Upward Concessions

The biggest trip for our High School ministry every year is the CIY MOVE Conference.  Each year our graduating 8th graders are invited to join the H.S. ministry on this great trip.  It’s the best way we know to help students meet new people and begin in a new ministry right so I highly encourage our graduating students to attend.

To help cover the cost of the trip, many students volunteer to work Upward Concessions and other volunteer roles on Friday evenings and Saturdays in February and March.  Funds raised are divided among the volunteers and it can be a great way to significantly reduce the cost of your trip.  Signups for volunteer time slots are now open.  They fill up quickly though so if you’re interested, contact Josh Ryder or signup this Sunday after 2nd or 3rd service.

Meet Drew!

Last week our new intern, Drew Kanzler joined the student ministry team.  We’re excited to have him and we wanted to give you a chance to get to know him so you can get as excited as we are.

1. What were you doing before coming to WSCC?

I was (and still am) a student in the Undergrad program at Lincoln Christian University. I will graduate in May and continue as an intern here. I also worked with at risk youth in Lincoln for the past 3+ years.

2. What are 3 things most people don’t know about you?

I collect a peculiar and strange assortment of hats (I have over 70), I have had two knee surgeries and I have traveled to England, Italy, Germany, Austria, South Korea, Mexico, and Canada.

3. What was your very first paid job?

My first paid job was landscaping. I worked for a company called Earth and Turf for three summers. ‘We take Pride in your Outside!”

4. What do you love?

My girlfriend Alexis, family, state fair corn dogs, White Sox, making people smile, the Lord, Youth Ministry, playing basketball, brain games.

5. What makes you laugh?

TV shows without a laugh track, watching the Illini lose, Bill Cosby, puns, wittiness, cheesy jokes.

6. Greatest fear?

Falling down the stairs.

7. Secret Ambition?

To be a Division 1 Men’s Basketball Head Coach.

9. Favorite Quote?

Do not let the things you can’t do, keep you from doing the things you can do. -John Wooden

Success is having something, Excellence is being something. -Brad Stevens

9. Describe one of your proudest moments.

This past summer when I was working on Camp Teams for LCU, I baptized a young high school girl. She was the first person that I have baptized. That is one of my proudest moments.

10. What is the best way to contact you?

 Telepathically, but if you can’t do that, e-mail me at DrewK@wschurch.org.

 Please help us welcome Drew to the student ministry team!

Student Center Construction

By now you have likely heard that one part of our churchwide Elevate initiative is the building of a new student center.  However, if you don’t use the East entrance often, you may not have noticed that the ground has been broken and construction has begun!  To get a glimpse of what we have planned, visit www.wschurch.org/studentcenter or check out the pictures below.  We also now have a live feed so you can hope online anytime to see our progress and find out how things are going.  Current plans are to finish construction sometime in the summer of 2012.  It’s exciting to think about how God will use that space to impact the lives of students in the Springfield area!

Family Night Live

On Sunday, October 16th we released our first edition of Family Night Live, a new resources our family ministry team has put together.  We hope it’ll be a great opportunity for you to have fun with each other and talk about how your family can better take advantage of the time you have together.  We’ve already gotten some great feedback so make sure you take the time to try it as a family.  If you haven’t yet recieved a copy, you can pick one up on the info desk in the consourse or up in E205.

If possible, set aside a couple of hours with your family to try it between now and October 30th.  Then submit your story in the box on the info desk in the concourse or online (www.wschurch.org/FNL).  Not only will it help us plan for the next edition of FNL, we’ll enter your family into a drawing for a night out at the movies for your whole family!

Weird Series – Matthew 5 1/2

This week we’re beginning a terrific series called “Weird.”  We’ll be following along with the rest of the church in this series, with some super fun Jr. High twists.  This week as we kick off we’ll be looking at Matthew 5 and we’ll see Jesus take many of the teachings of their day and turn them on their head.  Jesus called the people then to go against the norm and be weird.  He’s calling us to the same today. 

With the remaining four weeks, we’ll be taking a look at several specific ways Jesus calling us to be weird.  To go along with each, we’re crafted a New Revised Velocity version of Matthew 5 1/2 with some of Jesus’ potential teachings for each week. 

Boys/Girls Retreats

New this year, we will beoffering a Family Milestone event just for our 7th graders and the important adults in their lives. There will be both a Boys Only retreat and a Girls Only retreat and we’recrafting each to be an intentional experience to help students transition into adulthood.

You may have seen these on our Fall calendar. However, we’re planning to adjust the timing a little this year and move them to the spring. If you are a 7th grader or a parent of a 7th grader, make sure you’re on the lookout for more details over the next few months.

Family Road Map

For a while now, our family ministry team has been working on something new to help more clearly communicate our goals. We want to do all we can to equip parents to be the primary spirital leaders of their homes. As a part of that, we’ve also created a number of “milestone” events to help parents take advantage of the most meaninful moments in the life of a child as they grow.

Parents, please take a moment to look over our Family Road Map to see how you can best take advantage of our programs for all ages of children and families at West Side.

YB Normal Dinner

If you’ve been to our YB Normal Welcome Dinner before you know it’s something no one will want to miss. We throw this party every year to welcome all of our new students, especially the incoming 6th graders. The dinner isSunday, September 4th from 5-6PM in Centennial Hall. We ask all of our 7-8th grade students to come at 4PM to help setup and decorate.

PARENTS: We need your help providing and/or serving food for the dinner. We’re currentlycoordinating the food for the evening but we need lots more parents to help out by bringing a dish. Please letme know if you’d be willing to help provide a food item of if you can help setup that afternoon.

Homosexuality

This month in Velocity we’ve been tackling some of the most difficult questions to face any Jr. High student. So far, we’ve discussed:

• Is it ok to have doubts?
• How do we know the Bible is true?
• Is Evolution fact?

This coming week we’re tackling one of our most difficult, but important questions yet. We’ll be covering the question, “What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?” In the culture our kids are growing up in, there aren’t many topics that will be much more important for our students to understand. However, since the topic is a little more sensitive than most, we wanted to make sure parents know ahead of time. If you don’t feel this topic is appropriate for your student feel free to have them attend adult worship or ABF with you this week.

Maximize Your Vacation

For many of us, summer is when we set aside time to get away with our families. It can be a great time relaxing together, but it can also be a great time to be intentional about how you grow as a family. Take a few minutes before your next trip to get a few ideas of how toMake the Most of Your Family Vacationfrom this Top Ten list.

Check out the first five here:

1. Cut off from the outside world. No one is so important that he or she can’t be completely offline for a few weeks a year. Worried you will create tension with clients, co-workers, even family? Communicate with them before you leave.For instance, here is an automatic email reply: “Thanks for your email. I am with people who are more important than you. If you need immediate assistance, you’re out of luck. God bless and have a nice day!”
2. Look at your family often, especially their faces. Life is so busy, we forget to see those we love the most.
3. Laugh often.
4. Use this vacation time to also take a vacation from talking about or worrying about tensions in your marriage, finances, or problems with the kids. Those things will still be there when you get home, but chances are they will seem smaller because you will be refreshed—body, soul and mind.
5. Turn off or specifically limit electronics. We are the generation that tells those they love the most to “hold on.” Hold on to what? Use your vacation to hold on to each other.

See the rest on the Orange website for families.