Posts Tagged ‘Youth’

Posted on November 10, 2009 - by Mary

Chosen Youth Conference 2009-Gaylord, MI

It’s amazing how quickly time goes by when you’re having fun! We just wrapped up another weekend at the Chosen Youth Conference. If you don’t know, I’m a coordinator for the conference, meaning I help with some of the planning and organization. My official title is Production Office Manager which basically means I am in charge of printing materials such as signage, schedules and forms, setting up registration, coordinating volunteers and coordinators for the event, and managing the office before and during the event. Though it’s very tiring by the time the event is over on Saturday night, it is very rewarding and I feel blessed and privileged to serve.

The youth of our nation need and deserve to be served with events such as the Chosen Youth Conference. If you’ve never been to a youth conference or would like to know why it is important, keep reading.

The vision of James Scheer, founder of Rock Your World Ministries and keynote speaker at Chosen, is to see this generation have a true encounter with God. When someone experiences a true encounter with God, it is a life changing event. You cannot be in the presence of God without change taking place. James is the Youth Pastor at our church and was called to youth ministry at the ripe young age of 19 or 20. He’s taken several groups of youth out in the mission field, ministering to other youth through Rock Your World Ministries. Today, he continues to reach out to the youth in our community, as well as to the youth in other communities through the Chosen Youth Conferences.

Though Chosen has been compared to Acquire the Fire, it is not the goal of James Scheer or Drew Spanding (Program Director) to be another ATF. It is their heart’s desire and vision to maintain the intimacy achieved at Chosen by holding smaller events in local churches.

During the conference, several different types of media are used to reach the students, right where they’re at. Through music, from worship to Christian Rock, through videos that are humorous and serious, and through messages that are relevant for today’s youth, the speakers and musicians all have the same goal: to see this generation empowered and motivated to reach out to their peers with the message of Jesus Christ.

Everyone who is involved in the production of Chosen is a volunteer with a heart for this generation. Many of the volunteers are already youth leaders, serving in their local churches. Many of the volunteers come on board because they too have a passion to see this generation changed and have a tangible encounter with God whether it’s their first or their 10th.

If you’d like to have Chosen come to your church, email inbox@chosennow.com.

Below are some pictures from this weekend’s event, plus some of the volunteers who make Chosen happen.

Posted on September 18, 2009 - by Mary

The Real Me

My good friend, Tishia, recently posted a blog entitled “Who Am I” and in it she talks about not knowing who she really is. Sure, she’s a mom, she’s a Christian, she’s a work at home mom, but those don’t really describe who she is. I think many of us struggle with knowing who we really are. The reason I named my blog “Being Who God Created Me to Be” is for the very same reason…every day I’m growing and searching and learning to be the woman God created me to be. I’m no where near being that person yet and won’t be until heaven, but while I’m here on Earth, I want to be as close to it as possible. I do believe God created me, and you, for a specific purpose here on Earth, and I think that’s what most of us are trying to figure out…just what is our purpose, why are we here at this very moment in time? Of all the other times we could have been born, why now, why here, and for what?

Lately, God has been laying on my heart that my first mission is my family…actually God has laid it on my heart for a while, but He has to remind me of it every so often. I wrote a post not too long ago entitled “Learning to be Content Where you are” and I wrote about being content in singleness and where you are financially. Not too long after I posted that (a day or two) God laid it on my heart that I’ve not been content where I am living. You see, we currently live in a small village which we moved to the first year after we got married…which was 3 years ago to be exact. We moved here because this is where my kids have grown up and have gone to school and we did not want to uproot them and make them switch schools. Plus it was easier for them to go back and forth between our house and their dad’s. Well, now since my baby is a Senior in high school this year, she will be graduating at the end of the year, and I really want to move back to the town where we go to church, all our friends live and where my husband works. It’s only about 23 miles away, but still, I feel so disconnected from everyone over there. Our church friends rarely come to visit because it seems so far and out of the way, plus we would be able to interact more with the youth (we are youth leaders in our church) if we lived in town. So, I’ve been praying and praying for God to provide the means in order for us to move as soon as my baby graduates. I’ve even got my eye on a house, right in town, just a mile or so from the church…it would be perfect…or so I think. Then God basically told me to relax…be content here where I’m at…He will work it all out…in His best timing. I so know that’s true, and He’s never let me down before…yeah, I may not be able to actually see God working it out, but He always does.

So, I’ve quit pining for that house, and quit allowing my spirit…or maybe it ’s my flesh…to be unsettled where we are. Now it’s my prayer for God’s PERFECT will to be done in my life, in our lives…not just His permissible will.

The real me…the real me is being who God created me to be…always growing and learning and following His direction…not my own.

Do you know who the Real You is? Are you tired of living someone else’s life? Do you desire to be the Real You, the person God created you to be? Click here to discover the real you today!

Posted on June 2, 2009 - by Mary

The Chosen Youth Conference-Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

 

This past weekend I had the awesome priviledge of volunteering at the Chosen Youth Conference in Sault Ste. Mario, Ontario Canada. This is the first time we’ve taken Chosen on the road and the 4th conference we’ve put on. The theme of this conference was the Remnant~teaching our youth what it means to be God’s Remnant, the few remaining, standing up for Him. 

The host church, Bible Fellowship, is an old, renovated ski lodge, set in the woods of Sault Ste. Marie, and as soon as we arrived, we could feel the peace and the Holy Spirit there. 

The pastor and his wife are amazing people and have an awesome team of volunteers. We met really great people with a huge heart to serve, and serve they did. The conference went very smoothly, and the reason is because of the Pastor and his team.  If you live in the SSM area, you should give Bible Fellowship a visit. The hospitality and love goes above and beyond.

There were about 300 youth and young adults in attendance, including youth leaders and youth pastors. They opened the conference with “This Little Light of Mine” being sung a cappella, and students entering the darkened auditorium with candles. The student’s lined up on the stage, and as recorded voices described some of the major issues our youth are dealing with, one by one they blew out their candle and left the stage area. As the last one exited the stage, the Chosen Band started playing Praise and Worship music. 

The MC was Drew Spanding of the Big Ticket Festival, and was also a speaker at this conference. He delivered a very powerful message on sex and marriage and that God invented it and wants us to have sex within the boundaries of marriage. We then gave all the teens a book about sex and dating and took up a love offering to help cover the cost of the books.

The day continued on with powerful messages by James Scheer and awesome music by the Andy Stefanic Band and Sargeant Avenue.  About 100 students rededicated their lives or gave their lives to the Lord for the first time after one of James’ messages. 

The conference also included some jokes, funny stories and a skit. During James’ message about having a heart, a “nurse” pushing a “dead patient” on a gurney ran out and upon examination it was determined the patient had no guts and Pastor James pulled out a string of guts (linked sausage). He instructed the nurse to take the patient back and put her guts back in. A few minutes later the nurse and the patient returned to James because she put the guts back in but she was still not moving or talking. Upon further examination, it was discovered that the patient had no heart as James pulled out from under the sheet a heart (a real cow heart, cut in half~it was huge and gross but the kids loved it!). 

The Chosen Youth Conference will again be in SSM at Bible Fellowship in October of 2009. We will be announcing ticket prices and further information on the web. Then we will be in Gaylord, Michigan November 6 & 7, 2009 and the theme is Living the Dream.

If you are in the SSM or Gaylord areas and have youth or are a youth leader or pastor, be sure to check out the Chosen Youth Conference.

You can follow Chosen on Twitter as well as join our group on Facebook. We look forward to hearing from you if you attended Chosen in Sault Ste. Marie, any of the other conferences or plan on attending either of the conferences in the fall.