JANUARY UPDATE

JANUARY: (Reboot): To start the spring semester we're going to recalibrate after a long break. Use this month to reconnect with your students. Get them to look ahead for the semester. Revisit goals and plans.

FEBRUARY-MAY: (Missions/Evangelism): This block in our calendar is going to be dedicated to acting on the Gospel. Building off of the Fall's series of "Foundations" the spring is going to put our understanding into work.

• MARCH: (Shalom): We're doing to dedicate this month to researching and partnering with local and global organizations to push back the darkness. So we want to get each DG to find their own organization, research about it, and find ways to get involved.

JUNE-JULY: (Development): We're going to use our two prime months in the summer to work on social and developmental skills with our youth. Of course come from a biblical understanding of it but we want to use this time to hit on topics like "cooking, auto-mechanics, repairs, budgeting, etc."

AUGUST: (Bootcamp): It's the start of the youth year where we transition students in and other students out. We'll set vision and direction for the year. We'll do heavy training this year (bootcamp yes?)

SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER: (Foundations): This block of time will be to teach our students the foundations of scripture and basics of doctrine and theology. .

January: Use this month to re-calibrate your DG. You're coming back from a 4 week or so hiatus and you're going to want to reconnect with your students. What were some things they experienced over the break? Were there any big life moments that occurred during the break? Typically, the holidays are spent with a lot of family and you may want to dig into some of those dynamics. Maybe some of them had some great memories that were created, maybe others had big fights. Allow them to talk. While the 2nd sunday can be reconnecting and sharing, use the other weeks to plan for the rest of the semester - what are some goals you want for your DG? Now that you've navigated a whole semester of DGs, you're able to be a bit more direct in how you deal with your youth. Challenge them more with responsibility and expectations but communicate that to them. Lastly, you could use the rest of the month to talk about the idea of Sabbath (ref. to Sunday's Youth Praise - Smore) MS groups - maybe take one element of Sabbath and teach and practice that together. HS groups - maybe discuss how to engage and participate in corporate worship.

February-May: If you refer to the overview of the year, we're going to use these three months to focus on evangelism and outreach. Mainly because I want to align ourselves with Pastor Dan's vision for the church. Also this works well with our flow because hopefully we will in the future spend the Fall preparing the foundation on doctrine and theology so that we can implement it in the Spring. So here's a general overview suggestion for yall:

Things to prepare for this semester:

• Understanding the Gospel
• Understanding Missions
• Living as a student & a Christian at school (and in organizations)
• Inviting friends to DGs, ACCESS, Special Events
• Sharing with friends the Gospel
• Inviting potential DG leaders to shadow and join your group (Recruitment)
• Transitioning the 8th grader and 12th grader to the next stage
• What does it mean to be a missionary at home/work?

March: (Shalom) This month will be dedicated to researching, investing, and partnering with local organizations that push back the darkness in our city/world. Each DG will find their own organization to pair up with. The month will consist of:

• Finding a unique organization that your DG feels a special burden for
• Getting together as a DG and really praying for that organization and the people involved.
• Researching the needs and philosophy of that ministry together
• Participating in several of their events as a DG (pref. including their families as well)
• Each DG will report back to the youth group and compile a list of needs that our youth group can continue to support.

1/12 ACCESS Kickoff: "The Great Leader Showdown"

1/14 Parents Meeting

1/20 Leadership Symposium

1/21 Costa Rica Training #2

1/28 Membership Meeting

2/10 Costa Rica Training #3

2/11 Spaghetti Luncheon

2/16-20 Justin speaking in Boston

2/25 Membership Meeting

3/4 Parents Meeting // Costa Rica Training #4

3/12-17 Costa Rica Missions Trip

4/1 Easter (No Combined Service; Yes Youth Praise)

4/20 Combined Chinese Church Fellowship Event

5/27 Senior Banquet

6/18-23 World Changers (Houston, Texas) CBC possible host

7/9-13 VBS

722-25 DCamp

7/25-29 Camp Impact

8/10 Java Jam XII

Oh, this is the greatest show

We light it up, we won't come down

And the sun can't stop us now

Watching it come true, it's taking over you

Oh, this is the greatest show

Inspired by the imagination of P. T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

This movie came out about a month ago and recently won a Golden Globe. It is currently the top movie in theaters around the world. I’ve had the chance to watch it twice and listen to the soundtrack like a million times on Spotify. If you watch it in theaters (because downloading it isn’t going to give you the same feeling) you may find yourself overwhelmed by the “feels” in so many different ways.

First off, the original songs work perfectly with the plot line and you’re just drawn into the movie and i’d say this would be true even if you weren’t a musical-type of person. I think any time there’s rhythmic stomping and falsettos, it just makes you wanna get up and join them. But i kept asking myself, what makes this movie so powerful? I think it comes from how God created us to want adventure and to want to be part of a story - not only a love story but one that has meaning and deep significance. You can feel it in the characters in this movie and it’s easy to sympathize with where they’re headed. We want to join the characters of misfits and say, “this is me.”

But beyond all of that there are things to continue to point back to God’s good design. We want to be accepted by culture and the world and often times we’ll sacrifice our integrity to do so. But it is not until we know who we are that we can finally be set free. For those who call themselves Christians, this is you...your new identity is not found in how cool, rich, poor, ugly, smart, dumb, rejected, you are but you are defined by how God sees you through Jesus - perfect. But it doesn’t stop there, once our know who we are we are pulled together as a family (even if it is a family of dysfunction people). We come together with all our brokenness and we cry out that we have a common bond in the Gospel. And then God sets us on a journey together to go into the world and share this great transformation news.

After the movie i found myself telling everyone i could about how great it was. I kept pushing the songs on others to get them to listen to it. Not because i was getting anything from it, but because I enjoyed it and i believed others would enjoy it too. I found myself to be an evangelist for this movie. So...imagine if there was something extremely important that you found in your life that you couldn’t keep to yourself. Imagine if there was a “Good News” that would change those around you. Hmm...i wonder what that could be.