CBC YOUTH LEADERSHIP

We exist to glorify God by making disciples of all people through Gospel truths and Gospel living. Our hope is to equip all youth to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind as well as loving their neighbor, community, and church.

1. The Opioid Epidemic and Parenting Addicts: Drug and alcohol abuse is nothing new to youth culture. Sadly, it's been a part of the teenage experience for a long time. While anti-drug efforts have yielded a decline in the use of some drugs, the usage number on way too many drugs are on the rise. And not a day goes by when we don't read another sobering statistic or sad story related to the abuse of opioids or heroin. Today, kids are engaging with drugs and alcohol for a host of reasons. What is it like to work with a young person who is addicted?

We are commenting on this topic here at CBC YOUTH because it's not only prevalent but as leaders we need to be ready to counsel when it happens and educate prior to these things happening.

LINKS:

• Signs and symptoms of teen alcohol and drug abuse
  
• The Stages of Addiction
  
• 5 Critical Facts About the Opioid Addiction And Abuse Epidemic
  
• Teaching Teens The Perils Of Pot As Marketplace Grows
  

2. Winter Retreat: Whether you're going or not, I hope you are excited for this event. While we've been running this event. We have to start with vision so we know where we're headed and what we’re trying to do. Looking at the big picture, our ultimate vision is “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” (Eph. 4:12). As students are changed by the Gospel by purposeful evangelism they are then moved into the on-going process of discipleship.

For the kids, the purposes are to hang out with each other, recuperate, getaway and reflect on the year. Anything that we can do to facilitate this process is included under our vision for the counselors.

Winter Retreat is no different in terms of vision, but the scale is smaller and the setting is shifted. During this time we will have a more personal chance to listen, guide, and disciple. Our goals as counselors are to build/rebuild connections with the youth, help them to process, and baseline counsel them.

*There are still spots for students to sign up so please encourage them to do so.

3: Youth Culture: How do we disciple our youth to handle social media?

Susan Maushart has instituted “The Ten Commandments For Using Modern Media.” Here they are:

1. Thou shalt not fear boredom
   
2. Thou shalt not “multitask” (not until thy kingdom come, thy homework be done)
   
3. Thou shalt not WILF (WILF describes the “What Was I Looking For” phenomenon of using Google to look for one thing, and then burning two hours hunting down random and unimportant facts)
   
4. Thou shalt not text and drive (or talk, or sleep)
   
5. Thou shalt keep the Sabbath a screen-free day
   
6. Thou shalt keep thy bedroom a media-free zone
   
7. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s upgrade
   
8. Thou shalt set thy accounts to “Private”
   
9. Thou shalt bring no media to thy dinner
   
10. Thou shalt bring no dinner to thy media.
    

• ACCESS (Dec 8) - Gun Control
• Costa Rica Training (Dec. 10)
• ACCESS White Elephant (Dec. 15)
• Winter Retreat (Dec. 28-31)
• Combined English Party (Dec. 31) *During SS hour. Youth leaders who will not be attending Winter Retreat, please watch over the youth.
• Youth Praise (Jan 7) - 4th Commandment
• ACCESS Kickoff (Jan 12)
• Youth Symposium (Jan 20) - Youth Leadership Training - Joint Asian-American adult training. Registration: https://tinyurl.com/01202018