Pastor D

Pastor D: I am the interim Director of Student Ministries & Single Adults at Northwest Chapel. I enjoy playing basketball, watching sports, spending time with my family, dreaming about what God has in store for my life, and reading books to learn more about my life and my place in the world.

The Student Connection:

I direct the ministries of students from age 11 through mid-twenties, students in sixth grade through college. Northwest Chapel seeks to help students find, follow, and share Christ. I facilitate this mission by focusing on five functions: Contact, Welcome, Connect, Equip, & Mobilize. Each function has its focus and goals. Presently I am focusing on Connect & Equip (Sunday morning ministries). As I move into summer ministry programming, I am shifting to target Mobilize and Contact (Service opportunities & Summer Activities). This summer I will get two interns for training, developing, and nurturing.

What is in my iPod? I don't own one. But if I did it would reflect the full spectrum of music. I am an ecclectic. So I enjoy a lot of music. Bryan Adams, U2, Brooks & Dunn, Johnny Cash, KJ-52, P.O.D., Ottmar Liebert, Bach & Beethoven, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Switchfoot, Chris Tomlin, Stellar Kart, Jeremy Camp, Pillar, Fly Leaf, John Mayer, Sugarland, George Strait, John Mellencamp, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Kook & the Gang, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Leeland, The Ramones, Keith Urban, Los Lonely Boys, BB King, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy.

What movies am I renting? I rarely rent movies. I usually rent them for my children. But I have rented more movies searching for clips to reinforce lessons for Sunday morning teachings. I also love to re-watch older movies that I already know--Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Spiderman I & II, Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Clint Eastwood movies esp. Heartbreak Ridge, Mission Impossible.

What books am I reading? I am presently reading John Eldridge's book The Journey of Desire; Andy Stanley Next Generation Leader, James Emery White A Mind for God, Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz The Power of Full Engagement, Mortimer Adler How to Read a Book, Haroly Myra & Marshall Shelly The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham.

High School Sunday Series

New Classroom change for This Sunday

This Sunday morning you will gather in Room 121 for our next session. So look for directional signs. You will gather in room 121 downstairs for our high school hour. Thanks.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Mornings

How to Develop Healthy Relationships

This week you will discover why expectations may lead to disappointment in relationships. You will learn how to develop trust and how to measure reliance on someone else as you seek to build a healthy relationship. Every student needs to figure out how to measure how much you can trust someone and how much you can rely on anyone. These skills will help you in any relationship that seeks to honor God.

So come and learn how to grow in your understanding of trust and reliance in relationships. Ask a friend to come and join you.

Pastor D

Middle School Sunday Mornings

Game Day

Webster’s defines play as, “to amuse oneself, as by taking active part in a game or sport; engage in recreation; activity engaged in for amusement or for fun.”

The intention for programming a GameDay on a Sunday morning is to meet our goal of helping students play well so that each student has fun, feels connected, and is cared about in the context of a church family. We intend for students and their friends to come and play at Northwest Chapel.

One way students have fun is multiple-player video games. We want students to share games and game systems so that there is enough time for as many students as possible to enjoy playing a game. Four player games are best. Likewise, we may need to set a time limit on each game played so that other students are allowed to try a game.

Another way students have fun is multiple-player board games or card games. Again sharing games and time limits will help us direct students to try games and to include others by inviting other student(s) to join in. Whether they play or not, we want every student to get an invitation to try playing a game.

Moreover, some students would rather play individual or one-on-one games. These students need to share games as well with an adult leader who sets time limits so that others can play these games as well.

Fun is not the only goal—but also seeing students make connections with one another and feeling that adult leaders care about them. Adult leader(s) will issue name tags so that we can hear student names and begin using them. Likewise, An adult leader will take pictures to post on the website or on a PowerPoint slide or to include in a pictorial directory for MS Ministry Team members.

Thus, the goals for GameDay are:

1. To help students have fun by offering a variety of games so that students can interact with one another and with an adult leader.
2. To help students feel connected and cared about by making sure that every student is greeted.
3. To help students feel connected and cared about by making sure that every student is issued a name tag.
4. To help students feel connected and cared about by making sure that every student is invited to participate in an all-play game.
5. To help students feel connected and cared about by taking pictures to post on website or PowerPoint slide or for pictorial directory.
6. To help students get connected to God by sharing Christ in testimon, which outlines how to know God in a personal way as your forever best friend.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Series

How to develop healthy relationships

This week you got to focus on making your relationship last. In the get-to-know the person category, you must consider the family of origin and the person's own actions and attitudes. Next you seek to discover compatibility in the areas of personality, values, and lifestyle.

You ask the question of compatibility. The prevalent cultural norm is to live together first and discover compatibilty before even considering marriage. Yet God's word states that God intended marriage to be a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman where they are no longer two persons, but one flesh (Genesis 2:24). God instituted this marriage covenant. He expects commitment prior to marriage. In the ancient near east, marriages were arranged. Man and wife were put together by families. God spoke into that culture and shared how things were intended to occur. One man and one woman would become one flesh. Compatibility was no concern. Yet today it is a significant issue--in fact, you look at eharmony and compatibility is a major concern. So rather than disregard compatibility you can include it in the process of making a marital commitment to someone.

You were shown three areas to consider: personality, values, and lifestyle. For personality, the points to consider were intelligence, emotional styles, energy levels, chemistry, openness and expression of confession, and sense of humor. Each point has a range of possibilities, discover where you are and where the person you like may fit. I wonder if you have questions like these to consider when pondering who to be with for the rest of your life. It's important to consider these prior to beginning any relationship. In my opinion, you need to at least think through each point with a parent(s) or with friends. Personality is the first point of compatibility.

The next one is values . What values are most important to you? Three you need to conider are spiritual values, family values, and material values. How important is spiritual life to you? How critical is it for you to have a small or large family? How significant is it that you make lots of money or just enough money? Questions like these you need to ask and you need to answer. What is most important to you?

The last area of compatibility to consider is lifestyle. Work ethic, leisure interests, and recreation fall under this category. It matters if you are highly motivated and someone else is not. It matters if you like being with family and people and your lifemate is not--more of a loner. It matters if you enjoy non-active recreational pursuits whereas your lifemate is an action-sports fanatic who participates in races and competition. Assess your lifestyle and measure it with your lifemate. Are you both willing to commit to life together in spite of the small similarities or wide differences? Is your lifestyles compatible?

Compatibility gave way to a brief overview of evaluating your past relationships. Ponder the past relationship patterns of you and your present love interest. Do detective work and ask the hard questions.

Lastly, gather relationship communication skills. Mrs. Feusse shared how you must cultivate better listening and speaking skills. Don't merely repeat the facts but figure out the feelings involved with the facts. You need to be better communicators. I need to be a better communicator. God's word gives us insight, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Moreover, "Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)." These skills will improve any relationship. Everyone would do well to improve listening and speaking skills.

Mrs. Wendy Feusse and I trust you will use this relationhsip tool to develop healthy and godly relationships in your life. May God bring you great relationships to surround you when poor relationships occur.

Pastor D

Sunday Mornings Middle School

This Sunday morning at 9:30 you will be looking at some biblical characters. I am going to select two losers...biblical characters that you don't want to be like. Often I can select the men and women of the Bible who did great things or said awesome things. But as I review the wisdom literature of the Bible, you can learn from your mistakes. I do. In fact, you may learn some things to avoid in your own life.

As I skimmed through the Bible, I saw many losers. So I chose two--Saul & Haman. Saul is a great example of what can go wrong when you decide to know more than God. God had blessed Saul's life in tremendous ways yet he decided to disobey. So the challenge for you is to choose to obey. The rewards are worth the risk.

So come join us. You will discover how to not be a loser. You'll be glad you came to learn that lesson.

I want to say thanks to my friends Doug Fields and Kurt Johnston for lettime me use their material for our students. They have such great resources.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning High School

We will proceed with the second-part of our five-part series this Sunday regarding how to develop healthy relationships. Mrs. Feusse had a tough Sunday afternoon. Her daughter Katie broke her leg in a championship game in Cincinnati. I have not got an update but I'm sure there is some recovery time needed.

This week we will unpack a little more about how healthy relationships work. I wonder if you have any movie clips or songs that could depict or describe how relationships are perceived in student life. I have a distant perspective. But you could provide some more insight to help us on Sunday morning. Please offer your suggestions here by posting a comment and adding links to the content you discover online. Thanks.

Pastor D

High School Relationships

Sunday Morning Series: How to develop healthy relationships

This Sunday begins our five week study on building healthy relationships. This theme is critical for students in high school. Growing good relationships is a skill anyone needs for creating a great life. All students want great friends. All parents want great friends for their children.

Mrs. Wendy Feusse challenged students to consider a new tool for fostering great relationships in boy-girl friendships. We used a relationship tool where five features were shared: Know, Trust, Rely, Commit, & Touch. Students need to define what selfishness looks like and feels like. We showed two clips. Selfishness rules over all relationships. The only way to overcome this natural tendency is to have Jesus come into your life and to help you overcome it. Without Jesus you have no hope. You can only expect heartache and pain with each new relationship These recurring "awful" relationships keep emerging. Yet with Jesus you will still experience heartache and pain but you'll survive it and grow from it and set the foundations for great relationships.

I was talking after church with a parent who discovered what we were sharing. This parent came up with a good point. Rather than avoid marrying a jerk, avoid dating one! I thought that was a good point. This tool is one way to work through guy-girl relationships but it eventually ends up with each person making up their own minds. I can't wait to hear how this tool will help students foster healthy and godly relationships. Plese post a comment about tools or models that guide your relationships. I wonder what you use. I know that if I had this tool I would have done better in my relationships.

Pastor D

Middle School Connect 9:30am

Middle School gets a play day!

What about guitar hero II? I wonder if anyone could bring guitar hero I. I'll bring the donuts and a few breakfast drinks. First come. First served.

Soccer may be our theme this weekend hour. I hope you can come.

pastor D

High School New Series

Starting Sunday, April 29 How NOT to marry a jerk/jerkette

Certified Instructor Mrs. Wendy Feusse will facilitate our discussions regarding relationships. Students often become relationship casualties. This five week series will target how students can learn to manuever through dating relationships before marriage while lessening the risks of injury during the process. The series will be an open class allowing for new students to attend every week. Each session will "stand on its own." We will explore these sessions Sunday mornings starting April 2 through May 27.

Watch this news story and interview by Meredith Viera of young women's view of the term "hooking up." Please read what I posted earlier. More to follow.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Connect 11am

High School Lesson

Your world seeks guidance for life. When tragedy strikes, you want answers. You want guidance. The free video from bluefishtv.com of the VA Tech Prayer Vigil shows how students want direction in the midst of life's challenges. Yet the culture around you offers many avenues for guidance. One is dreams. In the movie trailer for premonition you can see how your dreams could shape or re-shape the future or any outcome. Where do you get your guidance for your life?

You read a daily reading from a real horoscope. You said it was untrue, a sham, a fun thing to do but you wouldn't follow its insights. You even described it as foolish. But many students look for guidance in life, but seek it in the wrong place where you create more problems. You watched a satirical look at someone who seeks wisdom from a horoscope mini-scroll. Someone has to buy them! Then you created mottos or bumper-sticker summaries of the following Bible verses: Exodus 15:13; Psalm 23; Psalm 25, 5,9; Psalm 31:3; Psalm 32:8-10; Isaiah 48:17. You can get guidance from the Bible! But are you?

I wonder if many times God can't guide you because you are either too busy following something else, preoccupied, or filling your time and mind with way too many things that drown out His voice. I trust you will take the challenge to spend at least five minutes each day listening to God and reading His Word in the Bible. You can do it! I am striving to fulfill my commitment. Today is not over. Make time to hear God's voice. I'd love to hear how God is speaking to you. Please share.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Lesson

Middle School Connect

You were challenged that the world sometimes seeks guidance in foolish ways. It's like letting a stranger guide your life. You shared how most kids make their own decisions but factor in the great influence of what their friends or culture says. A few of you were willing to do what a stranger suggested to make that point. One student did cartwheels, another did the worm, another played a song on the keyboard synthesizer. You observed how crazy it is to trust your future to a horoscope. You may even have friends who don't have much better guidance in their lives. But you do. Or at least I hope you know that the Bible gives guidance.

You can find genuine guidance in your life from the Bible! You fashioned mini-scrolls for your use this week. I wonder how it's going for you. Is the Bible your source for guidance? Are you letting God lead your life? My prayer is that God helps you to live your life for Him!

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Lesson

High School 11:00Am

The main focus for high school students was to take a long and honest look at yourself before you put down others. One of the big hurdles for non-Christians is your hypocrisy. Students pointed out how non-Christians describe your actions as Christians as judgemental and full of hypocrisy. A lot of people have critical views of others while you never see your own problems. I played a humorous parable in a film clip called Food Fight. It was shot in two days and $60 was spent on food. They spit out much of the food they used. But it was all to make the point that Jesus was trying to make to his disciples--you can be critical of others but blind to your own shortcomings.

In fact the non-Christian world often uses this passage to improperly imply that Christians are violating your own standards if you weigh in on the actions and behaviors of others. You have to make time to think what your response will be. I wanted students to wrestle with this challenge. Mike Eddington distributed situations to discuss in smaller groups. I asked it it would be wrong to "judge" the actions or behavior of the person described on it; e.g. a christian who gets drunk at a party, a parent who abandons his or her family to have an affair, a person who drugs and rapes a girl at a party, etc. Students responded along a whole spectrum of choices from hard-core judgment to calls for mercy, understanding, and sympathy.

At the close I wanted to challenge students to consider their own hearts and desires when it comes to being critical of others and when it comes to your own weaknesses. God's truth challenges us to judge rightly. You must begin with yourself first and then others. Putdowns are commonplace. You can make a difference with the Bible as your guide. My prayer is that you will have an experience to share God's truth in a real way. I wonder if you'd like to share what God is doing in your life.

Pastor D

Sunday Morning Lessons

April 15 Dealing with hypocrisy

Middle School 9:30 AM

The main theme for middle school students was to think before you judge. When you can't see clearly you tend to make a mess of things. Students tried discerning what the difference was in some pictures shown on the screen. The boys and girls tied at six points each. So for the tie-breaker, I blindfolded students to see who could draw the most accurate smiley face. The girls barely won. It is so easy to be critical of others but not see your own mess-ups in the same area. Matthew 7:1-5 challenges everyone to be wary of a critical spirit because it has a way of boomeranging. You need to see clearly your own faults before you point out the faults of others.

Pastor D