Student ministry at a glance

Howdy Parents!

I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you about all things student ministry (our vision, strategy, and our partnership with you a parent). So, here are a few Q & A's to help communicate with you parents:

What is your mission?
Quest Student Ministries exists to lead students to BELIEVE in Jesus as Lord, to CONNECT students with other Christ Followers, to equip students to SERVE the Lord, and to help students GROW in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

What is your philosophy of ministry?
We are…
Christ-centered: We believe that when Christ is exalted He will draw all students to Himself. Therefore the gospel is the focus of all out teaching.

Supportive: We desire our parents to take ownership of Deuteronomy 6 and be the primary spiritual educators of the home. Therefore our goal is to help equip parents to raise spiritual champions.

Relationship-focused: We believe students value relationships with caring adults. As a result we look for opportunities to connect students with caring adults through groups, spiritual events, and fellowships.

What type of programming do you offer?
eMerge & merge: Wednesday nights. 7th & 8th grades - 6-8pm. High School - 6:30-8:30pm. eMerge and merge is our mid-week program that features high energy music, creative games, relevant teaching and discussion groups.

Student Bible Fellowships: Sunday mornings. 7th & 8th grades meet at 9:30am in the gym and High School students meet at 10:50am in the merge room. We have a 6-year strategy with a goal of students graduating knowing what they believe, why they believe it, and ready to encounter a culture that tells them otherwise.

FUEL: Sunday evenings at 6pm in the cafe by the merge room. Fuel is an intensive discipleship aimed at discussing essential theology and how that can be applied in our lives.

What annual events do you have?
Fall Retreat: Late October. Fall retreat is a time students can get away and focus on encountering the Lord Jesus Christ. Fall Retreat is a camp like setting featuring great worship, dynamic speaking, and family groups.

STORM Weekend: Late January. STORM is an in-town retreat where students spend the weekend at a church member's home for bible study, worship, and mission projects.

Steppin' Out: Spring Break. A week of mission projects in the Burleson area.

Super Summer Camp: Early June. Super Summer is a leadership camp designed to take leadership students deeper.

Mission Trip: July. We have been a part of various mission trips traveling all over the United States sharing the gospel through backyard bible clubs, construction, and painting.

How do you communicate with parents?
The Parent Connection: A monthly newsletter featuring an article from a student ministry expert, family devotions, detailed info about upcoming events and a monthly calendar. To make sure you are on our mailing list, contact Melinda in the student ministry office at 817-295-2221.

Website: Check www.fbcburleson.com/students as we will update the website concerning important events.

Text MSG Alerts: Sign up to receive text message alerts on our website at www.fbcburleson.com/students

As always, we love hearing from parents about ways we can pray for you, assist you, and how we might be able to answer any question you or your student might have. Please don't hesitate to give us a shout in the student ministry office or shoot us an e-mail.

Know that we pray for you often as you seek to raise godly teenagers.

Blessings,
Chris Wigley
Minister to Students

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Being the Church

Today we began a series of projects that we will be a part of all spring break. We cancelled Wednesday night church in leu of the week of projects. I had a student ask me, "Why are we not having church this week?". I swelled with excitement to teach a little ecclesiology.

What is the church? The first church didn't even have a building and was not defined by it's location. The church was first known by it's actions. Shouldn't that still be
what defines the church today? So often we miss that!

So, I told this student that we are having church everyday this week. We are not doing church, but rather being the church!

Training Wheels and Faith

This past weekend my daughter almost mastered riding her bike without training wheels! Needless to say, I got a workout in the process. As I removed her training wheels and ran by her bike and then watched her as she kept going, something hit me about faith and the process of learning to ride a bike.

At some point we have to take our training wheels off our faith and learn to navigate through life with a biblical worldview on our own. At times we rely on the faith of our parents to show us the way. But, at some point we need to own our faith. Sure, we will need to have those run beside us to help guide us, but then we must eventually launch on our own. We will most likely fall at times but will use them as defining moments of strengthing our faith.

The question then becomes how we as parents come to the point that we allow our children to take the training wheels off. I recognize that timing is very important in this matter. I think it is wiser for children to learn their own faith while still under our roof. Remember, when we learned to ride our bike, our parents still ran beside us for a while and allowed us the opportunity to learn balance. Then eventually we were on our own. College is a dangerous place to learn to own our faith. So much of the world can be found on college campuses.

So, how do we do this as parents and what does it look like? Comment and let me know your thoughts!

Blessings

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Greatness

I absolutely love my kids, but I enjoyed an evening out to eat with just my wife tonight! It has been way too long since we have done that. So much so that I had forgotten how awesome PF Chang's is!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kingdom Focused

Today I met with two other area youth pastors (TJ and Aaron). I love the opportunity to talk to like minded ministry leaders and the focus on the kingdom of God not the kingdom of an individual. I left encouraged that as we seek to impact the lives of students all over our area that we have the same heart; grow the Kingdom of God!

We often get caught up in the competition aspect of ministry (sad but true) which causes us to lose focus on the kingdom and narrows our focus on us as individuals. I am reminded of the story when Peter got out of the boat and stepped on the water. He was walking on water as long as he kept his focus on Christ. He began to sink when he changed his focus to himself and his current circumstances.

What a great time of being the church today! Thanks guys for your heart and your partnership in ministry!

The 21st Century

I don't know why I have been slow to step into the 21st century, but with the creation of this new blog, I feel like I am on my way to joining the rest of the world expressing thoughts and opinions on the internet for anyone and everyone to read. It will be my goal to provide posts that will include everything from funny thoughts in my head to deep contemplations from my faith journey. So, check back often! Peace!