Panera Breakfast

The previously announced Youth Breakfast at Panera has been postponed!!! For more information, contact Brian!

Experience Thankfullness!

Thanks to all who have joined me as I try to create a new way to worship with our “Experience Worship” events. I do have a confession, however. People seem to think I’ve been doing the work for these events for others. The truth is I’ve been doing it for ME! I am in need of the new ways to find God in my life that creating these events have provided. The fact that other’s are participating in them is only icing on the cake!

Special thanks must go out to Rick Jacobsen and Diane Konvalina for both the support and the food! The loose meat sandwiches were AMAZING!!!

Join us in November, as we Experience Thankfullness as part of our Experience Worship events!

 

More info to come….

Experience Worship

God created our entire being, He created everything we see, everything we touch, everything we hear, and everything we taste & smell. So why do we only we worship Him with our ears and our voices? Shouldn’t we worship Him using all of the wonderful senses He gave to us? Shouldn’t we celebrate Him with the whole of our beings?

To me, that’s what Experience Worship is about. It’s about finding ways to celebrate, learn and worship together with an entire body experience! It’s about connecting with others using all of our senses.

It may be designed with our youth in mind, but it’s for everybody. It may be marketed as a “youth worship event,” but it’s for all ages.

We’ll talk, listen, taste & smell, touch… we’ll think and pray, we’ll play and dance. We may even get a little bit messy, because (in my opinion) God appreciates a good mess once in a while. We’ll experience God together.

Join us.

Experience Worship

Sunday, Sept 11 4:30 PM

Morning Star Lutheran Church Chapel

Youth Choir

 

Happy Friday! This is a friendly reminder that Youth Choir (for 7th-12th grades) begins Wednesday evening, at 5:30 PM. We’ll dismiss at roughly 6:15 in order to give Brian (and our Confirmation students) a chance to get a quick break prior to Confirmation. If you know of someone who may be interested in Choir, have them come hang out with us at a rehearsal. The more the merrier! (I have on good authority that there will be snacks!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bev and I hope to see you all on Wednesday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian

 

Confirmation Service Project

Here are some pictures of last night’s Confirmation Service Project! Our 2011-2012 Confirmation class, along with a few amazing parents, helped distribute mulch and do some upkeep in the Preschool Playground area.

 

Thanks so much for all your help last night!

 

 

 

 

Fall Schedules…

Blessings to you all on this beautiful summer afternoon!

 

I wanted to touch base with all of you (parents and youth) about upcoming Youth events and fall schedules.

 

We’ve spent a good deal of time the past month trying to plan for the fall and (hopefully) have some cool things in store for all of our youth (if the idea of fun, fellowship, and education doesn’t excite you, keep in mind that assisting and participating in many of these events can be used to help fulfill community service hours for school/scouts/etc…)!

 

Service Assistants

If you are interested in assisting with our Worship services, please let me know! We are in need of lay readers, communion assistants, acolytes, ushers, greeters, Assisting Ministers, and more!

 

Sunday School

In addition to the calendar of events, I want to remind everyone of our normal Sunday School schedule.

 

The High School youth meet in the Conference Room Sunday mornings from 9:45 – 10:35. On most Sundays, my wife Laura will open Youth Sunday School with some sort of activity that is purely about fellowship. Once I arrive, after opening the prek-6^th grade Sunday School, we will move into the lesson. We will have a mixture of lessons that include videos, hands-on activities, modern-day parables, and Bible study.

 

Our Confirmation-age youth will get more information about the Sunday School component of Confirmation as classes begin for the year.

 

Rally Sunday

As part of Rally Sunday, there will be a an-all Congregation picnic beginning shortly after the ONE SERVICE on Sunday, Sept.11^th. As part of the picnic, there will be games and activities for kids and adults. I am hoping that some of our youth will be willing and able to help us out with leading activities for the younger kids in our Morning Star family. We will have bubble play areas, face painting, and some silly relay games.

 

If you are able/willing to help out as part of the picnic, please let me know ASAP. We also have need to for help setting up tables and chairs for the picnic on Saturday, Sept. 10^th at 1:00 PM! If we have enough hands, we should be able to be set up and back home by 2:30!

 

Experience Worship

You may have seen the mention in the Light about the new, Youth-oriented worship program beginning on Rally Sunday (Sept. 11). Experience Worship is an opportunity for youth from high school age on up (including adults who feel young at heart) to come and experience God in a different setting. This will be a non-traditional, non-Pastor led worship time. There will be multi-sensory opportunities to connect with God along with a mix of music, responsive readings, and a short, topical message that will (hopefully) connect with what is going in our young people’s lives. Even though we will not always have Communion at these worship events, there will always be a breaking of bread together, as there will be a light meal served after each service.

 

Experience Worship will begin on Rally Sunday, at 4:30 PM in the Chapel. Future dates are included in the calendar below.

 

National Youth Gathering

A long-range note for our youth who will be entering High School in the fall of 2012 or students who will Seniors this upcoming school year. Next year, the NE SYNOD/LYON (Lutheran Youth of Nebraska) are NOT sponsoring a summer Mission trip. This is because the ELCA is holding the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans next July (18-22, 2012). This is a MASSIVE event! They are expecting 39,000 youth from across the country to attend. It’s a four-day mix of worship, fellowship, bible study, and service. It promises to be an amazing, life-changing experience! Just imagine- 39,000 youth filling the Super Dome for Worship everyday; going out into the New Orleans community to do service and to share God’s Love through our own actions and hard work; meeting with small groups every night to learn, share, and discuss how God works in our lives. It’s pretty incredible. It’s also very expensive! The final cost, per person, is not known yet, but it will be over $1000.00 each! For comparison, this past summer’s trip was $400.00 per person, of which only $100.00 was paid directly by each student who attended. The rest was paid through fundraising efforts and the generosity of the Congregation. My goal is to work with the Congregation and the families of all of our youth to help find ways, through fundraising, gifts, and grants, to make this as affordable as we possibly can so as many of our youth who want to attend are able to attend.

 

If you have fundraising ideas or have a large pile of money buried in your backyard with no idea what to spend it on, please let me know! I will be meeting with some parents soon as we begin looking at various options for fundraising and I’d love your ideas.

Fall Youth Calendar

August 27th & 28th

Youth from Mission Trip assist and lead at all three weekend services. (SOLID Mission Trip Youth)

 

Sept. 10th— 1:00 PM

Togetherness Picnic Set-up. (Confirmation and High School Youth)

 

Sept. 11th— 9:30 AM

Rally Sunday, Togetherness Picnic following service. (Confirmation and High School Youth will be assisting with family games and activities)

 

Sept. 11th— 4:30 PM

Experience Worship. (High School Youth & Young Adult focused non-traditional Worship Event. Light Meal to follow.)

 

Sept. 25th— 8:00 AM—12:30 PM

Wash-n-Worship Fundraiser. (Car wash at Morning Star during AM services. Proceeds go to help fund ELCA National Youth Gathering next summer. High School and Confirmation.)

 

Oct. 2— 4:30 PM

Experience Worship. (High School Youth & Young Adult focused non-traditional Worship Event. Light Meal to follow.)

 

Oct. 16— 9:30 AM

Youth Breakfast at Panera. (High School Youth will meet at Panera Bread instead of at Morning Star for Sunday School.)

 

Oct. 21— 8:00 PM— 8:00 AM

Haunted House Lock-In. Morning Star Youth will meet at Morning Star and caravan to several area Haunted Houses. Afterwards, we’ll return to Morning Star for food, fellowship, scary movies, and a lock-in. (High School Youth)

 

 

Worlds of Fun UPDATE!!!

Hey all! As (hopefully) most of you know, we are planning on an end-of-summer day trip to Worlds of Fun on Friday, July 29th. This trip was originally meant to be for High School only (which includes those youth starting 9th grade this year.) After some thought, I want to open the trip up to our Confirmation Youth who are entering 8th Grade. And to answer the question I’ve received from several youth, youth are invited to bring a non-Morning Star friend with them. I’ve also been asked about the cost of the trip. The normal cost for tickets to Worlds of Fun is $45.00, which is what I am asking everyone to pay. I know that we can get coupons and discounts through AAA and other groups. In fact, as long as we have 15 or more people entering the park, we will get a discount. But I still am asking all the youth to pay the full $45.00. This is to allow any parents who volunteer to take a vacation day from work, drive three hours to Kansas City, and spend the day in a park with a bunch of teenagers to not have to pay all of their own way. Since this is a purely social trip, there is no Morning Star money being spent on the trip. The only way to be able to give money back to chaperones to help cover gas and ticket cost is to have every youth who is attending pay more towards the total amount. If we discover that we have a surplus of money, I will gladly use it purchase everyone snacks or give it back to the youth… I hope this clears some of the questions up that people have raised about the trip. I need RSVP and payment by NEXT WEDNESDAY, July 20th. We will meet here at Morning Star and depart for Kansas City at 6:00 AM on July 29th and we should arrive back here at Morning Star between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM that evening.

 

ADULTS- if you are willing to be a chaperone/driver for the trip, or perhaps have another (over 21) child who is home for the summer with nothing to do on that day, I NEED ASSISTANCE! Drivers must be able to spend the entire day with us and have a vehicle that can hold at least three or four youth. Once I have a better idea of numbers of youth, I will exactly how many drivers we will need. As I said above, I hope to be able to reimburse all adult drivers/chaperones for their time and effort to help out with this day.

End of Summer World’s of Fun Trip!!!

To give summer one last hurrah and to help steel ourselves for the coming school year, Morning Star Youth (9 – 12 Grade) are invited to join us as we head to Worlds of Fun on Friday, July 29^th. Brian will purchase tickets for the group. Cost is $45.00 per person in cash, or checks made payable to Brian Priesman. This does not include any food or souvenir purchases!

 

We will leave Morning Star at 6:00 AM on the morning of July 29^th and return around 11:00 PM, traffic permitting. Please RSVP and turn in ticket payment NO LATER THAN Wednesday, July 20^th. We also need adult chaperones and drivers- OVER 21! (Part of ticket cost and partial gas reimbursement available for chaperones!)

Check this out!!!

I’m not sure what to say… It’s too good not to share! Have a great Tuesday everyone!