March 25, 2020
Hi Youth Group Parents, Families, and Staff,
Upcoming Youth Events:
All In-person Youth Events Have been Cancelled until Further Notice. 😞
Student Devo Through Joel:
Here is a video on Youtube of the lesson for this week.
We’re focusing on Revelation 19-21 in our series on the Story of the Bible. It’s a little longer than I was hoping it would be, and the editing is suspect in some parts because I had to edit it on my iphone, but I pray that it’s useful to you as you try to keep engaging your students.
I’ve also posted a new devotional for your students on Romans 3. You can find a link to it up above, or on the google classroom page. Please utilize these! Again, it would be so sweet if all during all this time at home, our students really started to develop a habit of meeting with the Lord daily. 🙂
If you have not signed your student up for our google classroom please do so using the link below. The youth group is also heavily using Discord as a way to stay connected. We’ve already done a Bible study together using it, and will continue to use it for the duration of our time in quarantine. If you have any questions about it, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Also, do yourself a favor and follow this link: https://bibleproject.com/church-at-home/ The guys at the Bible project are putting together resources for families to use and sending it to your inbox! The stuff they put out is TOP NOTCH, and if you’re looking for things to do or assign to your kids, I would encourage you to check them out.
Lastly, if you have any needs physically, spiritually, or financially, please reach out to me! I would love to offer prayer, and see what the church can do to help you and your family. I’ll be trying to reach out to all of you personally, but I want to make sure that you know you can contact me!
The information below is the same as last week, but I’ll keep sending it out so that you know what resources are available to you during this time. 🙂
Ways We Will Stay Connected as a Youth Group:
- Google Classroom: Please have your student sign up for our EBC Youth Group Google Classroom page. They can do so by going to classroom.google.com. Once there, they can login with their email account, and then join our EBC Class Page by entering the classroom code: 4pc6d6r. On this page I will be posting announcements, encouragements, etc. The students can respond with comments, and stay connected to each other on it.
- Zoom Chats: I will be trying to host Zoom chats/have our Youth Leaders host some Zoom Chats with their small groups in order to keep us all connected throughout this forced break. I will post on the google classroom more information about these chats, along with emailing you all the details.
- Discord Server: For any students who are interested, one of our students is helping me set up a “Discord” server for our youth group. Discord is a safe server that your students can join on their devices. Students can follow this link: https://discord.gg/Pfpdm6 to join our Discord server. On it, we can easily do text chats, along with voice chats with their youth group mates.
Ways to Continue Engaging Your Students at Home:
- Family Worship! If you’re not already in the habit of doing family worship, or devotions together, I would highly encourage you to take this time to start something. Maybe take a small Epistle, like James or 1 Peter, and read a section all together. Here’s a great resource for doing a short Bible study using what’s called the Swedish Method: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/six-questions-to-ask-when-studying-the-bible-in-a-group
- Family Time! I encourage you to use this time to do things you wouldn’t normally do! Play some games together (even some VIDEO GAMES together), make food together, talk about your childhood, re-live the things you did when you were sick as a kid with your own kids. There are a limitless amount of creative things to use this time well.
- Weekly Devotions! Myself, and the youth staff will continue making devotions for the students to work through. Maybe consider doing these as a family! We just started the book of Romans last week. The latest devo on Romans 3 is attached here.
- Short Video Messages: I’ll be working on a short message per week that you and your students can watch together. We’ve got two more weeks in our “Story of the Bible” series, and I’d still like to finish it. I will email these/put them on the google classroom page, along with some questions to discuss with your students. Link is here
Other Resources:
- Book List: Here is a short book list that I’ve worked on for you all. Most of these books will be $10 or less on Amazon, and would be a great way to invest in your student during the break. If I get enough response, I’d be happy to create a Zoom chat book club for one them!
- Catechism: Recently, I’ve been exploring the idea of trying to start catechizing our church. A Catechism may seem archaic, but they are WONDERFUL ways to learn solid, biblical doctrine. Check out http://newcitycatechism.com/ and consider trying to memorize one or two a week with your students.
- The Bible Project: If you’re looking for a “curriculum” for your students, why not “assign” them a couple of Bible project videos per day. They could watch them, and then write a summary of each of the one’s they watched so that you can discuss them at the dinner table together.
- Ask Pastor John: Especially for your high school students, have them explore a couple of Ask Pastor John episodes per day. There are HUNDREDS of podcasts in which John Piper goes into depth tackling a huge breadth of Biblical topics! Have them write some notes and share them at the dinner table.
If you have any questions, or if you need any assistance with any of these things, or if you need some other suggestions, PLEASE reach out! I want to be a resource for you and your kids in any way I can (while also wanting to keep my distance from physical contact… at least for the time being). 🙂
Again, I will be using our Google Classroom and Discord for many things, so please please please sign up, and have your students sign up!
With you and for you in Christ,
Ryan Aufenkamp
Evergreen Bible Church Youth Pastor