Hey Crossroads Families!

I'm writing this month's update on the back-side of Winter Retreat. We had an amazing time away and saw the Lord working in powerful ways:

 - Student and Leader relationships deepened. Students made new friends and connections that they'll return home with.

 - Students sought out prayer, honesty, and accountability, bringing darkness to light in Christ and in community.

We're thrilled to walk alongside students and point them to Jesus in every season! We know that our time away at Winter Retreat will pay off in big ways in our disciplemaking endeavors throughout the rest of the year!

As we look ahead, we're going to wrap up our Ephesians series since we had to cancel youth group due to snow a few weeks ago. Then on Feb 22 we're launching our new 4-week series, God, Guys, and Girls, a series about what God says about relationships, love, sex & dating.

Also, we're looking forward to Challenge Conference this July. Challenge is open to current high school students. Registration and information will be on the website and church app.

We love you all. Just a friendly reminder that all of our group leaders are here to walk alongside your students and families for prayer, support, and encouragement. Reach out to your student's small group leader if you ever need someone in your corner! We love partnering with you!

 - Pastor Rich

Parents,

There are several key topics we believe we need to walk through with students on a regular basis. One such topic is challenging students to navigate relationships and sexuality in a way that honors God. The reality is that the world around us is presenting (and even promoting) a message that you are defined by your relational and sexual pursuits. It’s something we HAVE TO be talking about at home and in the church. So we are going to do just that from Feb 22-Mar 15. “God, Guys & Girls” is a four-week series on relationships, love, sex, and dating.

As we have prayed, processed, and prepared for this series, there have been three very important goals we are keeping in mind:

1. We want to take a holistic approach. The temptation is to oversimplify this topic with teens by saying, “Don’t have sex ‘til you’re married.” In the process, we brush over the significant layers that are present developmentally as well as societally with unlimited internet access in the palm of a student’s hand. The message has to push toward pursuing sexual integrity in all areas of our lives and in the strength and grace of Jesus as we walk through a sexually broken world.
   
   
2. We want to remain age-appropriate in our content. We had multiple conversations with parents to get a feel where we should and should not go in the conversation. The reality is that this becomes tricky with varying ages in the room and varying convictions and preferences of different homes. Here are a few clarifying points.
   • This series IS NOT a “sex ed. course.” We will not be getting into biology and/or mechanics.
   • This series IS a “theological course” on God’s design and desire for sex and relationships.
   • If we were to put a rating on this series, we would give it a light PG-13 rating. Content will be presented in a straightforward, but God-honoring way.
     
     
3. We want to set parents up to win. We want our conversations to be something that can create further conversation in the home. We also want parents to make the call on what level they will be engaging in this series based on where they discern their students to be in this conversation. Here are several things we will be doing to help you along the way:
   • This newsletter is our first step by giving overview of where we are heading. Check below for a week-by-week breakdown explaining our topics.
   • The parent weekly update that you receive on Friday gives a little more detailed direction on where we are heading that week.
   • As always, students will have note pages and our messages are uploaded to our YouTube channel so you can see what we're discussing each week.
4. We want to see students get in God’s Word. In conjunction with this series we will be inviting students to go on a 28 day devotional journey. “God’s Word on Love” [DOWNLOAD HERE] is a journey through 28 different verses or short sections of scripture that are focused on love. We will be inviting students to to dive into these daily devotionals as we walk through this series.

Please join us in prayer as we go on this journey together. We trust that this will not only prove to be a valuable series, but that we will students more excited than ever to wholeheartedly pursue a relationship with Jesus above all else.

We Love Partnering with you,

 - Pastor Rich

Check our these PARENT GUIDES, courtesy of Axis. Axis provides some amazing (and always updated and relevant) resources for parents. These 3 conversation guides connect to our series about love, sex, and dating.

A PARENT'S GUIDE TO TEEN DATING

KICKING OFF THE SEX TALK: SIX CONVERSATIONS

TALKING TO YOUR TEEN ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY

Need to contact a small group leader? Here are the phone numbers for each small group leader at Dive for this school year. If you have prayer requests, need encouragement, or just want to talk to a friendly person, they're here to help! 

 

JR HIGH (7th and 8th Grade)

Anna Lawrence - (260) 209-0103

Breanna Morrow - (574) 767-0649 [new number]

Claire Carnes - (574) 952-1517

Darren Demis - (574) 315-0091

Zach Pickens - (574) 835-5881

 

HIGH SCHOOL LEADERS (9th-12th grade)

Blaine Jenney - (574) 780-7679

Darci Nifong - (574) 316-2107

Kem Myers - (574) 780-6041

Jesse Huerta - (574) 780-7630

Liz Collins - (574) 952-3780 

Michael Wagner - (574) 209-9283

Rich Gamble - (574) 540-6736

Roger Krynock - (317) 697-7746

Zach Dean - (219) 730-9273