Clinton First Church of the Nazarene
NYI Annual Report
Submitted April 2009
Clinton First Church of the Nazarene
NYI Annual Report
Submitted April 2009
I am thankful to have a
church family that values and supports the teenagers. As our local NYI (Nazarene Youth
International) president, I have had the privilege of leading this great
group. Teens bring enthusiasm and energy
to our church family in many different ways, but it‘s especially exciting and
encouraging to see them grow in Christ and have a passion for what they believe
in. Will you please consider spending
some more of your time this year being a part of their church lives,
encouraging them and letting your life stories be a good example for them? They are at a time they are learning on their
own what it means to be a Christian and how to work with others within the
church.
Several of you spent a lot of
extra time making it a another great year for the teens. And several of you also donated money to the
NYI on a regular basis for our activities and mission times. Tracy Cusey and Jim Wade did a lot of work
and provided great ideas as adult members on the NYI council. I also can think of times when Keith Cusey,
Greg & Connie Crawley, Jeff Hendricker, Beth Wade, Kathy White, Pastor
Dave, and others have personally invested time with our teens. To ALL of you in our church - “thank you all
so much!”- from our teens.
You probably would like to
know what we did this year and why I said it was a great year. Well, it started out last summer with the
generosity of our church family sending several girls to the Revolve Tour - a
girls-only gathering with worship music, speakers, and life-changing
messages. They all came back very excited
to go again and said it was a real strengthening time for their faith. It’s amazing how these concerts and seminars
can be so motivating! The NYI council,
which includes Jessa, Maggie, & Molly,
and 3 adults spent 3 indepth meetings during the fall establishing
purposes of our group and coming up with about 100 different ideas and then
prioritizing them. Also from those
sessions, the girls emphasized 3 traits they considered necessary for our youth
group to be a great place this last year.
1) A place where a teen can feel comfortable to be themselves 2) a place
where teens build relationships with one another, and 3) a place where the
gospel message is preached on a youth level.
We also had to make some hard decisions, like discontinuing youth nights
that were not productive at this time.
This move opened up more of our council meeting time to be spent on
planning other activities and service projects.
Some of the fun, relationship
building times together included roaming the malls on shopping trips, rocking
and rolling at concerts, socializing at pizza parties, falling down at skating
rinks, staying up all night at an overnighter, going bowling in Lincoln &
Bloomington, going to war via Paintball, and other fun things that only teenagers
have the energy to do!
But I was especially proud
our teen group when it came to planning because they understood that
Christianity isn’t just a club that’s all about “me” or all about having fun,
they included the balance and importance of giving of themselves and allowing
God to work through them. One of their
first ideas was recognizing and presenting Kevin Owen cards and a gift when he
came back from his long navy tour overseas he got called away from his family
to do. Kevin later came and spoke to the
group sharing about it with us. Their
next idea was to go serve in a soup kitchen and so at least a dozen of us went
to Bloomington and served at the homeless shelter one afternoon. It wasn’t that hard and it was truly a
learning experience. Many different
teens and their families have also worked with Tonya to help set up, serve, and
tear down for the 4th Wednesday meals our church does for the
community. On Sunday mornings you may
not always see some of the teens in the service because some enjoy helping out
in the nursery or children’s classes on a regular basis. Yes, this may be a good excuse to get out of
church now and then, but on the flip side it helps to develop their skills in
leadership and church participation. A
church without A LOT of helpers will not go very far and they are learning that
helping fill positions in the church allows them to actively serve God and it
does have rewards that they can see in the reactions from the kids. Another activity they are currently working
on is putting together and sending care packages to family members from our
church that are in the armed services and have been called overseas.
I want to remember to update
you all on two of the older teens that now are transitioning into young
adults. Jamie Ashley spent last year
working in North Carolina helping underprivileged and troubled youth. Just a few weeks ago, Thomas Higgins preached the evening sermon
for us and shared that he has been called by God into the ministry.
Teens, adults, and children
alike - lets all look forward with excitement to what God will do in our midst
next year. I am hopeful there will be
enough teen interest in quizzing that we can again have a quiz team. I am sure there will be several opportunities
for us all next year for more bonding, fun & crazy times, spiritual growth,
and showing others God’s love. We need
to increase part our focus on more evangelism and growth, encouraging each
other to witness to and bring our friends and neighbors to more activities and
services. My prayer, for the teens,
myself, and our whole church is that our relationship with Jesus will grow
stronger and we will allow Him to work through our lives. Thank you very much for being a church family
that considers teens an important part of our church and for supporting them
with your prayers and finances. May we
all, no matter what our age, continue our mission as a community that is a
faithful image of God’s love.