Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue, Students

Pray for your School

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What if prayer in your school went from scarce to abundant and God was invited into the building, what could happen. Imagine if  this wasn’t just your school, but the school down the street, across town and the entire country.

The partners of the Campus Alliance are extending a Call For Prayer inviting churches, youth groups and ministry organizations across America to fervently pray for every high school and middle school student and campus.

Prayer is vital in bringing Gods presence and power to the lives of over 25 million students throughout our nation. It can literally change the spiritual atmosphere at a campus. Through prayer God opens hearts, brings blessing to a school and removes the spiritual blindness that keeps students from seeing and understanding the gospel message. Prayer is often the only thing that will change things and advance the Kingdom of God.

The GOAL – every school and student is prayed for asking God to bring his truth, blessings and love to their campus and personal lives. If every church and youth ministry in every community joins in this nationwide call for prayer, an entire generation will be covered.

What can each of us do?

1. Every local church, youth group and campus ministry mobilize a dynamic school prayer effort. 

  • Identify the schools that your church and youth group will pray for on a regular basis this school year.
  • Gather info about the schools including the names of administrators, teachers and students. One way to do this is obtain a copy of the most recent school year book, or visit with students and teachers from the school. This will help you map the campus for prayer. Youth groups can easily list both adults and students at their school for whom they will pray.
  • Pray for your schools at your worship services, youth group, small groups, youth network meetings, etc.
  • Students claim your campus and mobilize your friends to pray for your school. Form prayer triplets at school. Plan to participate at See You At The Pole.
  • Mothers – join a Moms In Prayer group.
  • Youth Leaders organize prayer for every school through your network of youth ministries in your community.
  • Everyone, make prayer for schools a personal daily discipline. Even as you drive by a school consider it a prayer zone and lift up the school in prayer.

2. Schedule a Sunday in your church and youth group to pray for schools.

Three Sunday opportunities are coming this fall that you can use to mobilize prayer and ministry for local schools:

3. Go to www.everyschool.com and ADOPT the school(s) in your area.

By adopting your school you are joining a national movement to pray for and reach out at every campus.

4. Spread the word through social media.

Through your Facebook page, texting, emails and websites invite friends to join the movement and pray for their school. Direct people to everyschool.com and encourage them to adopt their school.

We believe the time is now for transforming prayer to be raised over our schools and we are asking you to join in this courageous call for prayer.

The Campus Alliance is a coalition of more than 50 national church denominations and youth ministry organizations working together to serve schools and share the gospel of Jesus with every student in our nation.

* Quote from D.L. Moody, American Evangelist 1837-1899lets_pray_for_every_school

Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue

Technology and Kids: Facing Your Fears

Technology and Kids: Facing your Fears

by

Millions of smart phones, tablet computers and other portable devices are being sold every month (sometimes even in a single weekend), and more and more are making their way into the hands of our sons and daughters.

A lot of this is catching us parents off guard as we try to figure out what to do with it. On the one hand, there’s the innocence and education value of some pretty amazing apps. And then there’s the fear in every parent’s heart that happens when their eight-year-old starts asking for a smart phone.

For some of us, there’s a temptation to go drastic and disconnect the Wi-Fi, banish phones and Facebook, and decide our children simply won’t have access to any of it. While you could possibly ban technology in your home, you wouldn’t be able to ban it at school, or from your kids’ friends. They can access it anywhere!

So, what do you do?

Well, limits are a great thing. And there should be limits and rules on almost anything our kids use, from cars to TV, to cell phones and internet. And the limits will vary depending on your beliefs, your family culture, and frankly, the personalities of your individual kids.

But you are probably discovering what your kids are discovering:

Externally imposed limits don’t carry the power of internally owned values.

Most of us resist externally imposed rules. That’s why you pushed against bedtime when you were a kid or finishing your plate because your dad insisted. There’s something inside all of us that pushes back against rules we didn’t make up.

So, what has power in our kids’ lives? The same thing that has power in your life as an adult. Internally owned values do. While laws are necessary, most of us are not swayed in our failure to murder by a law: We are motivated by our belief that it is wrong to kill someone. That’s the power of an internally owned value. It’s your character that determines how you live.

And that’s why, even in kids, it’s so important to develop character early. Because character corrects what technology reveals.

It’s easier than ever to venture into great things and questionable things online. Character keeps you moving toward what’s good and avoiding what’s bad.

So, how do you teach the character needed to handle technology in a responsible way?

1. Start the conversation early. Begin talking about life online before they need the conversation so that the dialogue is there when they need the conversation. Starting a dialogue young (even before your kids are online themselves) about what’s good and what’s bad is a way of normalizing the conversation about character.

2. Be honest about the good and the bad. Sometimes we’re so afraid of what could go wrong that we paint a very negative picture. Our kids will figure out pretty quickly that there is good and bad online. When we are honest with them, it makes the dialogue easier. Being overdramatic never helps honest dialogue.

3. Teach them that their choices have long-term implications. Help your kids to see the choices they make today impact the kind of person they’ll become tomorrow. If you can help your kids see what’s so easy to miss (that our choices today impact our life tomorrow), they’ll thank you for it later.

4. Connect the dots between what and why. Parents are legendary for telling kids what to do. I wish we would become legendary at explaining why. Your kids can’t often connect the dots about why their choices are so important. That’s where you can help so much. When you explain why pornography is bad, or why gossip or bullying is damaging, or why self-control is such a valuable skill to develop, you just helped your kids become far more motivated to do what’s best and avoid what’s not. When you understand why, you become motivated to do what.

Our kids are going to make mistakes. But it’s character that corrects what technology reveals, because internally owned values carry much more power than externally imposed limits (even though limits are important).

What are you learning about limits, character, technology and kids?

Pastor B Culture, Oakwood, Parent Cue

YouTube You Can Use Volume 5, Issue 24

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Volume 5, Issue 24

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Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGSNEhXEu_s

Topics:

Compassion, Guard Your Heart

Bible:

Proverbs 4:23

Discussion Starter:

“Ladies and gentleman, Fear the Rabbi!”

These aren’t exactly the words you’d expect to hear during the introductions of a mixed martial arts fight. But Rabbi Yossi Eilfort wanted to show his congregation that physical fitness is important.

The physical preparation for the fight was important. But pay careful attention to the rabbi’s words as he prepared his heart for the fight.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” How are you guarding your heart?

3 Questions:

1. Would you rather fight a rabbi or a kindergarten teacher?
2. The rabbi said he was careful not to hurt his opponent, is there a way to fight with compassion?
3. Name 3 things worth fighting for.

Chew on this:

How do you decide is your fight is from God?

Pastor B Oakwood, Students

Social Media And Technology In Middle School

Social Media And Technology In Middle School

Apr 30, 2015

Social Media And Technology In Middle School

ORANGE CONFERENCE 2015

SOCIAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY IN MIDDLE SCHOOL (NOTES)

PRETTY PDF DOWNLOAD LINK

Twitter / IG @brooklynlindsey

Contact: www.brooklynlindsey.com

The Justice Movement @thejustmove

Orange Leaders @OrangeLeaders

Nazarene Youth International @GlobalNYI

Since this is a seminar on social media and middle school, I figured there’s really no better way to begin than by telling you a little about myself via tweet length bits I could write and not be lying. (Real quick, make sure your neighbor knows what a hashtag is. Go!)

Tweets I’d write about me:

I’m a girl. #Obvious

Jesus loves me. #Incredible

I’m married. #CoyWins

I have two kids. #SleepDeprived

I became a pastor instead of something else. #Goals

I miss falling asleep reading a book. #WHOhasTIME

I wish my phone wasn’t always in my hands. #Arrested

Teenagers are my favorite. #PeopleQuestionMyMentalHealth

This is their time. #TakingThemBack #Goonies

It’s also Kristen Wiig’s time. #TaughtHerEverything

Lecrae wins all of the stuff. #ALL_I_EVER_Needed_in_A_Rapper

Every time I see the color Orange, I see you and me, and what we get to be. #WhatDoYouSee

Interact on Instagram. @brooklynlindsey

Answer the question: When you see the color orange, what do you see?

Last week, your students were using Instagram Twitter & Vine. But how are they communicating now? What will they be doing next week? How can you keep them out of trouble as they navigate the wilds of the Internet? Discover what social media platforms and apps your middle schoolers are using and the best ways to guide and connect with them via social media. Learn how to help parents do the same.

FLOATIES IN THE OCEAN

Our little friend Truman is five. He knows how to swim. I know this information because my friend Carlee taught him how to swim, in an official class. But some time had passed between his safe swimming pool environment and his next trip to the beach. This is why his wise mom went ahead and put floaties on Truman to keep him safe in this new environment. Truman can swim, but it may not be safe to throw him in the ocean without a bit of help at first. So, one floatie at a time, his momma is going to take away the extra help and encourage him to trust his instincts, check in with her, swim parallel with the shore if you feel the pull of a current. All of these things you learn with experience over time. It doesn’t mean you keep Truman out of the ocean, it just means you have to walk with him through the phases of his experience and teach him life changing lessons along the way.

It’s the same with middle school kids and technology. This is their language. Technology is the ocean they will be swimming in whether we like it or not. So it’s better to have a strategy for helping them to stay safe while they’re discovering how to make choices, communicate, relate, and interact online.

Facebook is no longer where they live. There’s an ocean of tech and social media and it’s our job to be the floaties during this developmental phase. Little by little they will need our guidance less, but at first we’ve got to have a plan when they do what teens do best….diversifying their apps.

Apps are a middle schoolers opportunity to meet new friends, share ideas, create, develop, chat, interact, and discover new skills and passions.

We could write a seminar about what’s hot in social media right now but we’d have to burn these pages today because they’ve already moved on to something else.

That’s why this statement is true:

“It’s NICE to know what’s trending but it’s BETTER to know the basics.”

Know the BASICS

Teach the BASICS

Coach in LEVELS

Cheer their PROGRESS

My eight year old walked through a tech door that we thought we had locked.

My five and eight year old loved my dubsmash videos and wanted to make some of their own.

Both instances gave me opportunities to learn the basics, teach the basics, coach them at their level, and cheer for them as they were given age appropriate freedoms.

What are the basics?

B        Be curious. The world’s most curious question: What is it?

A        Ask why. Why is it popular? Why do they love it?

S        Sort out the challenges. What are the drawbacks? Dangers? Age considerations?

I         Insist on being an ally. You’re on your their team.

C        Call somebody before you blame somebody. *

S        Start social media accounts together. Be a part of the process. Talk often. Teach. Set up rules together. **

*(PRIVACY// Youth group: post with permission. Family: post after discussion.)

**(You will see something shocking or disturbing someday but in the minutes after you see/ find/ notice/ are told about something like this get some head space before you go ninja on their device or call a meeting with their parents. The kid may be enjoying the function but may not know the potential harm. They may know the harm but don’t know how to navigate around it. Get your head game together before you coach, once you have a healthy/ loving plan, then go for it.)

Now that you know the basics, you can apply these things to tech and apps that come along.

App Basics

Texting

Kik Messenger

What is it? It’s an app that lets kids text for free.

Drawbacks:

  • Ads & in-app-purchases. Kik specializes in “promoted chats”
  • Strangers App called OinkText, linked to Kik: allows chats w/ strangers who share theKik usernames to talk to new people.

ooVoo

What is it? Free video, voice calls, and messaging. Group chat is possible with up to 12 people for free. After school logins are popular, group studying (always, right?), connects friends who change schools or move to a new city.

Drawbacks:

  • Kids can only chat with approved friends.
  • Squirrel! (It can be distracting.)

WhatsApp

What is it? An app that send texts, audio messages, videos, and photos to one or many people with no message limits or fees. (International)

Drawbacks?

  • 16 and over.Minimum has been set by WhatsApp
  • Overly connected. WhatsApp automatically connects kids to others. It also encourages users to add friends who haven’t signed up yet.

Micro-blogging

DubSmash

What is it? A mobile app to create short selfie videos dubbed with famous sounds.

Drawbacks:

  • 16 and over
  • It’s so much fun we forget. Videos shared live forever. Not everything is nice. Time doesn’t stand still. (time sucker)

Instagram

What is it? An app that can snap, edit, and share photos and 15-second videos, either publicly or with in a private network. It unites popular features of social media: sharing, seeing, & commenting. Re-posting.

Drawbacks:

  • “Likes” Middle schoolers may measure their self worth or value by the number of likes or comments they receive.
  • Hashtags & location information can expose kids
  • Instagram Direct allows users to send “private messages” to up to 15 mutual friends. These pictures don’t show up on their public feeds.

Twitter

What is it? An app that can post brief, 140-character messages ( “tweets” ) and follow other users’ activities.

Drawbacks:

  • Public tweets are the normfor teens. Talk to kids about how what they post can spread and live beyond the tweet.
  • That video you can’t UNSEE.
  • No sarcasm filter.

Tumblr

What is it? It’s a “Blitter” ! Or, a cross between a blog and twitter: It’s a streaming scrapbook of text, photos, and/or videos and audio clips. Teens have tumblelogs for personal use sharing thougths, videos, daydreams, photos, etc.

  • Porn patrol.
  • Privacy is awkward. It takes effort.

Secret apps (self destructing)

A troll or a tour guide? Which one do you want to be?

Secret

What is it? It’s an app designed to let people say what’s on their minds anonymously. Vent, confess, and share freely — without anyone knowing who said what. Banned in many schools because of bullying occurrences and capabilities.

Drawbacks:

  • It tries to prevent users from defaming others.Sends warnings when names are used.
  • Email & Phone number required.
  • Strong language. Most words that start with the letter F.

Whisper

What is it? It’s a type of confessional that allows users to post THOUGHTS with AN IMAGE. Freedom to share without fear of being judged or shamed.

Drawbacks:

  • Whispers are often sexual.Near nude. Lot’s of that.
  • You’re not going to find a ton of puppy dogs and ice cream posts. You mind more thoughts on insecurity, depression, substance abuse, and lies told to others.

Snapchat

What is it? It’s a “self-destructing” app if you live in a fairytale. Users can put a time limit on the pictures and videos they send before they disappear. Teens love this app. It’s a nicer option to share photos with friends and family you trust.

Drawbacks:

  • Snaps don’t disappear forever.
  • Snap sexting

Rapchat (same as snap chat but it dubs your voice to beats)

Yik Yak

What is it? Free app that lets users post brief, Twitter-like comments to the 500 geographically nearest Yik Yak users. Find out opinions, secrets, rumors….it’s a hot mess. The bonus thrill/ nightmare: knowing all these have come from a 1.5-mile radius (or from the kid sitting behind you)

Drawbacks:

  • Reveals location.You have to turn location sharing off.
  • It’s the deeper parts of the ocean. More than floaties may be needed. Stuff swimming in it: cyberbullying, explicit sexual content, unintended location-sharing, and exposure to explicit information about drugs and alcohol.
  • Banned in some places. Can be toxic. Harmful. Promotes Bullying.
  • Sponsored by the letter “F” and other choice consonants. @#$%# All day, every day.

Social Media For the 6th Grade Phase*

*with a little help from my friend

@JonAcuff knows some stuff about social media and he has an 11 year old. #streetcred

  • Call somebody before you ninja somebody. You will find something weird, crazy, shocking.
  • Go over the phone bill. Teach them life skills while you go over the bill together.
  • Make freedom the goal (Jon says, “Don’t make privacy and freedom something you’re taking away from them, but rather something you’re working toward as a team. Tie their usage to maturity”.)
  • Have the talk. (Not “that talk”, the other talk, about technology. Talk technology, it’s their language.)
  • Create digital detachment at night. Set up house culture. Promote peace. (Phones away at 9. No devices in bed)

Social Media In The 7 & 8th Grade Phase

  • Share accounts. Netflix, iTunes, Amazon are a great way to practice decision-making and give incremental freedoms. Music Downloads Example: You want, I review, I purchase. You want, I trust you, I purchase, I listen. You want, you purchase, I trust you.)
  • Notice who they are online and invest in that person. You are watching your kid become something new. Follow their friends—engage their parents—get involved in their life online.
  • Start accounts together. Teach. Cheer. Consult.
  • Step up the stairs of maturity to privacy. Locked digital doors are for later. Teach them that nothing is really private with technology.
  • “Ask the jerk question” – @JonAcuff  You’re the one who can ask the questions about friends their still deciding on—“is someone bothering you online”? How did it make you feel when “x” made that comment?

Oh, and You Tube. Middle Schoolers need you to know and teach the basics about this endless stream.

300 hours of video are uploaded per minute.

81.9% of US 14-17 year olds watch you tube.

2014 Most Searched Topic: Music. 2nd Most Searched Topic: Minecraft.

Middle school people love music. Middle school people love minecraft. Middle school leaders should pay attention to YouTube.

Assignment: Make a list of really cool creation and innovation apps. Push kids toward apps and tech that turn up discovery and passion in their day.

Review:
Know the BASICS

Teach the BASICS

Coach in LEVELS

Cheer their PROGRESS

Helping a middle school kid navigate through social media and technology is just as important as teaching a baby to walk, a toddler to share, and a 16 year old how to drive safely.

Walk with them. Partner with their parents. Know and teach the basics. Avoid the hazards that sometimes come in learning something new by coaching them and cheering for them even when they mess up. Help them figure out who they are in a world full of conflicting information. Remind them that they are loved and created by God even when they feel unloved and ashamed by choices that they make.

If you love a middle schooler, you’ll get in the tech ocean with them and teach them how to swim.

Pastor B Culture, Oakwood, Students

YouTube You Can Use: We All Make Mistakes

Volume 5, Issue 14

Video:

logo YouTubeUCanUSE

https://youtu.be/UmsyEMFYsus

Topics:

Consequences, Game Show, Mistakes, Prize, Winning

Bible:

1 John 1:9; Romans 3:23

Discussion Starter:

We’ve all done it. In an instant we’ve done the one thing we weren’t supposed to do for the whole world to see.

In this case, Manuela gave a contestant on The Price is Right a brand new car when she wasn’t supposed to, which is awesome. But in our case our mistake might not be so awesome.

The Bible says that we all make mistakes, we all sin. (Romans 3:23) But the good news is that that Jesus offers forgiveness, even when we sin accidentally. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

3 Questions:

  1. When was a time you messed up but it turned out great?
  2. Would you rather win a $20,000 car or $10,000 in cash?
  3. Is it easier for you to notice your own mistakes or mistakes in others? Why?

Chew on this:

Is there a difference between an intentional and accidental sin in God’s eyes?

Pastor B Culture, My Life, Oakwood, Parent Cue, Students

#becausehelivesican Make It Personal

# slide_widescreen

So I was driving the kids to school today and had a great time with the change of my morning routine.  It was a great time to practice what I believe and turn a change of routine into something relationally impactful, since the kids usually track with Mommy most of the time.  We were playing fun music and on time, which is another personal time management best :).  On the way, I took the circle downtown, and in the midst of the change, my autopilot self took the wheel and I took the wrong direction as if I were heading to Oakwood. When my real mind took charge, I said, “Oh No!” really loud.  Then we turned it into a fun game… guess what Dad forgot this time.  Katie was the quickest and realized we were on a little different track, and Noah shortly followed as he saw the ducks at the park.  No worries, we made a small adjustment and headed to school, thankfully making it on time.  Score one for Dad, even with the small adventure.

My thought was, how does this relate to our celebration this Easter Weekend?  Do I tell myself to seize the moment and then go into autopilot instead?  So many times, we can intentionally seize the moment and yet, our routine nature gets the best of us.  Holidays are great for the very fact that they have a sense of tradition mixed with family memories all in one moment.  I think that is the same for Easter every year.  We need the tradition of remembering and celebration of the resurrection that Easter brings, but there is also this internal fight to keep the heart in check.  The ole self check up with Jesus is good around this time.  It’s kind of like this…  “Hey Jesus, since you are resurrected again, are we cool?”  Why the internal struggle anyway? It think it is because when we truly follow Christ, he makes it personal.  This religious tradition that the world sees millions to billions of Christians participate in and flesh out in various denominations is actually an expression of a Holy God not giving up on the relationship that he started with Humanity at the beginning of creation.

That’s why I have personally been compelled to focus on Galatians 2:20 for the past few weeks.

“20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  “

Paul saw this same struggle with tradition and relationship on his own personal journey.  Being a man brought up in the tradition of Jewish Law, he was in the Passover routine every Easter.  He also had the Spiritual Wisdom to understand that most people struggled with this very tension.  That is why the axis of Galatians, and possibly Paul’s life mantra had to be more than routine.  He had to personally be crucified with Christ and then find out what true resurrection living was all about.  Because Christ lives, we can live in the same power by faith.  We can look back on this journey to the Cross and say that HE LOVED ME.  We can call this Friday “good”  because HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.
When we make the Easter Holiday personal, we can easily fill in the blank with this phrase:


BECAUSE HE LIVES I CAN ___________________________.  

Where do you need to be crucified with Christ?  How do you need to sense the love of Jesus this Easter?  How does it feel to remember that Jesus gave himself for YOU, personally.  Your sin, your quirks, your talents, your wrong turns, your personal human nature.

 Lets practice the presence of Christ this Easter Holiday by making it personal in the midst of the egg hunts, television specials, family fun, and time off.  By making it personal, we might find the joy of denying ourselves and truly living in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor B Oakwood, Students

Fusion Wednesdays: ALPHA

alphalogo-youth

Fusion Wednesdays are going ALPHA.

What is Alpha?  Alpha is a video series that focuses on the basic questions of our faith

alphajohn14and gives students that ability to explore and ask questions about their own personal faith in small groups.  As we move toward Spring, I see many Middle School students begin to question their faith, life habits, and personal mission.  This is a timely series that will give a Middle School student the ability to ask pointed questions in a safe place on Wednesday Nights.

Pastor B Oakwood, Parent Cue

Parent Cue: Once Upon A Time Xp3 Series

XP3_OUAT_Large_Web_Banner

Think About This:

What was your teenager’s favorite story when he or she was little? And how many times did you read that story to them? A hundred? A thousand? Sometimes as parents of older children, we are tempted to look back nostalgically at storytime and think, those were the days, assuming they’re long-gone. But in the book, Losing Your Marbles: Playing for Keeps, Reggie Joiner explains that the power of stories, especially stories over time, may make storytelling a practice that is too important to abandon.

Experts have analyzed, theorized, and evangelized about the power of story. Everyone seems to agree. It’s as if our minds are hardwired to engage in the way information fits together in the context of
a narrative. One specialist in this area puts it this way: If you ever need a little more proof that God exists, consider the magical,
mystical,
imaginative, compelling way
 kids, teenagers—and everyone else for that matter—connect to stories. It seems obvious that God created your imagination; then created stories to ignite it. Have you ever considered that without imagination, you can’t . . .

see past what you already know?
care how someone else feels?
hope beyond your present situation?

… That’s what the gift of imagination and story does for a child or teenager.
 It enables them to think their way into other people’s lives.
  It compels them to feel the sentiments of other people’s emotions. It invites them to venture into other people’s places.

Maybe that’s why research actually indicates the more stories you read to a child over time, the greater their empathy. Because stories have the potential to make you feel what someone else feels. Stories can collectively work to build a child’s emotional,
relational,
and moral intelligence.

Think about what happens when a child imagines . . .
fighting Smaug, the dragon, with Bilbo on the Lonely mountain, joining Annemarie in the Danish Resistance during WWII, 
traveling with Lucy through a mysterious wardrobe into a frozen land.

They see more. They care more. They hope more.

Try This

A good story doesn’t have to be found in a children’s book. This week, try enjoying a story that your student is already interested in by going to…

 See a movie together.

It doesn’t have to be a spiritual or “family” movie. It doesn’t have to have a G-rating. It doesn’t even have to have some great moral to the story. Just see a movie your student is interested in and then, on the ride home or while enjoying a snack after the show, ask them one question:

Which character in the movie do you identify with most?

Really listen to the answer. Don’t correct them if you disagree. Just use this as a time to learn about your student and enjoy hearing where they think they fit in the story.

 

Get connected to a wider community of parents at www.orangeparents.org.