My Final Post

Circumstances Change, But God Changes NOT!

Changes happen all the time. It's no different for adults. You know the changes of life can be sublte or drastic. You can experience change when friends move, when your boyfriend/girlfriend breaks up with you, when your school changes, when your parents stop talking about divorce and start court proceedings, when a friend or a family member dies, or when you contract a disease. No matter how circumstances change. God changes not!

How does God not change? He says to you, "I am faithful. I am always gonna' be there no matter how circumstances change. I am good."

God is faithful. "This is a true saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself ( II Timothy 2:11-13)." God is always faithful. You may not feel you are always faithful to God. But God will be faithful. You can trust Him for He changes not.

Think of the geyser in Yellowstone National Park--Old Faithful. Check out this webcam with predicted eruption times. Every twenty or thirty minutes the geyser erupts. For decades this pattern has continued. Yet God is more faithful than a geyser. He is the everlasting God. He changes not! He is consistent. He changes not!
God is always there for you. "I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are
there (Psalm 139: 7-8)." God will be there for you. You may experience elevated highs or the deepest of lows. No matter. God wil be there for you. No matter how changes occur. You can trust God.

God is good. "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in him! (Psalm 34:8)." How do you taste God? You suggested that you can taste the Lord by licking the wall, by reading the Bible, by doing good things, and by observing the godly attitudes of other people. I suggest that you taste God by eating foods that are good to you. What satiates your appetite? Watermelon? Apples? Oranges? Pizza? Fries? Ice Cold Mountain Dew? Double mocha Frapp No Room? God is good like the taste of your favorite food. God is good. Trust Him.

The Chronicles of Narnia reflects the uniqueness of God. Aslan the Lion is good but you must still fear Him. The book shares this dialgoue between Lucy and the Beavers.

“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly.
“Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of Wood and the son of the great
Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan
is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh,” said Susan, “I thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver,
“if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees
knocking, they’re either braver than most or else silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver
tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But
he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

God is good. You can trust Him. He isn't safe--He's the God of the Universe, the Everlasting God. Check out Chris Tomlin's present worship song; "Everlasting God." One to buy!

If you don't have God in your life as the boss of what you do, then you have no access to his help. God provides great things for His followers. You can experience pain and joy and have no hope. But with God you
have hope that you can trust Him. Why? Because God is faithful, He will be there for you, and God is good. You can trust Him!

My life circumstances have changed As of today, the Elder Community of Northwest Chapel has directed me to shift all student ministries responsibilities to a transition team so that I can pursue what God is calling me to do for the future. I am still on staff at Northwest Chapel. But I will not be responsible for Student Ministries at midnight tonight. I have been given the gift of time to focus on missions--to discover what God wants me to do for the future. So I commission you to be advocates for God's church. Responsibilities change but my relationships with you does not. So stop and talk with me anytime.

But please don't eulogize me. I am not dead! I am embracing this decision and I agree that this must occur. I trust God and His leadership team. So keep this verse in mind as you respond and react to this news: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3)." If you have concerns, then go talk with your parents, volunteer staff, or our elder community. May you speak the truth in love while in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:3). While circumstances change, trust God for God changes NOT!

Til' you see me,

Pastor D

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

New Summer Intern Middle School Ministries

Please welcome Josh Placeway! Josh graduated from Grace College onMay 5 with a double major in Biblical Studies and Youth Ministries. His track was the The National Institute (TNI) the youth ministry major at Grace College located in Winona Lake, Indiana. The program is run by CE National.

The National Institute equips individuals for youth ministry through academic pursuits and practical experiences in order to lead andminister in a local church, para-church,cross-cultural, or camp setting. He is presently serving as Middle School Youth Intern.

If you missed this Sunday, Josh introduced himself and you would have discovered some things. Josh enjoys reading, playing and watching sports, hanging out with students, and rooting for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

He is the youngest of three in his family. He has an older brother and sister. Josh will return to Grace Theological Seminary this Fall after his internship.

What's on Josh's iPod?

Coldplay; Copeland ; John Mayer; U2; Darkroom; Snow Patrol; Jack Johnson.

What's are Josh's favorite movies?
Hoosiers; Patch Adams; Apollo 13; The Incredibles; That Thing You Do; The Sandlot.

What books is Josh reading?

The Cost of Discipleship By Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry By Doug Fields; Experiencing Jesus By T.D. Jakes; Pierced By the Word By John Piper; The Last Word By N.T. Wright

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

Middle School Sunday Series

Losers: How to learn from Bad Examples

You learned how Haman put action to his prejudice and tried to kill those he hated. In the Old Testament book of Esther you will find the story of Haman. The king of Babylon appointd Haman a role of honor in the king's court. All paid him honor--all but one Jew named Mordecai. Mordecai worshipped the true God alone. He did not bow down to anyone but God alone. This action enraged Haman. So Haman made plans to kill Mordecai and his people (Esther 3:5-6). God intervened in a unique manner to save the Jews and to honor Mordecai. You have to read the story yourself to see how it concludes. But the challenge is to put off prejudice rather than feed prejudice like Haman did.

You can put off prejudice in three ways: 1- You can forget the stereotypes, 2-Focus on the Inside, 3-Everyone deserves respect. The Bible says that you can discover how you are by the fruit of your actions.

Prejudice means "an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason (Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006)." I wonder if you have thought about how you treat people. Your actions will reveal how you treat people. For instance, I wonder how you interact with those from other cultures in public. What if you had to stand in line at the checkout in Hollister? I wonder if you would forget the stereotypes and warmly greet them or at least try to be friendly. You may think that people of other cultures only want to be with their own people. That perconceived reason may be prejudice. But you can forget the stereotypes and seek to encounter all people groups differently. You can put off prejudice by forgetting the stereotypes.

A second way to put off prejudice, you can focus on the inside of the person. I Samuel 16:7 says that God looks at the individual's thoughts and intentions, not on the outward appearance. Rather than focusing on the outward appearance (skin color, type of clothes, footwear, or sunglasses), you can choose to focus on what's inside a person. It is more important in God's sight to see the individual's heart and thoughts rather than mere outward appearance. So focus on what's inside an individual, not on what's outside.

The last way to put off prejudice is to respect others, everyone deserves respect. Jesus said it best, "The second and most important (commandment) is similar, 'Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself(Matthew 22:39).'" In fact the apostle Paul reaffirms in I Peter 2:17, "Show respect for everyone." Give respect to each person as a follower of Jesus. YOu can put off prejudice by showing respect for everyone.

Next week be ready for Game Day--we will try to do something different. So come and bring a friend.

Pastor D

Middle School Sunday Series

How Not To Be a Loser

This Sunday morning you will learn how to identify your prejudices and how to alleviate them. To put off prejudices is an on-going battle. In our ever growing multicultural world, you will need this skill for the rest of your life. I read on the news ticker this morning that the minority population in the US surpassed the 100 million mark. I wonder what will happen when the minority population outnumbers the majority. Well, you will be ahead of the game. You have prejudices that are not identified as prejudice. You will learn what prejudice is, how to put it out of your life, and then reflect on what God would have you target as action steps for your spiritual journey. I trust you can join us by looking at the life of one bible character named Hamaan, who is someone that you don't want to be like. See ya' Sunday!

Pastor D

High School Sunday Series

How to Develop Healthy Relationships

This week you will focus on compatibility questions in relationships. This can be a point of confusion. So come and discover how to use the compatibility appraisal to improve your relationships. Mrs. Feusse will return to teach. I trust you can make it and learn how to build quality relationships with friends.

High School Sunday Morning Series

How to Develop Healthy Relationships
You were challenged to consider how to assess where you may be in relationships with someone of the opposite sex. Relationships can be complicated. But with God's truth as your guide you can alleviate some of the pain and the strain. But you both have to commit to God's way. So capture the levels of building a relationship with someone. You can build great relationships. You can.

The tool we offer is one where you consider five key concepts: know, trust, rely, commit, and touch. Ideally, each builds on one another. You can only progress as you get to know someone. With each situation you observe actions, attitudes, and clarify thoughts. You use discernment, you assess where this person is. You must know them well before testing how much you can trust and rely on them. Again, this is only a tool. Process it yourself. You have some options: discard it, implement it, integrate part of it into your life, modify it, or just think more about it. It's up to you to decide how you build relationships. This tool could help.

You need more ways to make this tool your own. So I suggest you evaluate relationships you see on TV, at the movies, or on DVD. Much like you did today. Evlautate what you watch. Use your brain. Think. Think about where you are at and consider where the other person is at. Engage life with some tool for relationship building. Use or lose this tool. It's one way to build godly relationships. It's up to you.

One student outlines "10 reasons why you really do have a choice about your life." God challenges you, "

If you decide that it's a bad thing to worship GOD, then choose a god you'd rather serve--and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from the country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whose land you're now living. As for me and my family, we'll worship GOD." (Joshua 24:15 The Message)

You can choose God's way. So live it!

Pastor D

Middle School Sunday Morning Series

Mother's Day 2007

You got the chance to honor your mom by creating a mother's day card. You also heard how I called my mom a terrible name in anger. I learned from my mistake by taking the punishment and by adjusting my life to stop displacing my anger in harmful word(s). The Bible says to honor your parents (Ephesians 6:2.). You can develop a better relationship with your mom by honoring her.

You can honor your mom by sharing love in a real way. Using the Five Love Languages from Gary Chapman and made popular by Gary Smalley, you can enjoy a better relationship through Chapeman's five love languages: #1 Physical Touch, #2 Words of Affirmation, #3 Quality Time, #4 Gifts, & #5 Acts of Service. One of these langauges is your mom's primary love language. Discover it and act upon it to honor her. You can share real love to her in a new way.

For example, if your mom likes hugs, cuddling, or pecks on the cheek, then you give mom a hug "just because." If your mom uses words of affirmation, then affirm her with kind words of gratitude--say thank you more. If your mom needs to spend time with you, then make time for her--set a starting time limit of five minutes a day (yes, use the timer, but tell her why you're using it so that you can learn to increase time with her not as a device to tell you when it's over). Your mom may need time with you. Designate it as a date and keep it. If your mom likes gifts, then give something up to sell and buy her something or make something by hand and give it to her. If your mom likes doing things for people, then do things for her. Target doing one thing for her. Start with just one thing! Then add two. And so forth.

You can show appreciation to your mom in these various ways and more. Stop and think how you can show love to your mom and to develop a better relationship with her today. Make it more than just one day a year. Strive to work on your relationship with your mom an everyday occurence. You will get better at it as you work on it with God's help. Here's to mom! I love you mom!

Pastor D

High School Sunday Morning Series

How to Build Healthy Relationships

This week you are going to pause and to assess how relationships remain healthy. You will view various film clips and use your best judgment to discern where the person is on the Relationship Attachment Model. When you are in a relationship, it is hard to discover where you are and where you are going. So Mrs. Feusse wants you to digest and to decide how to assess your relationships. Come ready to discuss and to question how you determine healthy relationships based on the model presented. I can't wait to discover where you are at.

Pastor D

Middle School Sunday Morning Series

Mother's Day

This Sunday we will take a one-week break and highlight mom's. Everyone alive has a birth mom. You will get to honor you mom in a unique manner on Sunday morning. Come ready to honor your mom.

You can be a good daughter or son. You can grow in maturity. This week I will share my own adolescent mistakes. You will benefit from hearing about my teenage regrets and about my past and present relationship with my mom.

You will get practical help to honor your mother better. Come to stop and make a card for your mom. Who says you can’t take time out to take some paper, crayons, markers, and paste and creatively say thanks to your mom.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Morning

How to Develop Health Relationships (part two)





"You need this tool to help you." So said the lady at Lowe's.

Often I am reluctant to payout more money just for a tool to help. I can either pay 'em now, or pay'em later (after struggling and stressing, and swearing--oh yeah, not swearing). You can use the relationship model tool to help you begin to develop relationships. If you are already in a relationship or even with your friends you can use the tool to nurture bonds, not to shackle yourself in bonds. I feel that you need this tool to help you. I hope you come and learn how to use it.

You will begin to learn how to engage your head. This is the part where you get to know someone. The two areas to explore in your relationships are family background and childhood experiences as well as attitudes and actions of the conscience. How you were shaped in your family unit affects relationships. How you developed your conscience affects relationships. How you have matured (or not) impacts relationships. So come and learn how to develop great friendships and to nurture deep relationships. Invite a friend to come.


Pastor D

High School Sunday Morning

How to develop great relationships

I was listening to radiou on 88.7 and this song by April Sixth called "Dear Angel" was playing. I post the lyrics for you because relationships can feel so hurtful and alienating. You feel all alone and hopeless. Instead, God is near. No matter how many times people fail you, God will not! He promises to be with you, to never leave you nor forsake you. He is the best friend you'll always have. Nurture that friendship so that you can avoid feelings expressed in this song. I wonder where you can download it. I tried itunes but came up empty.

Dear angel of mine,

Where do I start to express how I feel?

Well, my love's gone blind.

Now all that I feel is what I hear.

Your words rip and tear, and

through my heart so weak and pure.

Now I find myself wanting to die…

CHORUS

I bleed for the second time tonight

holding the love that's in my mind.

If only my love could be with you.

If only this pain, this pain died too.

So I break you away, away, away from me.

As I sit here alone

thinking about everything that you said.

You know since I'm alone.

Well, maybe after all, I was better off dead.

Cause without you my life's gone down...

What do I do, when I find myself wanting to die?

This song shares how you could feel like dying. But think before you do. Consider the markers for relationships that you are learning on Sunday mornings--know, trust, rely, commit, touch. Where is this person? Could you use the relationship tool to mark where he or she is at? Come learn how to cultivate great relationships with God's help.

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

Sunday Morning Lesson

Students are bombarded with the message that "hooking up" is acceptable. Because the media, peers, and public school staff tell them that it's okay, students need to hear the other side of the story in a positive, nonjudgmental way. This series discusses how to foster great relationships with the opposite sex. Our goal is to let students know God's views of relationships and not feel guilty about relationships gone bad. But students need to know the facts about fostering great relationships. This series will share how to foster healthy relationships and to discern how to recognize unhealthy relationships with the opposite sex. Using recent data, our five-part series will focus on challenging students to "use your head and your heart." The main thrust for students this week is to know the other person and to seek to develop healthy biblical relationships. So I wonder what the media says about girl and guy relationships. I wonder what TV shows or movies portray guy-girl relationships. I wonder if they depict a healthy, biblical model. So come this Sunday and learn how to use a tool for fostering great guy-girl relationships. Hope to see you Sunday!

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