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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Training vs. Trying 2. Youth Leaders' Retreat
3. GO Youth Offering
4. ELEVATE 2006
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Resources for your life and ministry...
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 Travel The Road DVD's
This video series follows Tim, Will, and
Joe as they travel through the developing world taking the gospel to
many unreached people and places. Filmed documentary style, it is
like missions meets the Amazing Race. There are three 30-minute
episodes on each DVD (there are 12 episodes total in Season 1).
These are great to show your students (even just partial clips) to
focus on missions and the adventure of following God.
You can
order the DVD's from their website by clicking on the DVD
covers above (it will take you right to it).
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 H.A.B.I.T.S. Production Pack (Doug Fields)
One of the best ways we can help
students to TRAIN instead of TRY is to help them develop spiritual
disciplines or habits in their lives. This package gives you
discs that you can use to produce a limitless supply of HABITS tools
for your students. It is not cheap ($119.00), but it is a really
valuable resource in helping your students TRAIN themselves in
Godliness.
You can order it
from Doug's website (Simply Youth Ministry) by clicking on the kit
above.
 Rob Bell on a podcast!
IIf you like the nooma videos put out by Rob Bell and are blown
away by his ability to teach about the Bible, you can listen
to his sermons by going to the website for his church and
downloading mp3s of his sermons. All you need to listen
to them is your computer. Better yet - get a
computer geek from your group to download them and burn them off onto
a CD for you!
You can get the
messages for FREE by going to the church's website: http://www.mhbcmi.org/listen/index.php
The Life
You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary
People (John Ortberg)
Ortberg writes in an easy to read and
easty to relate to style about developing spiritual disciplines that
work in the real world. (Chapter three is about 'Training vs.
Trying') This is a great book to refresh your spirit and call you
to greater living.
You can order it
from walmart.com for $10.84 by cliking on the cover of the book.
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Training vs. Trying.
If you ever come to Grimes, Iowa and
hear something that sounds like a dying
water buffalo bellowing out its last breath, don’t be alarmed, there
are no wild beasts in town, that’s just me trying to survive my
daily jog.
I have learned something important this year that I would now
like to share with all of you: It is a lot easier and a lot more fun to
put weight on that it is
to take it off (I will
now pause while you grapple with that deep and hidden truth). Over the
past several years I have majored in the former activity and for the
past several months I have been working at the latter. Slowly but
surely my efforts have been paying off - I have lost about 47 pounds
since the beginning of the year. My main source of motivation (besides
wanting to live a long and healthy life) is the fact that my wife,
Ranada, and I are going to Hawaii
for our 15th anniversary in October and I don’t want to be
harpooned on the beach.
I have known for a long time what it would take to drop some
weight and get in shape, but until recently, I had not been doing it.
At camp this summer, Jason Pool, our Junior High camp speaker, talked
about the difference between "trying" and
"training" as we follow Christ. In January, I decided to stop
trying to get in shape and start training to get in shape. Here are
some things that I learned that I think have spiritual application as
well.
#1: I had to change my diet. I
couldn’t eat whatever I wanted, I had to eat the right things and
cut out the junk. Spiritually, we have to do the same thing. We
can’t load up our schedule with "junk food" - things
that take up our time but leave us pretty much empty when they are
gone. Jesus called Himself the "bread of life" and the
"living water." If we are going to train to be like Jesus, we
have to eat the right foods.
#2: I had to get moving. Reading about
exercise or watching more ESPN wasn’t going to get me in shape. I
had to get off the couch and get moving. As followers of Christ, we
have to do the same thing. We have to start flexing and testing our
spiritual muscles. Instead of doing another Bible study about love, we
need to start loving someone who we find unlovable. We can’t
"try" to love someone, we have to "train" ourselves
to reflect the love of Christ.
#3: I had to be intentional. I
had to pass on desserts that looked really good. I had to run in the
rain, or walk my dog when I didn’t feel like it. Sometimes I
think we are under the impression that training isn’t spiritual
and that God is going to mysteriously transform us with no effort on
our part. While only God can change a heart, He calls us to live our
lives in a way that is worthy of the calling He has given us. If we
aren’t training ourselves to be like Jesus, we will constantly be
disappointed when we come up short in those crucial moments.
Discipleship (following Jesus) means taking on His character and
priorities. When we fail to do that, we want to give up, feeling like
we just can’t do it. We tried, and we failed.
But have you trained? Are you doing the things today that will
prepare you to pass the test tomorrow? Someone once said, "Luck is
preparation meeting opportunity." Are you prepared to meet the
opportunities that will come your way today, or are you just going to
try?
Are you training or trying? Heading into this fall, I am
recommitting myself to a more intentional spiritual training regimen. I
hope that you will join me (and Jesus) in the pursuit.
Training to win the prize,
Got feedback? Please email me:
darrick_young@yahoo.com
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EMPOWERED
Central Region
Youth Leaders' Retreat
 We
want to invite you to join us for our annual retreat for youth pastors
and leaders in our region! This year, we are focusing on the message
EMPOWERED. After many years of youth ministry, we realize that we
don’t have all of the answers, we need the empowerment of the
Holy Spirit in our lives to reach the next generation. We also want to
empower you as you minister to students in your local church. This
retreat is planned to empower you with rich relationships with other
youth leaders, empower you with wisdom and insights from one of youth
ministry’s great heroes (Jeanne Mayo), and to empower you
spiritually to continue to serve Him. We can’t wait to see
you this November! Information about this retreat has been sent
out to each church in our region. If you do not receive it within
the next week or need more information, please contact us at centralregionyouth@yahoo.com
, or call 515.282.6491.
 Our featured
speaker: Jeanne Mayo
President of Youth Source Ministries Director of Oxygen Youth and Youth
Adult Outreach
Acclaimed by Ministries Today as "America’s
Number One Youth Pastor," Jeanne Mayo has thrown her heart and
passion into youth ministry for nearly four decades. The years
have seen incredible results. In Nebraska,
she multiplied a group of a few dozen students into hundreds. Then in Illinois, she
was met by a group of 30 students that grew to nearly 1,000 and a
Christian school of 1,400. While in California, she had the privilege of
developing a group of 90 students into over 500 in only one
year’s time. Currently, she and her husband are leading an
incredible team in Atlanta
where amazing growth is happening once again.
Jeanne’s successful
ministry has placed her in high demand as a youth ministry and youth
leadership communicator. She has criss-crossed the U.S.
and the globe, speaking in countless venues to teenagers, college
students as well as their leaders. Now one of her greatest joys during
these travels is to re-connect with some of her hundreds of spiritual
sons and daughters in fulltime ministry all over the world. In
recent years, Jeanne founded Youth Source, a non-profit organization
that seeks, "To instruct, equip,
inspire and encourage the youth pastors and youth leaders of this
generation."
She is a regular
columnist for Group Magazine
and Ministries Today. She
most recently authored the popular leadership book, Thriving Youth Groups.
In response to Jeanne’s achievements in youth and young adult
ministry, Oral
Roberts University
awarded her a Doctorate of Divinity. Jeanne also sponsors, through
Youth Source, her bi-annual National
Youth Leaders’ Conference. This widely acclaimed event
has become one of the largest gatherings of its kind, drawing over
3,000 youth pastors and leaders in 2005. Find out more about
Jeanne by visiting her website: www.youthsource.com
This year's retreat is
being held in Coralville,
IA, at the Coralville
Marriott, which will also be the site of our 2007 Breakaway! This
$67 million hotel has been open for less than a month and will be an
incredible setting for our retreat. Check it out at: www.coralvillemarriott.com
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GO
Youth Missions OFFERING
 Let's
Make it Happen!
We have about three months left to work on raising money for the
Global Outreach Youth Offering. Our regional goal is $60,000 - so
we can give to GO and complete a $10,000 project in Chile!
Together we can do it! If each church in our region would give
$750.00 we could reach our goal. Many of us are working on a much
bigger goal than that, but it takes all of us to make a
difference! GO funds are used by our Open Bible missionaries to
purchase land for planting churches, schools, or medical clinics, for
building materials, for vehicles to get around on the mission field,
and for other major equipment purchases. Please press in and go
big for missions this year!
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Elevate
2006
Elevate is a 1/2 resourcing event that
helps to equip and train local church leaders in our region. We
will be holding Elevate events in all 7 of our districts this
fall. In the Next Generation track, we will be focusing on the
Millenial generation and talking about how to reach them, focusing on
specific resources and strategies. there will also be tracks for
Worship Leaders, Women's Ministry, and Church Leadership. Here
are the dates for our Elevate events:
September 16 /
MAK District / Bentonville,
AR
September 23 /
TEXOMA District / Dallas,
TX
October 7 / N
IA-MN District / Waterloo,
IA
October 21 / WC
IA District / Fort
Des Moines Open
Bible
October 28 / N
ILL-WI District / Loves Park,
IL
November 4 / SE
IA District / Ottumwa,
IA
November 18 / S
ILL District / Kankakee,
IL
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