Encounter Youth

This week Jake shares out of a passage of Scripture that changed his life and revealed God's love for him in a whole new way, Ephesians 2! We talk about the state that we were in before God saved us and about how God saved us when we were still His enemies and how this shows us His amazing love.

This week Seth Momcilovich shares about the destiny that each of us has as his child through the lease of his own testimony.

This week Jake shares the full story of Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus. This is an example of how God reveals Himself and pursues us before we ever pursue Him. Our ability to respond to God is a gift that he gives us, even when we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

Why does God love me? This week Tim Ornelas goes after this deep question and opens the Word to show us how God created us to know Him. He created us for the purpose of relationship with Him, and to share Himself with us. He invites us to take the step beyond the shore of knowing about God, to swimming in the ocean of His love.

This was a marking message for our youth group. Jake shares this week on the God's acceptance of us and how to receive it. On how God redeems us and adopts us BEFORE we get our lives together, get free of our sins, and walk in the life that He intends for us. This is part of what makes the Gospel good news, but so often we still try to earn God's love. If you're a church kid, or even if you're not, you need to hear this one.

This week Jake shares the straight up good news about Jesus, God's love for the world, and how you can be reconciled to God because of what Jesus did on the cross.

No one influences you more than your friends. No one. And that's why its so important that we choose good friends. Do your friends encourage you? Build you up? Push you to be the person you want to be? Trying to live differently than your friends can be like swimming against the current.

This week Jake talks about the power of the words we say, how words can wound. Almost every person has a wound from something someone has said to them. Actually, the wounds left by our words are usually longer lasting even than physical wounds. This is why its so important that we speak life the way that God does.

This week Jake talks about Gossip, which is a major struggle for a lot of people in middle and high school. He talks about what Gossip is, why its wrong, and how to test if you are Gossiping. If you wouldn't say it when they are there, why would you say it when they're not?

Did you know that Jesus gave us a literal step by step guide for what to do when someone hurts us, annoys us, or offends us? Its in Matthew 18, and we're talking about it this week. Usually we gossip, get revenge, or just shut down, but Jesus teaches us how to seek reconciliation.

This week Jake continues talking about how obedience to Jesus leads to freedom, this time specifically about Jesus' teachings on surrender, giving control of everything in our lives over to God. The only way to be fully free is to be fully surrendered.

This week Jake talks about how Jesus gives us his commands to lead us into freedom. He gives us his teachings to show us the way to deeper intimacy with God. Keeping His commands is NOT about earning God's love; God loved us when we were yet sinners. But your measure of freedom and intimacy will God will always be proportional to your obedience.

This week we have two of our beloved leaders share their testimonies, Will Herschberger and Melissa Momcilovich! Both share testimonies about coming out of legalism and embracing the Gospel.

This week Weston and Madison share their senior testimonies and advice with underclassmen.

This week Caroline Hostetter, Acacia Kreider, and Eamon Kreider share their senior testimonies and advice for younger students!

This week Jake goes in again on how to Encounter God this summer! He talks us through exactly what he does in His quiet time to Encounter God in His Word. How to pick what to read. How to look for the meaning in the text. How to listen to the Holy Spirit while you read. This is a practical guide about how to read your Bible.

This was a message that set the tone for the summer. Jake received a prophetic word about this being a summer of hunger for a lot of people, of desiring more of God. Tonight Jake shares about HOW to direct your hunger this Summer. How to seek God in three main places - The People of God, The Word of God, and the Presence of God. He also shares about God's promises that he will be found by those who seek Him.

This week Cody Zook walks us through what the Bible says FAITH really is. Sometimes we can think that faith is just "believing harder," but biblical faith is always placed in something God has spoken or promised. Cody takes us into the book of Hebrews and shows us how to look at the Greek words.

This week Noah shares about the love of God. Sometimes we can overlook a verse as simple as John 3:16 and what it means about how God gave a part of himself to be able to reconcile with us.

This week Caroline Hostetter shares about how the Christian worldview of our nation is in decline and how to share the truth about Jesus in a hostile context. She also shares how we as Christians can be involved in reviving values and legislation in our nation that is based on biblical principles through blessing and sharing with others.