FUSION

The Messiah as Life

2012-03-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

This week we talked about Jesus as Life!

We began with a little game. In three pitchers I had filled one with tap water, one with bottled water and one with filtered water. The youth each took a taste of each pitcher, tried to figure out which was which, and voted on the one they liked best. Because of Farmville's not so great tasting tap water, everyone was able to pin point that pitcher. The bottled water ended up winning, with the filtered coming in second. From there we took a look at Scripture when Jesus was described as a different kind of water: living water. Together we read John 4:4-15, the story of the woman at the well, and talked about what it meant for Jesus to offer the woman living water. Through this living water, Jesus was offering eternal life!

We then took a look at John 6:1-15, 25-40 where Jesus is described as the bread of life! Just as before, this is bread that is not simply tangible food, but spiritual food that offers eternal life. All Jesus asks is that we have faith and accept the grace he gives us. Using normal everyday things like water and bread makes it easier for us to understand just as it was easier for Jesus' disciples and followers to understand.

To live into our calling to faith and therefore living into that faith, we baked bread for our church's bread ministry...remembering that Jesus is the bread of life! While it baked we spent time looking at other passages in John where Jesus is described as life. Then we were challenged to think this week about an example we see in our own lives of how Jesus is life to us (bread, water, light, etc.). How do you see and experience Jesus as life? Comment on this post with your responses.

The Messiah as Savior

2012-02-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

After getting snowed out last Sunday, we spent this Sunday talking about Jesus as Savior. After our chalkboard reflection of drawing pictures of people or things that save (Jesus, superman, tupperware containers, hospitals, etc.), we played a little game. I called out a strange word and everyone had to write down their guess at its definition. Then I read all the definitions (including the correct answer) and everyone took a guess at which one was correct. Did you know that erinaceous means from the hedgehog family? Or that a galactophagist is someone who drinks a lot of milk? Or that to quackle means to choke or suffocate?

Just like these are weird words that we don't really know the meaning to, when we talk about the word SAVIOR, we hear it a lot but we aren't always sure what it actually means. Together we read Luke 2:8-20. Even before Jesus taught the crowds, performed miracles, or died on the cross, he was called the savior. From the time of Jesus' birth, offering salvation to humanity was at the core of Jesus' mission here on earth. We broke into middle and high school small groups to look at a couple other places in Scripture where we understand Jesus more as a Savior.

The high schoolers looked at Luke 2:21-35 where Mary and Joseph bring baby Jesus to the temple and Simeon recognizes who Jesus is...not just another baby, but the savior Simeon had been waiting to see! And Simeon says that Jesus would be the savior not just of the Jews but of all people! The middle schoolers looked at Luke 19:1-10 of the story of Zacchaeus. We see that Jesus came to seek out and save the "lost" like Zaccheaus who was a social outcast because of his job and the way he was cheating people out of money. But Jesus' salvation is for all, especially sinners because we are all sinners. We can thank God for that!

We talked a little about the season of Lent and how we can prepare for this Jesus who is our Savior through his death and resurrection. We each thought of things we will commit to giving up or taking on this Lenten season in order to help build our relationship with God. What Lenten practices are you committing to this year? Comment on this post with your responses.

The Messiah as Lord

2012-02-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

Jesus as high priest, king, servant, son of God and now.....

LORD!

But what does that really mean?
We started out our night by talking about the things we are loyal to. Using stickers, we placed anywhere from 0-3 stickers on signs around the room of things or people we might be loyal to: your school, the country, the President, your family, your state, your friends, your parents, your favorite sports team, and your extracurricular group. We found that we are most loyal to our friends, family and parents...but with some interesting things not too far behind like our favorite sports team. We decided that being loyal to something or someone means we have faith in them and that we would make sacrifices for them.

So what does loyalty have to do with Jesus as Lord? Well if we look at the Middle Ages in Europe, we can find the feudal political system that was in place. In that system a Lord owned a large area of land along with everything in that land. Knights were warriors who pledged their loyalty or faithfulness to the Lord in exchange for some property and freedom. This loyalty meant that the knight would go to battle at any time the Lord called him and would risk his life to defend the Lord's property and kingdom.

So if we think about this system in light of Jesus being called Lord, we get a better understanding of who Jesus is. Jesus as Lord asks us to be faithful and loyal to him, even to the point of giving up our own life! Jesus is called Lord throughout Scripture, but especially in the gospel of Matthew. People called Jesus Lord knowing that Jesus could heal, that Jesus had power, that Jesus had a higher authority than even the centurions because that authority comes from God! Jesus calls us to have a genuine faith that understand that Jesus is not only Lord, but servant, high priest, king, son of God, and much more!

We took time to read Matthew 7:21-27 which is Jesus' parable about a house built on sand and a house built on a solid foundation. If we have genuine faith that has a solid foundation on Jesus Christ, hard times and struggles that come up in life will not sweep away our faith! To help us understand this even better, we went outside to stand on a solid foundation: cement. We grabbed some chalk and wrote down what it means to have faith in Jesus based on this parable. Before going back inside we each grabbed a small rock which we wrote "LORD" on to remind us that Jesus is Lord and our solid foundation. What does it mean to you to have faith in Jesus? Comment on this post with your responses.

Super Bowl Sunday

2012-02-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we had two big events for the youth.

The first was our youth took up the Souper Bowl of Caring offering at the end of each worship service Sunday morning. They collected almost $700 for Stop Hunger Now! and over 70 canned and boxed food items for FACES! Way to go!

Then Sunday night we went to the Watson's house for a super bowl party! Everyone had a blast and had a great time of food and fellowship.

Don't forget the youth will be ushering this Sunday. Let me know if you are available to usher at the 11am service! See you Sunday night at 6pm as we continue our "Pursue" series.

The Messiah as Son of God

2012-01-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

This week we talked about Jesus' identity as the Son of God: both fully human and fully divine. We started out with a little game called "I am...". Each person received three squares of paper where they wrote down three different thing about themselves that were fairly specific (i.e. NOT I am a girl, but maybe I am into dance). Then I shuffled them all up and re-distributed three to each person. Their job was to tape the three descriptions onto the backs of those they thought they belonged to...without talking! After finishing each person checked their taped descriptions and left on those that were correct, and tried again with those that were incorrect, this time being able to talk to one another and ask questions. We learned that in many ways, those descriptions that were taped on us that were not the ones we wrote still described us pretty well! Since most of us there Sunday night knew each other fairly well, we were able to figure out which descriptions belonged to which person without much thinking.

Just like there are people we know well and people who know us well, there were people who lived and walked with Jesus who knew him well. Just as we know and can describe our friends and family members, these friends of Jesus could do the same with him. Some of those people were those who wrote the first four books of the New Testament, called the Gospels (or good news). They wrote about Jesus' life as they saw it and from the stories others told them about Jesus.

This week we looked specifically at Mark's Gospel, because one of Mark's goals was to emphasize to his readers that Jesus was and is the Son of God! We discovered that throughout Mark there are four key witnesses to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.

The first one we see in passages like Mark 1:9-11 and 9:2-8 where God, God's self, serves as a witness to Jesus being God's Son. The second we see in Mark 3:10-11 and 5:1-7 where demons and evil spirits serve as a witness, recognizing Jesus as God's Son even when others around Jesus did not! The third comes from Jesus himself in Mark 14:32-36 and 55-64 where Jesus names himself as God's son. And the fourth we see in Mark 15:37-39 where the Centurion or Roman Guard who was guarding Jesus' body on the cross gives witness to Jesus being the Son of God.

In some ways it seems like it would be easier for us to believe that Jesus was half human and half divine. But we know that this is not the case. Jesus was both 100% human and 100% God/Divine. It doesn't seem to make sense, and it is a hard concept for us to grasp, but it is a true and holy mystery! Without Jesus being fully human, he would not have truly suffered on the cross. Without Jesus being fully divine, he would not be able to forgive and reconcile us from our sins. Both are necessary and both are part of Jesus' nature as God's Son. The youth will continue to ponder, pray and ask questions about Jesus as the Son of God throughout this week, and we will seek to wrestle with those questions when we gather again. Do you have any questions about Jesus as the Son of God? Comment on this post with your thoughts and questions!

Here's a look at Sunday evening:

Don't forget THIS SUNDAY we will be helping collect donations at the end of both worship services for Souper Bowl of Caring. And Sunday night we will not be having a regular FUSION Gathering meeting, but will be having a Super Bowl party at the Watson's Home!

The Messiah as Servant

2012-01-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

This week we talked about Jesus' identity as a servant. To get us ready for reading Isaiah, we played a version of Rock, Paper, Scissors called Lawyer, Jury, Judge! We read Isaiah 1:2-18 like it was a court case where the prosecutor is bringing charges against Israel accusing them of their sin. Then the Judge gives some background for the case. And the defense attorney tries to defend God's people. We see in this passage that despite Israel's sins, God is gracious and is willing to forgive them. This isn't always an easy task for us to do when others are mean or harmful to us. But God encourages us to forgive others and ask for forgiveness.

Later in Isaiah, there are 4 passages often called the servant songs. We took the time to travel in groups, reading these servant songs and reflecting on several questions about each passage. Through each of the servant songs, we see a better understanding of the characteristics of Jesus, the messiah, as a servant. Someone who is kind, patient, forgiving, and ultimately, willing to give his own life in order to set us free of our sins. We thought about ways we can be like Jesus as a servant this week. What's something you can do to be a servant to others this week? Comment on this post with your responses.

The Messiah as King

2012-01-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

This Sunday we focused on our understanding of Jesus the Messiah as King! We knew that the Israelites were waiting for a king...one that would make things right again among the nations. So we spent time exploring this understanding of salvation through a king in Jesus. We first took a look at two Psalms: Psalm 2 and Psalm 89:1-18. We took time to look more closely at each of these by making notes and writing marks on them. We circled key words, put question marks next to things we didn't understand, we highlighted phrases that stood out, we drew pictures of certain words or ideas, and we drew different emotion faces next to things that made us feel particular ways. We really enjoyed this method of studying Scripture and plan to continue to use this method of reflecting on Scripture in our daily lives! We talked about the similarities and differences between the two Psalms and what stood out to us about them.

Then we took a look at 2 Samuel 7:8-17. In this passage, God is making a covenant with David through the prophet Nathan. We see that God promises that an eternal king who God will call son will be born out of David's family. The youth were excited to realize that God is talking about Jesus, and that Jesus is from the line of David! How awesome that many many generations before Jesus was born, God is already promising to David that the true King that will reign for eternity and bring about true salvation will be one of his descendants!

What better way to end our evening than with a Royal Triathlon! We participated in a three-part relay of royal games! First, a king or queen must demonstrate perfect posture and balance, so we had to race balancing a book on our heads. Second, a king or queen must dress in the finest clothing, so we had to put on jewels, a headpiece and a fine piece of linen and race up and back before the next person put on the attire. Third, it is said that kings and queens eat from a silver spoon, so we each had to balance a cotton ball on a spoon held in our mouths and race up and back to see which team could collect the most cotton balls at the end of a time limit! It was a lot of fun and quite amusing.

This Friday, January 20th, meet us at Sunchase for a FUSION Youth night at the movies! Be there at 6:30pm for the 6:50pm showing of Joyful Noise (rated PG-13). Bring extra money for popcorn and a drink if you want snacks. See you at the movies!

Pursue Series: The Messiah as High Priest

2012-01-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

Welcome back after the holidays! This Sunday we began a new series called Pursue: Knowing the Messiah. Throughout this series we will be exploring the ways the Bible describes and helps us understand who Jesus is. This Sunday we talked about Jesus as the High Priest. We looked at Leviticus and saw that the priests helped people atone for their sins through animal sacrifices, and the high priest specifically represented all of Israel before God. Then we see in Hebrews that Jesus is described as the ultimate high priest. Through Jesus' sacrifice of himself (not other animals), we are cleansed of our sins and fully forgiven. This is the ultimate sacrifice!

In creation, God made God's masterpieces, including humanity. But through the original sin of Adam and Eve, we have become a sinful people. Just as an art masterpiece can be marred by imperfections, we too are marred or imperfect because of sin. But, through Jesus the messiah as the high priest, there is hope that we can be restored through Jesus' sacrifice of himself. Even though we are sinful people, we must remember that we are still God's masterpieces through our restoration by Jesus' love and forgiveness.

Join us next Sunday as we explore Jesus the Messiah as King!

The Advent Conspiracy: Love All

2011-12-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

We've talked about worshipping fully, spending less and giving more this Advent season...but what does it look like to love all? If we are truly living in to God's calling on our lives, we will not only make it a point to spend time and do something special for our family and friends this Christmas. We will also spread God's love to those we don't know...those who are often considered "the least of these" (see Matthew 25:31-46). Before going up to watch the children's musical, we thought together of various ways we could love all not just this Christmas, but into next year. We brainstormed many local and global ideas of ways we could meet needs in our own community and around the world. Then we decided on one local project and one global project we were going to commit to as the youth of Farmville United Methodist Church in the coming year! The youth decided as a local project they wanted to fix some warm meals for those in need. And as a global project, they want to collect and donate kids clothing and shoes for children in need around the world. We will spend time after the new year working on details on how we are going to spread God's love in these ways! I am so proud of our youth. They are passionate faith filled teenagers that really want to make a difference in this world. They jump at opportunities to do mission work and consistently share God's love with those around them. They have embraced this Advent Conspiracy and are thinking about how they can "do Christmas" differently this year. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. May God bless you and your family, and may you share that blessing with everyone you see. Peace!

A few pictures from the Children's Christmas Musical: Silent Night, Holy Mice!

The Advent Conspiracy: Spend Less & Give More

2011-12-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Christmas has turned into a lot of this: Consumerism. We easily fall into the trap of worshipping during Christmas by buying a lot of stuff. Stuff that is often pretty impersonal and ends up in a closet, attic, or garage shortly after the hype of Christmas is over. This Advent season, our youth are thinking about ways that we can celebrate the real reason for the season: the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ!

We've all received impersonal gifts in our lives...that fruitcake from your neighbor, the t-shirt that immediately goes in the pile to give to goodwill, or maybe that book that you know you will never read. I'm willing to bet, though, that you've probably been the giver of some of these impersonal gifts as well. That co-worker that you just feel obligated to get something for or your crazy Aunt who you never know what to get. Impersonal gifts are just so easy! No time or energy goes in to them. They are convenient. And often, they are exactly the things that the stores and TV commercials and advertisements try to persuade you to buy.

But what if Christmas looked differently? What if we started spending less on the impersonal stuff that doesn't mean anything to anyone (giver or receiver), and started giving more in ways that please God, share God's love with others and mean something to both the giver and the receiver? What might that look like?

Well maybe it would look like buying a chicken or a pig through World Vision to help a family in need and purchasing it in honor of one of your family members. Maybe it would look like spending time with a friend or family member that could really use the company this holiday season. Maybe it would look like creating a photo album of favorite pictures of you and the recipient. Whatever it looks like, it's probably going to cost you in time and energy, but isn't that what God calls us to? God doesn't ask us to buy each other stuff. God asks us to be present with one another, to reconcile broken relationships, to be in community with one another, and to serve one another.

And God calls us to go beyond our own families and friends to share God's love with everyone all around the world! What might that look like? On Sunday night, the youth drew pictures of what God's love might look like to give to kids living on the streets in Uganda, Africa.

As you prepare your hearts for Christmas this Advent season, I challenge you to re-think the way you will do Christmas this year. How might you give relationally rather than impersonally? How might you spread the love of God this Christmas by spending less and giving more? Enter the Christmas story, and spread the good news that God sent his son to live among us and truly be Immanuel, God with us!

Don't forget to register for the Farmville District Youth Retreat by this Friday, December 16th at noon! The retreat is January 6-8th at Blackstone Conference and Retreat Center for youth in grades 7-12. Contact me if you need a copy of the registration forms!

High School Conference Retreat

2011-12-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

We had a blast at the high school conference retreat at Eagle Eyrie this year! We ate good food, worshipped with a great speaker and band, packed over 800 hygiene kits, had some awesome small group time, made new friends and played some great games! Check it out:

Godspell

2011-11-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

Everyone had a great time at Longwood University's performance of Godspell this past Sunday! We laughed a lot and loved seeing the Gospel of Matthew come to life. We had a good discussion about the musical back at the church afterwards over dinner. Take a look:

Don't forget: THIS SUNDAY, November 27th, we will NOT have a regular FUSION Gathering meeting. Instead, you are asked to help serve the church and come help with the Kids Night Out event at church from 3-7pm! We can use your help for all or part of the event...come for as much as you can! Kids 4 years old and up from our church and community will be watching the new Veggie Tales movie, decorating gingerbread cookies and making Advent calendars. We could really use your help with this great event!

Speak Series: Being Faithful for a Lifetime

2011-11-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

This was the last Sunday in our Speak Series: Obeying the Call. We've talked about what it looks like to live out God's call on our lives, what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ and what it looks like to make disciples of Christ. Sunday night we focused on how we can continue to be faithful our whole lives. We talked about things that make it difficult to have faith and be faithful in our world today. We talked about things that challenge our faith. And we thought about things we can do as faithful Christians to help others who are going through difficult times.

This past weekend, a freshman at Prince Edward High School committed suicide. Several of our youth were friends with him and are obviously having a difficult time with his death. FUSION Gathering on Sunday night offered them a safe place to mourn, to pray, and to be in the presence of friends who love them a lot. What a blessing it is to be in ministry with youth who care so much for each other and have committed their lives to God. Our prayer circle was filled with prayers for the student's friends and family, along with a praise that he is at peace and in a better place now. May we all place this Scripture on our hearts this week as we pray together as a community in pain, "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39. May God be with you in whatever difficult time you may be facing right now. Amen.

Middle School Conference Retreat

2011-11-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

We had a blast at the middle school conference retreat at Eagle Eyrie this past weekend! The theme was "Words with Friends" and we explored the words: Kingdom of God, Justice, Faith and Evangelism. Amanda Garber, pastor at RISE: A United Methodist Faith Community, was an awesome keynote speaker, and everyone enjoyed the Logan Jones Band. Take a look:

Don't forget the registration deadline for the High School Conference Retreat is THIS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18th! Get your forms and money in to me this week. It's going to be awesome!

Speak Series: I'm Supposed to Do What?

2011-11-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

Up until now, we've been talking a lot in this series about how God calls us to live as Disciples. This week, we focused on God's calling on our lives to go and MAKE disciples! We took a good look at evangelism...what it means, how God calls us to share the good news with others, and what kinds of styles we should probably stay away from when we evangelize. We took time traveling around the room writing our answers and thoughts to several questions:

What reasons do Christians have for evangelizing?
What are some of the common fears Christians have about sharing their faith?
In your opinion, how should a Christian evangelize? What methods or styles are most appropriate?
What are the most important ideas to share--or questions to ask--when you're talking to someone about your faith?

After talking through our responses, we watched this video: The Skinny on Evangelism by the Skit Guys which is a great funny movie that displays a lot of the not so great ways to go about evangelizing, as well as a true story from their lives of a great example of evangelism.

Then we got into pairs and looked at two stories in the Bible of evangelism: John 4:27-42 and Acts 17:22-34. Both of these stories have similarities and differences...can you name some?

God calls us to share the Good News using both our words and our actions! How we live as disciples can be an important witness to others, and we are also called to talk with others about our faith. What's important is that we do these things in love. Pressuring someone into being a Christian or coming to church is not how God calls us to act. We are to love others, encourage them and share in conversation with them. Before closing in prayer, we came up with our "Most Wanted" list. We prayerfully considered someone in our lives that we need to commit ourselves to sharing the Good News with. We then wrote that person's initials on a specific side of the chalkboard. We will continue to check back with one another to see what ways we have loved this person and shared the Good News with them. Who would be on your "Most Wanted" list? Prayerfully consider who that person might be, and comment on this post with their initials. I will add your responses to our most wanted list as we continue to pray for those on the list and each other.

This Friday, I will be venturing to Eagle Eyrie in Lynchburg with 7 of our fantastic middle schoolers for the Virginia Conference Middle School Retreat! Then I will see everyone else on Sunday night for FUSION Gathering at 6pm! I hope everyone has a great week!

Chesterfield Berry Farm

2011-11-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

We had a blast at Chesterfield Berry Farm on Sunday!

Check it out:

See you all tomorrow night for Midweek Meal & Mission at 5:30pm, then on Sunday at 6pm for FUSION Gathering!

Speak Series: What Are My Spiritual Gifts?

2011-10-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

This week we talked about spiritual gifts. We often understand spiritual gifts to be things we are good at. However, sometimes God gives us spiritual gifts of things that we are not so great at! Think about Moses. Moses had some sort of speech impediment and yet God called him to lead the Hebrew people and confront Pharaoh about the injustices happening. God works in us through our strengths and our weaknesses!

We took a look at 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and learned that every believer receives a spiritual gift and that these gifts are given for us to help bring about the Kingdom of God. There are also a variety of different gifts and they are given to us by the Holy Spirit. We talked about ways we have seen others use their spiritual gifts, and took a look at what spiritual gifts we may have and how we can use them. We looked at Timothy's story (2 Timothy 1:1-14) and looked at the spiritual gifts Timothy might have had to lead the church. God gives us the gifts we need to accomplish the tasks he sets before us.

We each wrote a letter to ourselves, including how we feel God is encouraging us and challenging us and how God may be gifting us to serve the church and the world! We folded these into an envelope and addressed them to ourselves. Sometime down the road, I will send them out as a reminder to everyone of the things God is doing in their lives!

What spiritual gifts has God given you? Administration, celibacy, discernment, evangelism, exhortation, faith, giving, healing, helping others, hospitality, interpreting tongues, knowledge, leadership, martyrdom, mercy, miracles, prophecy, service, speaking in tongues, teaching, voluntary poverty, wisdom, worship? Comment on this post with your responses.

YOUTH & PARENTS: Don't forget that this Sunday, October 30th, we will not have a regular youth meeting at 6pm. Instead we will meet at church at 1pm and take a trip to Chesterfield Berry Farm for an afternoon full of hayrides, corn mazes and more! Cost is $10. Please let me (Lyndsie) know by Friday if you plan on going so I can make sure we have enough drivers. Parents, if you are interested in driving, let me know!

Speak: Picked for God's Team

2011-10-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

In Scripture, we see that God often seems to call the least likely candidates to help bring about God's kingdom! Last week we talked about what it means to be disciples of Christ. This week we looked at how God chooses people for different tasks!

We first took a look at Jeremiah. God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, and Jeremiah's response was "but I'm only a child!" But God knew that Jeremiah could do the job, because he was faithful! We also looked at Amos. God also called Amos to be a prophet. Amos was just a shepherd, but God knew that Amos was faithful and would obey God's calling no matter what. Amos had a rough time as a prophet--no one liked him or listened to what he said--but Amos continued to do what God asked him to do. Mary, the mother of Jesus, also received a calling from God. She was to give birth to the Son of God! She was just a teenager, and would endure much hardship for being pregnant before she was married to Joseph. But God gave her strength and the angel told her to not be afraid, and Mary listened to God and stayed faithful.

God doesn't ask us to be perfect, skilled or even popular people in order to be God's disciples. He simply asks us to follow Him and be faithful! What is it that God is calling you to do? Comment on this post with your responses.

Don't forget to join us next Sunday for our movie night!

Speak: My New Job

2011-09-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

This week we talked about the job God calls us to as a Christian...being a DISCIPLE! To start off, we paired up and played a game where we had to match old world trades/jobs with their description. Did you know that a luthier is a person who makes and repairs stringed instruments? Or that a smelter is a metal worker? Only one group got them all correct! Way to go Zach and Sarah!

Like these old world trades, Jesus' disciples learned their "trade" of being a disciple by living and working alongside Jesus. In groups we read Luke 14:25-35. Each group wrote down three characteristics of a disciple they found in this passage, along with one question they had about the passage. We discussed how Jesus used hyperbole when he said we must hate our parents, siblings and even ourselves. What Jesus means is that compared to how much we love God, it should look like we hate everyone else! We talked about the reasons some people don't become Christians and live as disciples of Christ. The youth had some really great questions that we tackled together as a group to answer!

Together we discussed ways we can live out our roles as disciples of Jesus while we are at school and at home. Then we each received a piece of fabric. With a fabric marker, we each wrote down one thing God is calling us to do to be better disciples. I challenged everyone to keep this piece of fabric with them throughout the week to remind them to work on what they wrote down. If they bring the piece of fabric back with them next Sunday night and can report on how they have worked on being a better disciple this week, they will get a new FUMC T-shirt!

What is God calling you to do to be a better disciple?

Speak: My New Life

2011-09-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

This Sunday at FUSION Gathering we moved our focus from God as the creator, to the God who is still creating and very much still a part of our world! We began with a chalk board reflection on "What do you think it means to be saved?" We then had a hula hoop competition where Dante dominated in both heats! We talked about like the hula hoop, there had to be something that caused the motion of the hula hoop to begin. Similarly, there had to be a causer to set the world in motion. But, God didn't simply set the world in motion and then stop being involved. God is creating anew and is a part of our lives every day.

We took a look at Ephesians 4:17-24 and discussed how the image of clothing (throwing off the old and putting on the new) can help us understand salvation. When we become Christians, God asks us to throw off our old way of life and put on a new one. Salvation is not a one stop shop, either! It is God creating us anew each and every day.

We spent some time in small groups exploring three ways Jesus described himself:

Living Water

Bread of Life

Light of Life

We talked about what water, bread and light are like and what they do for us. Then we explored how Jesus is like these things to us and how these images tell us about the new life God offers to us. Instead of our normal prayer circle to close, we passed around bread. As we each took a piece from the loaf, we named one thing we are thankful to God for as our prayer for the evening. I wonder, what are you thankful to God for in your life? Comment on this post with your responses.

Don't forget your help is needed THIS Sunday after the 11am service with unloading the sheds for the UMW's yard sale. Meet in the Social Hall!

Speak Series: Marked with His Image

2011-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we looked again at the creation story, but while last week we focused on what we learn about God as a creator, this week we focused on the creation of humans made in God's image. To get us started we divided into two teams. Each team chose (in secret) one person to make a paper copy of. They traced this person and colored it to look as much like the real person as possible. After each team completed their task, they showed their paper copy to the other team and they had to guess who it represented. Both teams did a great job, and the opposite team easily identified who the copies were supposed to be.

It is easy for us to initially think of being "made in God's image" to be something like this paper copy we created of each other. But that is not really what the Bible is getting at, is it? To be made in God's image doesn't mean we are godlike or divine. It doesn't even mean we look physically like God. To be made in God's image means that we are to reflect God in the world. We are to be loving, caring and honest people. We are to seek justice and help those in need.

We also looked at Matthew 22:15-21. Here we are reminded that we are supposed to give to God what is God's. Like a coin, we bear God's image and belong to God, therefore we are to give ourselves to God! As a reminder, we each took a penny to keep with us through the week to remind us that we are to bear God's image and reflect God in the world. How have you reflected God in the world this week? Comment on this post with your responses!

Don't forget: Youth usher this Sunday for the 11am service. Email me if you are able to help. See you next week for Sunday school and FUSION Gathering!

FUSION Lock-In!

2011-09-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at our lock-in on Friday night! We began the night with painting two of the walls in one of the youth rooms! It's looking great! We will have to do a few touch ups later, but it was a great start to redesigning the room.

After painting, we had some snacks and then baked 6 mini loaves of banana bread for the hospitality ministry!

After baking, we grabbed our Bibles and headed to the Sanctuary for a devotion on Matthew 5:14-16 and how God calls us to reflect God's light to the world! We spent time sharing Scripture passages aloud that mean a lot to us, then we each lit a candle to remind us to reflect God's light in the world.

After our devotion, we played Gorgon--an absolute favorite game among FUMC Youth!

Then is was time for popcorn and a movie before falling asleep!

Saturday morning we had breakfast and cleaned up while we watched the end of Rio since most of us fell asleep before the movie ended! We had a great evening full of fellowship, service and fun!

Speak: Obeying the Call

2011-09-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

This Sunday at FUSION Gathering, we began a new series called "Speak: Obeying the Call". Throughout this series we will explore the lives of men and women in the Bible who grasped God's call and how we can do the same! Our first lesson in this series was all about how great God is, and how valuable we must be because we are God's creation! We started with a chalk board reflection of what you think is one of the coolest things God has made. Then we divided into two teams and had to put 6 of the world's most expensive paintings in the world in order of value. We realized that one of the most important factors in deciding the value of a painting is the artist. Similarly, if we think of God as an artist, we see that his creation is extremely valuable...and that includes us!

We spent some time traveling to different exploration stations where we focused on the topics of "God is everywhere", "God is all-knowing", "God is all-powerful", and "God is eternal". There were things to read and do at each station as we learned more about who God is. Before leaving for the evening, we spent some time outside in more of God's creation playing a favorite game called SPUD. I wonder...what do you think is one of the coolest things God made? Comment on this post with your responses.

Don't forget the LOCK-IN is this Friday!!!

Let me know if you will be attending!

Connect Series: Transforming

2011-08-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

This Sunday was our last in our Connect Series. After having dinner and an introduction to Hand Bells with Sarah Critzer, we took at look at Exodus 34:29-35 when Moses comes down from the mountain and his face is glowing from his time spent with God! To get us into the story we did our own little makeovers with lots of different props to see which team could come up with the most creative outfits for their "models". We then talked about what the Israelites might have thought when they first saw Moses glowing. We talked about some ways that people "glow" now after they've spent time with God (smiling, dancing, singing, etc.). After reading Isaiah 64:8, we used play-doh to form a symbol or sculpture that represents something we think God wants to change in us or something that we think God is calling us to do. The youth really took their time praying and thinking about how God is calling them to live their lives. We made things like a person praying, a Bible, a fish, a heart, a cross and a music note! Before closing in prayer, we each received a glow bracelet. This reminds us that like Moses, when we spend time with God and grow closer to God, our lives will glow and shine for all to see as well!

Don't forget to come out to Farmville Miniature Golf this Saturday for our Haiti Mission Team fundraiser!

Connect Series: Never Forget

2011-08-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we read about when the Israelites constructed an idol of a golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain (Exodus 32). After God had been present with the Israelites in the pillar of clouds and fire, guiding their path, the Israelites seemed to forget about God and start trying to rely on themselves again. We discussed ways we can continue to remember God and be in relationship with God. We created our own little scrolls of what we need to remember about God and tied them up like a mezuzah! How are you reminded of God and God's presence in your life? Comment on this post with your responses!

James River Float

2011-08-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

We ended up having a perfect day for our James River Float this year! What a fun and relaxing way to finish out the summer. See you next year for this great event!

Connect Series: Daily Dependence

2011-08-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we took a look at the story in Exodus about God providing manna for the Israelites in the desert. We each tested our desert survival skills knowledge, and realized that we don't know much about surviving in the desert. Ultimately, we see in this story that God is teaching the Israelites that they must depend on God daily for their survival. And we learn as well that we must depend daily on God not only for our physical survival but our spiritual survival. To understand this more we participated in several "exploration stations" in pairs as we did various activities that remind us that we need God in our lives every day!

Don't forget the James River Float is this Saturday. Call or email me to RSVP!

Mission and Game Night

2011-08-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we had a mission and game night at FUSION Gathering! The whole church has been collecting school supplies to fill the 86 new backpacks that were donated to us from Kroger last year. These filled backpacks will be distributed to our area schools, who will hand them out to children that would otherwise not have the proper supplies they need for school this year. FUMC Youth packed these backpacks with their supplies Sunday evening!

Then we played Gorgon for the rest of the evening!

See you next Sunday as we continue our Connect series!

Mission Camp: Day #4

2011-07-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the time I am posting this, today was a long day! Good thing we get to sleep in a little tomorrow (breakfast is at 9 instead of 7). Today Kate and Dante were with the group that stayed at VUMAC to finish up the last of the painting and staining. The benches look great! The rest of us were at the Amelia Thrift Store. Our main task of the day was loading up two trailers full of books, bags and toys to take to the Blackstone Goodwill store. Amelia does not want to turn away any donations, but currently they have an excess to the point where they are running out of extra storage room before items can even be placed on the shelves in the actual store. We got a good amount of boxes and bags cleared out from the storage room between the two trailer loads full.

This evening our taco and mac and cheese meal (strange combination, I know!) was provided by Crewe UMC! After eating, we got ready to go to the dance with Camp Rainbow. We all had a wonderful time dancing with the camp participants. Afterward we headed up to another room for the District Youth dance! We had a great time dancing the night away. After a closing prayer, we all headed back to our rooms for a good night's sleep (or to stay up and chat more about the awesome week it has been). I'm thankful for the couple extra hours of sleep I'll get in the morning! After breakfast, packing and a closing service, it is back to Farmville tomorrow.

Mission Camp: Day #3

2011-07-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Another full day is coming to an end. Today, Holly went with a group to FACES. They prepackaged over 300 bags full of non-perishable items to be handed out on Saturday morning! Quante went with a group back to Glory Reins where they finished painting the arena fencing and worked more on the shelter for the pasture. Kate, Dante and LB all stayed around VUMAC staining the benches and amphitheater throughout the day. I led a group including Amanda and Rachel to the Amelia Thrift Store where we sorted and organized donations to be sold to raise money for various mission projects around the community.

After a delicious BBQ dinner provided by Grace UMC, everyone got free time in the pool! We had a largest splash, smallest splash and most creative jump contest to round off the swim time. After getting dried off, we had an amazing ice cream social provided by Journey UMC and the Amelia Thrift Store.

Everyone is having such a wonderful time, and you can tell by their exhausted eyes by the end of the night that they are working hard. Tomorrow marks our last full day (and work day) for the 2011 Mission Camp. Most of us will be heading to the Amelia Thrift Store, with a small group finishing up painting around VUMAC and another small group finishing up work at Glory Reins. Tomorrow night we will celebrate with a dance with Camp Rainbow and then just the Mission Camp participants. I'm told it's a night everyone looks forward to each year!

Mission Camp: Full Day #2

2011-07-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

It was another full day of ministry for the Farmville District Mission Camp! Holly, Quante, Dante and Kate all got up at 5am to head out to South Boston to glean with a team at 5:30am. They had a long, hot day ahead of them, but they gleaned 4 truck beds full and overflowing with corn! What a blessing that fresh corn will be to so many recipients. Amanda, Rachael, LB and I were on the Glory Reins Ranch team today. After meeting the horses, we went to work building a shelter for the horses in one of the pastures and painting the riding arena's fencing. It was so hot today (heat index reached 115) that we took a water break every half an hour. We made some good progress on the fence, and the majority of the posts are "planted" for the shelter. Hopefully the team going tomorrow will be able to finish up the projects.

This evening we had a wonderful meal provided by Mt. Pleasant UMC and a hand washing service led by Rev. Scott Beck. After some free time of playing soccer and Uno and reflecting on the day, everyone turned in for a good night's rest before another full day of mission tomorrow.

Tomorrow's mission works consists of the Amelia Thrift Store, FACES, Glory Reins Ranch and more painting around VUMAC. Thanks to all who have been praying for us this week. Keep those prayers coming as we continue to work through the heat!

Farmville District Mission Camp

2011-07-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

Our first full day is coming to a close here in Blackstone at the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center (VUMAC). The Farmville District Youth Mission Camp is going great so far! Today we had our first mission project assignments:

Holly, Dante, and Kate all went with the group to Butterwood United Methodist Church where they weeded and put in some new landscaping around the church grounds.

Quante was with the group that stayed in Blackstone and wood stained some of the benches and the outdoor amphitheater at VUMAC.

Amanda, Rachael, Lionel and I were with the group that went gleaning. We began with picking up 15 rows of bean plants while others from the community harvested the beans from the plants. While the community members were picking the beans, we headed over to another farm to glean corn. The goal was for us to finish the field of 80 rows of corn (which our Society of St. Andrew leader, Mike, was hoping we could accomplish but did not think it would actually be possible). Well, after a long day in the hot sun, we completed the field by pulling, bagging and counting (and even getting to distribute some of the) over 8,500 ears of corn! All the harvested produce will go to those in need in the surrounding area.

After we all got back from our mission locations, took showers, and had a wonderful meal provided by Olive Branch UMC, we headed to a talent show! This week, VUMAC is also hosting Camp Rainbow Connection (http://www.vaumc.org/Page.aspx?pid=386) which is a week long camp held for individuals with intellectual disabilities. It was such a blessing to see the Camp Rainbow participants sing, dance, play piano, and even do an impression of the TV show "Deal or No Deal!" For me, it was even more of a blessing to watch as the youth cheered, sang and danced along with the talent show participants.

What a wonderful, full day of ministry! It is amazing to see the hearts of service the youth in our district have. Tomorrow: Gleaning, Glory Reigns Ranch (http://www.gloryreins.com/index.php), and the Amelia Thrift Store!

2011 Girls Retreat

2011-06-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

Our 2011 Girls Retreat was themed "True Princess" where we explored what it means to be princesses as daughters of God our King! We had a blast playing games, eating lots of food, canoeing, having Bible study together, watching movies, making s'mores, and having a spa night! We hope you will join us next year!

Gathering: Connect Week 2

2011-06-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

We continued our study of Moses' life this week at FUSION Gathering! In Exodus chapter 3, Moses comes upon the burning bush. God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and Moses becomes almost frozen in fear and responds with something like "Who...me?!" We realize that despite Moses' weaknesses, God promises to be with Moses and help him with this calling.

To celebrate our strengths and weaknesses, we held the first annual Odd-Abilities Olympics where we used strange talents like catching popcorn in our mouths thrown to us by our partner, stacking and balancing markers on a table, and volleying a balloon back and forth without letting it touch the ground and without using our hands or arms! Some of us were better at some of the challenges than others, but ultimately we each had unique skills and talents we may not have even realized prior to these Olympic games!

God has a calling for our lives too. It may differ from person to person, but ultimately God calls us all to serve and help others. We talked about various ways we can serve and help others right here in our own community. To begin living into this calling we baked homemade chocolate chip cookies for a mission group who stayed next door at the Wesley foundation and had a homemade meal at our church Monday night! How will you live into this calling from God on your life?

Blizzards & Bible Study

2011-06-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today was our first Blizzards & Bible Study!! We had a great time eating ice cream and starting our study on 1 John. I hope you'll join us next Tuesday at 2pm!

FUSION Gathering: Connect

2011-06-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we began a new series called "Connect". During this series we will be studying the life of Moses as we learn how to further live our our faith in God daily! This week we looked at how Moses traded his life of power and privilege for a life of purpose. So, as an opening activity we each received a bag of snacks. We then had to trade with others, making at least 3 trades, to try to end up with the snacks we wanted most. We looked at Moses' life of power and privilege before he devoted his life to God. We talked about how this could be perceived as both a good trade and a bad trade. Ultimately, though, we are also called to give up certain things in our life in order to trade them for a life of faith. We each wrote down one thing God may be calling us to give up and trade away. After writing it down, we balled up that piece of paper and threw it in the trash, symbolizing our "throwing away" of that particular thing. As we continue with this study, we will search deeper into the story and life of Moses and explore where his story intersects with ours! Come and join us every Sunday evening this summer from 7-8:30pm for FUSION Gathering!

Kings Dominion

2011-05-31T07:49:00.000-07:00

We had a blast at Kings Dominion on Saturday! We hope you will join us next year.

See you this Thursday for our first Thursday in our summer Pixar movie series.

Then I will see you on Sunday morning for our combined summer school (7th-12th graders) which will meet in the downstairs youth room from 9:45-10:45am. Then join us Sunday night from 7-8:30pm for FUSION Gathering!

Ministry and Game Night

2011-05-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

This week we had the opportunity to be in ministry for our church. We were asked if we could assist in cleaning up the social hall after it was used for various mission and ministry events. Saturday evening, the Social Hall held a BBQ fundraiser for our mission team going to Haiti in October. Sunday afternoon the Social Hall was host to a lunch before the memorial service for Ralph Haga. Then Sunday evening the Social Hall held a dinner and meeting for our Honduras mission team! It was a blessing to each of these groups to not have to worry with putting away all the tables and chairs after their events.

Afterward we had the special opportunity to write agape notes to a group of individuals. I don't want to give away too much so it will be a surprise for them!

Then we played a great game of Gorgon!!!
Don't forget there will be NO FUSION GATHERING next week! We will be going to Kings Dominion on Saturday, but not meeting Sunday night. See you on Saturday!

Tuff Stuff: End Times

2011-05-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Lots of weird and strange images often come to mind when we think about the "end times". We started our night on Sunday talking and displaying those words and images for our chalkboard reflection of the evening. We thought of things like fire, destruction, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, explosions, animals taking over the world...basically pure chaos! The topic of the "end times" is so fascinating to a lot of people for many reasons...one of which is the fact that it is really a mystery. We know Scripture discusses it, but ultimately when it will happen and how are a mystery. We took a look at Scripture like John 14:1-6, Matthew 24:36-42 and 2 Peter 3:1-12. We see that though the details of the end times may be a mystery, God tells us not to be afraid, to trust in God and that God doesn't want anyone to be destroyed, but for all to repent.

Then I read Revelation 21-22:6. As I read, everyone wrote down words, phrases or drew images of things that stuck out to them. Afterward we created a collage of what the "New Heave and New Earth" might be like according to this Scripture passage.

Despite all the things we don't know, there are three main things we do know:
1. The Bible tells us that Jesus will return someday.
2. The world as we know it will come to an end.
3. The end is really a brand new beginning!

Those who were not here last week learned about the 5/30 challenge, and for those who were here last week we checked in with each other on how it was going. How's it going for you? Comment on this post with your responses.

We also did some chariot racing!

Kings Dominion

2011-05-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to sign up for our trip to Kings Dominion!

Tuff Stuff: How Do I Know What's True?

2011-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

We started this week's meeting with a game of 2 Truths and a Lie. Often it is difficult to figure out what is true or false and what is right or wrong. Sometimes it gets confusing to sort out what's true and false. There are many people we go to for help with figuring these things out...parents, mentors, friends. We go to people we trust and people who care about us. One place we can also go is to God! Through prayer and Scripture, we can often find the answers to our questions. So this week, we each committed to a challenge...the 5/30 Challenge! Will you join us in reading your Bible for 5 minutes a day for 30 days? Comment on this post if you plan on taking our challenge.

Tuff Stuff: Are All Religions the Same?

2011-05-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

This week at FUSION Gathering, we talked about the similarities and differences between religions around the world. We realized that while all religions have some things in common like a set of beliefs or values, and sometimes a text or set of writings they hold valuable, there are many differences among faith traditions. We split up into groups and in 5 minutes, wrote down as many religions as we could think of. We looked at some of the differences and similarities among these religions. Then we talked about some of the things that make Christianity distinct from other religions. We discussed faith in One God. We talked about the trinity and the distinct characteristics of each of the parts of the trinity. We talked about the Bible being our distinct text. And we also talked about grace and our understanding of salvation through faith.

It can be difficult to understand the beliefs of people around the world and of all the over 4,000 religions. However, one thing we concluded is that Christianity is not just a set of beliefs, but it is a relationship and a way of life. God calls us to know as much as we can about our faith, and then to live it out! We each determined one thing that we could work on this week to further live out our faith. What would your one thing be? Comment on this post with your responses.

Then, of course, we played some fun games.

Journey to the Cross

2011-04-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

I hope you will join us tomorrow night!

Mission & Ministry Night

2011-04-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we spent the evening working on mission and ministry activities. Using the flower pots the children's Sunday school class decorated last summer, we planted flowers to take to shut ins and nursing home residents. We stuffed all the Easter eggs for the children's Easter Egg hunt this Sunday at 8:30am. And we folded palm branches into crosses to give out during worship this Sunday to remind everyone of Jesus' journey from palm Sunday to Easter Sunday! Check it out:

Don't forget we will NOT meet next Sunday since it is Easter!

Tuff Stuff: Why All the Bad & Sad Stuff?

2011-04-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

This Sunday at FUSION Gathering we talked about the tough topic of "why do bad things happen." We realized that it was much easier to identify recent bad or sad news stories than it was good stories, and it just doesn't seem fair. It is especially difficult to understand when bad things happen to good people. We took a look at Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." We talked about how God doesn't cause tragedy and bad things to happen. BUT God does use the difficult and tragic experiences of our lives to grow us and make us more like Christ. God is concerned about the problems in the world and sends people like us to help! When we look at Matthew 25:31-46, we see that God calls us each to help those who are hurting and in need. When we live into this calling, we are not only serving those in need, we are serving Christ as well. We talked about specific ways we can live into this calling...things like helping at FACES, Meals on Wheels, donating clothing, visiting the sick, comforting a friend or family member and working in the church garden. We each thought of one thing we would commit to doing this week to help live into God's calling to help those in need. What will you do? Comment on this post with your responses.

Dig & Dessert

2011-04-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Even though the ground was too wet to plant, we had a great time at the Dig & Dessert mission event this past Sunday! We spread fertilizer, weeded around the church grounds and had some delicious "dirt" cake, "dirt" pudding, chocolate pound cake and cookies! Thanks to all who helped supply sweet treats and drinks, and to all who came out to help. I will keep you posted on when we will get out there to plant.

Dig & Dessert

2011-04-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Don't forget our "Dig & Dessert" mission event is THIS Sunday! All are invited to come out and help get our church garden ready to grow fresh food for FACES and fellowship over some sweet treats in the fellowship room! Hope to see you there!

Tuff Stuff: "Fitting In"

2011-04-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

This week we began our new series "Tuff Stuff" in which we will explore what God has to say about some of the tougher questions we might have. We started our series with the issue of "fitting in". We talked about peer pressures we face in our daily lives, and took a look at the story of Caleb and Joshua who were sent with ten others to check out the Promised Land and bring back a report to Moses and the people (Numbers 13:26-14:9). While the other ten spies talked about how big and strong the people were in the Promised Land, and how they would never be able to defeat them, Caleb and Joshua tried to convince them that they could defeat them with God's help. The crowd sided with the other ten spies, but Caleb and Joshua didn't give in to peer pressure, and continued to stand up for what they believed because they knew God had made a promise to them.

We talked about how maybe being a Christian means NOT fitting in. Maybe we are called to stand out because we are called to live into God's calling on our lives. And sometimes that looks very different from what the world says we should be doing. No matter what, there is ALWAYS a place we fit in, and that's in God's Family! We are each unique and loving creations of God, and we will always have a place in God's family. So for reflection this week, is there a place in your life where you are trying hard to fit in, but don't really need to be? I hope that you will each find comfort in knowing that even if you don't seem to "fit" in other places or groups, you fit perfectly into God's family!

Week 12: Haggai & Zechariah

2011-03-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

This was our last week of "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets." For our last lesson, we looked at Haggai and Zechariah. When you are trying to do a job, complete a project or finish out a game, it helps to have someone cheering you on and providing encouragement. That's what the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were all about! The past two weeks we talked about the prophet Ezekiel who prophesied to the exiled Jews in Babylon. Last week we talked about how Ezekiel had to tell them that their hometown of Jerusalem had been destroyed along with the Temple. Many years later, these exiled people were allowed to return home. When they did they began to work on rebuilding the Temple. But, they quickly got tired and quit. Instead they focused their time on re-building their own houses. Haggai and Zechariah were called to encourage and motivate the Jewish people to continue rebuilding the Temple!

We split into middle and high school groups and talked about priorities. The people in Haggai and Zechariah's day were having a hard time prioritizing, and these prophets were trying to get them back on track. We talked about how sometimes we put God and "being a Christian" on hold while we take care of other things. How do you set your priorities, and who helps get you back on track when you stray? Some said parents, friends, mentors, pastors, God. It was important for us to identify who and what helps us and encourages us to straighten out our priorities and set our faith as number one before other things in our lives.

Then we talked about how today's Temple is the body of Christ. That God dwells in each of us, and that means we need to care for ourselves as God's creation and dwelling place. This also means that we are called to love and care for our neighbors as well, since the body of Christ is not just us individually, but a whole community! So, as a challenge for the week, we wrote down one or two specific ways we could work on "building" or "rebuilding" our Temple this week. Maybe it is being intentional about praying or reading Scripture every day. Maybe it is encouraging a friend or helping your parents around the house. Maybe it is forgiving a friend or sibling or asking them for forgiveness. Whatever it is, we wrote it down so that we would remember to work on it this week. Will you join us in our challenge? What will you do to work on building or rebuilding the Temple this week? Comment on this post with your responses.

Then we played a few games...one which helped us further understand the role of a prophet. In this game, one person was blindfolded and had to find a ball that was placed somewhere in the room. Another person was able to give verbal directions to the blindfolded person but had to keep their back to them at all times. The rest of the group was to give directions on how to find the ball to the person giving verbal directions, but they were not allowed to talk! Sometimes directions were confusing and hard to understand, just like the prophets' messages, but if we were patient and listened carefully, we were able to accomplish the task at hand.

Week 11: Ezekiel Part 2

2011-03-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

This week we finished up talking about Ezekiel. We remember from last week that God called Ezekiel to prophesy to the Jews who had been exiled to Babylon. After being removed from their homeland and forced to live in a new country with strange customs and laws, the exiled Jews were feeling discouraged. Their only hope was that some day they would be able to return to their homeland. But then Ezekiel has to tell them that not only are thing terrible in Babylon, but their home town of Jerusalem has now been completely destroyed by the Babylonians. So now Ezekiel's task is to communicate hope to the people.

Before splitting up into middle and high school groups, we watched the clip from The Princess Bride where the supposedly dead Wesley is brought to Miracle Max who says, "It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive." The exiled Jews were probably feeling "mostly dead" when they heard that their hometown had been destroyed.

We read Ezekiel 37:1-14 of Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones that was to give hope to the people. In this vision, God is able to put skin and flesh back onto the bones and breathe life into them. This offered hope to the Jews who were very much feeling like a pile of bones...mostly dead. We talked about things that can make us feel mostly dead....losing friends or family, failing a test at school, being bullied, etc. We talked about where or to whom we go to for help when we're feeling mostly dead, discouraged, etc. We often go to our friends, mentors, family. We pray and sometimes find something to do to get our minds off of the situation. But mostly, we see throughout the Bible and in passages like Psalm 116:1-6, John 5:24 and Psalm 147:1-6, that God is there to help us through this discouraging times. God breathes life back into us when we are feeling mostly dead.

We each chose one thing we had written down that is discouraging us right now, and committed ourselves to praying for God's Spirit to come and fill us in that area of our lives...to give us life again! Will you join us this week in that commitment? Comment on this post with something in your life that makes you feel "mostly dead" and how you see God working toward making your dry bones live again!

Oh, and of course we played our new favorite game again....GORGON!

Week 10: Ezekiel Part 1

2011-03-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

This week we began to talk about the prophet (and priest) Ezekiel! We started with a game called "Bottoms Up" where each person got a piece of paper with an object or creature on it. They had to describe that thing from the bottom to the top, in hopes of getting the rest of the group to guess correctly with the fewest clues possible. For example, if you had "Football player" you might start with the clue "Cleats". We found that sometimes even the most common objects are really difficult to describe. So, you can imagine the difficulty of describing something you have only seen once, and it's so bizarre and big that you don't even know where to begin! This is exactly what happened to Ezekiel. He saw a vision of God and it was so strange, huge and marvelous that he fell to the ground in awe.

We split into small groups and read different parts of Ezekiel's vision. Then we wrote down the characteristics of God based on Ezekiel's vision and attempted to make our own drawings of the vision. It was difficult to say the least! We talked about the possible interpretations of the vision...for example the fact that the God in Ezekiel's vision had wheels that could move in any direction might show us that God is able to go anywhere and be present everywhere! We talked about how Ezekiel's vision of God definitely doesn't look like our various images of God, but it does have very similar qualities to the God we know (all-present, great, wonderful, all-powerful, strong, supportive, etc.). We realized that there are some qualities of God we found in Ezekiel's vision that we may have overlooked in the past or just never really thought about before. We shared these with others and continue to reflect on them throughout this week. I encourage you to read Ezekiel 1:1-28 this week and reflect on what your traditional view of God is, and how Ezekiel's vision can help you expand your understanding of God! Comment on this post with your thoughts and discoveries.

We also played a fun game of crab soccer!

Week 9: Jeremiah Part 2

2011-03-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

We started off Sunday night playing a game called "sticker wars". This entails each person getting 5 stickers. You have 3 minutes to place all of your stickers on other people, and you can take stickers off of yourself and re-place them on others. Whoever has the least amount of stickers on them after 3 minutes wins. Soon after starting, you realize that this game is difficult to win. You make a little progress and feel like you're finally winning, and then you end up right back where you started. It seems like no mater how hard you work, you just can't seem to get ahead.

That's what life was like for Jeremiah. For more than 40 years, Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah. During those 40 years, Jeremiah preached the same message to the same people, and he got the same responses over and over again, "Why don't you just leave us alone?" But, Jeremiah had persistence and continued to deliver God's message even when it seemed like he wasn't making any progress.

To continue our discussion about persistence and Jeremiah, we watched a clip from the movie Rudy. Rudy faced a lot of set backs along his journey toward his dream of playing football for Notre Dame. We see in the clip, that Rudy has finally made it into Notre Dame and is on the football practice team. It's the last home game of his senior year and it looks as if he is not going to be able to play (after having been told he will). But then his teammates and eventually the entire crowd starts chanting his name. The coach agrees to let him play and Notre Dame wins the game! Rudy had patience, commitment and persistence to keep working toward his dream even when he kept getting pushed back. Imagine, though, if after all that work Rudy was told he couldn't play. The frustration and discouragement would have been overwhelming.

We split into middle and high school groups and looked at areas in our lives where we are persistent and persevere, and areas where we may not be as persistent (things like loving God, loving others, being honest when we pray, etc.). We talked about how Christians are supposed to be persistent, and ways we can prepare ourselves to be more persistent Christians. We thought of things in school and society that make persistence difficult, and situations where we are most likely to be persistent in our faith. Then we took a look at the various areas in our lives which we rated ourselves on and chose one thing on that list that we are going to work on being more persistent with this week.

We spent the rest of the evening playing a game called "Gorgon" which was a big hit. Think of it as a mix between hide and seek, freeze tag and a scavenger hunt. We hope you will join us next week at FUSION Gathering!

2011 FUSION Ski Trip

2011-03-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

We had a blast on the ski trip this past Saturday! We skied, snowboarded and tubed the day away! We hope you will join us next year for our annual trip to Wintergreen.

Week 8: Jeremiah Part 1

2011-03-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

This week we began to talk about the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah often gets the wrap of being the "prophet of doom" because he delivered messages to Judah for 40 years, and it was often bad news for Judah. Most of the people thought he was ridiculous and kept blowing him off. We talked about how Jeremiah was probably similar to some of the street corner prophets we see today with signs that say "The End is Near!" Most people walk right past these people, ignoring their messages of doom. So we decided to play a little game. We split off into three groups and created our own "doomsday" signs. The catch was, each group received a different "character" to write a doomsday sign for. For example, a professional hockey player's sign might say "The end is near! My last tooth just got knocked out!" Or an astronaut's sign might read "The end is near! They're sending me to Pluto!" Then the other groups have to guess who the sign is written for. We had signs for parents, dentists and computer geeks--all which were very creative!

One thing to note about Jeremiah, is since he prophesied for 40 years, he was very young when God called him to be a prophet. We read Jeremiah 1:4-10 and 1:17-19 together. Jeremiah thought that his young age made him inadequate to do God's work. We talked about how sometimes people see teenagers as inadequate to do things because they are young. But, when God calls you to do something, God will be with you as you accomplish it! We talked about others in the Bible who despite "inadequate" age or ability, served God. We thought of people like Mary who was really young when God told her she would give birth to Jesus, and David who was thought to be too young and weak to defeat Goliath, and Moses who had trouble speaking and yet led the people to the Promised Land! We see that God uses people of all ages and abilities to make amazing things happen. No matter how young or old you are or what skills and gifts you may have, God CAN and WILL use you to help bring about His kingdom! Before playing some more games, we each pulled out a piece of paper with a name of someone else in the room on it. This person is our prayer partner for the week and we have committed ourselves to praying for that person each day...praying that they will not feel inadequate, but will know that God is with them and will help them accomplish everything God is calling them to do!

Ski Trip Reminder

2011-02-22T12:28:00.000-08:00

Don't forget:

Youth Ski Trip

March 5, 2011

All money is due to Lyndsie by:

TOMORROW: February 23rd.

Week 7: Daniel

2011-02-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

This week in our series "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets", we talked about Daniel. Daniel was a young Jew who was exiled to Babylon (remember what we said about Babylon last week?). Daniel ended up being one of a group of young men who were chosen to enter training for the king's court...maybe in hopes of being loyal subjects to the king one day. Many of us can remember several stories in the Bible with Daniel in them...stories like Daniel and the lion's den, Daniel interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego and the fiery furnace. To get us in a "Daniel" sort of mind frame, we acted out a spontaneous melodrama which is a no-rehearsal, slapstick humor skit! Ours was entitled "Daniel in His TV Den" (a new take on Daniel in the Lion's Den). We even had people acting as chairs and tables!

Obviously, our skit wasn't exactly how the real story went. But sometimes with these stories that it seems we have heard one thousand times, we start to miss or forget the point of them. But these stories in Daniel are not just well known, they are timeless. They still speak to us today and they can have new things to teach us each time we read them! Daniel's stories offer us great looks at integrity, wisdom and courage.

We split into middle and high school groups and took a look at several of the well known stories in Daniel. We did a sort of "book review" and identified examples of how Daniel shows integrity, wisdom and courage in each of these stories. We talked about how Daniel stayed true to himself and his faith, took time to examine his situation and pray to God before reacting, and showed true courage and strength in times of trial. We realized that often today's society goes against these virtues...we are encouraged to conform and change who we are just to please everyone and get ahead in life. Unlike Daniel, there is typically little threat to our lives based on our religion in our country and time, but we are still faced with challenges where we must also show integrity, wisdom and courage. We read other Scripture passages that can teach us more on how to display these virtues (see passages like Psalm 1:1-3, 2 Timothy 3:14-15, Psalm 28:7 and Isaiah 40:31). Ultimately we see that Daniel practiced his faith on a daily basis and that helped him stand up to the trials he faced. We are also called to do that same! How are you showing integrity, wisdom and courage this week? Comment on this post with your answers.

We then played a few games including "Cat and Mouse" as we are reminded to have courage and listen for direction even in dark times, and "Big Bunny". Check out the pictures below!

Week 6: Habakkuk

2011-02-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

This week in our series "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets", we took a look at the prophet Habakkuk. We started with playing a game called "Is that your final answer" where groups were given dates that commemorate actual events in history. They had to come up with their own events for each date and try to convince the rest of the group that theirs was the real answer. We had everything from Anti-Boredom Month (a real thing-July 1-31 every year!) to Cheeseball Day (a made-up date, though I wouldn't doubt it exists!). We talked about how, like we did in the game, often people think they have the answers to questions and try to convince others that their answers are true. We know when we have questions about God or our faith, we can look in the Bible and talk to God. But, sometimes we are still not clear on the answers after we do those things. The prophet Habakkuk was dealing with similar issues.

Habakkuk lived in Judah. The good King Josiah had recently died, along with all of his spiritual reforms. The new king, Jehoiakim II, was basically a puppet for Egypt. He completely reversed all the good reforms of Josiah and his reign was unjust and violent. In addition to the new reign of a horrible King, the country of Babylon was getting stronger and dominating all of the surrounding countries. The Babylonians were ruthless, evil and destructive. And this is when Habakkuk's dialogue with God begins.

Habakkuk complains to God about what is happening and asks his first question (Habakkuk 1:2-4). He says, how long do we have to wait, God? When are you going to help us out of this awful situation we are in? So then God answers Habakkuk in verses 5-11 and tells Habakkuk that God is on the way and that he's going to use the Babylonians to accomplish His purpose....the Babylonians? Really? Habakkuk is very confused. Why is the world would God use these horrible evil people? But Habakkuk trusts God and knows that God will take care of things, even if he is confused at how God will actually do it. So Habakkuk sits quietly, watching and waiting for God's explanation.

In time, God replies and basically says that He can use whomever he wants to accomplish His purpose. But not to worry, because Babylon will not escape judgment for their unjust behavior. Evil will not control the world! Habakkuk still doesn't know what exactly is going to happen, but he comes to realize that God is in control and he must trust God. So Habakkuk sings a song of praise to God's power, love and overwhelming majesty!

We then split up into middle and high school groups and talked a little deeper about how we can stop, look and listen for God like Habakkuk did. Even when we don't get detailed answers to our questions, Habakkuk reassures us that God is always there, ready to listen to us in our doubts and distress. How are you stopping, looking and listening for God? What's preventing you from stopping, looking and listening for God? Comment on this post with your answers.

Then we had a little fun, racing to build free standing towers made of spaghetti noodles and mini-marshmallows, and playing a game called bin ball. Check it out:

Super Bowl Sunday

2011-02-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

FUMC Youth joined with youth across the country on Sunday morning in participating in the "Souper Bowl of Caring". FUMC Youth collected money and canned food items to be donated to FACES as they helped "tackle hunger" in our local community. They ended up collecting $419.57 and 28 food items!!! Check out these pictures of our youth in mission:

Then we gathered at the Kinne's house that night for a Super Bowl Party! We watched the game on the big screen, played games, and ate lots of pizza and snacks!

Week 5: Isaiah Part 2

2011-02-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

This week in our series "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets" we finished up Isaiah! We focused on the misplaced trust Judah was dealing with by creating alliances with larger nations in order to gain protection. Isaiah continued to warn Judah about their misplaced trust, but they refused to listen to God's message. In order to gain a better understanding of what was going on, we did a little "visual history". Different students took on the roles of people like Abraham, Moses, and the King of Judah. We had various areas of the room labeled as countries such as Assyria, Canaan, Israel, Egypt and Judah. In each of these areas were a stack of books. These books represented the customs, material possessions, and general way of life of these various places. As I read through the history, each character had to move to the respected area the history was talking about and pick up some of the books their, symbolizing that they are a part of that nation's culture. Amanda, who played the King of Judah, ended up with a stack of books too high to carry, since Judah kept making alliances with other nations.

In exchange for protection, Judah was to adhere to the customs and culture of the nations they were in alliances with. Judah, therefore, was leaving behind their own faith in God as a result of these alliances. When we try to keep too many people happy, things get chaotic and confusing and we often forget who we really are and what we really believe. At the end of our "visual history" we didn't remember which "books" belonged to which nation and were confused, stressed and tired from carrying them all around.

We split up into middle and high school groups and talked more in depth about God's message to Judah through Isaiah. We realized that relying and trusting in people is not necessarily a bad thing...it's only harmful when we put our full trust in those who ask us to compromise our faith and beliefs in return. We discussed other things that might cause our faith to become weak like the Judeans, and how we can work on eliminating or staying strong in our faith despite those things. When we gathered back as a large group, we read Isaiah 40:28-31 together. This Scripture passage offers us good news and words of hope and strength when we may be feeling weak or watered down in our faith. Before going home, we each received a piece of paper with this Scripture passage printed on it so that we could continue to reflect on Isaiah throughout the week.

Then we went down to the social hall and had some fun running around playing games. Take a look:

Don't forget THIS Sunday, February 6th, is our "Souper Bowl of Caring" mission collection for FACES during the 8:30 & 11am worship services, and our Super Bowl Party starting at 6pm Sunday night! RSVP to me (Lyndsie) so I know how much pizza to get!

Super Bowl Sunday!

2011-01-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

We have two awesome opportunities for FUSION on Super Bowl Sunday: February 6th!

Souper Bowl of Caring: We will be participating in a missonal outreach project called the "Souper Bowl of Caring" on February 6th. At the end of both worship services, the youth will collect money and canned goods at the doors to benefit FACES. We will need at least four youth to help at each service! Contact Lyndsie Blakely if you would like to help "Tackle Hunger" in our local community!

FUSION Super Bowl XLV Party: Instead of our normal Gathering meeting, we will be having a Super Bowl party February 6th from 6:00-9:00pm at the Kinne's home. You don't have to stay the whole time, and you should still come even if you don't like football! We will have other games going on, as well as pizza for dinner and snacks! RSVP to me (Lyndsie) so I know how much pizza to get!

I hope you will participate in both of these great Super Bowl events!

Week 4: Isaiah Part 1

2011-01-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

Since Isaiah is one of the major prophets (named "major" not because he was any more important than the others, but because his writings are more extensive), we are spending two weeks talking about this prophet. We began the night with a game called "Keeping it Positive". Everyone was given a clothespin to attach to their clothing. Throughout the night, if you caught anyone saying the word "No" you got their clothespin.

How does this relate to Isaiah? Well, when God asked Isaiah "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:8), Isaiah immediately responds, "Here am I. Send me!" We discussed how we often do not respond like Isaiah when God calls us to something. We tend to respond more like "Welllllll God. That all depends on what exactly you want me to do and where exactly you want me to go. I mean, could you give me a little more details before I give you an answer?" And then sometimes we just flat out say "NO WAY!" We talked about the places we are afraid God might send us, the things we're afraid God might want us to do, and the stuff we're afraid God might want us to give up. Ultimately we realize, though, that God will never ask us to do something and then leave us to do it alone! God is always with us!

We played a fun game called "back draw" which is similar to the game telephone, but instead of whispering a message in someone's ear, you had to draw a picture or word on the back of the person in front of you with your finger. The last person in the line had to draw the picture or word on a piece of paper, and the team with the best drawing that was closest to the original won. We drew the words YES, CALL and a picture of a stick figure "prophet". It ended up being harder than it seems!

So, your challenge this week is: when you feel God calling you to do something, respond with a resounding YES like the prophet Isaiah! Comment on this post with how you are doing!

Week 3: Hosea

2011-01-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

This week in our series "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets" we discussed the prophet Hosea. Like Amos, Hosea was also called to deliver a message to the Northern kingdom of Israel. While Amos' message to the Iraelites was of God's demand for justice and righteousness, Hosea's message to the Israelites was of God's demand for faithfulness. God not only called Hosea to deliver this message to Israel, but to also personally understand how deep God's love is for Israel. God told Hosea to marry a prostitute (Gomer) who would inevitably be an unfaithful wife, and when she strayed from their relationship, Hosea was to take her back as his wife and continue to love and forgive her.

So we see this parallel with Hosea's relationship with Gomer and God's relationship with Israel. God loved and chose Israel, but Israel kept rejecting God and being unfaithful. But, God continued to love and forgive Israel even through their unfaithfulness. So through Hosea, God pronounced judgment on Israel for their sin and declared that repentance is the only road to reconciliation. We learn from Hosea's story, then, that God desires us to repent of our sins and be reconciled to God. And that God's love for us is unconditional. NOTHING we do will ever separate us from the love of God, because just like the Israelites, God will pursue us and love us even when we have strayed from our relationship with God.

In response, we each took a piece of paper and wrote down one thing we can do this week to begin strengthening our commitment and faithfulness to God. Maybe it is praying daily, reading the Bible or being more thankful for the blessings in our lives. Whatever it may be, we wrote it down and committed ourselves to it this week and hope to make it a habit in our lives beyond this week.

So, what will you commit to doing this week to help strengthen your commitment and faithfulness to God? Comment on this post with your responses!

We spent the rest of the evening playing Hide & Seek--reminding us while we had fun that God constantly seeks out the lost and unfaithful.

Week 2: Amos

2011-01-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

For our second week in our new series: "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets" we took a look at the prophet Amos. Amos was from Judah, the southern kingdom when Israel split, and God called Amos to go deliver a message to Israel, the northern kingdom. At this time Israel was known for its great wealth and unjust behaviors (read Amos 2:6-16). Amos' job was to deliver God's call for Israel to repent and change their ways. Israel didn't take this so well, and ended up NOT repenting (unlike the Ninevites we talked about last week). So, not long after that Israel fell to the Assyrian army, and the ten tribes were exiled throughout the region--never again to be joined as a kingdom, just as Amos had prophesied.

We spent time talking more deeply about social injustices. We talked about how Christians and non-Christians can be guilty of unjust behaviors. We also talked about how the church is often guilty of social injustices, but that the church should play a role in helping bring about reconciliation and healing to those social injustices. So how does God still speak to us today through the story of the prophet Amos?

We learn that God calls us to:
-Live justly and righteously.
-Treat others kindly and fairly.
-Don't let material possessions divert your attention from relationships with others and with God.
-Make sure God is a priority in your life rather than just a Sunday morning pit stop.

In response to what we learned, we realized that one way we can treat others kindly and show God's love to them is through acts of hospitality. So, for the rest of our time together, we baked mini loaves of bread to be offered to visitors of our church on Sunday mornings! What is one way you seek to live justly and righteously? Comment on this post with your responses.

2011 Farmville District Winter Retreat

2011-01-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at the district winter retreat this past weekend! We learned about God's "Epic Truth" in John 14:6 where Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We explored this theme in worship with a praise band and Rev. Rob Woodfin:

We explored this "Epic Truth" in workshops:

We spent time in small groups:

We went to a concert by the band True Liberty:

And we enjoyed free time with activities like swimming, basketball, games and dancing:

Overall, we had a lot of fun and we grew spiritually from the experience. We hope you will join us next year!

"Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets"

2011-01-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

We began our new series "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets" this Sunday! Throughout this series we will take a look at ten of the Old Testament Prophets. For our first week, we took a look at Jonah, who some call the "unprophet". We usually think of prophets as people who did whatever God asked them...but Jonah was a little different. When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, Jonah ran in the opposite direction. Eventually, he finally makes it to Nineveh (after enduring a storm, being thrown overboard on a ship, and living in the belly of a fish for three days), but it would have been a lot quicker and probably easier if he had just gone straight to Nineveh from the beginning.

We discussed how we are often like Jonah--running away from God's instrustions for us. We take the longer route and often end up enduring more hardships and wasting a lot more energy than if we had simply done what God had asked us from the start. We split into middle and high school groups and dug a little deeper into some of God's instructions for our lives, such as loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48), obeying our parents and honoring our father and mother (Ephesians 6:1-3), listening and following the Word of God (James 1:22-26), loving our neighbors and not showing favoritism (James 2:1-9), and living in harmony with one another and being compassionate and humble (1 Peter 3:8-17). We talked about how when we avoid God's instructions, it can have many negative effects on both ourselves and those around us.

Ultimately, Jonah's story is about God's love being for EVERYONE, not just some. The Ninevites were nasty mean people, yet they repented and God extended his love to them rather than destroying them. Even after Jonah finally made it to Ninevah and was successful in conveying God's message to the Ninevites, Jonah still didn't believe that God could truly love those people. Jonah sat there waiting for God to destroy the city. But God "had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened" (Jonah 3:10).

As a challenge for the week, we each wrote down the name of someone we know who could really use God's grace and love. It may have been someone who is really mean like the Ninevites. It may have been someone who is hurting or suffering and needs to hear about God's love for them. I challenged the students, and now I'm challenging you, to put that slip of paper with the person's name on it somewhere where you will see it every day this week. Maybe put it under your pillow, or on your bathroom mirror, or on your bedroom door. Put it some place that you look every day. Then, every time you see that name, pray for that person. Also, I want you to commit to finding a way to show that person God's love this week. Maybe it is by smiling at them or giving them a hug. Maybe it's inviting them to church next Sunday, or sitting with them at lunch. Maybe its helping them with homework or work. Whatever it is, find a way to show them God's love this week, being careful not to be like Jonah and run in the opposite direction of what God is calling you to do for this person.

So, I'm wondering, what are some things you are thinking about doing in order to show God's love for that particular person this week? Comment on this post with your answers.
See you next week as we take a look at the prophet Amos!

The Advent Experience: Waiting in Joy

2010-12-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this was the last Sunday of Advent! To finish our series "The Advent Experience" and our focus on waiting and preparing our hearts for Christmas, we had a Christmas party as we "waited in joy!" We played the Christmas song picture game where you have to figure out the Christmas song based on a picture puzzle. We listened to Christmas music and ate a bunch of delicious snacks (thanks to the many church members who provided treats for our party!). We had a white elephant gift exchange with presents like candy, McDonald's gift cards, mugs, a blanket, homemade bread, binoculars, bottle tops for canned drinks, and even a ball that bounces itself! We even split into four groups and played a game where each group had to wrap one of their members up like a present. The team with the best wrapping job won! Check back for pictures of a fun night at FUSION Gathering. Merry Christmas!

Remember, we will NOT be meeting next week, December 26th. See you all again when we resume our weekly Gathering meetings on January 2nd at 7pm.

Christmas Party

2010-12-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

Don't forget:

THIS Sunday is our FUSION Christmas Party!

Bring a friend and a gift ($5 or less) for our gift exchange.

Come and enjoy snacks and games in addition to our gift exchange.

The Advent Experience: Waiting in Prayer

2010-12-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

This week at FUSION Gathering we focused on waiting in prayer. As a group we traveled to different places around the church and participated in several prayer experiences. We sang Christmas carols and read different parts of the Christmas story in Scripture at each prayer station. Then, we had a different prayer experience at each station. At the first station we prayed about people, places or situations we would like to lift up in prayer, wrote those things on strips of construction paper and then stapled them together to form a prayer chain.

At the next station, we talked about how many people write letters to Santa this time of year. Instead, however, we wrote letters God...sharing our hopes and fears, our joys and our sorrows as we sat under the Chrismon tree in the sanctuary. Once we were done, we sealed our letters in an envelope and placed them at the base of the cross on the altar, knowing that God has already read our words and is present with us in those things we wrote about.

At the next prayer station, we read about the angels appearing to the shepherds. We made angel ornaments to hang on our Christmas trees to remind us of the angels who proclaimed the good news that Jesus had been born. We, too, are called to proclaim the good news!

At the last prayer station, we prayed about what character(s) in the nativity scene we most identified with right now. Maybe it was the worried but joyous Mary or Joseph. Maybe it was the anxious and excited shepherds, making their way to see the baby who had been born. Maybe it was the magi who had journeyed far in order to see the holy family. Maybe it was the angels who were proclaiming the good news. Or maybe it was the animals who may have been wondering at the spectacle that was happening in their stable. After praying about it, each person was invited to color and write their name on that character and place it in the nativity scene, symbolically entering into the Christmas story themselves.

Throughout the prayer stations and experiences, we were able to dig a little deeper into the Christmas story and discover various ways of praying as we wait and prepare our hearts for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Advent Experience: Serving while Waiting

2010-12-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

For the second week of Advent in our series "the Advent Experience" we discussed the topic of "Serving while Waiting." We read Luke 1:26-38, the story of Mary hearing the message from the angel Gabriel that she would give birth to the son of God. Miraculously, Mary's last words to the angel are "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." Though Mary was "troubled" and most likely scared, surprised and maybe even doubtful, she accepted Gabriel's message from God and proclaimed her servanthood to the Lord most high! She was willing to do whatever God asked of her...even giving birth to God's son!

Last week we talked about waiting silently and listening to God's message and plans for us. This week, we realize through Mary's story, that God calls us to listen and serve others as we prepare for Christmas. We are called to love God and neighbor as we prepare for Christ's birth!

So, we watched the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas and talked about how the Whos in Whoville loved their neighbors and community so much that having all their Christmas presents, decorations and food stolen from them didn't stop them from celebrating and loving one another. In fact, they even loved the Grinch through his unkind acts and welcomed him into their community to feast and celebrate together. In discussion, we came up with many ways that we can be in service and show love to our neighbors this Christmas season: caroling, sharing food, providing warm clothes, visiting others, giving rather than receiving, and much much more.

To kick off our commitment to be in service while we wait this Advent season, we packed 100 bagged lunches to give to members of our community who come into our church seeking assistance. We also made cards to give to those receiving these meals, and we decorated Christmas cards to give to our nursing home residents. So, I want to know, what acts of service are you doing as you wait and prepare your heart for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ this year? Comment on this post with your answers!

High School Conference Retreat

2010-12-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at the high school conference retreat at Eagle Eyrie this weekend. We spent the weekend discovering how we are called to ONE: story, people, church and purpose! We worshipped, spent time in small groups, sang, played games, met some new friends and played in the snow! We hope more of you will join us next year for this awesome experience.

The Advent Experience: Waiting Quietly

2010-12-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

This week we began our new series "The Advent Experience". We began by discussing what the season of Advent is really all about, and how that differs from how society celebrates the Christmas season. The main focus of our new series will be the theme of waiting. We're not very good at waiting, are we? We live in a culture that is definitely not patient and is always looking for things to happen quickly and instantly. We have fast food, email, texting, internet on our phones, airplanes, even "fast passes" at theme parks which allow us to skip waiting in lines completely!

We aren't very good at slowing down either. We all filled out a "How I Use My Day" questionnaire and learned that very few of us have much spare time on our hands. We also realized that the majority of our day is noisy! Some of us even sleep with music or the TV on. So, we tackled the theme of "Waiting Quietly" this week. We watched the Nooma video entitled Noise and talked about how uncomfortable we often are with silence. We read 1 Kings 19:9-13, the story of the prophet Elijah and the still small voice. Elijah found God not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire...but in the whisper. Some translations say "in the sound of sheer silence." During this incredibly noisy time of the year, God calls us to wait quietly and listen for God in the silence. In response, we each wrote down one non-essential activity that we are spending our time on that we are prayerfully committing ourselves to spend less time on in order to spend more time with God. So, I want to know how that is going? What activity are you spending less time on (TV, video games, etc.)? How are you spending more time with God (praying, reading your Bible, devotions, etc.)? Comment on this post with your responses.

Join us next Sunday night at 7pm as we learn to "Serve while waiting."

"Drive-in" Movie

2010-11-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

Our FUSION Gathering "Drive-in" Movie night was a success! Thanks to the 19 youth who came out to make their own cars, eat cake and popcorn, and watch Finding Nemo. We had a blast! Check out the pictures below. See you all next Sunday as we begin our new series: "The Advent Experience". Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Drive-in Movie Night

2010-11-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

Dont' forget!!!

This Sunday, November 21st, is our "Drive-in" Movie night at FUSION Gathering from 7-8:30pm. Bring your creativity as we build our "cars" for the drive-in movie using various recycled materials. Prizes will be awarded for the best designs! Then sit back in your new "ride", grad some popcorn and enjoy the movie! By a youth vote on all the Pixar films, Finding Nemo, has won the title of our feature film! Don't forget to invite friends along.

Week 8: Family

2010-11-18T07:41:00.000-08:00

This week we discussed the virtue of family. Our chalk board reflections were to draw our family trees! We talked about the differences among our families, and the importance in knowing that we are all in God's family. We watched two clips from "Finding Nemo" showing how Marlin was very protective over Nemo, but throughout the movie learns that he must let go of Nemo and allow Nemo to experience things on his own. We then read Luke 15:11-32 (The Prodigal Son) and talked about the similarities and differences between characters in the parable and characters in "Finding Nemo". We explored how God is much like the father in Luke 15:11-32, always welcoming us back with open arms and ready to celebrate our return. So, in order to remember and celebrate the fact that God welcomes us home with celebration, we played a bunch of games since games are often a part of celebrating! One of the funniest was our game, Cereal Face Relay, in which youth had to stick their faces in a bowl of water and then into a bowl of cheerios in order to get the cereal to stick to their faces. Then they ran back and tried to get the cereal into their team's bowl without using their hands. Check out pictures below (and more on FUMC's facebook page). So I want to know, how have you celebrated being God's child this week? Comment on this post with your answers!

Week 7 Discussion: Love

2010-11-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

This week we looked at the virtue of love! We played a hilarious game (Honey if you love me, would you please just smile?) in which few were able to keep a straight face! We discussed the different Greek words used in the New Testament to describe love: eros, philia and agape. We took a look at the difference in how our culture views love and how God loves us and calls us to love others (1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 1 John 4:8-16, Romans 8:35-39). After reading Matthew 22:36-40, we used our new chalkboard wall to write and draw pictures of the ways we show our love for God, and the ways we love our neighbors. Then we put our love of God and neighbor into action and wrote agape letters for the Honduras mission team leaving this weekend. So, I want to know what you have done this week to show your love for God and neighbor. Comment on this post with your answers!

Reminder!

2010-10-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

Don't forget, we will not be meeting for Gathering this Sunday, October 31st!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Week 6 Discussion: Justice

2010-10-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

This week at FUSION Gathering, we discussed the virtue of JUSTICE! We looked as Scripture passages like Isaiah 1:16-17, Micah 6:8, Matthew 7:12 and Matthew 19:16-30. We talked about how God calls each of us to acts of justice though it may look different in each of our lives. We looked at clips from "A Bug's Life" where Flick, the main character, seeks justice for his ant colony. We talked about some of the similar injustices that are happening in our own world and how the churhc responds to them. One thing (among many) mentioned was Operation Christmas Child. So, together we spent the rest of our evening packing 50 shoeboxes for OCC and folding and preparing about 200 more boxes for others to pack! A group of us also went out earlier that day to the Southside SPCA and volunteered with their open house. Way to work for justice for ALL of God's creatures! I want to know what else you have been doing this week to seek justice? Comment on this post with your answers.

Week 5 Discussion: Adventure

2010-10-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

This week we explored the virtue of adventure! We took a look at a clip from "Up" and talked about how adventure is virtuous when we find ourselves trusting God and doing what we were called to do. We reviewed the adventures of Moses that we talked about last week, and then looked at the adventures of Jonah! Jonah went on his own adventure by not trusting and following God's calling to go to Ninevah and ended up being swallowed up by a big fish. When Jonah finally decided to trust God and do what God called him to do, the people in Ninevah listened to God's word that Jonah spoke to them and were saved from destruction! We took time to think about what adventures God may be calling us to today and in the future. I asked everyone to continue to pray and reflect on this question throughout this week. Comment on this post below with your reflections!

Then, we went on a little adventure of our own. Teams of three and four looked up clues found in Bible verses to lead them to various locations around the church where they found their next clue! Check out the pictures below of our adventures:

Week 4 Discussion: Courage

2010-10-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last night we took a look at the virtue of courage. We discussed that courage is the strength to overcome fear in order to do what is morally right. We looked at the story of Moses and Joshua in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. God told Moses that he would not be able to cross the Jordan River with the Israelites into the Promised Land. So, God called Joshua to be the next leader of the Israelite people and Joshua would be the one to lead them into the Promised Land. God continually told Moses, Joshua and the people to "Be strong and courageous" because God knew it would take courage to lead and face their enemies. Joshua had courage because he knew God would never leave him nor forsake him.

We looked at a clip from "Cars" where Lightening McQueen shows courage in sacrificing winning the race in order to help a friend. Then we looked at a clip from "The Incredibles" where Frozone, a superhero, is looking intently for his super suit in order to help the public from the danger of an enemy machine that is destroying the city just outside of his window. While we know we don't have superpowers, there are situations in our every day lives where we are called to be courageous. For example, standing up for a friend, standing up for our faith and beliefs, and having the courage to share God's love with someone else. For a fun activity, we created our own superheros and decided what their name would be, what powers they would have, how they showed courage and we created their very own super suit! Check out the pictures below:

Discussion question for this week: How have you been courageous this week? Comment on this post with your answers!

Week 3 Discussion: Humor

2010-09-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

This week we discussed that while we don't necessarily think of the Bible as humorous...humor that is virtuous is humor that is grounded in joy and delight that come from God! We talked about the ways in which humor can be destructive and cruel (making fun of others, hurting people's feelings, making someone an outcast). Ultimately, though, virtuous humor looks at laughing as a sign of joy and celebration! Just think about some of the Scripture we read:

Isaiah 55:12 "For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands!"

Psalm 32:11 "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart."

Ecclesiates 3:4 "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance."

So, I want to know: What has made you laugh this week? Comment on this post with your answers!