What's Happenin' @ Forward Mid-Week

Below is a brief summary of what talked about tonight. Most of the time we teach through a series for several weeks at a time that way students that miss can get caught back up quickly, and so we can dissect a topic more fully than just a one night deal. Use the overview and questions for both you and your teen to answer and have a dialog that continues outside the church walls and into your homes. Use this opportunity to see what God is teaching your student and also allow your student to see what God is teaching/taught you.

Current Series:

Science is fascinating. Even if you hate science class, you have to admit that the idea of conducting experiments is cool. It’s amazing how adding just a few drops of one chemical can create a reaction, adding a few drops of another can stop or deactivate the same reaction and adding a few drips of a third chemical can make the first two glow in the dark or it can make them explode! What’s crazy is that you can’t tell by looking at something what reaction it will cause. Maybe it’s an activator. Maybe it’s a deactivator. Maybe it’s neither. The only way to know is to keep testing it out and see what happens. Believe it or not, this is something faith and science have in common. We all experience moments that have the potential to activate or deactivate our faith, and it’s hard to tell at first glance which is happening. This was especially true in the life of one of Jesus’ followers and dear friends, Peter. As we take a closer look at his ups and downs, we’ll discover how sometimes the very experiences that threaten to destroy our faith are the ones that can activate it in a whole new way.

 

This Week's Recap:

Week #4 (08.31.2016): That's Not For Me

Bottom Line: When you have Jesus, you have it all

What we talked about:

Be honest. The Bible is kind of intimidating, isn’t it? We come to church and hear stories about Noah, David, Moses, Abraham, Daniel, and Paul, and it’s tempting to think there’s no way you’ll ever accomplish the things they did. And it probably doesn’t stop there. Many of us believe that God will use people like pastors, small group leaders, missionaries, or youth leaders to accomplish great things, but He’ll never use people like us. It’s almost as if there’s a special club for people with special, God-chosen talents that we know we’ll never get in. Believe it or not, Peter—the very same spiritual giant we’ve been talking about for weeks—probably felt the exact same way. God called him to some pretty big things, and it seemed like he might not have what it takes to do them. But then Peter had an encounter that changed the way he viewed not only himself, but also the God who called him. It was an encounter that activated a new understanding of faith. And as we look back one more time at Peter, we’ll see that this same life-changing, faith-building encounter is waiting for us, too.

 

This Part is For YOU Parents:

(Part 4 of 4.....the intro paragraph will be here each week, but the action item will change) 

 By Carey Nieuwhof

So, let’s just start by saying I’m not the most mechanically inclined person. But somehow that doesn’t exempt me from owning a garage filled with small engines: a snowblower, lawnmower, leaf blower, weed trimmer, and the like.
My technique for starting these machines is always the same: push the buttons and pull hard on the pull-cord. When that works, I’m off and running. When it doesn’t, I try the exact same things again. Then, I give up or call my friend John who fixes these kinds of things to tell him they’re broken.
 
More often than I’d like to admit, my friend John has come over only to tell me that my lawn mower wasn’t actually broken. I just needed a new approach. Sometimes I need to remember to adjust the choke, or try priming it again, or even to leave it because I flooded it. And then...like magic, it started because I tried something new. Teenagers are a bit like that.
 
When they don’t respond at age 15 to the things they responded to at age 10, we’re tempted to just try harder. But saying the same things more loudly, or trying the same tactics again and again won’t always turn things around.
 
After all, the teen years take away some of a parent’s favorite opportunities to connect, like bedtime stories and pick ups from school. So what do you do? Change your strategy.
 
If you want to get through to your teenager, here are some ways to connect that are unique to the teen years:

TAKE A DAY OFF WITH THEM
Throughout high school, I’d invite my sons to take a day off school. I’d take a day off work and we’d spend the day together.

And I get it. This feels so wrong. School is important, after all. But sometimes a day off is just what is needed to reactivate a relationship with your teenager.

What we did on those days mattered way less than the fact that we just took some time to be together. Sometimes it was shopping. Sometimes it was a road trip. Sometimes we just got ice cream and talked about life. The goal wasn’t to accomplish anything in particular other than letting my kids know the most important thing on my calendar was them.

One day, all you’ll have left with your kids is relationship. So take time to build the relationship. And when it feels like it isn’t working, try a new strategy.

TRY THIS
Breaking a pattern is sometimes the hardest thing we can do. And that is especially true in parenting. We fall into patterns and habits of connecting with our kids, but as they grow some of those techniques won’t work as well as we used to. And, sometimes starting a new habit is exactly what we need to reactivate a relationship with our kids at this phase.

This week, commit to focus on one of the four strategies that Carey talked about above.
•Be Around
•Eat Together
•Leverage Drive Time
•Take a Day Off With Them

Commit to focusing on bonding with your student in this way, and then set a recurring reminder on your calendar to do it.

Maybe for you that means scheduling time to just be at home with no to-do list or maybe it’s scheduling a family dinner. Maybe it’s planning to take your student on a road trip.

Whatever it is, plan for it and make it a priority. Your son or daughter will notice and it may just activate your relationship with them in a whole new way.