Hey Guys! We're not able to have a whole newsletter this month, but Bonnie and Meagan have an article that they want to share with you even though the whole newletter isn't coming. Please take some time to read this and let them know what you think.

Hello Readers!
It's me Bonnie, this time. I am going to spend the next few minutes talking through a movie quote and using God's Word, to discern with. So as many a director has said:
Lights!
Camera!
Action!
"But it is not who you are on the inside, but what you do that defines you," said by Rachel in Batman Begins 2005.
Is it true? Are you really defined by your actions or does the inside define you? Let's look at the Bible. In Matthew 5:16, God said, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds. Now be careful: good deeds can't buy your salvation, but it verifies your salvation. It gives people proof. Without any fruit or by showing bad fruit, people will not see a clear and strong testimony for Christ.
But that doesn't mean that the inside doesn't define you either. God told Samuel, in 1 Samuel 16:7, But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." So while, we humans look at the outside, God looks into the heart.
So, I think this quote is partially both right. God looks for good works, as proof of your Christianity, but he also looks at the heart. Our hearts and our actions should be the same. So, there shouldn't be one or the other.

Next Month's Topic:

"With great power, comes great responsibility."
Uncle Ben
Spiderman (2003)

Response to last month's article:

"Mere action cannot wholly define who we are on the outside."
Chad Evans

Paintball Details

So, it was a beautiful, partly cloudy, and fairly windy day last Saturday and many of you who signed up to go play paintball were wondering what in the world I was thinking when I decided that we should go another day. Of course I know that you should never trust weather forecasts, but I did. I saw that it was supposed to rain all day Saturday, so instead of getting drenched, I thought we should wait. I found out that it was actually a good decision, even though it didn't rain. The rain from Friday had flooded the fields and you couldn't even go down the road all the way to the field.

Anyway, we have a date already scheduled to go again. I am planning for us to go on December 13. The cost will be the same. If you paid and can't go that day, I will pay you back. If you couldn't go last week, but you want to go on Dec. 13, sign up and pay. There are more spots available. I need to know quickly because I may open it up to other people so we can get the group rate that we need. Hope you can come. Here are some of the details, in case you forgot.

Where: VitalPaintball (check 'em out at vitalpaintball.com)
When: December 13--9am 'til 4pm
How Much: $35 (includes marker--thats the gun for those who are unfamiliar with the paintball lingo, mask, tank, all-day-air, lunch, and 500 paintballs), also bring either a bag of chips, a bottle of soda, or some kind of dessert. If you think that you'll need more paintballs, which you probably will, they will be $2 for 100.

If you have other questions, call me (336.972.6562) or email me (pastordash@gmail.com)

Invest Yourself

Last Wednesday night, I talked to the youth group about considering what you are doing with your time this Summer. My suggestion came because of a new book that I bought, Do Hard Things. This book is written by two teenagers. They didn't write it to youth pastors or to adults in general; they wrote it to teens. They think that our culture expects to little from teens. They say that you have way more potential than you are using.

I think that the teenagers in our youth group are somewhat of an exception to this. I think that you do lots of things that are above the normal expectations. We have 13 that are going to Mexico City to spend 9 days investing themselves in the lives of others; we have another group who is going to spend a week investing themselves in our own community during T.E.A.M. '08; we have several individuals who spend time investing themselves in other ways (i.e. Nursery, Children's Church, Wednesday night dinners, etc.). However, even though we are doing more than the average teenager might be doing, are you living up to your potential? Only you (and God) truly know what your potential is. You have to be honest with yourself about what you are doing.

I'm not saying that you should be spending every waking moment this summer volunteering at the Rescue Mission. You need time to relax this summer. You have another year of school coming before you know it. What I'm suggesting is that you consider your time valuable and invest some of it in something that will last. Pretend with me that time is money...nobody saves every penny they have, nobody invests every penny they have in the stock market, everybody spends some money on things they need and everybody spends some money on things they want. Every normal person blows some money every now and then, but wise people limit how much money they blow and consider how much they can invest.

When you get to the end of the summer, I hope you have done something worth remembering. Don't get to the end of the summer and only have memories of sleeping all day or playing video games all day or something like that. Do something worth remembering!

If you are interested in investing yourself somehow but you don't know what to do, talk to me. I have some ideas of ways that we could make a difference in our community, but it takes some initiative on your part. I want to help you...come talk to me.

We need your ideas!

As Danny and Kishon put together the plans for your Video Scavenger Hunt (April 14 from 4:00-7:00), they need ideas of stuff to do.

Feel free to be extreme...think big, think small, think crazy, but please keep it legal. (Our attorneys will review our schedule ahead of time)

Examples from last time:

• Human Pyramid in front of the downtown water fountains


• Do the Hokie Pokie while dressed as a fireman (bonus points if a real fireman does the Hokie Pokie with you)

Now that you have the basic idea, come up with your own ideas.

Leave your ideas by clicking "comments" below.

Youth Announcements

March 2-3 - Ski Retreat

March 3 - Mother/Daughter Brunch

• Cookie Lee Jewelry Show
• See Jill Clinard for Details

March 18th - Combined Fireside (Teen Room)

March 23-24 - Jr. High Retreat

• Cost: Only $5.00
• Sign up by March 14th

March 29-30 - PBC Spring Fling

If you want pictures of any youth events (from any year) please bring a blank CD-R to the Teen Room and Chris can help you download/burn anything you would like.

Birthdays

In March
12 Heather Ronk
13 Shawn Church
30 Dexter Kirby


(Have I missed your Birthday? Please leave me a comment with the date.)

Lent? Mardi Gras?

About this time last year, one of you asked, "Should we practice Lent?" I thought it would be fitting to revisit the question this week:

From everything I read Lent is a Catholic-based "ritual." In simple terms, it's a time set apart to "prepare ourselves" for the Resurrection (Easter) season. Sounds like a great idea…right? Well, consider the following.

• Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) that was just celebrated this week is the traditional “live it up” time before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent). The idea here is to sin all you can before you spend the next 40 days repenting. New Orleans officials actually clear the streets on Tuesday (prior to Midnight) to ensure proper respect for the beginning of this “sacred” event we call Lent.


• The following is a quote from a City of New Orleans website: “The observance of "Carnival" (aka Mardi Gras)…was a time preceding Lent when participants delivered themselves up to voluntary madness, put on masks, clothed themselves like specters, gave themselves up to Bacchus and Venus and considered all pleasure allowable. The name carnival is derived from the Latin carnis and vale, ‘farewell to the flesh’, because at that time people took leave of flesh. The carnival of the modern world is nothing more or less than the [tradition] of the Christian Romans who could not forget their pagan festivals.”


• The Catholic church instituted Lent and often claims that our “Apostolic church fathers” practiced this period of “fasting and repentance.” Most historians disagree with this conclusion.

Where am I going with all of these random facts? Hopefully you see the connection between a man-made “holy” event and the fleshly outworking of its Pharisaical observance. Does this mean holidays are bad? Certainly not. However, when any day is mandated by humans (no Scriptural support) as sacred with strict rules and guidelines, have we not reverted back to the days of the Pharisees? What we see happening at Mardi Gras is exactly what happens every time legalistic ritual becomes the focus in place of the sufficient Scriptures themselves.

Is it unbiblical to practice fasting and repentance? Obviously not. Is the time before Resurrection Sunday a great time to prepare yourself and examine the heart? Absolutely.

BUT, please be careful to not just “go through the motions” because it’s Lent. That’s like saying “I’m going to pray today because it’s the National Day of Prayer.” The special time may be a reminder, but it’s not the reason! Be careful to avoid following the teachings of an apostate church and the “traditions of men.” Be careful not to violate Jesus’ guidelines of fasting and worship (Matt. 6:16-18). Be careful not to judge someone too harshly based on their decision on Lent (Romans 14:1-6).

If it sounds like I'm avoiding a definite answer to the question, rest assured that it is my intention to do so. Now, you tell me…should we practice Lent?

Pray For Our Missionaries

Have you ever realized just how blessed we are at Salem to have so many missionaries in our church family. Now think about how many have been directly involved in our youth group. Deon and Julie Parker, John Wilburn, David and Megan Guevara, Smoothie and Michelle Bolin (MTB - missionaries to be), Kathryn Hesman, Matt and Lindsey Burkholder, and Adam and Faith Drake (MTB) just to name a few.

We've been truly blessed to get to know these "front liners." I encourage each of you to make time, at least once a week, to pray specifically for these missionaries. (please remind me of any I've left off our list)


Click the pictures to visit these missionaries online...and drop them a note of encouragement! By the way, the ones with websites have a link in the right margin of this page.

Dear Teens,

Just a brief note to thank you again for your willingness to give up your Saturday morning to serve Him and us by raking our yard. This was very thoughtful of you.

Love in Christ,
The Allreds

_

Dear Teens,

We have a large yard and many trees, and I was really concerned as to how Gordon would ever be able to take care of all the leaves this year. I prayed about this, and then, when our loving Father did "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," I was so surprised. Many, many thanks to the wonderful young people and several adults for doing such a great job of cleaning up our entire yard. These individuals certainly had a tremendous ministry in doing this. We thank each of them for their kindness to us, and we know God will bless them for their faithfulness in serving Him in this caring way.

Betty & Gordon Smith

From Ken Moon

I can't begin to tell you what a blessing your team was to all of us at Missionary Acres and Evangel Baptist Church. What a tremendous week we had together. What a thrill to hear how the Lord worked in the lives of the teens and their leaders. Thank you for sharing this with me.

About three weeks ago, I met a missionary named, Carol Mason, who was visiting her son at Piedmont Baptist College the weekend the team gave their report. She was in the service that night and relayed to me how blessed and impressed she was to hear the teens get up and give testimonies to the way God worked during thier visit here. What a blessing it was to her and to me!

May God bless you in your service for Him! I hope that we will hear from you all again and that you will keep in touch.

Your Fellow Servant of Jesus Christ,

Kenneth A. Moon
Resident Administrator
Missionary Acres
Silva, MO 63964

P.S.: please tell all of the team members we said: "Hello!" Tell Allen Lakey I sure miss his hot biscuits!!!

Summer 2006

Sr. High Missions Trip (Brazil)

Jr. High Missions Trip (Silva, MO)

Labor Day Beach Retreat

An Early Snow

Thanks for the wonderful decorations Whitson, Zach, Hannah, Kayla, and Scott! You're the greatest!

(We know where you live!)



Click to enlarge the pictures

Let's Stir Things Up!

“...and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” Hebrews 10:24

What could the writer of Hebrews possibly mean by “stir up?” The Greek word used here, paroxusmos, actually means to “provoke unto.” I’d like to see some ideas as to what we, as believers, should be doing in order to obey this commandment. Be sure to check the context of the verse (use proper hermeneutics).

Your Questions...Your Blog...

This is your chance to ask ANY questions, make ANY comments...anonymously!

• What does the Bible say about....
• I have a friend that thinks...
• Is it really true that...

In Love?

If you've been in our youth group for very long at all, you've heard me address one of my real pet-peeves...Presuppositional Romance. That's my fancy, made-up term for what many of us mistake for love. Yes...I did say "us". It's become a real soap-box issue for me primarily because I fell victim to the whole thing when I was young...not that I'm old now...of course.

So here's my beef...we are bombarded throughout the day with the absolute worst representations of true love one could imagine. The primary culprit...TV. Also in the line-up, movies, magazines, romance novels, friends at school, internet, etc. Think just a minute about how they describe love.

We're led to believe that love is some "all-powerful" force that transcends any circumstance, any roadblock, any hurdle that may present itself. We're convinced that love manifests itself as "warm-fuzzy" feelings that others just can't understand..."it just can't be described." Because of it's nature, "love is totally outside of our control. We have no control over who we 'fall in love' with, or when it starts to happen." The obvious conclusion from this viewpoint; we can't possibly be held responsible for our actions that are derived from our love.

The same logic naturally flows into the whole concept of "falling out of love." How can we control the fact that we no longer love this person? Maybe you've heard the classic TV line that says something like "How can I stay with him? I just don't love him anymore."

So here's the issue...What is Love? How should it be defined? Don't just give your opinion...I want chapter and verse. How does God define (or show) love?

Don't Bother Me, I'm Busy

How many times in high school are we not in the mood to “deal” with people? How many times in the other aspects of our lives is this the case? If we are honest, it is probably more the case than not. Why? Because we hate people? No. That probably is rarely the case. Why then? I don’t know about you, but my reason is that I am lazy or tired or well, just too wrapped up in myself. Besides, I don’t want to “deal” with what they might say or think about me.

What am I getting at? Sometimes we just don’t want to spend time with…people. (I don’t necessarily mean our friends either, because most of us enjoy spending a lot of time with our friends.) I mean those who we have a chance to talk with or share with or even impact with something that we do or say -- Your boss, your mom, your dad, your siblings, your classmates, your teammates, or your teachers, to name a few.

Let’s think back to the reason why we don’t…self. We all deal with it on a minute-by-minute basis. Correct me if I am wrong here…ok, I’ll keep going. Do we have the ability to control it, self I mean? If yes, then let’s try it and see how it goes. Here is blog insert from a friend of mine that is investing her life working with people…even she has a hard time with it, sometimes, but this is how she “deals” with it.

Investing in People--the daunting task
God’s task for us is that we invest in people.
“People, Lord? They’re unpredictable, unruly and unhappy. People are proud, critical and judgmental. They have mouths that might say something bad about me or mock me in front of others, authority that might fire me or lock me up. If the person I speak to does not laugh at me, someone else will. Let me do anything but deal with people.”
“It is for them that I died. Pour my eternal Word into their immortal souls. They are dead men walking. You have the message of life.”
~Julie Lundy

Wow, we “have the message of life!” Lord, thank you for this reminder. Now, may I get busy about Your work and forget about mine!

Waste of Time or Waste of Mind?

It is a rare occasion when Chris and I can relax in front of our $7 cable for an evening of, we'll admit it, reality TV. Chris indulges me in my love of "The Biggest Loser" and we even get a kick out of this season's "Idol" (if we get home before 9pm on a Wednesday night). We also enjoy some of "Raymond," but other than that it is left to the National Geographic Channel to captivate us with it's rendition of "Mega Structures." However, last season we heard of a show that was becoming pretty popular. We began watching it when we got the chance. We were amazed...it was pretty decent. The plots each episode were interesting, so we figured it was a good way to spend an hour. The main character in particular, with his cutting sarcasm, outlandish style and unbelievable diagnoses' was right up our ally. It quickly became a favorite. That is...until the new season started not too long ago. We turned it on last week and were settling down for some husband and wife "quality time" when, to our dismay, two of the characters spent the night together. Have you figured out the title of the show, yet? The show is named for the main character's last name, "House." Chris and I thought it was a great show because up until then we hadn't seen any illicit sex. Now it may have had some, but we hadn't seen it. So, right then, right there we had to make a decision...to watch or not to watch...that was the question. No one else was there, just us. Chris and I had to decide. What would you have done?
So often in our world it is the "norm" to have characters involved in affairs outside of the main plot...it makes it "real and personal" so we are told. If our decision was to, kind of, ignore the situation and reason that it was still one of the cleanest shows on TV, would that be ok? If our decision was to stop watching it, would the ratings drop and be taken off the air? The answer to both of these questions is no. We decided, as a family, that we would not make it one of our primetime shows in the evenings.
We were, to say the least, disappointed. True, it was a "good" show and we don't even think that it would necessarily "hurt" our marriage to continue watching it. It would, however, cause us to slowly slip down the slope of apathy. What if we made the statement, "Let's ignore it this time 'cause, after all, it's still one of the cleanest shows on TV?" Pretty soon we would be justifying everything that we watched! Think about it.
What decisions do you make on what you watch? Do you think Chris and I are just being too protective? Do you see the need to cut out today's hot picks because of profanity and sex? Why or why not?

A Test You Don't Have to Study For!

I'm not sure how many of you have ever taken a test like this, but if you have the time, I think you'd find it quite beneficial. Feel free to leave any comments about what you learn; or, if you'd recommend it for others, say so. Was it accurate?

Don't forget to apply what you learn!!