Mission Trip 2010

Our youth took part in our annual mission trip July 11-17. We traveled to Seymour, TN (right outside of Gatlinburg) and helped with home repairs and landscaping. We worked for Mr. Eddy, who takes care of his wife, who has had three strokes and is unresponsive, and his father, who suffers from dementia. Mr Eddy's mother died three weeks before we arrived.
Below is a slide show that shows some of the things that we did throughout the week. Our kids completed two weeks of work in just under four days. We also had quality time hanging out in the afternoons and evenings, and on our free day Friday. Thank you to all who prayed for us during the trip and those who supported us by tithing to BGCC.

Most of all, thank you to a wonderful group of kids who worked hard, didn't complain, and came together as a family. A special thanks also goes out to the sponsors who sacrificed vacation time, and parts of their summer to come, work, and support these youth. Enjoy the slideshow and be proud of our kids:

7/25 Senior & Junior High Sunday School: One Thing-Having an Eternal Perspective

Lesson by Jared Graves

Introduction

What comes to your mind when I say the words “Second coming”?

What do you believe a Christian’s attitude should be concerning Jesus coming back?

This week and next week, Josh and I are going to give you one challenge for the school year ahead. My challenge for you this week and for this school year is to keep an eternal perspective. When school starts, it is really easy to become narrow-minded. We focus on what we have to do right then and there, and we do just enough to make it through the day. What if we were not promised tomorrow? How would we act, how would we treat people? My hope through this lesson is not to scare you into doing something, it is to motivate you to make a difference and have a different outlook on life.

Lesson

2 Peter 3:3-4

This is kind of like the fire drills and tornado drill you go through in school. When you were younger, you took them seriously. Now, they are a complete and utter waste of time. You know there is no fire, and you just go through the motions. There is no urgency.

Many of us have heard, over and over again, that Jesus is coming soon. However, we have begun to think that this is just like those fire drills. Soon to us is tomorrow, or at least within the year. So Jesus still hasn’t come, so we begin to let our guard down and think, “This isn’t happening today.” The thing is, it could.

2 Peter 3:5-10

We are on God’s time. While this seems like a cop-out, it is true. While we do not know the day, we can find some warning signs in Scripture to let us know that the day is coming. Remember though, these signs are not steps in a map, like a treasure hunt. They are birth pains (like Jesus says in Matthew 24). Also, we cannot say that something hasn’t happened, so Jesus can’t come. Lastly, don’t get caught up in how and when, just focus on the fact that it is going to happen. We just need to take a look at the frequency of the birth pains. Here are signs we can look for:

Signs in nature (Matthew 24, Luke 21)

Earthquakes, famine, sickness, disease

Wars and rumors of wars

Until 1914 no universal world, then we had two. Death toll from conflicts since then set to top 23 million

Isaiah says that we will call evil good, and good evil (Read 2 Timothy 2-9)

We will be tolerating on everything but the things of God.

More people will hear false teachers of God than truth.

Matthew 24 says that Christians will be persecuted. Now, we don’t see this really where we are today, but if you look at the past century, there have been more Christians martyred than all the time leading up to this past century combined. There are 200,000,000 Christians who face persecution, death, or torture every day. (Persecution.org).

(Matthew 24:14) There will also be a revival in people coming to Christ. Everyone will be reached with the Gospel. Is this happening?

The most telling is that people will ignore the warning signs.

2 Peter 3:14-15. God is waiting until all possible people can come to know Him.

Conclusion

I tell you all this to tell you this:

Don’t get caught up in figuring out when Jesus is coming again. Just know that He is. Just know that when He does, there are no more chances. No more chances to reach out to people. No more chances to live a better life. No more chances to grow closer to God. This school year, and every day from here forward, I challenge you (and myself) to live with an eternal perspective. Know that this could be your last day, your last breath. Live it to the fullest and leave nothing on the table at the end of the day.

Weekly Update 6.22

Tonight, June 22
Tonight, we will continue our summer long "BGCC Summer Olympics" competition. Tonight will combine both academic/logic and athletic competitions. Please dress appropriately. If you didn't come three weeks ago for kick ball, don't worry! We will put you on a team.

Sunday, June 27
This Sunday is the Josh Knabel show at BGCC. Josh will be doing both Sunday Schools and then answering the question "What are different ways to spread the Word of God?" during Ignite. Hope to see you there!

6.20 Sunday School "The Holy Spirit"

Senior High- Jared Graves
Junior High- John Baker

Introduction

Many times, people will take a jar with them on a vacation or a trip. They will collect dirt/air/etc from that place and bring it back home with them. Baseball teams often scoop up some dirt from their home baseball field and take it with them to give them good luck and to remind them who they are playing for.

If you had a jar, what points in your life would you have liked to bottle up?

 If this worked in our spiritual lives, what point would you bottle up?

Probably the most overused phrase in the Christian life is “mountain top experience.” These are instances in our lives where we believe that things really couldn’t get any better. They are the moments when God was so evident, it felt like you could reach out and touch Him. These are the times that we feel like we want to bottle up. Then, when bad times come, or that spiritual high wears off, we can sneak a sniff of the moment from our jar and let that feeling come over us again. For those of you who went to CIY, this happens every year. We always say “I wish I felt like I did at CIY”. How can we maintain this momentum, how can we always live our life with the same enthusiasm and excitement as those mountain top experiences?

Simply put, the Spirit of God never changes. We are always holding the Spirit within our heart. Today, let us find out more about the Spirit and examine how we can keep the momentum from CIY or find that mountain top experience at any time and in any situation.

Bible Study

Hand out the papers that have every mention of the Spirit of God in the Bible. See what we can learn from the Bible verses.

What does our research today concerning the Spirit of God tell us about His workings in our life?

If the Spirit of God never changes, why do we feel like we have come down the mountain?

If it is our fault for getting down from the mountain, what can we do to sustain the Spirit’s workings in our life?

Weekly Update 6.6

First things first...

We had a GREAT "Promotion Sunday". Combined, our Sunday morning total for junior and senior high was 41 students. Then we had 32 students for Ignite. With some of our students on vacation and others out of town, I can already tell that this year will be awesome, and I can't wait to see us grow beyond our current state, both spiritually and numerically!

TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT
It is VBS time at BGCC. All our senior high students are invited to come and volunteer for VBS. Our junior high students will be taking part in their own special section of VBS. They will not be doing the normal "kiddy" VBS, but will instead be taking part in a new and exclusive week-long experience. They will need to wear clothes to be active in (and shoes to fit that). Tonight we will be walking around a lot, so please dress accordingly.

Thursday, June 10
Also this week, we will be traveling to Barren Heights to do a service project. We will be leaving the church by 8:00am and will return by 3:00pm. While we are there, we will be helping them do some landscaping and getting them ready for their summer camps. Barren Heights is a great place for persons with disabilities and their families. We have some members at BGCC that have attended there in the past. Please let me know if you planning on attending this trip and if you are a parent that is interested in taking students on this trip. We need more parents.

Sunday, June 13
We will be continuing our series "Life's Toughest Questions" Sunday night. We will be answering the question, "I feel like I fit in better and enjoy hanging out more with my non-Christian friends than I do the people in my youth group. Does this mean that I am disconnected from the body?" We will also be playing some games and continuing to grow together as a body. Hope to see you there!

CIY 2010
We have 16 youth leaving for CIY next Monday morning. Those students need to have their BGCC and CIY waiver, along with the remainder of their CIY payment before we leave. We are going to have a great week. Please be praying for the students, sponsors, and conference. Thanks!

6/6 Sunday School "Yearly Check-Up"

Devotion by Jared Graves

Introduction

Students will play a get to know you game. This will serve as an opportunity to welcome new students to the group and make them feel welcomed.

“Find Someone Who”: Students are to go around with a sheet of paper and find someone that fits the description of each statement. They can only use the same person twice.

Bible Study

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-20

Which gifts/parts of the body would the Corinthians celebrate?

What are the gifts/parts of the body that we seem to hold higher in the church today?

Read 1 Corinthians 12:21-27

What are the gifts/parts of the body that the Corinthians would have looked down on?

What are the gifts/part of the body that we seem to look down on or totally ignore?

Application

We are one body. Today we have some new faces with us. I hope that you will take time to get to know them more and welcome them with open arms to our group. To our new kids, we say welcome. However, we also want to let you know that you are at a new point in your life. Now you are called to a higher responsibility. Let us use our gifts to the best that we can and let’s be a well-oiled machine for Christ, His Church, and His people!

5/30 Sunday School "Peer Pressure"

Devotion by Josh Knabel:


Introduction & Bible Study:

• Students are presented scenarios about peer pressure and must take time to match up the correct verses with the right scenario.
• Scenario 1- Ephesians 4:25, Ashley should explain why she won’t be going to the party.  She should tell Jessie about the youth group event and her feelings towards it
• Scenario 2- Galatians 6:1-2, Mark should sit down with Terry and explain what he’s seeing in Terry’s life.  He should try to persuade Terry to get involved in the church again.  He should also avoid getting involved with Terry’s new crowd.
• Scenario 3- Philippians 4:6-7, If Alan were going to be blackballed for not attending the party, he should turn his worries and feelings over to God and trust God to make his remaining years in drama enjoyable.
• Scenario 4- Psalm 37: 23-24, Eddie should refuse to join his friends in taunting the new kid. Even though Eddie stumbled before when he made fun of the new kid, the Lord will provide strength for him to resist this time.
• Scenario 5- II Corinthians 5:17, Rita should try and explain to her friends that she really doesn’t have the desire anymore to do the kinds of things she used to do.  She should then offer some alternative suggestions for what she and her friends could do together, suggestions that go along with Rita’s new personality.

The kids should take some time and write down some other situations that go along with peer pressure, and then share the ideas, while also checking to see if the five bible passages relate to the options they’ve chosen in anyway

Conclusion:

• Now just because we have biblical answers does that mean that standing up to peer pressure is going to be easy, just remember that God has promised to be with and help us when were in a tough situation, but he hasn’t promised that we’ll never face anything like that, or that life will always be easy, that’s why we have to rely on him.