Week of January 7
Cross+Training/ACTS Registration
Hi, All,
Happy New Year! Merry Christmas (as it is still in the 12 Days of Christmas!). Sorry for the duplicate email. A few youth announcements--this time with correct dates:
Fort Wilderness (Feb. 8-11) Registrations are Open! Sign Up Here for Fort!
This Sunday (January 7, 2024), we have our annual Epiphany Pancake Breakfast where Youth make and serve pancakes to our BLAST kids. Since we are serving at 9:30 AM, please arrive by 8:30 AM to help make pancakes!
Participating in the pancake breakfast is Cross+Training and ACTS for Sunday. We’ll be back in our rooms on January 14.
The youth calendar for Winter 2024 is coming soon. For now, hold the evening of Tuesday, February 13 for the Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner! (Wednesday, February 14 is Ash Wednesday. Please save that date, too!)
You should have received an email invitation to join our new church directory and management program, Realm. This email is coming through Realm. If you can’t find your email invitation, you can also sign up here. Realm is going to be our one-stop shop for Atonement info--join today and get the Realm app, too (Click here for iOS and click here for Android)
Sincerely,
Kevin Kretzmann Farrar
Youth Ministry Events
Check out all the awesome things we have planned this Fall and Winter for our Youth Ministry!
For a FULL calendar:
Save the Dates:
From Pastor Kevin:
What’s Going On With our Youth Leader? and Other Youth Ministry Updates
We have not had a youth leader since Troy Mendez stepped down this summer—and that has come with some benefits. In particular, it has given us a chance to try out some new things and gain some clarity for what we want moving forward. It has been helpful for me, Pastor Kevin, to be more deeply involved in our youth ministry so that I can better support whatever youth leader we have moving forward.
We will have another youth leader. As you will see in our materials for our Annual Meeting on January 14, we have budgeted for another youth leader and intend to hire one this year.
There are also drawbacks from not having a youth leader, though. Being in a period of transition doesn’t always feel good. It has also required more from some of our most active volunteers. In particular, Mike Gandrud, Carrie Storm, and Julie Kerr-Nicholson have been huge gifts to our youth. Please thank them the next time you see them.
Now that we have a Fall under our belt, complete with social activities and weekly Cross+Training, and ACTS, our youth leader search team’s work will ramp up. Look for more info on their work soon.
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A few main things to flag for what’s happening in youth ministry in January and February:
1) The youth are serving the Epiphany Pancake Breakfast on January 7
2) Fort Wilderness is February 8-10. Want to sign up? The signup will go through Realm, our new church management program—be on the lookout for that!
a. Our Youth Winter 2024 calendar can also be found in Realm!
3) The Youth are serving our Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner on February 13
ELCA Youth Gathering
Our Youth Ministry’s Summer high school trip is going to the our denomination’s nationwide youth gathering in New Orleans.
This is an amazing, life-changing week of worship, service, and community!
Fill out the Youth Gathering sign-up form below: