Sign Summer Camp Letter to Parents Made Easy

Sign summer camp letter to parents

hey thanks for joining us for our middle school ministry from mount pleasant christian church my name is mike sheeley i'm the middle school pastor i'll be your host today uh remember that we give you a way to interact to answer questions to share prayer concerns uh to comment on what's going on the lesson through a thing called minga you can find it at app.minga.io i'm going to ask for invite code and the letters ulpo we're in the fourth week of a series called habits all about learning ways to help us learn more about jesus and live more like him today instead of just reviewing what we've done the first three weeks we're going to give you a little challenge so you you can grab a piece of paper you can just say out loud we're going to do some different fill in the blank questions from the last three weeks of this series and see how much you remember and maybe how much you might need to review so here we go these are all fill in the blank first one from week one blank out with jesus what was week one do you remember that would be hanging out with jesus okay number two spending time with jesus helps you blank what matters most to him do you remember it helps you see what matters most to him so spending time with jesus helps you see what most what matters most to him and hopefully you're working on your four month or four week reading plan there number three spending time with jesus what you hopefully spending time with jesus changes you helps you become more like jesus all right number four spending time with jesus can happen blank anywhere remember we talked about the best time and the best place and we say it could happen anytime anywhere when you want to hang out with jesus this is the four what reading plan how long will it take you to read through all four biographies of jesus in the bible using this plan some of you may be using it the four month reading plan and this one you're reading a lot more per day this is the four week reading plan all right halfway there here we go week two let's see how much you remember from week two that uh we reminded you that when you go to app.manga.io and ask for invite code you enter what i just said it a few minutes ago it's the four letters ulpo once you do that once you're in you don't have to do it again and our second week of this series the a in habits stands for blank church that would be attending church all right okay next one we said church helps you stand stronger blank others what would that have been do you remember that would be with church helps you stand stronger with others all right number 10 when you go to church go blank in we say don't just come and sit in the seat and take up space we want you to go and go all in to get actively involved to participate in church and then finally we said blank is the reason we go what's the most important reason we go to church or who it's jesus jesus is the reason we go all right and we challenge you and said if you just go to church if you participate online just occasionally to try making a commitment to do it once a month if you already do it once a month to try to double that and do it twice a month and if you already do it twice a month try to make it to three times where it's almost an every week thing for you and if that's your habit to try to pick it up and do it where you are going every week which is a normal habit that you're a part of church whether you're online or in person okay week three last week we talked about this habit being what the b inhabits was being but this was the key word generous generosity is what we talked about we should start with the right heart and has to do with your mind it's the attitude the right heart and attitude then we said to practice being maybe too easy generous practice being generous if you don't do it you're not really generous just to talk about it and then we said keep blank and giving and giving yes the words on the screen twice already keep giving and giving and giving all right and then we really challenged you to say man if each one of our students gave a dollar in the offering for themselves you could be a part of this ministry of art church which changes people's lives by giving somewhere around three to four thousand dollars every week to help people in need that's called change for a dollar all right that was our review see how you did keep track of that each week we're going to add some more questions on there it won't be the same we'll be checking back in to see how much you're a member of these habits and how you're doing hopefully you're doing pretty well in your four month or four week reading plan getting to know jesus better if not you can always download it and pick it up mpcc5678.com slash habits has a bunch of resources we're adding to it every week okay we are uh diving into today the i inhabits investing in healthy friendships we're going to look in the old testament book of ecclesiastes written by one of the wisest men to ever live named solomon it's some weird things he has to say that speak right to us about friendship today so dive in with me ecclesiastes 4 verses 9 through 12. he says two people are better off than one for they can help each other succeed if one person falls the other can reach out and help but someone who falls alone is in real trouble likewise two people lying close together can keep each other warm but how can one be warm alone a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated but two can stand back to back and conquer three are even better for a triple braided cord is not easily broken let's talk about investing in healthy friendships we're going to learn from what selma had to say there in ecclesiastes and the first thing is to spend time together if you've got a healthy friendship you're investing in them whether you're hanging out in person or you're talking through video chat or zoom or however you're connecting you need to spend time with that person to have a healthy real friendship so here's some questions to think about some of these you can answer on minga some you can journal or process on your own what are three things you appreciate about your closest friends if i were to ask you what do you like most about your friends what would be your top three answers and then here's a side question have you told them that have you just said hey you know what i really appreciate that you are this or thank you for being this as my friend second question what are some specific ways you do or can spend time with friends that draws both of you or all of you closer to jesus some of you are participating in the online bible reading plan together some of you were doing our four month or four week plans together some of you are involved in our small groups on sunday night what are some ways you can spend time with friends that draws both of you closer to jesus spending time together big deal number two protect and defend each other at the bottom there we've got symbols for a football helmet and basketball both those sports you play defense you defend you protect your team there's almost a family-like feeling there that's we're supposed to have in a healthy friendship so we said here's a question for you this passage talks about how trusted friends protect each other and have each other's back describe how you have experienced this when's the time that someone else had your back or you stood up for somebody else because you wanted to protect them and stand up for them maybe when somebody else was attacking them in a healthy friendship we do that for each other and then what sacrifices have you made for your friends and what sacrifices have they made for you what have you given up to help somebody else is what has somebody else given up to help you in a friendship we put each other first in a healthy friendship that's what we want you to be focused on investing in with this habit this week so third thing pick each other back up know what's perfect everybody struggles and has hard times but in a healthy friendship we're there for each other not just when things are good but also when things are hard how your friends helped you during the roughest times in your life when you have had a problem with your family when you have had a problem with your team when you've had a problem in school when you just have had some problems how have your friends helped you during those times and then how are your friendships helping you get closer to jesus or become more like jesus healthy friends are there to point out what you're doing wrong healthy friends are there to help you do what's right so how are your friends helping you become more like jesus remember healthy friends pick each other back up uh proverbs is a book that solomon also wrote it's a collection of a bunch of short pieces of wisdom we're gonna go through these real quick and look at a few key principles that apply to healthy friendships he says walk with the wise in proverbs 13 20 and become wise associate with fools and get into trouble this one's pretty simple if you've got friends who are wise to help you make wise choices that's going to be good for you if you have friends that are foolish and make foolish choices that's going to get you in trouble so kind of keep that in mind you hang out with it probably 17 17 he says a friend is always loyal and a brother is born to help in time of need family is there for us because they're related to us but a real friend is loyal to you and helps you even when you've messed up even when things are hard in proverbs 20 18 he says plans succeed through good counsel don't go to war without wise advice do you have the kind of friends that give you helpful advice in life and do you offer them advice we sometimes need somebody else's perspective to help us do what's wise that's where your healthy friends can come in proverbs 27 5-6 this is kind of weird but stick with me he says an open rebuke is better than hidden love wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy don't get caught up on the kisses part but here's the deal people who don't really care about us will tell us nice things to our face if they benefit or if it avoids having a hard conversation with us but a friend will actually speak the truth to us and help us out saying the hard things because they truly care about us is that the kind of friendship you have is that the kind of friend that you are you want to look at both of those as we invest in healthy friendships and then proverbs 27 17 says as iron sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend i don't know if you've ever seen or sharpened a knife blade but when a knife blade is sharpened it usually is run against a stone and that hard surface grates up and that friction actually sharpens the blade and creates a sharp edge when we've got friends sometimes we're going to argue sometimes we're going to disagree but we rub off on each other and make each other stronger and healthier and a healthy friendship that helps us be closer together doesn't push us apart here's a question for you as we begin to wrap up for today what are some ways a friendship between two followers of jesus might be different from two people who aren't christians so for if two people are following jesus what would be different in their friendship than two people who aren't we've got a special card and if it's if you're watching this it may or may not be up yet working on getting it online we had a few technical issues but it's this friendship card you can do this with index card or when it's available you can download out um it just says friends getting to know and are following jesus and gives you two lines there for you to write down the name of two people that are friends of yours that are following jesus whether they're at our church or somewhere else there's some friends that you know are trying to get to know jesus better and on the right it says friends who don't know jesus yet and that's two friends you know who don't know jesus yet we want you to think about both these sets of friends as you invest in healthy friendships are you spending time with them are you protecting and defending them are you helping pick them up when we fall are they doing the same for you and then for the friends who are christians pray for them and with them to help you get to know and follow jesus better and for those who aren't pray for opportunities to talk about him in your conversation that you might be the one that gets to introduce them to jesus how cool would that be and if you're interested in that we've got a cool event coming up in april called double dog darathon it's back it's going to be a little different than last year and maybe even improved so to stick around for some more information coming soon about that we want you this week to work on investing in healthy friendships we hope you're spending time with jesus we hope you're making church a priority we hope you're learning how to be generous but we know you've got friends and we hope that you're investing in healthy friends and that you're being a healthy friend yourself we've got all these different habits we're working on the resources are available at mpcc5678.com slash habits where you can find out those resources let me pray for you today as we wrap things up god thank you for giving us friends in our lives both those who help us get to know you better and those we can share you with this week help these students and myself help these leaders who are watching these parents that we would invest in healthy friendships and that we would ourselves be healthy friends thank you for the wisdom from solomon help us to follow his advice and to live that out in our lives amen hey as we wrap things up today there's that site again mpcc5670.com habits where you can find those resources there's the manga page with the code where you can join and be a part of what's going on we thank you so much for being with our ministry today if you are interested in our summer events if you're a sixth or seventh grader as of today january 24th i only have five spots left for mix so you want to check that out as soon as you can you can find that out at mpcc578.com mix if you're an eighth grader registration opens up for your move summer conference on february 1st so be sure your parents would check their inbox they should have an email from me and some information from a high school pastor matt pineda about that and if you're a fifth grader or a fourth grader watching this your summer camp opens march 3rd for registration and we'll have more information for you next month that's it for us today hope you have a great week investing in healthy friendships and we'll see you next time