We want to reach teens in our area with Christ. We are doing so this year at the Union Fairgrounds . At this point, Sam & Kara Adolphsen are running the games, Amanda Boyington from ABC is overseeing the food, and Pastor Jamie, Pastor Mark, Pastor Chris from Spruce Head, and Rich Lowell will be speaking from the book of Mark on the themes mentioned below. Some pressing needs are for someone from SHCC to oversee the food for one of the nights and someone to oversee the grounds. Please let Pastor Jamie know if you could help in part of those areas. Below is a letter sent out to local Gospel-preaching churches in our area to invite churched and unchurched youth.

“The gospel of Mark is well known as the Gospel for youth; it is so brief, so vivid, so stirring, so strong; and communicates well to the active, restless, vigorous spirit of today’s modern world.  The gospel of Mark represents our Lord as the mighty, wonder-working Son of God, and thus bears a special message to an age which needs a word of divine authority, and a new vision of the present, limitless, redeeming power of Christ.”

 

These are not my words… they are in fact taken from a commentary on the New Testament, purchased by my father in 1957 at a Sudan Interior Mission bookstore in Ethiopia.  This is a great reminder that there is something simply amazing about truth. “It does not change!” Romans 1:16a,  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.”  This is the message that will change lives forever!

 

This year TEEN VBS is being organized to cover the Life of Christ from the stirring Gospel of Mark.

 

Title and theme:     One80 - the Ultimate Challenge

•          6-9pm  Wednesday July 18th             Who is Jesus Christ? 

•          6-9pm  Thursday July 19th                  His mission -  the Cross

•          6-9pm  Friday:   July 20th                    His Resurrection and His Grace

•          10am – 4PM Saturday:   July 21st       His call to repentance and belief 

 

Here are a few of the changes to this year’s program.

1.         We are holding the event at the Union Fair Grounds. 

2.         We are adding Saturday to the schedule.

3.         We have at least 5 area churches involved in the organization and operation.

4.         We are holding the event under the name of ‘Maine Ministry Outreach Center,” a newly formed organization that is designed to assist the local churches in youth outreach.

 

Some of the highlights:  

         Focusing on 7th to 12 grade students.

         Interactive teaching with powerful object lessons.

         Challenging and fun games and great food. 

 

Youth leaders are welcome and encouraged to bring kids from their part of the community.  This will be an evangelistic event.  It will be a prime opportunity for churches to step out the door with the transforming message of the hope of the crucified and resurrected Christ and into the paths of lives on their way to destruction. We have the Good News that the Spirit uses to rescue the perishing and care for the dying as we throw out the lifeline.   What an opportunity!

Please consider marking these dates down—July 18-21, and then begin the search for youth to bring.

 

For the sake of the Gospel,

Pastor Mark Adolphsen & Pastor Jamie Bickel

 

Send questions or replies to:   MaineMinistryOutreachCenter@gmail.com

In our Day Camp this July 23-27 from 9:00-2:30, we are "Fixin' to Farm".  Now, you cannot do much farming without farm hands.  Would you please consider lending a hand in our day camp this year?  Here is a list of positions waiting to be filled:

• 2 team leaders - All day
• 3 team helpers - All day
• People to help with crafts - 11:35-12:15
• 1 registrar - 8:45-9:45
• 2 Puppeteers - 9:30-9:45
• Snacks coordinator - line-up snacks
• Bible teacher - 10:45 (We are using the CEF visuals of the " I am's" of Christ. If you are interested in this position please let Ethan know by Wednesday June 13.)                       
                                                                                                                                                                                       Here are some things that you can do to help in the preparation for day camp.  

• Decoration items - please mark them with your name.
•  farm Items
• milk pails
• couple bales of hay
• baskets
• scare crow
• corn stalks
• Other farm items, If you have ideas please discuss them with Ethan. 
• Help decorate

• Supplies to be bought.
• Water balloons
• 5 bottles of baby soap
• under a dollar toys for quiet seat prizes

• Helpers to canvas the area.

If you would like to help with any of these things please contact Ethan Troester in person or send him an email at et5thbrother@gmail.com.

Are you getting engaged in the text? 

 Sunday morning’s sermon is on II Timothy 1:1-7. Have you read it over? Are you thinking about what it means and how it relates to your life and ours as a church? When you study a text you are seeing details of a text and seeking meaning from the details. Seeing and seeking is all that study is made up of.

When you see the details of the text, you’re:

1.     Observing words (long words, unusual words, and repeated words).

2.     Observing relationships in the grammar, logic, times and places involved, context to the text, book, or whole Bible,  and the kind of literature the text is found in.

When you seek meaning from the details of the text, you’re asking and answering questions, and analyzing and applying answers. Ask questions for words and for how the words are related to the passage. Ask questions of the background, the facts in the text, the why questions of meaning, and the how questions of application.

Then analyze your answers so that you are not misinterpreting, missing the full meaning, or making the passage more significant that it might be intended.

When you apply your answers, you want to understand how the author intended the original audience to apply the passage and then how you today are intended to apply it as a New Covenant believer.

Are you getting transformed in the text? 

 If the text isn’t transforming and changing you degree by degree as you see the glory of Christ in it, then you’re just reading words and not the living word. As you approach the text, I think the acrostic I. O. U. S. is helpful to pray as you come to the Word:

·         I.  Incline my heart to your testimonies. Psalm 119:36 (Since my heart is inclined to sleep and to work and to lots of things other than the Bible.)

·         O. Open my eyes to see wonders in your word. Psalm 119:18 (Since my heart is so often dull and blind to the wonders of the word.)

·         U. Unite my heart to fear your name. Psalm 86:11 (Since my heart is often divided and distracted in many directions)

·         S. Satisfy me with your steadfast love. Psalm  90:14 (Since my heart is so tempted to be satisfied in other things.)

“The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us [nor, I would add today, postmodernism or materialistic consumerism or visceral sensualism or whatever]. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.”
- Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People, page 66.