4th of July... feedback

Brad Says...
I think either B or C. A would work if it were more a family or all church thing. Otherwise, attendance might be an issue.

Joan Says...
Its 12:21 am July 1st and ooops, I'm 21 minutes late...oh me, oh my, a dollar short and a day late!!! My appologies again...I'm down for either options A or B.

Jeff Rigler says...
For this weekend, if we haven't planned and prepared for Sat., we might opt not to tie up everyone's day. Just trying to be sensitive to everyone.

Lynn says...
The Encarnacion's and the Palacio's are starting the 3 day weekend early... we're heading out of town on Thursday. We won't be back until Sunday night.

Orlando says...
I'm always down for the idea of a bbq or picnic, even if it's last minute. I've got a small grill (but don't know where the charcoal is) and a volleyball set.

Jamie says...
I'm down with option A. What's 4th of July without a bar-b-q, fireworks, and friends?

Carol says...

Bummer . . . . What happened to the BBQ? Oh well, as an outreach, it seemed like the 4th would have a lot of other plans in play any way. Maybe the neighborhood outreach can be combined with youth events on the 11th? If so, have the youth advertise around the neighborhood after church on the 5th (remember, put them to work! Work builds character and we don't want a bunch of kids who are used to being catered to--that can get kind of ugly!)

As for this weekend, you guys have been working really hard. I would say you deserve a rest.

Alternatively, if people were planning on coming out to the church on Saturday (and looking forward to it?) then they'll be scrambling around to make last minute plans for the 4th. If there's a large enough group (invite everyone, not just youth,) then option A sounds doable. But I would have the families do most of the work. The NLCotNYWaH still deserve to rest as much as possible--don't you think?!

Finally, option B is also good since we have an unusually unscheduled weekend.

Okay, so we'll be there no matter what you decide and we're free to help in whatever capacity you need. (Don't hesitate to ask!)

Some Feedback and Questions

Here is some feedback and some questions that people posted... please comment:

Joan says...

"Hi everyone! I was thinking about the July 11-12 Lock and wondered about a few things:
*Permission slips/Consent Forms-where can we get one? Each student will need to bring one.
*Theme-any suggestions?
*I'm thinking the Lock-In would start at 7pm with dinner. What's your thought?
*Games-let me know what games you'd be willing to facilitate.

Jamie says...

"Hey everyone, I just reviewed the minutes from the Youth Worker/Helper meeting last Sunday. Good stuff! I will be praying for each of our youth by name - that they would treasure Christ in their hearts more and more, and that they would see and experience in us a passion for Jesus that is compelling.

I'll share a couple thoughts after reading the minutes:

1) Aug. 9 - As soon as I settle on the dates for the hiking/camping trip that I'm organizing (during the week of Aug. 3-9), I'll let you know for sure if an Aug. 9 day-hike will work. If we do this, I'd love to have the parents going with us too. An alternative would be to schedule the day-hike on Aug. 16.

2) Question about the Nooma series: What is the main reason why we're going through this series, and what spiritual benefit are we wanting this series to have for our youth?

3) I'm getting the g-mail updates

4) I'm interested in the mentorship of a youth. I had thought I was assigned to Jonathan, and am wanting to grow that relationship. Sev, we can talk more about that.

Curtis' responses to the responses...
- Permission slips. Donabel Martin had a CD she was going to give me, that had forms on it... alas... I didn't get it yet. Can we get ahold of her? It may be laying around the house...
- I was thinking maybe we could have a "Rock Band" night. Sev said he had a wii, could he bring it? We could also play "Name that Tune..." that's always fun. I can facilitate that.
- I think 7PM would be good, since there's choir practice until 6:30

- For the hike, I'd like to do it on the 9th to avoid going into the school year (I think Kristen and Meg start early). So Jamie if we need someone else to lead, we can manage. I think we need to plan on it being close by, to do more hiking than driving. I would even be ok with just going to the top of Mt. Davidson for a picnic. That'd be simple enough to plan and transport. Not much of a hike, but at least there are trees!

- As for Nooma... I'm still forming my opinion. It's supposed to be the "Becoming" B of our 3 B focus. It's definitely light on Bible, but it's good at "relevancy." I think helping them contextualize how faith looks in their everyday decisions and thoughts is one thing they're getting out of it. I think hearing what others think on the topics is also helping nurture the "Belonging" B... of the 3B's. BUT, we're still open to suggestions. I'd like to let NOOMA run through August and assess it again at our Youth Workers retreat in August as we move forward into next school year.

- Mentorship. From the minutes from 4/14 I had the mentoring assignments as: Joan-Kristen, Lisa-Meg, Sev-Jonathan, Jeff R.-Anthony, Jamie-Christopher, Curtis- DJ. Should we discuss???

- For YOUTH WORKER Retreat/Planning meeting... I have 2 votes (me and Joan) for August 8th. Any more votes??? (between the 8th, 15th or 22nd)

Summer Lovin'

Thanks for meeting on Sunday. I know meetings aren't "supposed" to be fun, but I always have a good time meeting with you all! And I feel like we get stuff done which is always a good feeling.

Here's the schedule (other talking points will be listed below the schedule)

Sat. June 20th (meet at 5:30 at ATT park): Giant's vs. Texas Baseball!

Sun. June 28th (also Graduates Sunday): Nooma (1-3 PM)
Nooma - Curtis
Food - Jeff R. (SPAGHETTI FEED, youth group fundraiser)
Music - Joan
Mixer - Sev

Sat. July 4th (Church wide): BBQ (Time ???)
Church will be having a BBQ to reach out to the neighbors and our community. Invite friends! The youth group will join this with possible fireworks viewing to follow.
Coordinator - Curtis

Sat July 11th - 12th: Lock-In (6PM - Overnight!!!)
Youth Lock-in!!!! We will have movie night/Rock Band/intense hide and seek/s'mores/whatever we can think of! Waking up just in time for church on Sunday!
Coordinator: Joan

Sun July 19th: Nooma (1-3 PM)
Nooma - Jeff R.
Food - Joan
Mixer/Music - Sev

Sun July 26th: No Meeting, to help with Neighborhood GIG
Sat Aug 1st: No Meeting, to recover from Neighborhood GIG

Sun Aug 9th: Hiking!!! (1-5PM)
Jamie??? to coordinate a near-by, low intensity hike/walk.
Lynn??? to help prepare food to go?

Sun Aug 16th: Nooma (1-3PM)
Nooma - Brad??? (alternately: Lisa)
Food - Joan
Music - Curtis
Mixer - Jeff R.

Sun Aug 23rd: Service Project (1-3PM or beyond)
We'll be doing something around/for/to the church. Reminder, bring some work clothes!
Coordinator - Jeff R.

Sun Aug 30th: RETREAT!
We'll play it by ear, but it'd be nice to do at least one youth thing together at the retreat. Possibly during the group sharing times. But, we'll see how it goes.


Other stuff we discussed:
1) We're switching to 1st Saturday of the month for our evening youth groups to avoid conflict with the choir practices. (with the exception being July 11th, but we won't meet until 6 so I think that'll be ok... I'll double check).

2) We debriefed the first 6 weeks of YG, and for the most part I think we agreed it went quite well. To improve, we will try to vary our discussion methods for NOOMA. And we're going to try to get our weekly food costs down to $25/week as well as fundraise to further keeps our out-of-pocket expenses down.

3) We need to double check that everyone is getting the gmail invites.

4) Promote: Sept 11-12 Nor Cal All-Nighter in Fremont.

5) We need to work with our parents to share the vision of our youth group. Parents in particular are the Zachariah's, Gemma, and Aurea. One idea would be to have the youth start to do promotions for the youth group on Sundays. Also get a bulletin board area where we can show people what we're up to.

6) We need to be sensitive and prayerful to a lot of family changes a lot of our kids are going through.

7) We can start building mentorship into our program. We're starting with the high school aged students first. We talked about: Jeff R - Anthony, Curtis - DJ, Sev - Jonathan, Joan - Kristen, Lisa - Meg. See if there is any time in summer to meet 1-2 times a month together. Perhaps go through a book together. I'll post up some ideas on this blog sometime soon.

8) One of the Saturdays in August, I think we should do a Youth Worker Retreat. Maybe we can go out of town and spend some quality time crafting a vision/mission for our group. It'd be an all day get-a-way, with time spent: praying, planning, laughing, crying, encouraging, rebuking, etc... (ok, I'm sort of kidding about the rebuking... ) Let me know which of these is best: Aug 8th, 15th, or 22nd????

Live from SF it's Saturday Night!!!

So we're doing the big Saturday Evening Fellowship launch. Here are this week's responsibilities... you'll notice quite a few blanks... if you can't post a comment, can you send me an email and I'll post for you.

All the [???] need people to step up.

1a) I'd like to try to contact each family this week to pump this event up and just to contact them (even if we live with some of these guys, let's call them up!) If you're willing to contact by phone or direct email (I have most of the addresses):

• DJ - Curtis
• Jonathan/Chris - Joan
  
• Kristen/Sidney - Joan
  
• Meg/Cassy - Joan
  
• Terese - Joan ... she won't be there... but it'd be nice to call anyway...
  
• Anthony - Joan
  

****Thanks for being our phone person Joan... I guess the rest of us aren't phone people!****

1) Youth Band, 4:30 - 6 PM, Pira helping to lead. Meanwhile the rest of us will prep the pizza with the other kids when they show up at 5:30.

2) We needs some pizza ingredients

• Dough - Curtis
• Sauce - Curtis
• 1 pound Mozzarella Cheese (unshredded is cheaper) - Joan
  
• Another 1 pound Mozzarella Cheese - Joan
  
• Grater - Curtis
  
• 1 pack (8 oz) pre-sliced Pepperoni - Jeff R.
  
• Sausage - Curtis
  
• Mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, pineapple - Lynn P.
  

3) Can someone also cover:

• A salad - Jeff R.
  
• Root Beer, Sprite, Apple Juice, Water - Lynn P.
  
• Tiramisu and Cookies - Lynn P.
  

4) For the program, I was thinking... (feel free to comment) Try to start by 6:45.

• Youth band will kick us off with 2 fast songs
• We'll do a Pizza Dough tossing competition (we'll see how much dough we have...)
  
• OR....
  
• I have another game called... Team DDR... you'll have to wait and see...
• We'll do one more slower song
• Then I'll do maybe a 5 minute (Young Life style) talk...
• Maybe with one discussion question to end...
• Promote some up coming stuff. Try to end by 8:00

5) I'd like to offer kids rides home (we haven't done the liability waivers yet... so maybe we'll have these signed when the kids get dropped off).

• Willing to drive (probably could use 2-3 divers) ???
  
• Joan
• Curtis
  

Youth Group Sun. 6.06.09

One Month in the books... (This week's responsibilities at the bottom of post)

Well, believe it or not we survived our first month of youth group! Here are the highlights for me (not in order):

• We gained kids every week we met! Started with 3, then up to 5, then up to 6! At this rate we'll have 100 kids by Christmas!!!
• Seeing the kids and leaders get super PUMPED up at Elevate!
  
• We got a "Youth Room" started complete with carpet!
• Jeff's led worship twice! And the kids are not far off themselves.
• We made $20 on food!
• Moving towards some amazing partnership opportunities with New Start Ministries.
  

Some areas for growth (also not in order):

• Working on consistent attendance, and creating a place where kids will want to bring their friends.
  
• Working on more buy in from the parents and the rest of the church.
  
• Working on communication, between us and kids, us and parents, us with each other.
• Not feeling like we're "winging" it quite so much. And actually have a consistent plan and vision for everything we do.

We need to meet to discuss our first month in person. But for now, can you PLEASE COMMENT below with your HIGHLIGHTS and areas for GROWTH.

With that I'll leave you with this week's responsibilities: (let me know if you need a week off)

June 7th: Sev (leading) - Lesson Nooma,
Curtis - Worship
Joan - Mixer
Lisa - Food
Out: ??

June 13th (Night): Curtis (lead) - Pizza Making and Games, YOUTH BAND Practice 4:30.
June 20th (Night): Giant's vs. Texas Baseball (Open to entire church, Father's Day?)