you and do whatever it is you would like to do. The next kick back day is in July. Look for details on the JCX calendar.

JCX Tuesday 6/1/10

JCX details from a GREAT Tuesday night!

-Lots of peeps gathered Tuesday for JCX. Always fun when peeps show up. Still amazes me that they show up. We started the main group time with a game of “Firsts”. There were 25 things that needed to be accomplished. Some crazy, some fun, some easy like: Be the first to get Andrea to say “E.T. phone home” (by the way, she HATES E.T.) or be the first to start a Red Rover game. So cool watching everyone move around the room at a frantic pace trying to accomplish all of the tasks.

-Jon Watch taught us from Romans 8:28. The teaching focused on the difference between “everything happens for a reason” vs. “all things work together for the good.” At the end of the teaching, Jon invited those who want “ALL THINGS” to be for the glory of God to write that phrase on their hands or arms.

-This lead to some great dialogue in the D-groups. Some heavy, some very profound and others just venting. All in all it was real cool to hear the response to the teaching.

-Next Tuesday, our leaders group is taking over the night. Their focus is Peer Pressure and Family. It’s been a cool blessing to watch them put together their thoughts on this. The way they will teach and what they have planned is very creative.

-Seniors graduate next Wednesday from school. This is always a tough time of year. It’s tough because I hate saying goodbye to those I love. Some are moving away and others will join the college group, which is rad! I get excited for this time too. We have 25 freshmen moving up to JCX in 2 weeks and that’s awesome! Looking forward to building some great friendships with these youth.

-Hurricane Harbor is in 2 weeks. Hope you can make it! $20 plus spending money for a day of water and craziness.

-CIY is July 19th – 24th … space is filling up fast … don’t be left out!

-Catalina is August 11th … have you ever gone parasailing? You can if you go with us to Catalina!!