Parent Meeting Notes

-Vision of OFF ROAD (DUSTY & GROWTH)- Our the drive behind everything we do it to help create DUSTY students- You can find out what this means on the Church website under student ministries- OFF ROAD. We also would like to grow our group to 200 by September of this year. We need your help as parents to get your children inviting friends.

-Need for leaders= please pray and look for- With the growth that has already happened and the growth we trust will happen we desperately need leaders. Please be on the look out fo people you would think would make great Jr. High leaders and personally invite them to check out OFF ROAD and participate in leadership. The personal invitation is much more effective than a blanket statement to the congregation.

-Importance of Drive groups= Please get your kids to small groups. As our group gets bigger individual connection get harder. Small group allows for closer relationships and a deeper look into God’s word. It is very important, so please make it a priority.

-Consistency on weekends= I want to encourage you to have your child be consistent on weekends as often times we do series and to come once a month or here and there makes it harder for them to follow along.

-NO OFF ROAD= Go to service- I didn’t really get to talk about this, but I wanted to let you all know that when we don’t have OFF ROAD, that is not a bad thing. In fact I proposed, and was approved to take one weekend off every month. The goal behind this is for the students to go to main service to feel a larger church integration. I would encourage you to go to the main service with your child at this time, letting them know they are part of Westgate, not just OFF ROAD.

-Move to Saturday- Due to the overwhelming amount of people who attend the 11:00 service the church needs to move people out of the 11:00 main service for guests. One thing that the church is considering is eliminating Jr. High during that time, taking people off that service time as Jr. high will only be offered Sat night. This is an idea, but I want to encourage you to move to Sat night if at all possible so this doesn’t have to happen

- (SURVEY)- We talked over the following things that will also be showing up at your house in the form of a survey for you and your child to fill out. PLEASE take the time to give feedback on the survey and mail it back (postage is already paid for)

-OFF ROAD blog- how’s it working, do you use it, do you like it, is it helpful?

-This Week & Announcements- Now on blog, do you prefer on blog or would you like me to email you them every week?

-Online Calendar- On the blog, does this work for you? Can you make it work for you? If I sent home a calendar once every other month would it make a significant difference?

-Issues you want covered in Junior High

-What about OFF ROAD does your child enjoy?

-What do you think would get your kids more interested… wanting to bring friends?

Logistical Stuff

-Parents willing to Drive/ Parents with Trailers

-Service team/ Events Team

-Summer camp dates (June 20-23)

-Parents of 8^th graders- DE/ Missions trip (June 26- July 2)

**Parents had a strong desire to do this on a quarterly basis, so we will have meetings/ parent get togethers more often.

This Week # 2-27

This Week in OFF ROAD we finished our series, “Becoming who you are,” by taking a test to try and help us discover our spiritual gifts. The test and information can be found on this website: www.layministry.com . I would highly recommend that you go to this website and take the test as well, if you don’t already know your spiritual gift. I also want you to make sure that your child finishes the test and talk to them about what the test reveals.

A couple of things that need to be covered, which we covered in OFF ROAD are these:

This test is not the final answer to what your spiritual gift is. It is there to help guide you to what your gift might be. Once you have an idea you need to do two very important things (more important than the test). First you need to pray about it. Ask God to reveal himself through the using of those gifts. Ask for affirmation in those gifts. Ask for guidance in you spiritual gifts. The other thing you must do is put your spiritual gifts to work. To find out your spiritual gift and then do nothing with it reveals nothing, and it means you are not doing what God has equipped you to do. If you find that the things that the test said were you spiritual gifts empower you and you found God working through you in those areas then that is a good confirmation of those gifts. SO use your gift.

The other thing that we have to remember with these gifts is that we can only use them when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. They are gifts, given to us to be used for God’s glory. If we try to use them on our own, without the Holy Spirit and for our own glory God will not reveal himself through them. Your spiritual gift is for God’s glory and when you use it to bring him glory you will find yourself really becoming who you are, living the greatest life available, a life for God.

Please make sure that you and your child have taken the test and then discuss what your spiritual gifts are/ might be with each other. Talk about how you can use those gifts to serve God.

(I told the students to email me with their top 2 spiritual gifts so remind them to do that as well)

This Week # 2-26

This week in OFF ROAD we had the privilege of having Jon Talbert continue our, “Becoming who you are,” series as he walked us through the story of Gideon. Now if you don’t know this story let me give you a little background because it is pretty crazy (as are a lot of old testament stories). Gideon’s story can be found in the book of Judges.

Gideon was a weakling, he was the weakest of the weak. The Bible says that he came from the weakest tribe from the weakest clan from the weakest family. This guy was the one you wouldn’t want to choose for any kind of fight, but God did. God told Gideon that it was time to bet the bad guys (the Midianites) and that He was going to accomplish this through Gideon. Gideon trusted God even though he only had 32,000 and the Midianites had 135,000. Yet, even though the Israelites were way out numbered God decided, through some really weird ways, to whittle Gideons army down to only 300. Yeah, 300 verses 135,000. Not only that when it came time to battle God equipped them with a horn, a clay jar and a torch- that’s it. In the end the 300 men surrounded the Midianite camp at night, all blew their horns, threw down their jars and help up their torches. This created so much commotion that the Midianites, believing that the Israelites were attacking them and where in their camp, drew their swords and started killing each other (thinking that each other were the others).

Gideon’s story of being way out numbered and still trusting in God and following Him shows us that we need to:

1. Walk in confidence because God is there (Look at Gideon. He had an impossible task, but he walked in confidence because he knew nothing was impossible with God.)
2. We need to walk in humility because God is doing the work. (God whittled down Gideon’s army so that everyone would know that it was God who won the war. When God works through us we need to be humble and give credit where credit is due.) 1 Corinthians 1:27- “God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things to shame the strong”
3. We need to know we are empowered by God. (Gideon, the weakest of the weak was used to destroy an entire army. If God can empower the weakest of the weak he can empower you too.)

Ask your children these questions this week:
Is it easy or hard for you to put your confidence with God? Why or why not? What does that look like?
Has there ever been a time were you have seen God work through you? What was that like?
When do you feel you need God the most? When do you rely on Him the most?
What would you like God to empower you to do?

This Week # 2-25

This week in OFF ROAD we continued our series titled, “Becoming Who You Are,” as we looked at the ways the world tries to steal our identity. In order to see the ways the world is trying to accomplish this task we looked into the book of Ecclesiastes. This book is written by Solomon, the wisest and richest of all kings. This guy was no ordinary king, he was basically a genius with an overwhelming amount of money (the Bible says that Solomon received about 25 tons of gold each year, not including money from taxes). During his reign Solomon wrote 3 books (including Ecclesiastes) which are now part of the Bible. The first part of 1st Kings describes Solomon’s ascension to the throne and his rule. We find out in this book that even though he was wise he ended up looking for his identity in the things of this world. Solomon was a man who had everything, I MEAN EVERYTHING, at his beck and call, and he used this power to use all sorts of means to find meaning. After all this we can read his conclusions in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 lays out Solomon’s thesis statement for the book. The point he makes in these verses, which continue throughout the book is this- “Everything under the sun is meaningless.” In other words, if we try to find our identity in the things of this world it will be a huge waste of time- Remember this is coming from a guy who basically tried everything under the sun. As he moves on to, and through chapter 2, he mentions three things this world offers.

The first place that many of us find our identity in is pleasure. We live for whatever brings us pleasure. For some of us this is video games, some of us it is books, some sports, and some just the weekend. We are not really present in our lives because we are always looking for something else that gives us our identity. In Ecclesiastes 2:1-3 we see that Solomon was also a pleasure seeker, but found that it was meaningless. Are you a pleasure seeker?

The second thing that many of us find our identity in is stuff or money. We always want something, want more. We are envious of what our friends have and believe that if we could only have whatever is hot or the new thing then we would be happy. If we fall into this trap we seek more out of our stuff and often times don’t realize that it never totally satisfies- our satisfaction only last a short time. Solomon states that he too tried to find his identity in that but that it was meaningless (Ec. 2:4-11). Are you a stuff/ money seeker?

Lastly, many of us try to find our identity in knowledge or wisdom. If you tend to live for the approval of others, are consumed by getting good grades or looking smart, or if you like to show off you are probably a wisdom and knowledge seeker. Again, Solomon, the wisest one states, “Yet I saw the wise and the foolish share the same fate. They both die… Everything under the sun is meaningless” Ec. 2:12-17.

Now if it ended there it would be quite a depressing message, but in the end Solomon says “GET OVER THE SUN, this is where life is hidden.” The truth is that all that other stuff will not give you life, will not complete your identity and will only get you more lost if that is where you look to find yourself because “everything under the sun is meaningless.” Instead we need to get over the sun and focus on God, finding our identity in Him. If we do this, then we will be able to truly become who we were meant to be.

Parents ask yourself and your child these questions this week:
Which type of seeker do you tend to be?
How does that show itself in your life?
Why do you think you tend to be that kind of seeker?
How can you get over the sun, and not focus on what is under the sun?
What can I/we do to help you not be consumed by seeking that?