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There is no greater adventure than the journey of knowing God more deeply, so in this series, we’ll talk about some of the ways we can do that: by spending time with God, spending time with others, sharing our stories, and using our gifts to serve others.

In this 4-week series, we’re going to focus on four things that God has given to every single one of us: You have a past, you have today, you have a future, and you have a family. All four of these things make you valuable and uniquely you.

In this 4-week series, we'll talk about how, when life hurts, or goes wrong, or doesn't make sense, these things are true: Jesus can redeem what's gone wrong, God can be trusted, God gives us each other, and God helps us persevere.

Do you have any friendships you can really count on? The kind of friendships you might call your "lifelines"?

Let’s hang out, eat food, have fun, and watch some football! It’s sure to be a great time, and we’ll see one team walk away as champions! Bring along some friends and a snack to share. We’ll provide the drinks!

"We're meant to be." It's how so many of our favorite movies, songs, and books talk about love - as if the secret to an amazing relationship is a little bit of destiny, a whole bunch of feelings, and a tiny dash of magic. It seems like all we need to find true love is for everything to magically fall into place, and then we're good. Forever.

We love this time of year so much that we don't want it to end. This Sunday night, we'll not be holding our regular youth group gathering. We want to give our families the opportunity to continue the theme of gathering together to share and grow. So, we won't be meeting this week. Please take the added time in your schedule to spend together with the ones you love.

Do you ever felt like you’re putting on a show? Like the person people think you are doesn’t line up with who you really are? Or maybe you’ve been known to put on different personas for different situations — personas that help you fit in with certain crowds, even if that persona doesn’t reflect who you really want to be. Sound familiar?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever wanted to scream, “You’re not the boss of me!” (You can also raise your hand if you have, in fact, actually screamed it.) Especially during the teenage years, we tend to push back on the people, places, and things that control and hold authority over us. But here’s the catch: whether we admit it or not, we’ve all given someone (or something) control of our lives. During the month of September, our students will be challenged to consider who, or what, they’ve allowed to be their boss. Because whether it’s the god of me, the god of stuff, the god of worry, or the god of obsession, we all know what it’s like to have an authority problem.

When we face so much injustice all around us, it's really easy to lose hope. It's tempting to throw our hands up in the air and ask God what he's doing.

This March, we'll help our students see that our doubts and questions don’t have to destroy our faith, but refusing to talk about them might. For the next four weeks, our students will wrestle with their doubts by voicing their questions, understanding their perspective is limited, remembering how Jesus has transformed their lives, and considering why they followed Jesus in the first place.

Life can often be a difficult journey. Sometimes it’s difficult because of the choices we’ve made, but other times it’s difficult because of circumstances beyond our control.

I love the holiday season, because it brings up all the memories of loved ones, shared meals, and spending time with the people and things that matter most to us. When you think of Christmas, what do you think of?

In this 4-week series, you’ll help teenagers discover that they will never fully understand who they were created to be apart from the God who created them. He’s a God who knows us, who gives us a place to belong, who helps us understand ourselves, and who helps us become everything He has created us to be.

During the months of September and October, we're joining with the adult morning services, adult small groups, and even our Kid's Ministry. Together, we're diving deep into what it looks like to be someone living a life focused on Jesus. Together, let's find out what God is inviting us to take part in, and let's invite him into our lives.

In this 4-week series, we’ll be discussing how to choose our friends wisely, exploring the qualities of a healthy friendship, encouraging students to build friendships with wise people, and helping them see Jesus as their best and truest friend.

I've been lost before, and I've been glad. Sometimes, finding yourself lost is a nice surprise. You can find a new place, learn something new, or just have an unexpected adventure. Other times, I've been lost, and it's been terrifying. It could be a dangerous place you find yourself lost in. It could be an inconvenient time to be lost. Being lost, whether it's under the best or worst circumstances, can have a life-changing impact.

We are serving our friends at Pursuit Communities, and LOVEtheLOU by putting together a VBS night for their children's ministry. We'd love to have you come serve alongside us. As a bonus, you'll get paid in pizza!!

Spring (and allergies) is in full swing, and there's so much going on! We have a lot of events, activities, and good stuff going on. Below are the few upcoming weeks, and what we do (or don't have in store).

Gender Games is this Sunday night! We'll come together as teams to battle it out. We're going to put our student's minds, bodies, stomachs, and teamwork to the test in a set of games designed to figure out once and for all which is really the stronger gender.

During the month of April, leading up to Easter, we’ll be studying Passover from a couple different perspectives. What was it like for Moses to watch God institute this new ritual in the midst of plagues and the Exodus? What was going through Jesus’ head as he celebrated his first, second, and last Passovers? What place does the Passover play for Christians today?

Nobody likes to feel like they're in second place. Yet, we all know from firsthand experience what it feels like. It could be on a sports team, in your family, or with your friends. Sooner or later, we know the pain of being relegated to the shadows on account of somebody else.

This Sunday night is Christmas. For pretty obvious reasons, we won't have any of our typical programming this week. The most important among those reasons is family. We believe that families should spend quality time together and they should celebrate important events together. This year, our students and parents are encouraged to put down the phone, tablet, computer, book, whatever, and join together to celebrate the season and celebrate each other.

Movie night will be at Elliot's house, and starts at 6:30pm. The movie will start rolling at 7:00pm, so show up any time between then. I hope you're able to join us, and will be ready for a great time.

The holiday season can be hectic, busy, and downright crazy. There are a few weeks that will look a little different for our Sunday night programming that we wanted you to be aware of.

When we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, we typically flip right past the family trees without thinking twice. What if we took a deeper look? What if we looked at those names as people who had a purpose, people with a role to play in God’s story or redemption? This Sunday night, that's exactly what we're going to do!

This Sunday night, November 20, we'll be joining together with our family and friends to give thanks for all God has provided. We'll meet at Wildwood Middle School at 5:00pm. All of our students, families, and friends are invited. We're so excited to gather with you to celebrate what the Lord is doing among us.

I don’t know about you, but there have been plenty of times I’ve felt unprepared in my life. High school, adulthood, parenthood, working life, and any number of other things have made me feel this way. Sometimes I feel less unprepared, and more unqualified. Like I don’t have the right to be doing something. Still other times I feel like I’ve done something to disqualify myself. Something from my past. Something I’m uncertain about. Some choice I’ve made.

Have you ever been to Disneyland? Did you go through the It’s a Small World ride? Even if you’ve never been,I bet you have that song stuck in your head now (sorry about that). The song is so simple, and so profound. You could probably count, pretty easily, a handful of times that your path has crossed someone else’s in an interesting way, and you had to admit to yourself it is, indeed, a small world. I think that’s on purpose. And, I think God has his hand at work in those “small world” moments, with a reason.

Join us this Sunday night, September 14 as we unpack what Jesus said about himself, and what his followers said, too. We’ll take a look at what we say about Jesus, and how that changes everything.

On Sunday night, September 18, we're embarking on a new series, titled Give Hope. We're walking through this series with our whole church family, adults, and small groups. The series examines a bunch of stories from the book of Acts.

This weekend, we'll watch how the Apostles decide what to do, and how to pursue Jesus (even to their deaths). They were left with a choice to make, and we're left with a choice, as well. We must ask ourselves: "Now what?" Now that we've come face-to-face with the message and love of Jesus, we have to decide if it's going to impact our lives, or if we'll treat it like it's merly a good story.

If we've all got a deep sense of this cosmic justice, how do we view the last days of Jesus' life? He was betrayed, tried, and convicted of a crime overnight. How could that possibly have been just? Especially if he really was this rescuer that had been promised for so long. We've been plugging away at our Promises series all summer long! We've been following the story of Jesus' life, and it's quickly coming to an end. This week, we watch the lead up to the crucifixion, and ask the question: How can this possibly be justice? How could this punishment fall on this good, righteous man?

The question that we've been pondering for quite some time: "Who is Jesus?" Whether we like it or not, how we answer this one question will touch every area of our lives. This question can be trickier to answer, than it might seem. It's hard to make a decision about someone who lived so long ago. The truth is you don’t have to have all the answers, before you step out in faith.

As we grow older, we're supposed to grow out of "being childish." We watch things that are more suitable to older viewers, we spend time with our friends doing "big kid" activities, and we learn more advanced skills in school. This Sunday night, June 5th, let's celebrate some of the new students we have joining us! We'll be kicking our feet up, enjoying some good ol' fashioned cartoons, and talk a little about what it means to have a child-like faith.

Life can feel pretty aimless and pointless, at times. With classes, sports, clubs, friends, family, homework, and a whole bunch of other stuff compeeting for our attention, we feel like we're just going through the motions. We feel like we're just coasting through one big blur of life. This Sunday night, we look at the calling of Jesus' first disciples. He calls to those who've lost hope. He calls to those who don't know they're loved. He calls to those who need a new life.

The first week of our Promises series is all about the birth of Jesus. Why talk about the nativity scene at this time of year? Because we can look at it without Santa Claus, presents, and the "cuteness" of the holiday getting in the way. All that stuff can fade away, and we can look at the events of that day, thousands of years ago, minus all of our preconceived notions of what happens every year.

We're going to spend the summer looking at some of the promises that God has made, and discovering how Jesus fulfills that promise. Come join us, and find out what promises God's word has in store for you.

This Sunday night, we’ll peek into the life of King David. He wrote most of the Psalms we have in the Bible. Over and over again, we see Him turn to God and talk with him through the trials of life. After a victory in battle, David talks to God. After a huge mistake, David talks to God. In the middle of running for his life, David talks to God. David’s connection with God overwhelmed his spirit, and changed his life.

This Sunday, April 10, we’ll look at the presence of God in Moses’ life. He, more than almost anybody else in Scripture, lived out the truth that God was with him. At his high points, in his low valleys, Moses faithfully turned to God, and faithfully lived in His presence. How can we, in the 21st century, live with God?

The Bible tells us that God lives with us, that even His Spirit lives within us. But, we still go through our lives, struggling to feel that truth. What if we lived our lives, fully taking in God’s overwhelming presence? What if we connected with God in a new, real way? How would our lives change if we embraced God’s Words, spoken to us?

Of course, we can't really avoid the real reason that we celebrate, can we? The whole reason that Easter is even a thing that exists: Jesus. We take this time of year to celebrate Jesus' resurrection and triumph over death. And, I love engaging in new ways to remember the life that Jesus lived, his death on the cross (which was all for you and me, by the way), and his miraculous comback from the grave! So, this Sunday, March 20, 2016, we're going to take a trip to the movies! We're going to see Risen, and we're going to talk through some of the implications of what we watch. Did Jesus really come back to life? If so, what does that mean? Does it change anything for my life?

People ask about baptism a lot! In fact, we've had more questions about baptism than any other topic during this whole series! People are curious about it. This coming Sunday night, February 21, 2016, we're going to look at these questions. We'll address the questions we've received, we'll unpack what baptism does for us, and talk about how that impacts our lives.

Why can't the two sides of this complement each other? Why can't science agree with what the Bible says, and vice versa? Why do you have to choose your side and draw battle lines? Wouldn't it just be great if we could all come to a place where we get along?! Join us this Sunday night, January 31 at 6pm! We'll talk about science. We'll talk about faith. We'll talk about life. Let's see if we can figure out how all of this fits together!

Everyone experiences doubts, from time to time. We can doubt other people, we can doubt the truthfulness of a story we hear, or we can even doubt our own abilities. Join us this Sunday night, as we look into the Scriptures to find out how we can deal with some of our doubts: Trust!

What makes the Bible any different from other old books? It's been honored as Holy. It's been mocked as myth. It's been dismissed as a deception. This Sunday night, January 3, 2016, we're kicking off our "The Question" series! I've been so excited about this for so long! We're starting with your questions about the Bible.

We've all been told, at some point or another, to sit down, shut up, and stop asking such hard questions. How did you feel when that happened to you? After that, were you likely to give that particular adult the time of day? Didn't you want to just do anything you could, just because they would hate that?! Yeah. We've been there, too. We want to be very clear with your students, and with you: It is absolutely OK to ask questions about God, faith, life, Jesus, and anything else you're curious about.

Our student ministry will not be meeting during the next couple weeks. We're doing this with the explicit goal of giving parents, families, and students more to connect with each other and enjoy the time together during this wonderful, crazy time of year.

We all want a chance to connect with those around us. We all love the holiday season, and celebrating the birth of our Lord around friends and family. We all love food and games! Join us as we build relationships with friends. Join us as we celebrate the coming of Jesus. Join us as we have fun!

When we read about those who learn about Jesus’ birth, they’re usually responding with singing, praise, prophecy, worship, etc. The reaction that people give Jesus is praise, and a lot of the time it’s done through music. This week, we’ll be looking at some of the Carols that were sung on that first Christmas, and unpack what they teach us about God and how they can still have an impact for us today.