NOT JUST YOUR TYPICAL RESOLUTION 
By Rev. Tige Culbertson
 
If your New Year's Resolution is to develop greater Spiritual Discipline (and if you don't have one, this would be a good one) how can you set yourself up for success instead of failure?  There is a way.  Know your enemy, know your allies, and be sure to place accountability in the hands of a trusted fellow warrior of the faith.
 

 

 
The Gift of Time: Stewardship of Time
in a Busy New Year
This four-part study by Rev. Roger Sonnenberg engages students in better understanding and appreciating God's gift of TIME. Through consideration of key texts, students will consider God's design for time and how we use this precious gift. Topics include: God's Gift of Time, High Tech and Time, Family and Time, and Time and the Church.
   
 
GIRL TALK: The St. Martha Syndrome
Healthy personal and professional boundaries help us serve others well by not doing for them what they can do for themselves--with perhaps our coaching and cheering them on, or teaching them how to care for   their own lives.  Healthy personal boundaries also can prevent resentment and can keep us from feeling used, used up and put upon ... 
Apologia: The Christian in Society 
In this feature, thESource provides evaluation of a relevant doctrinal issue with Scriptural and doctrinal connects, all in bite-sized, easy to understand segments. 
 
A good New Year focus: The Christian in Society: Living as a Christian in our culture is a lot like dating. We have to watch who (or what) we fl irt and spend time with.If we’re not careful we may fall in love, and be sorry. So the secret is to love wisely.
 
CLICK to download the PDF

 
VERITAS: Truth for Students in Their Own Words
Recently, I was at a party with many of my old friends from high school. I hadn’t seen most of them since graduation two years before. As I made my rounds and heard what new adventures my old high school cronies had undertaken at college, I made a sad realization: many of my friends had not done much with the past two years of their lives.  
 
MORE

 

thESource Web site was developed in part by a grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
This site runs on Inspirlink
thESource Home Archive Search Contact Us Forum Store Events LCMS
Search thESource  

thESource exists to provide
Jesus-centered resources for
those at work with youth in the
Lutheran congregation and
beyond...

 
 
 
my source (Create Profile)  
Username:
Password:
 
 

New Year resolutions; whether you embrace them or not, it’s virtually impossible to launch into January without giving at least passing thought to the idea of “what could be [insert word here: new, different, challenging, possible] in 200_.” As an adult, New Year reminds me of that back-to-school feeling from my elementary days, when I would arrive with brand new notebooks, unsharpened pencils and a backpack still neatly creased and clean. I always enjoyed that sense of “new”. It made me feel like anything was possible.
  
With the holiday rush firmly behind us, our life in the workplace (and on the home front) enjoys the return to a sense of routine. After the mad dash of November and December, I find January refreshingly subdued, making it a great time for contemplating the ins and outs of the daily vocation/ministry grind. This month at thESource we’ve highlighted a few of our favorite articles that provide unique perspective for your New Year musings, whether by exhorting us to consider spiritual resolve, engage in practical time management or by simply reminding us who youth ministry is truly “for”.
  
If you haven’t taken time to get to know our monthly column features, January is a great time to start. Veteran DCE Bob McKinney joins us with the first of three installments for our regular column, The Stride, which provides a veteran perspective into all things ministry connected. Girl Talk is fresh this month with an encouragement to learn from Mary, and Veritas continues to be a short, simple piece you can share with your students, written in their own words by their peers. We also highlight a four-part Bible study for students that examines God’s gift of time and what that means in their busy world.
  
thESource looks forward to another year of providing our audience with quality, Jesus-centered content. 2007 brought us our new site layout and fresh content. 2008 promises more resources (including our Do Unto Others video/bible study resource launching late in the year) and features (including our new live chat feature that will be released this spring). We will also be launching new columns mid-year and have a great line-up of fresh feature articles ready as well. As always, thESource invites you to interact with the content you find here: post your comments at the end of articles, connect with others using the “Flannel Board” feature, and join the conversation in our moderated Forum.
  
And whether or not you have great success in sticking with resolutions you have made for this year, we think you’ll find plenty of opportunity to explore what could be [doable, possible, creative, fun, purposed, insert word here] in student ministry this 2008 at thESource.
  
God bless your New Year.
   
+gmjameson, editor

Did you make a New Year's Resolution for 2008?
Yes
No
 

 

 
Devotional Thought ...
 
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Mark 1:40-42

Have you ever noticed that our culture is not a culture of ‘closeness’? Many Americans don't like to be close to things or people. Cars have bucket seats so that passengers have enough room and their own space. People have personal bubbles. It is far easier to stand at a distance and speak with others. Often, when people stand too closely to us or lean their faces too near ours, we become uneasy and tend to back up. We like our space, we like our boundaries and we protect our personal bubbles that we so diligently establish. 
 

WEEKEND UPDATE …

 
Dry Erase Event Calender:  Create a dry erase calendar in your youth area.  Share with the youth that they can add events that they are participating in outside of church.  Remind youth of other youth events so that they can support each other's activities. Celebrate past events whith youth and have them share how the event went.
 
Get practical with our Quick Tip: useable, fun, fresh ways to engage students each month.