The Teen Room

strike a pose

Good times.

Thanks to Don Halsey for taking these (and many more) pictures!

chillin' out back and relaxing all cool

YOUTH MINISTRY YEAR END FAMILY BBQ @ the BUTT'S

June 11. 4:00. 35 Muldrew Ave.

Last Name A-M = bring a salad or side dish
Last Name N-Z = bring drinks or dessert

Please RSVP here in comments  or to scarborough_citadel@yahoo.ca

Good times.

fun in the sun

.
.
.

.

Who's in??

Tickets are $40

RSVP here or to Steph as soon as possible so that we can order tickets in advance.

This is a Youth Ministry Wide Event. We want to take along Junior Highs, Teens and Twenties and be one big happy family!

summer days are here again

This Thursday = our last TDI.

We'll meet at the Beaches at 7:00.

Check back here on Thursday for the last minute release of important meeting location information!

the critics agree....

It's the end of another ministry year and we need some feedback from you on how it went so that we can build on the good stuff....throw out the bad stuff.....and figure out how to serve each other better.

You're invited to answer the following questions in the comments....or even better, you can copy them into an email and send the directly to me. If you'd rather be anonymous you can print them off, write down your answers and leave them in my mailbox in the office at church when no one is looking!

Please respond. Please be honest. Please be loving.

What do you like about Thursdays at church?



What kinds of things would you like the youth group to do? And what are you willing to do to make that happen?



What concerns do you have? What would you like to see change?




Other comments?

I'm really looking forward to hearing from you. I will take seriously all that you have to say.

once upon a time...

God loves to tell stories....and he's good at it.

He has crafted a story in each of us.

There are points in these stories where we become aware that our story is woven in with His. Moments when we realize that our story is His story.

Our story is God's story. So many of us have been conditioned to think of our faith as solely an issue of us and God. But faith is a communal experience. A shared journey. I have heard people say their stories are not exciting. I can only imagine how deeply offended God is with comments like this. Not exciting? If the story is about me, then, yes, it is only exciting to a certain degree. But the point of our stories and our faith journeys is that they are about something much bigger...I tell my story and my wife's story and my friends' story - I tell every story. I want others to see how they are all connected.
                                                                                                                                                        Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

This Thursday people from our congregation are coming to share their stories with you.

Plan to be there and be part of the story.

Boring? Not exciting? .....Hardly.

Thurs. 7pm.

crisp apple streudel, schintzel with noodle

this week: Soup Kitchen - Favourite Things Potluck

Please bring along your favourite food to share with the group.
(Hopefully some of you love something other than pizza and chips)

Spread the word.
We dig in at 7.

here/hear

Funny how these two words sound the same and are even related in meaning.

You would have to be here to hear anything  - wouldn't you?

I want you to know that I'm here to hear whatever it is you've got to say:

good news
bad news
rants
complaints
questions
musings
hopes
dreams
problems
...

I've heard of people who,  as young adults feel scarred because they're youth pastor assumed everything was fine and never asked them to spill their guts...

I've heard of others who were frustrated by a youth pastor who might have been a bit pushy or nosy...

I realize these are probably extremes that I should worry about...

Mostly my prayer is just that as your youth pastor I'm not doing any major damage...

But I'll keep saying this - over and over: I'm here....for you....should you ever need or want to talk to me...about anything....and usually the drink, the ice cream, the food, is on me.

and the oscar goes to...

Tomorrow night is Screening Room.

Which film shall it be?

or

   

cast your vote.

and honestly - what did you think about Good Friday?

shadows

observing the stations of the cross:
body
blood
.
.
.
blessing

Good Friday
April 14
8 pm

thursdays are the best

This Thursday: Soup Kitchen.

Blue and Tom are whipping up some great Chicken Alfredo. Dinner will be served somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6:30 and 7:00.

At 7:30 there's a choir practice in the sanctuary that you might like to get in on.
Remember how much fun we had preparing for our Christmas concert song??? Well this will be a blast too. Every so often a bunch of people from the church and the community get together to form a impromptu choir and prepare some great pieces for a special event here at the corps. They always look like they're having a good time - and you can be in on it too!!

The first practice is being held here on Thursday night, and you'll conveniently already be hanging out around here! I know they'd love some young voices in the choir.

The pieces are You Raise Me Up (a la Josh Groban), Joyful, Joyful (a la Sister Act) and This is My Father's World (arranged by a professional musician who goes to our own church - Duncan Hopkins!).

Consider it.

how much for the sofa?

Living Rooms this week - Girls @ Amy's Apartment, Guys in the Teen Room.

Are you keeping your spending journal? Start now if you forgot - what are you spending all your money on?

Snack requests?

coming up

Thurs. March 16 - No Patria (March Break)

Thurs. March 23 - Screening Room
   

Thurs. March 30 - Living Rooms (guys, any ideas about where to meet?)

Special Saturday: March 25th - MissionFest Youth @ Toronto Congress Centre. 10:00....see Geoff or Heather if you're interested in coming along.

GOOD FRIDAY (Apr. 14): Tenebrae Service - Divisional Worship Event. Come explore the deep significance of the cross. 8pm @ Scarborough...bring friends.

Wexford Walking:
March 13 - Chapters 12 &13,
March 27 - Chapters 14 & 15
April 10 - Chapters 16 &17
April 24 - Chapters 18 & 19
May 8 - Chapter 20 (the end! sniff, sniff)                   

The Zone (Jr. Youth Group) - April 8 - Regressive Dinner (moving around and eating sdrawkcab!)
                           

feed the fish

There are two times when you talk about money at church:
When the church doesn't have any.
When it's Self-Denial time.

Both of those instances have collided for our youth group right now. We pulled that elephant out of the corner last night at Sanctuary and got serious about this money, God's money that we're holding on to.

Check out Luke 12: 35-48 to find out about the Master who went out to a wedding banquet and expected to come back at 3:00 in the morning and still find his servants ready for him. We are like the manager who is waiting for the master to return. While the Master is out we can do one of two things with his money, servants  and stuff:
1. be ready at the return, having taken good care of everything, having allotted the food allowance to the servants at the proper time.
2. slag off, beat the servants, eat, drink, get drunk ....and essentially have a have a party with all of the stuff we've hoarded for ourselves.

Which kind of manager are you?

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

God gives you good gifts.
He wants you to have them.
But He wants 10% back.
So that you will know your place in the big scheme of things.

See Matthew 6:19-24 --- It's got to be God or Money - it can't be both.

Either your god is serving your Money
Or your money is serving your God.

Which is it gonna be?

When your money serves your God, it becomes a tool for JUSTICE, MERCY, COMPASSION, LOVE, TRUTH

And, when you do this, when you give, you will experience the FRUITS OF OBEDIENCE - it's a promise.

So here's the deal: The Youth Group is carrying an accumulated deficit of more than $3000. If we are going to be good managers of the gifts God has given, we have to get rid of this debt, even though some of us had nothing to do with creating it. Carrying around a debt puts a damper on God's work.

Right now, the Senior Corps provides a monthly grant to Youth Ministries: $245/month. We're going to stop that grant, so that the corps can start paying itself back what we owe them. That means Youth Ministry has to become self-funding - from now on, we will only be able to spend what we put in.

We spend money on: FOOD! art supplies, gas to go places, meals with the youth pastor, youth group outings, books, movies, bibles etc.

If we were tithing (giving a 10th of our increase to the church), then we could go on to give offerings...start using our money to help people who really need it:

We could:
build a well in Africa
fund HIV/AIDS training in China
send medical supplies to Howard Hospital in Zimbabwe
buy a family a goat
give warm clothes to the homeless
send school supplies to India.....

So we've got these two fish....beautiful piggy banks, handmade in India....that are going to receive our tithes and offerings each Thursday night. We need a team of two to be in charge of each fish - to see that they are put out each week and that the money is put away safely at the end. Dionne and Lindsay have agreed to take care of one fish, and we need a couple of guys to take care of the other fish.

And we need names for the fish - leave your suggestions in the comments and we'll vote at the end of the month.

Any questions?

people get ready

Lent: a forty day period of preparation for Easter

It often involves giving something up (fasting is meant to signify mourning the loss of Christ, or pentinence - showing that you're serious).

It lasts for forty days (just as long as Jesus spent fasting and praying in desert before he began his ministry); beginning on Ash Wednesday (7 weeks before Easter) and ending at sundown on the Saturday before Easter. Sundays are not figured into the calculation (but don't think  that that's a loop hole so you can eat/do whatever you gave up!!!)

This is a high church holiday - celebrated by Catholics and other mainline denominations. In the Salvation Army we don't celerate it officially but many people still consider giving up some favourite food or pasttime....perhaps  in an attempt to take Jesus' death seriously, to be fully aware of the approaching Easter season, or to show solidarity with Jesus who gave up much more than junk food for us.

In the Salvation Army we do have something similar: Self-Denial. And it roughly coincides with Lent. The idea here is that we deny ourselves something in order to save the money that we would have spent on that item to give to others who need our help - particularly those in other parts of the world who are

starving
thirsty
homeless
naked
sick
dying
lonely
poor

So will you give something up? Will you prepare to celebrate Easter? Will you choose to fast from some food  love so that someone else can have some food at all?

It started yesterday, but it's still okay to start now!

I gave up Chocolate, Cheese and Potatoes - my absolute favourite foods! This is going to hurt!

What are you giving up?