Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Dnow 2011
$50 due by January 12
$60 after January 12
Host Home - February 10
Leadership Team - November 14
DiscipleNow is a weekend retreat in Decatur. Students stay in the homes (by grade/gender) of Westmeade members for the weekend. Leaders will be assigned to each home. The leaders will teach the material from the theme “Why?”. This year we are dealing with the idea of suffering and why God allows us to suffer at times in our lives. We will combine with over 20 other churches (& 1,100 students) in Decatur on Feb. 9 & 12 for HUGE Rallies. They will both be held at Decatur Baptist this year.
Parents, we could use your help:
1.) open your home as a Host Home to our students; 2.) drive students around during the weekend; 3.) help a Host Home with food; 4.) help with the Saturday afternoon activity.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
New Series Give Thanks
We have so many blessings, and this series will go beyond stuff to be thankful for. This series will challenge us to a lifestyle that shows our thankfulness in how we share Christ with others. Because if we are truly grateful for the live Christ has given us then we will show it.
Week 1 Radical GratitudeWeek 2 Show Thanks ( story of Mary anointing Jesus with perfume)Week 3 live a life of thanks
Thursday, October 7, 2010
New Series TRICK OR TREAT OR TRUTH
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
HOW TO SAVE A LIFE SERIES WK 5
SYATP 7AM AT YOUR SCHOOLS FLAG POLE
What is See You at the Pole™?
See You at the Pole™ is a global movement of prayer which is student-initiated, student-organized, and student-led. It revolves around students praying together on the fourth Wednesday in September, usually before school and usually at the school's flag pole. It involves student in elementary schools, middle/junior high schools, high schools, and colleges/universities across the globe. Adults often pray in support of the students on campus by gathering nearby, at their places of work or worship, or at city halls.
Why meet at the flagpole in front of the school?
In 1990 when youth ministers in Texas first challenged young people to meet on a common day to launch their school year in prayer, one of the concerns what how to help those who wanted to pray together find each other. It was noted that virtually every school has a flagpole, and the flagpole provided an easy-to-identify place to gather. Also, one issue that the teenagers were praying about was the spiritual health of their country and their leaders, in obedience to 1 Timothy 2:1–2. Hence, the location and name of the event!
How did See You at the Pole™ start?
See You at the Pole™ was inspired by the initiative of student in one youth group in Burleson, Texas, early in 1990. The teenagers felt led to go and pray at night at several area schools during a weekend youth group retreat. They had a profound time of prayer, and their experience was shared with thousands of other youth from across Texas in the form of a challenge in June 1990 at a large conference. More than 56,000 students on 1,200 campuses in Texas and three other states were documented at the first See You at the Pole™ in September of that year. The movement continued to grow nationally and internationally from 1991 on. For more information, readthe See You at the Pole™ history.
Is See You at the Pole™ legal?
The answer to this question is a firm "Yes!" The right of students to gather and pray outside of instructional time—while at school—is clearly a Constitutionally protected form of free speech. This has been affirmed in regard to "Equal Access Clubs" by the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision inWestside Community Schools v. Mergens. And in 1995, President Bill Clinton directed then-Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, to prepare guidelines for what the government deemed "appropriate religious expression on school grounds." These guidelines were issued and upheld by the government several times since. In them, See You at the Pole™ is specifically named as legal, appropriate, and protected:
"Students may also participate in before or after school events with religious content, such as "see you at the flag pole" gatherings, on the same terms as they may participate in other noncurriculum activities on school premises. School officials may neither discourage nor encourage participation in such an event."
It should be noted that among the legal groups which affirmed the legality of See You at the Pole™ by drafting the USDOE guidelines were the Christian Legal Society, American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, National Council of Churches, National Association of Evangelicals, and People for the American Way, as well as six others. For a complete list of the Drafting Committee and Endorsing Organizations, contact the National Network of Youth Ministries or call (858) 451-1111.
If students who are praying are told by someone from the administration (or otherwise in authority at the school) to stop praying during See You at the Pole™, we recommend that you obey that authority and move your prayer time off campus. See You at the Pole™ is about praying, not arguing about your legal rights. You may want to bring a parent, youth worker, or other adult with you to speak to the authority later. If necessary, you may want to contact a legal group who can clarify your rights for the school official.
