This week we wrapped up both the middle school and high school teaching series!  Next week we’ll actually have Pastor Bo visiting Student Quest while I preach in the main worship services.  For those of you curious, you can always listen to the high school teaching on our student ministry podcast.

Using The Complete New Testament Resource, Volume 1 from Youth Specialties as a launching pad for the series, Matt O led the middle school in the final week of our series on Titus; he focused on chapter three of Titus.  A follow up idea for at home would be to reread chapter three together as a family and use the following questions as a discussion starter:

• What drastic changes have happened in the lives of people in the Crete church?
• How does the way Christians live influence what nonbelievers think about Jesus Christ?
• What specific instructions does Paul give Titus and the people about how to live out their commitment to Christ?
• According to this passage (in that world and in ours), what can Christians do to let their lives shine out in the darkness?

This week I finished our three-week series on the topic of dating, sex, and relationships with the high school students. We’re using the series ‘God’s plan for great sex’ from the Live Curriculum, a great four year resource we’ve been using this year in our small groups and some Sunday mornings.  We concluded by looking at Colossians 2:13-15. We discussed how sin in our lives is like a tumor that grows inside, and how God’s grace removes it when we seek his unconditional forgiveness. We also looked at how God loves us enough to forgive us and even to forget our past mistakes. The students were encouraged to realize that God has forgiven them, and as a result can stop being enslaved to their past sins. Instead, they can and should experience the freedom that is given to them as a follower of Christ.

This week, I’d encourage you to take time to talk with your teenager about the power of God’s forgiveness. Here are some possible questions:

• How can we better practice forgiveness in our family?
• You were talking about God’s forgiveness in your Student Quest; is it OK if we willingly go and sin because God is going to forgive us? Why or why not?
• How might you share the good news of forgiveness with your friends?

I pray your family is having a blessed week. Thanks for your love for your teenager and your support for our student ministry!