This past Sunday (Oct 2), I spent my afternoon wearing a crazy costume, and hauling a couch all over Omaha. Approximately 200 students, 35 teams participated in the annual Couch-O-Rama event. I thought my teams costume was pretty fantastic, however I was blown away when I saw the creativity of the other teams. We had cows, potatoes, footy pajamas, and princess costumes. One of my favorites was Amy Gerhart’s group; they dressed up as the Duggar girls.

When the scavenger hunt officially began, it was mad dash to the door. I’m surprised that no one got injured in all the excitement. My team ran for our truck and scanned the list of locations. Alex Ehly definitely came up with some interesting ideas. For example, take a picture with a donkey, with two female police officers, with Mayor Suttle, and with a life size cut out of the one and only Justin Bieber. Our strategy for attacking this list was to start out west, and head back towards the church. Having Amy Anderson as our leader, we of course had to get a picture with her bulldog, Bruce. We also found ourselves at a cornfield, Village Pointe, Bennington High, on a trampoline, etc. Hauling a couch in and out of the truck was definitely exhausting, but we captured some great pictures and had a blast!

During that whole action packed day, what astounded me the most was the number of students who participated. Couch is a fun event where students can grow closer to their fellow journey group members. The purpose of Couch-O-Rama is also to expand our journey groups, and embrace new students into the community. I believe we accomplished this, because there were many new faces that day. I encourage those of you who invited friends to keep investing in their lives. That ultimately is the goal of Couch-O-Rama, inviting our friends, and opening the door to Jesus.

-Tabitha Barth

(Senior in the CCC HSM)

Series Overview

A Creed is defined as a set of beliefs that guides someone’s actions. The fall 2011 Creed series is all about God the Father and Jesus Christ. This series will take us much deeper than a focus on behavior modification, because when we begin to understand the why behind the actions, it helps us develop those actions with greater passion. We’ll discuss what we believe, and then give opportunity to apply it to the world we live in.

Session One: God is… (October 2)

There are many views about God out there – and even though many in our world would suggest they are all valid, this logically cannot be true. Even many Christians are confused about who God really is. We’ll kick off the Creed series by taking a good look at who God is according to the Bible.

Session Two: God is not… (October 9)

A lot of people view God as a distant but all powerful being. This God is there to give them what they want, when they want it, and then to hang out waiting for us to ask him for something else the next time we need it. It is possible that God is active and present in our everyday lives, and that he wants more from us than just to talk to him when we need something? Could God really want a relationship with us; and more?

Session Three: Jesus: Fully God (October 16)

There really is not much debate about the historical fact that Jesus existed as a man, but what about the claim people try to make about Him being God? Did Jesus Himself even claim to be God? If so, how could He possibly prove it? And honestly, what difference does it make anyway? This week we will examine the evidence that Jesus is really who He claimed to be… God

Session Four: Jesus: Fully Man (October 23)

It’s amazing to think that we have a God who became a man. Over 2000 years ago, Jesus entered the scene on planet earth. He became flesh and lived, moved, and breathed among us. He walked in our shoes, dealt with temptation, was rejected and ridiculed, and unjustly accused. So, what does this mean for us in our relationship with God? Does it change the way we relate to our Maker & Creator?

Series Overview

Evangelism. Just the word alone conjures up a multitude of images—and most of them make students squirm. But sharing the Good News of Jesus doesn’t have to be pulpit pounding or televangelist cheesy. In this three-week series, we will get a practical handle on three ways we can be a testament to spread God’s love. The word on the street is that God loves us all. This series will hopefully make it easier for us to get out there and spread the Good News.

Session 1 – Making Noise With Your Friendships (Sept. 11)

Our peers are often the most difficult group of people to reach with the Gospel message. It’s intimidating and sometimes our fears get the best of us. What if I don’t know what to say? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I lose friends? What will they think of me? It seems easier to stay in the safe zone & not say anything at all. But, what if God has called us to something greater? The truth is God doesn’t want us to leave our friends in the dark. We are His plan for reaching them. This week, we’ll tackle some practical ways to share with friends the greatest news in all the world.

Session Two – Making Noise With Your Lifestyle (Sept. 18)

God has called his followers to be salt and light; that our lives would look so radically from the world that people are drawn to Jesus. But statistics tell us that most Christians live no differently than those who do not have a faith in Jesus Christ. In week 2 of the series, we’ll discuss the importance of living a changed life, and helping students ask if they want to live a life that seeks the attention of others to honor themselves, or if they want to live a life that grabs the attention of others while seeking to honor God.

Session Three – Making Noise With You Words (Sept. 25)

Scientists say on average, we all speak about 16,000 words each and every day. It’s obvious that we all understand how to have conversations, but why does that all of the sudden change when it comes to Spiritual matters? Why do we clam up and think we have to give a mind-blowing presentation when we share our faith with others? This week we will dive into the reality that conversions take place through conversations and not presentations.

Series overview

We’re kicking off the fall with a series called One – which is all about community and the importance of growing in our walk with God in relationship with others. During the series, we’ll be emphasizing Journey Groups and the importance for us to be around people who are challenging us to follow God more closely. We’ll also be using these weeks to share the vision and plan God has for the future of High School Ministry!

Session One: John 17:20-23 (August 21)

We’ll kick off the series by looking at Jesus’ prayer in John 17. We’ll ask each person to consider – where do you participate in Biblical community? And, we’ll take a deeper look at the John 17 passage, unpacking the context of what’s going on there and discussing what unity is.

Session Two: John 17:20-23 (August 28)

What is the goal of community? Some have taken it too far and made their lives all about creating safe Christian bubbles and separating themselves from the world. Others have immersed themselves in the world so much that they are impossible to distinguish from everyone else. According to John 17, some amazing things happen in the world when Christians are unified. In week 2, we’ll dive deeper into this passage to discover the end results of community.

Session Three: Acts 2 (September 4)

In Acts 2, we have probably the best picture of community the world has ever seen. But, can we really sell all of our possessions and give to others? How much time do we have to give to building community? Is what we give up to experience community worth it? We’ll wrap up this series by looking at the Acts 2 picture of community and discussing what that can look like in 2011.

If we learned anything down at Compass during the week of our Compass Missions experience (July 10-15), I think it would have to be to show love under any circumstance and to especially show God’s love. Self dubbed, team South Fort Millard definitely showed an immense amount of God’s love to the kids down at Compass, but we also shared it with each other. As a part of the team I felt like God put the exact right people in the group, not all of us knew each other super well, so it was great to get to know people and grow close throughout the week. Of course the first bus ride down was kind of interesting, trying to get to know each others names, where we went to school, and any other facts but by the night we were playing games and laughing, which was done pretty much every night. God definitely blessed us this last week with the group we were in.. We learned to pray for each others circumstances, and how God has been working in our lives, and when needed, we would encourage each other about the kids.

From the very first night, the kids changed my life. It seemed to be that throughout the entire week the little things that they said about their community would just shock me, but to them it was “normal”. This trip showed me how small the issues we go through are, compared to other people, and it put a lot into perspective. With that, some of the kids who seemed to be going through the hardest circumstances had the most amazing hearts for Christ. You could just tell that some of them wanted to learn more about Christ, and even if there were kids who didn’t, they still showed up and were hearing it. It was amazing to see God working through us to teach the kids, but I feel that God taught me more through the kids then I taught them.

Through the week we also were taught Spiritual Disciplines by Miss Jenny every morning. Spiritual Disciplines were definitely a challenge. Half the week we would sit in silence allowing God to speak into our lives, or we would pray with scripture, and on the last day we did a really cool exercise that pretty much entailed giving something up to Christ and then having a conversation with Him. We would always share what we saw and I think that also taught me a lot about how Christ works in people’s lives and how differently He works in others lives.

Through Spiritual Disciplines, nightly group devotionals, cooking dinner for each other, playing lots of games at night like Life and Star Wars Monopoly, scheduling showers for 12 people and with only one shower available, swimming at Mahoney, lots of frisbee, a craze of four square, and definitely through the kids, South Fort Millard grew close, and learned a lot about love through Christ. It was an amazing week, and we were all impacted so greatly by Christ, and we were all so blessed.

-Jen Kelly (CCC High School Ministry Student)

Earlier this month 58 students and 11 adults from the CCC HS ministry traveled to San Jose Costa Rica for a mission trip. It’s hard to put into words all that God did during our time there. We were stretched and challenged to step out in faith. We heard God’s voice in new and fresh ways. We were broken & repentant. We learned to be flexible when God’s plan was different than our own. We experienced authentic community. We met amazing people. We saw the world through a new lens. We were still and quiet. We were bold and courageous. We made new friends. We were humbled. We laughed together….a lot. We cried together too. We learned to depend on Jesus. It’s an experience we will never forget. Here are a few highlights…

We didn’t sleep much on our overnight flight to Costa Rica, but on Monday June 13^th we arrived at the San Jose airport & we were ready to go!

That first evening, we gathered at one of our host churches for a big welcome ceremony! It began with dancing and ended with dancing. There was a sense of anticipation and excitement. What would God do this week?

Ministry began on Tuesday and continued throughout the week. We visited schools where we played, shared testimonies, sang songs, performed dramas, and built relationships.

Every morning we spent time in God’s Word. It was refreshing to start out each day before the Lord.

We shared the Gospel.

These are three girls who gave their lives to Jesus!

Each afternoon we went out into the neighborhoods & asked the Lord to give us ministry opportunities. We walked and prayed. Stopped and prayed. And ministered to the people we met.

And even had time to round everyone up for a group picture at the volcano we visited.

On Tuesday we spent six hours working in Missouri Valley! It was a great experience working with other people from Christ Community and helping with the flood prevention. We could already see the sandbags being put to use around the town. Please pray that the people would be safe from the floods, and that God would bring hope into any brokeness or pain that emerges.

-Andrew Juliot (CCC Student)

For more info on CCC’s efforts in Missouri Valley check out:

http://ramhatter.blogspot.com/2011/06/missouri-valley-flood-response-efforts.html

Series Overview

Everyone may not play a sport, be in the band, or take ballet, but we have all played a board game. In this series we will pull out a few classic board games and discover how they teach us about our language, personal life, & understanding of forgiveness.

Scrabble (June 5)
Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. We have all heard these words and sang their jingle. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. This week we will look into the words that we use & the power behind them.

Senior Sunday (June 12)
It’s our seniors’ last day in RUSHhour! Let’s celebrate our seniors & send them off well. We will share stories, hear from a few of our graduates, give out awards, & pray for each of them as they transition to a new season of life.

Pancakes & Prayer (June 19)
There is no formal RUSHhour this morning due to the Costa Rica trip, but you can still come to the student center @ 9am for pancakes, prayer, & some hang out time. The cafe will be open!

Perfection (June 26 )
What makes Perfection a great game is that it’s so addicting. You can’t win unless you are perfect! And don’t we often feel like this in life? Unless we live a life of perfection, we’ll always end up on the losing end. The truth is, we are all imperfect people. So, what do we do when we fall short? Is there hope for people who miss the mark?

Operation (July 3 )
Doctors often use a surgical procedure to treat some sort of injury or deformity, and remove/replace a diseased organ or tissue. In the same way, when we look into our own lives we sometimes find injuries, wounds, & things that need to be replaced or removed altogether. In order to restore our hearts back to a healthy place, we have to perform surgery. This week we’ll take a good look at ourselves, others, & God. What things remain in our lives that need to be surgically removed? Do we need an operation?

The morning looked a little different. Energetic teenagers greeted people at the door. Big pictures showcasing student ministry were on display in the atrium. Students played instruments & sang in the choir. They gave out bulletins & passed the offering plates. Graduating seniors were honored & mission trip participants were commissioned. The announcements were communicated in a rap & a unique guitar solo followed some powerful stories. On Sunday, May 15th the students took over.

One thing is for sure…God’s heart passionately beats for teenagers, a young generation of people who have the potential to change the world. They are an important part of the body of Christ & God is writing some great stories through them. Some are reaching their non-Christians friends at the lunch table. Some are following a call to the mission field. Some are earnestly praying for their peers. And some are making the simple choice to follow Jesus.

We are so proud of our students, but this doesn’t mean the road is easy. Our world is enticing & full of temptations & stumbling blocks. There is an all out spiritual battle for the hearts of young people. Because of this, we are grateful for the many parents & student ministry leaders who are praying hard, walking with teenagers, loving them well & pointing them to Jesus.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Series Overview

Ask a group of people what they think about teenagers and a word you’ll hear is rebellion. It’s actually very good to be rebellious; the key is to rebel against the right things. In this series, we’ll discuss some of the right things to rebel against, what Scripture has to say about these issues, and practical ways we can live the rebellion in a world where it’s sometimes very difficult to do so.

Session One: Social Media (May 1)

The social media phenomenon is changing our world. With over 500 million members, the Facebook nation is the world’s 3^rd largest country. And although social media has many benefits, there are some dangers too. We’ll kick off the series by discussing some of those dangers and how to live in a world where we can effectively use social media while at the same time rebelling against the negative aspects of social media.

Session Two: Technology (May 8 )

We live in a culture that is “wired-in” 24/7. Whether it’s internet, television, YouTube, texting, gaming, Twitter, email, or Facebook, we have direct access to about anything in our world. Technology isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can easily consume our lives & affect our relationships with others & God if abused. This week we’ll look at the importance of silence & solitude in a technology driven culture. Jesus needed time away to connect with the Father & so do we.

Student Takeover (May 15) – NO RUSHhour

Session Three: Identity (May 22)

In a world of instant status updates, profile pictures, and “about me” columns, we are always trying to put our best foot forward. It seems identity is often found in a GPA, relationship status, scholarship, mirror or bank account. The reality is, all of these things can never complete us and we need to find our identity in something much bigger. So, perhaps a full out rebellion against cultural norms is what it’s going to take to claim our true identity.

Session Four: Narrow Path (May 29)

Possibly the most controversial Christian belief is that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and a relationship with God. Our world values tolerance over truth and a popular beliefs are that eventually everyone will receive salvation and that all religious roads lead to the same destination. After all, would a loving God really send someone to hell? During the final week of this series, we’ll discuss what Jesus says about wide and narrow paths and how to follow that path on an everyday basis.