YouthMeeting

Youth Parent Meeting Notes

Youth parent meeting – In case you didn’t know:
This meeting was just to keep youth and parents involved in things you may or may not know about throughout the year. Lots of opportunities to volunteer for hosting events, or co-hosting, nothing is required, we just want to make sure you are informed.

We started with:
What your kids will be going through on Sundays – New Testament (in Romans right now). Trying to get through 1 book a Sunday.

What format we do on most Wednesdays – Game and short lesson (sometimes no lesson), we know their attention span is short on Wednesday nights and we focus on relationship building more than anything these days.

Ways you can volunteer:

Signup to host a small groups on Sunday nights or a hangout any other night
- Devos and singing are always fun, but not required. Sometimes a prayer and time to fellowship is enough.
- If it’s a normal small group Sunday night at our house, Ashlyn has started a girls bible study during that time as well. So any teens that want to participate in that, come get food at our house, and meet Ashlyn over at the church afterwards. This just started and the girls all loved it last week.
  - Any men that have a heart for something like this can also jump in and do one with the guys at our house or outside, etc. if desired.
Parties – in whatever format you choose
- Halloween
- Christmas
- Thanksgiving
- Super Bowl
- Valentines
- Back to school party
- Etc.
- (We try not to do Easter because that’s reserved for LTC weekend)

NOTE: Progressive dinners are also fun (at the meeting we decided on a Halloween progressive dinner this year)

Retreat – August 22-23

We’re going to get with the Januses about food
Kitchen help always welcome
Late night ice cream bar setup, servers and cleanup
We need couples who are willing to talk about “What is love”
- Pick a noun and a verb to go along with it (we can give guidelines to help). If the husband can do the initial talking, we also want the wife to help add a comment or 2 at the end, because sometimes girls will understand it better coming from another woman.
- Write down a few discussion questions after (or tell matt what your topic is and he’ll come up with the questions for you)
- If we can just keep it to less than 10 minutes, then we’ll break up into smaller groups and have team leaders to guide the kids with the discussion questions

Example: If Matt and Alicia talk about love in service. Matt would explain what that looks like and how he has done it in love, and expressed it in love. And Alicia would help explain it from her side in life, or give a few examples from her life. Then we’d break the kids up into their discussion groups and have some questions like “What acts of service have you done out of love? Have you ever felt closer to God when serving others? Do you think you could get better at serving others if you understood it as a way to get closer to God?”

Your kids will need sleeping bags and air mattresses if desired, church clothes for the next day, toiletries (no showers), and extension cords for fans, phones, etc. Guys and girls will not be on the same side of the building. No one is allowed to go home (if there’s an issue with that we can always make exceptions but parents we need to talk to you first).

CAMP:
Did yall like having a bus this year? Did it seem worth it? (overall consensus said yes @ the meeting)

Anyone coming out of 8th Grade all the way up through 12th can go to ENCOUNTER in Lubbock. It’s usually the week right before CTCC but we can get those dates to you when they come out. This camp treats the kids like adults and gives them classes and topics that hit hard, but is needed for their generation. They stay on campus in the dorms, have counselors that train to be with them all week, and lots of food choices in the cafeteria at meal time (plus a starbucks). This camp is really good for spiritual development and growth.

CTCC most everyone knows about. We have lots of adult volunteers and their kids can go for a discounted price IF they are coming out of 3rd grade or older. Younger ones need to stay elsewhere for the week unless you take a camper where they can stay with you. It’s outdoors, and hot, but there are water stations all throughout the camp. This camp is really good for strong Christian relationships being built.

Now, we know 2 camps in June can be a lot, and some of you are unable to do things in June because of sports or family vacations, etc. So, this year we also did some research and found a camp session that meets in July for all 9-18 year olds at Bandina, 4 hours from here, that is also outdoorsy, but focusses on spiritual growth and godly relationships, and seems to be right up the alley of all the things our youth group enjoy from camps. They also have activities during free time like archery, frisbee golf, regular golf, fishing, painting, cooking classes, finding God in pop culture, sign language, learning first aid, & learning how to grill…If this is a camp your kid would be interested in, let us know. We hope to take a group to it as well next year (Look it up online, Bandina Session 12: Elliott Session)
Also, they take volunteers at this camp as well but it does cost $75/person

Camp Champion at Lubbock Christian University was also brought up in the meeting. This is similar to Encounter but is for Junior High kids. Previous youth ministers here have taken kids to Camp Champion but Matt & Alicia have not because it has always been the same week at CTCC. If your children are interested in this camp (as it seems some of our youth are) we will make sure to find a sponsor who can take them and stay with them all week.

NOTE: For all camps, we can get scholarships for your kids. There are a lot of people in this church that want to make sure our youth get a camp experience. So please do not let $$ be the reason your child doesn’t go. We’ll do bake sales or other type events if needed as well.

LTC:
Leadership Training for Christ is also pretty well known here now, but if anyone doesn’t know, it’s for all 3rd-12th graders, and we plan and practice for it from January all the way up till Easter. We’ll put out sign up sheets in December and get a schedule for your kiddos soon after. LTC itself is hosted in Dallas the Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend. BUT if your kiddos can not leave Easter weekend, we have plenty of “At Home” events they can do to get credit and still participate.

THINGS THE KIDS CAN SIGN UP FOR:
-We always need more signup help in the nursery during Sunday mornings. Our church is growing with so many little ones. The rotation of names can be found on the back of the church calendar. If you haven’t been on it and would like to be, go find Alicia or text her.
-Matt would love to train more people up in the soundbooth who are willing to learn, and be up there by themselves, fully focused. If you’re easily distracted, or gravitate to your phone during worship, this may not be for you
-Church Retreat is April 9th-10th next year at Latham Springs again. We want to try to pay a couple of kids for childcare during the lessons. If you’d be interested, contact Alicia. How many volunteers are needed will depend on how many children are signed up, but we’d prefer the volunteers to be older teens, so the adults can all be there for the lessons.

A couple other things to know:
We have a youth budget for a reason. Anything you volunteer for can be reimbursed.

We have a calendar up in the youth room that covers August-December for you to fill out if you know things and times you want to host something. It will stay posted in the youth room if you ever want to go in and fill it out. (We will add things to it that we plan as well)

We do take the kids to A&M Church of Christ from time to time when they host a youth area wide type event on Sunday nights. They allow the kids to read a scripture and say what it means to them, if anyone is interested be thinking of that.

Our Sunday Night Singings have opened up time for the boys to bring a short devotional to the table, if desired. Sign up through Brian Kubena. Matt is willing to work with anyone who wants help putting their thoughts in order for a devo.

Last January we did Winterfest in Dallas. It’s like a mini retreat with 2000 kids. Singing and lots of devos. If anyone is interested, we’d like to get a headcount on that by October for budget purposes, but can add more to the number later if needed.

2027 Dates to Save:

January 15th-17th – Winterfest in Fort Worth
March 26th-28th – LTC in Dallas
April 9th-10th – Church Retreat @ Latham Springs
June 6th-11th – Camp Encounter @ Lubbock Christian University
June 20th-26th – Camp CTCC in Marble Falls
June 20th-25th – Camp Champion @ Lubbock Christian University
July 11th-17th (most likely) – Camp Bandina Session 12: Elliott Session in Bandera

**We will have a winter retreat hosted elsewhere in January or February time as well, and a few other events that we will post when we learn the dates.