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May-June 2008
 Jim Downs - Senior Pastor
By the time you receive this newsletter, we will have completed five weeks of the new Sunday night format. From my perspective, it has been a tremendous joy to watch the groups interact and discuss the Bible passage that I had been working on the previous week. In case you haven’t made it to one of these “experimental” sessions, let me describe what we are trying to do. The basic outline of the Sunday morning message is given to each person. For people who did not attend the morning service, this helps them to get a quick overview of what the sermon was about. As you sit in a circle with seven or eight other people, the men are encouraged to lead the group through a list of questions designed to explore the sermon and scripture passage a little deeper. Hopefully, your group will discover and discuss things that the Pastor did not have time to bring out in the morning message. Maybe it could be compared to shopping for a new car. You could sit in the sales office all day and let the salesman tell you all about the different cars on the lot. But the best approach would be to go out on the lot, kick a few tires, feel the leather seats, and smell the “new car smell”. With that hands-on approach, you are now ready to make a decision. In the same way, the Word of God requires a decision when we are confronted with it. That’s why the most important part of the evening is asking the question, “What am I going to do in response to this message and how can I be a “doer” of the Word and not just a “hearer”?
So far, these are some of the benefits we are seeing at the “New Sunday Night”:
- We are meeting new people for the first time.
- We are finding out interesting things about people that we have only said “hi” to before.
- We are watching the fathers and mothers grow in their quest to be godly leaders at home.
- We are spending some quality time with our family .
- We are paying more attention on Sunday morning because we know that the sermon will be discussed in the evening.
- We are focusing more on what God is saying to us in His Word, and trying to make the changes that He is requiring of us.
I encourage all of you to give the “New Sunday Night” a try. If, for some reason, you have to miss the Sunday morning, it would be a great opportunity to “catch up” on what you missed . . . and MORE!
Give it some thought,
Jed Manders - Youth, Children & Family Ministry Intern
 This summer I will be going on my first mission trip and taking many of your kids from the Youth Group with me. We will be going to visit Central Baptist Church in Flint, MI in the week of June 16-20th. Our plan is to help Pastor Chad Hertler make some repairs and upgrades on the exterior part of the church, enjoy team building exercises, do door-to-door evangelism, and host a cookout at the church for the community. This is just a fraction of the adventure we will have, I am sure!
In other news with the youth group, it is going to be a busy summer of activities including bowling, Bullfrog’s games, outreaches, campfires and more. Some of these events will be a lot nicer if the weather cooperates! I hope you all have enjoyed this never-ending winter as much as my family and I have. On the up side though, it sure is nice to be a part of a church so full of warmth. We love you all!
Youth Calendar 2008
- May 3 - Saturday morning youth evangelism
- Jun 7 - Saturday morning youth evangelism
- Jun 16-20 - Youth mission trip (jr & sr high)
- Jul 5 - Saturday morning youth evangelism
- Jul 19 - Green Bay Bullfrogs game
- Aug 2 - Saturday morning youth evangelism
- Aug 25-29 - Youth summer camp
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