Your kids are talking all about vitals, so what better time to teach them how to check their own? This week, practice checking your vitals by taking each other’s pulse.
DRIVE TIME
Go out of your way to do just one nice thing you don’t have to do for someone else. Showing just a little kindness to others when you don’t have to is a great way to live out the greatest commandment as a family this week.
MEAL TIME
This week, talk about what’s vital to your family. Make a list of the things that are most important to you as a family and post it somewhere you all can see as a reminder of the vitals in your home.
BED TIME
To practice what they’ve been taught this week, encourage your student to say one thing they love about themselves, one thing they love about someone else, and one thing they love about God. Then, share your own answers as well!
September 5 Begins our Regular Fusion Wednesday Format:
Q What is Fusion?Fusion offers a loving and accepting environment geared for Middle School Students Grades 6-8. We have events, weekly meetings, and exist to Intentionally Engage Middle School Students by leading them to the heart of the Father. Q What happens on Fusion Wednesdays? 5:30 is hang out and Pizza, 6:00pm Bible Study Begins in the STUDENT PAVILION. We begin with Worship, move to Talk Time, then Students move to break out rooms for real life discussion. 7:30pm is dismissal time
What can my Middle Schooler do for dinner? Two Options :
1. Join us in the Student Pavilion for Papa John’s Pizza at 5:30pm.
2. Eat as a family at the Oakwood Wednesday Night Dinner for a nice hot meal. Can my Middle Schooler play on the playground? Parents, please let your Middle Schooler know that the playground is for CHILDREN and that they will be asked to leave the playground.
1) Rescue Intro Lesson: This lesson helps students gain a framework for the salvation story of
Jesus: the consequences of sin, his sacrifice on the cross, the need for a rescue mission, and
our adoption into God’s family. 2) Sin: Why do we need grace? This lesson emphasizes the fact that every person chooses to
worship themselves instead of God. This introduces guilt, shame, and pain into the world. But
thankfully, God has created a plan to save and heal us. Bible Passage: Luke 16:19–30 3) Sacrifice: Why did Jesus have to die? This lesson dives into the idea that Christ’s sacrifice is
necessary to bridge the gap between humanity and God. Bible Passage: John 3:1–21 4) Adoption: How do I fit into God’s family? This lesson will underscore the fact that followers of Christ are adopted by God. When we accept Jesus as Lord, our sins are washed away. But we’re also accepted into the family of God. Bible Passages: John 1:1–18 and Ephesians 2:1–10 5) Salvation: How does being saved make a difference in my life today? Being saved and following Christ means that we have a mission to fulfill here on earth. In this lesson students be challenged to make the mission of Christ a part of their life on a daily basis. Bible Passage: John 9
QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOUR CHILD:
1) If someone asked you how or when you became a Christian, how would you respond? If you had to give your testimony, what would you say?
Note: Having your child tell you their salvation story is a powerful way to get a deep understanding of your child’s faith. It is also great evangelism training and a way to coach them in how they would share their testimony with others.
2) Do you feel adopted into the family of God? What does that mean to you?
Note: Because orphan adoption is a familiar concept to many people, they will likely connect with the fact that they are adopted by God and are his children through Jesus’ work on the cross. If you’re an adoptive family or are close to adopted children, you can talk through the struggles, the beauty, and the similarities between earthly adoption and God’s adoption of us.
3) How do you and your friends talk about sin? Does it come up much? Why or why not?
Note: Sin is not a popular subject today, especially for young people. But it’s important to know and understand our sin and how we are to repent from it and claim Christ’s rescue of us. Talking about sin with your teenage child might not sound like fun, but you may be surprised by how they open up and want to share all that is going on in their world. Sometimes as parents, we just need to ask and listen. Only after really listening will we know how to guide, coach, disciple, and pray.
September 5 Begins our Regular Fusion Wednesday Format:
Q What is Fusion?Fusion offers a loving and accepting environment geared for Middle School Students Grades 6-8. We have events, weekly meetings, and exist to Intentionally Engage Middle School Students by leading them to the heart of the Father. Q What happens on Fusion Wednesdays? 5:30 is hang out and Pizza, 6:00pm Bible Study Begins in the STUDENT PAVILION. We begin with Worship, move to Talk Time, then Students move to break out rooms for real life discussion. 7:30pm is dismissal time
By Ashley Bohinc, the Director of Middle School Strategy at Orange (The reThink Group, Inc.), and USA Executive Director of Carry 117- Ethiopia.
I have worked with middle school students in educational, athletic, and ministry settings for more than 14 years now. Although each context was uniquely different, there were still a few basic things about (most) middle schoolers that remained the same no matter what.
They will be intensely interested in you. Do you have a boyfriend? Where do you buy your makeup? What are you eating? Where did you get those shoes? What position did you play in soccer? They may not show it at first, but the moment you let them in (even just a little), they want to be in a lot. They are stacking up questions in their minds, and if they aren’t courageous enough to ask, they are waiting for just a hint of permission from you to let them know they can ask. Of course this only counts for some of the time with middle schoolers. Other times, you could walk into the room in a clown suit and they wouldn’t even notice. #middleschool
They exaggerate (and sometimes lie). Something happens at the 8th grade dance, and you find the girls huddled in a circle crying in the bathroom. If it’s trending, they are talking about it… non-stop. Friend drama is basically an all out brawl (with words or rumors). It thunders outside, and they act like they’ve never been in a storm before in their lives. They see a snake outside, and it’s most certainly trying to eat them. Their teacher is obviously the most unfair person on the whole planet. Oh, and they didn’t copy that homework or cheat on that test; they were just scratching their head! You get the point. It’s a phase full of all out exaggeration.
YouTube is Gucci. According to many research studies, 80%-95% of Generation Z seeks advice through YouTube channels and videos. The most searched videos are about real stories, day-in-the-life videos, behind-the-scenes videos, or how-to videos. They want to know about relationships and dating, teen trends, advice on how to do new skills, and more. If they don’t know how, they go to YouTube. If they don’t know what it is, they go to YouTube. If they want to become famous, they go to YouTube. So basically, you should be on YouTube, too.
What their friends think matters more than anything else. This is difficult, because as puberty begins to change them from the inside out, middle schoolers are desperately trying to fit in. Peer approval will always trump advice from adults. They can’t be seen wearing those pants, hanging with those boys, or walking around in public without makeup. The point is, students at this phase care more about what their peers say than anyone else. That’s why finding an influential student to lead the charge on a new initiative or event you are having will give you more success. Because if Sadie thinks it’s cool, everyone will think it’s cool.
They push their parents away. Middle schoolers want freedom. They aren’t kids anymore, and when they are treated that way, they revolt. They pushback on everything from bedtime to chores to going places by themselves to social media. They want to make their own choices. The tricky part about this as a student leader is balancing earning their trust while still being for the parent. It is an art. Youth leaders have the privilege of standing in the gap between the middle schooler and the parent. But no matter what, always remember to let it be known that you are on the parent’s team.
They are incredibly insecure about what is happening to their bodies. They feel like they are the only ones going through this thing called middle school. Normalizing what’s happening to and around them is imperative. If you are trying to get a middle school student to do something in front of their peers and they resist, there is probably a physical explanation for it. Sweat stains. Period leakage. Wrong bra. Gas. Food in their braces. Acne. Though it’s all normal, it feels isolating to them. So don’t push them.
They want to have fun, but they want to be taken seriously. You can’t be boring, or they won’t want to be with you. They don’t want you to just allow them to have fun; they want you to have fun with them. At the same time, they want you to be real with them. They want to be taken seriously. They don’t want surface answers. They want direct, real explanations. When they tell you something that seems silly to you but real to them, you can’t laugh. You can’t dismiss it. You have to engage it with a matched level of seriousness to show them you care.
No matter where you’re working with middle schoolers, I think these seven things will stay true. It’s who they are in this phase, and it’s why they need people like you cheering them on and loving them as they figure it out.
In today’s culture, to be “basic” is to be someone who is driven by mainstream behaviors and attractions. It’s the essence of fitting in, living from the baseline of acceptability.
Lauren and Brooke DeLeary aren’t having it.
The sisters, known collectively as the faith-forward pop duo LOVECOLLIDE, have spent their young lives bucking trends, shattering expectations, and defying norms – in essence, being anything but basic.
“We like to think outside the box and challenge others not to live the basic life,” Lauren said, “but to step out into the unknown and live out the life that God has called them to.” “That’s the theme, that’s the mission – an extraordinary life,” Brooke added. “Living in a way where you can never be labeled, like Jesus. Starting revival by being the light, being different, showing who Jesus is through us.”
Having started a band together when they were just tweens, Brooke and Lauren have watched God take something that began as a sibling side project and turned it into a poignant ministry. They’ve released several independent recordings together, toured across the U.S., done modeling and film gigs, and have shared the stage with some of Christian music’s biggest names. They’ve also been able to minister in Canada, something that’s particularly meaningful as tribal members of the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation in Muncey, Ontario.
It’s been a solid run so far. But with the release of their first major, nationally distributed album, Tired of Basic (The Fuel Music), LOVECOLLIDE is formally making their introduction to the larger music world and is poised to vastly expand their sphere of influence.
With their 10 new tracks, the DeLearys have crafted a soundtrack for the revolution–a revolution against boredom, mediocrity and status quo living. It’s a message that isn’t just for the band’s audience; it’s for the band, too.
Sonically, Tired of Basic finds LOVECOLLIDE at their musical peak, experimenting with new, cutting edge sounds that stand up to the best Top 40 radio has to offer. Armed with the prowess of new producers Riley Friesen (Family Force 5, Group 1 Crew) and Matt Dally (Superchick, Jamie Grace), LOVECOLLIDE has found its perfect match to achieve the sound they want to accompany their lyrics.
“We’ve always wanted to be current,” Lauren said. “It’s always been a journey for us, and always will be. I think our biggest goal with this new music and this new album was to create something that truly sounded like what we listen to on a daily basis, and what gets us going, and that’s dancy pop.”
Lyrically, the themes of Tired of Basic pull from some seismic ups and downs of the past two years.
Lauren, for one, dealt with the devastation of having to break off an engagement.
“I thought I was supposed to settle for that mediocre love, that my dreams for marrying my best friend and the love of my life were for someone else,” she said. “I’d just given up in a sense, but God radically changed my life when I broke off that relationship. Then God gave me Adam.”
That’s Adam Budnick, LOVECOLLIDE’s drummer, and Lauren’s fiancee.
Meanwhile, as hatred, racism and division have been at the forefront of public consciousness, the negativity took a very personal toll on Brooke, sending her into a suffocating depression.
“I lost myself for a long time,” she recalled. “I lost my connection with the world because I couldn’t handle all the negativity. I spent a lot of time in bed, detached.”
Tired, out of options and feeling the pit of despair getting deeper, Brooke decided to fast for the first time in her life. In that process, God began to speak.
“He said to me, ‘I can’t begin a new thing in your life when you still have old things,’” Brooke remembered. “‘I can’t fill you up when you’re still full with what was left over.’ That kind of turned things around.”
New music emerged. New partners surfaced. A new sound rose up. And the name LOVECOLLIDE took on a whole new dimension.
“We want to unite, love people, love each other, giving without expectation,” Brooke added. “With how we live our life, with our music, with everything–we want to slap people in the face with love!”
And LOVECOLLIDE primarily seeks to do that through their songwriting, which has grown and deepened on TIRED OF BASIC.
Powerhouse album opener “Awake” uses earworm hooks to address the concept that many people are alive in Christ, but are, as the DeLearys say, essentially sleepwalking through life. Fun crowd-pleaser “I Believe In Loud” is a declaration of boldly declaring the hope of Jesus to a hopeless world.
One song, “Breaking My Heart,” is a love song written about humanity from God’s perspective. Lauren and Brooke were able to draw emotions and language from their broken past relationships to bring language to the longing expressed in this downtempo pop jam.
On another, the emotional “I Don’t Want It,” LOVECOLLIDE shares about the things they learned as they questioned the band’s future.
“We were debating, kind of at the point of do or don’t with LOVECOLLIDE,” Brooke said. “We were calling out to God, saying, ‘I don’t want this if it’s without you.’ That song is about holding our dreams up to God.”
And the ethereal and introspective “Maybe” is perhaps the most vulnerable track on the new record, Lauren said, as it presents a raw, yet hopeful cry out to God about difficult times.
“One of the most important relationships in my life is the one I have with my dad. I imagine to everyone else, he is just a normal guy: friendly, down-to-earth, patient, laid-back, even-keeled, a man of few words – but to me, he is a hero. I wrote this song as my way of saying, ‘Hey dad, I love ya.’” – Adam Young
No matter where he goes, Owl City mastermind Adam Young is constantly creating music. It doesn’t matter if he’s backstage before a gig or sitting in an airport terminal, the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist will typically be penning tunes on his laptop. His third full-length album nods to that process with the highly apropos title Mobile Orchestra [Republic Records]. Following up his acclaimed 2012 studio album The Midsummer Station, the record sees Owl City progress once more, veering off the beaten path in the process. “Mobile Orchestra is all about variety,” he asserts. “In the past, I’ve set out to make albums that were designed to be a singular listening experience, flowing from track to track. This time around, the songs are like ten rabbit holes that go off in different directions. I had never approached a record like this. I wanted to clear the slate and forget what I knew in order to create a new experience. I spent two years working on it, and it had the time to grow in between every idea. That’s why there’s so much going on.”There was no rush for Owl City. These songs got the chance to evolve as he built them and then sought out the right co-conspirators. The first single “Verge” merges his bright, buoyant production and shimmering vocals with a booming soulful refrain from Aloe Blacc. It blurs the lines between electro, alternative, pop, and R&B all at once, while remaining perfect for the dance floor. “You’re thinking about those moments in life where you’re on the edge,” explains Adam. “It’s like the last day of your life as you know it, and tomorrow everything is going to change. It could be a college graduation. It could be a new career. It could be your wedding day. You’re not sure how it’s going to go, but you’re confident that you’re going to hit the ground running. We reached out to Aloe out of nowhere, and he was so gracious and kind to lend his incredible talent to the track.”
At the same time, the band steps completely outside the box altogether on “Back Home” with country star Jake Owen. “That’s probably my favorite because it was so fresh for me to try something else,” he admits. “I’ve done acoustic tracks before but never like this. I’ve been a big fan of Jake’s for a couple of years. I listened to a lot of his records, and he was a gateway into the country world. We married this pop sensibility with his voice and told a story about how it feels to come home—especially after a long trip or, in our case, tour.”
Then, there’s the love letter to all things nineties with none other than Hanson’s “Unbelievable.” Wanting to capture a nostalgia for the era, Adam reached out to the pop powerhouse, and they cooked up this jovial anthem. “That one is so much fun,” he says. “It goes through everything we love about that era, and Hanson fit perfectly.” Elsewhere, “Thunderstruck” with UK trance diva Sarah Russell proves utterly propulsive and club-ready. As Adam assembled the music, the entire vision came into focus in late 2014 for Mobile Orchestra. “What each of these collaborators does is so different from what I do,” he continues. “It felt so right and natural to reach outside of my comfort zone and join forces with artists away from my world. That process was awesome. Once these people got on board, it really gave the project steam. The train was finally moving.”
The train really never stopped though. The Owatonna, Minnesota native remains an avant garde hitmaker in his own right. With total album sales over 2.5 million and single sales surpassing 18 million globally, his smash “Fireflies” from 2009’s Ocean Eyes received a five-times RIAA platinum certification in addition to going #1 in 26 countries. “Good Time” featuring Carly Rae Jepsen went Top 4 in the U.S. and racked up sales of close to three million. He composed the theme song for filmmaker Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and an original tune for Disney’s Academy Award winner Wreck-It Ralph, while Owl City’s music has seen placements everywhere from The Croods and Veggietales to Smurfs 2.
Even with all of the collaborations on Mobile Orchestra, everything still stems from Adam’s vision in the end. “I’ve always got that laptop out,” he remarks. “You can do so much with layering, tones, and sounds. It’s literally like an orchestra in a box. If you just take the time to breathe life into it, it can be beautiful.”
Wayyyyyyy back in 2000, Sarah Loftin, me, and Laura didn’t know that we would be leading students together in the yaers to come!
The amazing Spring growth combined with the consistent rain reminds me that God can do amazing things in His perfect timing and in the right season. Right now, my season of life involves two amazing kids, my wife, and all the fun as well as stress that comes with it. As the Middle School Pastor, I also find myself reflecting on my Middle School and High School season of life. I ask myself, what was vital to my Spiritual Growth at that stage of life? One major part of my Spiritual Growth was Summer Camp. I still remember my 8th grade Summer as I made public the decision to follow God’s call into ministry. God had been planting so many things in my life up to that point, and during that season, He sprouted a passion for spending time in His Word daily.
It was not by chance that God led me to Pacesetters Camp at Dallas Baptist University my Junior Summer. I had many thoughts about my life in Christ, but for some reason Pacesetters was like the fertilizer to the passion God had been placing in my heart. I found a camp experience that challenged me and stretched me to not only talk about Jesus, but take action for Jesus. I remember that God impressed on me His compassion for the lost and the lowly that I was literally WRECKED for Him. What God had been planting in me had risen up as a Passion to follow Christ. From that point forward, that Passion turned to many steps of action at my church. I saw the vision for my life. I began to understand that God could use me to help the lost and the broken where I lived. He had begun framing me to become a Servant Leader
We have been blessed to have the Pacesetters Leadership Camp plant that same seed of Servant Leadership in our Middle School students here at Oakwood. That Servant Leader Camp, under the Glowing Heart Ministry organization, is still based in the Dallas, TX area. Today, it has expanded to the donated campground called Focus Pointe Camp in Alba, TX. Our students are challenged each afternoon to serve the surrounding communities near the camp and apply what they are learning about Jesus with action. My prayer is for students to know the heart of the Father by finding Jesus, growing deeper in that relationship and showing the world around them His Love.
Have you been overwhelmed by the LOVE of JESUS lately?
In a world where we crave true love, look for authentic relationships, and seem to fail at the pursuit so much, it is refreshing to be reminded of the Love that Jesus Christ gave away for you and for me. Jesus, himself, spoke of how this love works with those who follow him in John 15 below:
John 15:9-13
9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
“To lay down one’s life for one’s friends” paints a picture of TRUE RECKLESS LOVE! As Jesus spoke to His disciples, he meant for their impact to be simple, LOVE. This overwhelming love from the Father was poured out in the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, so that we might be overflowing with the love of Jesus.
How can the overwhelming love of Jesus be an overflowing supply to your family, your friends, and those in your day-to-day life?
THANK YOU, JESUS, FOR YOUR RECKLESS LOVE FOR US!!!
MORNING TIME
DRIVE TIME
MEAL TIME
BED TIME
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