IMPACT 2015-2016 Overview

Last weekend we kicked off our IMPACT school year calendar with a Tail Gate Party and Parent Meeting. We know that once the school year begins, families keep busy with school, school activities, sports events, mom and dad’s work schedules plus all the other things that life throws at us. In order to help our families manage the busyness, we provide a calendar of events for the school year. The parent meeting is our first attempt to get information into the hands of parents.

You can click on the image at the top of the page to get a closer look at what is on this year’s calendar.

For those parents (and students) who may not have been able to attend the meeting, here is a somewhat brief overview of what we talked about.

WEEKLY PROGRAMS:: Here are the programs for students that we offer on a weekly basis. During the school year, we invite all students to join us for these weekly program.

Sunday:
High School Class (B103); Junior High Class (C102) 9:00 am
Small Groups 4:30 pm

Wednesday:
IMPACT Praise Band Practice 6:30 pm

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:: Each fall we participate in the retreats that are hosted at our local church camp, Butler Springs Christian Camp. The two weekends are a great opportunity for our students and leaders to spend a weekend together, for our students to connect with other students and to grow in our relationship with God. Check out the information on the retreats below.

The Junior High Retreat will take place October 16-18. Cost for the weekend is $65 and the registration deadline is October 4. (The price goes up after that time)

Click on the image below to read more about “This Is Whatever.”

The High School Retreat will take place November 6-8. Cost for the weekend is $55 if you are registered by the early bird deadline of Sept. 21. (The price goes up after that time)

Click on the image below to read more about “Backpacks and Burdens.”

We’ve also added Two Parent/Student Events to the calendar – one in the fall and one in the spring. They will be fun events where our students and parents to interact with one another.

COMMUNICATION:: There are a few different avenues we use to communicate with both parents and students.  We would love it if all of our parents and students were connected to at least one of these outlets for communication.

FACEBOOK:   “Like” our IMPACT Facebook Page and/or Wilmington Church of Christ Facebook page

TEXT:  text the phrase IMPACT909 to 95577 to receive occasional text updates

EMAIL:  we send out occasional email reminders.  Email tonysturf@wcconline.org to be added to email list

WEBSITE:   We post updates to the IMPACT Page of our church website.

We are excited about the start of the school year and what’s taking place in IMPACT Student Ministry.  If you are a parent or a student in the Wilmington area, we’d love to connect with you.  Share this information with other families as well.

IMPACT Snap Shot 2014-15

Last Sunday (Sept 7th) we had an information meeting for our parents and students to share about what’s happening in IMPACT Student Ministry this school year. We gave a quick overview and had a few printed handouts with information. One of the main things we wanted to provide families was a snap shot of the events & activities planned for the school year. With the many activities our students are involved in, we are hoping this will help as families juggles schedules.

Here is the Snap Shot. (If you are involved in IMPACT Student Ministry, feel free to share this!)

IMPACT First Fall Events

As school has started and summer temperatures seem to be giving a hint of starting to feel more like fall, we are gearing up for our first fall events. For the last couple of years our IMPACT leadership team has laid out a school year calendar that gives an overview of what we are doing from September to May. As we move into Labor Day weekend, the fall months are here.

Here’s our first flier for fall events. Here is to a great school year!

God the Great Story Weaver

Over the past couple of months God has been unfolding a story that has been quite unexpected. Through a series of connections – starting at the church where my wife grew up, to someone she knew briefly in college, to a re-connection with that friend over Facebook, along with a series of other seemingly random connections – God has been putting together a somewhat unlikely scenario. We are still waiting for details to play out, so I don’t want to project how the last chapters are going to unfold. But it is amazing to look back at how God is putting various pieces together and the timing in relation to those pieces and events.

As my wife and I were talking this past weekend, she commented on how God is truly the Great Story Weaver. Whether it be the timing of certain events or simply responding to a request that at the time didn’t seem to be that big of a deal, we are surprised how God orchestrates and weaves together a series of events and conversations into something unforeseen.

We don’t know how the story will continue to go, but we are excited to share it with others in the months to come. We have to realize that we are a part of the chapters being written and can’t see the end of the story. Even when we think we are at the end of a story, God is still writing. He is the Great Story Weaver.

Did You Sign Up Yet?

If you’ve been in youth ministry in any capacity in the church, you know that getting students (and adults for that matter) to sign up for events or commit to go to something is always a chore.  I told one of our students just yesterday that I usually hear who is not going long before I get the commitment of students who are.

Today, I saw this creative flowchart on Josh Griffin’s “More Than Dodgeball” blog.  It is a good way to remind students to sign up and I definitely will be using something similar to it in the future.