CBC YOUTH MINISTRY

Dear Parents,

We will be monitoring the coronavirus situation carefully and following all guidelines set by our District and and State Health Department. The purpose of this newsletter is to share facts and information but more importantly help you navigate and thinking through christianly through this time as you disciple your students.

For important updates, we will notify you in the following way:

• Email distribution through our main email account - cbcyouthofhouston@gmail.com
• Newsletters - Smore.com
• Our website - Cbchouston.org - youth
• Facebook - Closed Group @ cbcyouth (request add)
• YouTube - Cbcyouthofhouston
• Instagram - cbcyouthofhouston
• GroupMe - request add

Please don't hesitate to be in touch with questions or concerns,

Justin Wong, on behalf of the CBC Youth Ministry

Mondays // 3pm - Devotional by youth (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCotEc4jcV-xLJFcQwWWUePQ)

Every other Wednesdays // 8pm - Live Zoom Youth Meeting (Lesson). Instructions for meeting will be sent out via email and on GroupMe

Every Friday // 8pm - Live Bible Study Zoom & YouTube. Same instructions as above.

It seems as though every blew up all at once right? And I know that some of y’all are dealing with way more than this virus. Many of you are wondering and questioning and trying to make sense of all of this. When I got the notice that my girls were going to be out for at least another month, my first though was, “I don’t have enough gummies to last” It’s easy to let fear and anxiety dominate during this season esp. when the short and long term future is unknown.

We had a brief meeting with the youth group and some leaders and our prayer was that we would remember that God has proven himself in providing solutions and He has accomplished this through the sacrifice of His Son. So parents, be comforted in knowing that the God who created all things already provided the cure and solution because he solved our greatest need - separation from himself.

So as we shift to your students, what do we do? Parents, this is where I would commend to you to seriously utilize this season for some serious spiritual growth in your students. Understand that this time is crucial - not only because there’s a huge amount of time that can be redeemed but with time (in our case an extended period of time) it tends to reveal where the heart is. Your students will naturally default to where their heart will desire to go. So for many it will default to laziness and hours of social media or consuming hours of movies. Others this will result in just gaming and laying around. Of course we hope that they would default to wanting to grow spiritually but they will need help to get there. My fear parents is that you’re going to see a glimpse of what their spiritual journey is going to look like when the classic structures of youth ministry are removed from them (i.e. almost what it’ll look like when they aren’t forced to attend physically anywhere). You’re going to see their desire (or lack thereof) to want to evangelize, study the Bible, pray, mentor and disciple, and all of those spiritual disciplines that Jesus has called them to.

So parents, my suggestion is that you don’t swing to the poles of heavy-handed forcing them to do spiritual disciplines nor allow them to just do whatever they want. You want to cultivate a heart of desire for them and you’re going to do that be encouraging and walking beside them and teaching them how. Here are some basic ways of doing that:

1. Utilize what is already there: we have 3 opportunities of growth during the week that we have created for your student - devotionals on Mondays, lessons on Wednesdays, and Bible study on Fridays. Be sure that they go to these for growth and community.
2. Give them space during the day to grow and feed them opportunities to do so. They may not like this to begin with but you’re going to need to get them used to growing on their own and building a habit of it.
3. Chores...and just basic personal development. This would be a great time to get them to do things around the house (i.e. garden, laundry, cooking, finances, cleaning, etc.)

Sometimes screen time is a necessity if we have children at home and work we need to do. Here are some sites that make screen time a learning time:

1. FREE Courses on Systematic Theology, Church History, Pastoral Theology and More. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/courses/

2. FREE Courses from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, etc. Great opportunity to add some certificates to your resume. https://www.edx.org/

3. Worthwhile Podcast: The Briefing by Albert Mohler, Doctrine & Devotion, Culture Matters, 5 Minutes in Church History, Ask Pastor John, Breakaway.