Shopping in the ATL

Is Your Tree Looking Bare?
Add some presents to it by going shopping in Atlanta this Monday (Dec 18). We will meet at the church at 9:00 in the morning and be back by 9:00 that night. If you can't shop that long join me and Billy for a little Monopoly.

Christmas YIHAC

Don't be a Grinch- Come on out to the Taylor house for food fellowship and of course some good old fashioned Christmas spirit.

White Elephant Gift Exchange- Bring that costs $5 or less for a white elephant exchange. The more random/stupid/creative the better. Who knows, a gift that seems like tacky, tasteless junk may be someone elses treasure that makes them thousands on ebay.

When: THIS SUNDAY (Dec 3) from 7:00 (following church) to 9:00
Where: We will meet at church to go to the Taylor House

Ski Trip

Cost: $300 ($100 deposit)

Date: Feb 16-19

We will be going to Winterplace in West Virginia on February 16-19. There are limited spots available so get your $100 deposit to Josh as soon as possible to reserve your place.

We will leave on Friday and arrive that evening. We will ski all day long Saturday and Sunday. Food will be provided on Saturday, Sunday, and breakfast on Monday before we leave to come back home.

Call Josh for more details- 478-973-9329

Mission Trip To Atlanta

On Saturday, November 18, we will be going to work on the restoration of Park Avenue Baptist Church in the historic Grant Park area of Atlanta. This church was formerly one of the big churches in Atlanta but dwindled down over the years to only 8 members (meeting in a big but deteriorating sanctuary). At that time they made some changes and "restarted" the church. They have grown a lot and are working on restoring their facilities.

Lunch will be provided, but bring money for dinner at a fun restaurant in Atlanta.

Date:Saturday, November 18
Time: From 8:00 AM to 9:00PM
Where: Meet at the church to go to Grant Park near downtown Atlanta
Cost: Bring money for dinner

Fall Festival

FBC will be holding a Fall Family Festival on Saturday, November 11. This will feature various games and activities (primarily aimed at younger children) and food. Youth will be sponsoring a blow-up obstacle course which should be a whole lot of fun. Come on out with your whole family to help and to join in the festivities.

Fifth Quarter

Come on out for some post-football fellowship on November 3rd.

I'm not married yet, but in Korea they take wedding photos before actually getting hitched. Check out our wedding (engagement) pics.

Lock-In Pics

Think you can handle the pictures? Check out some nice candid shots of the Youth Lock-In

Youth Council

Applications are in and we have this years Youth Council. There is still one open slot so a 10-12th grader could be added with a late application if someone is interested. Otherwise, the Youth Council for the 06-07 year is (in alphabetical order):

Brian Czarnowsky
Jennifer Martin
Jarod Rackley
Kevin Slaughter
Kasey Smith

I'm looking forward to a great year and appriciate yalls commitment and and dedication.

-Josh

Whoooo- Lockin Time

It's almost here, only a few more days to the lockin this Friday! Meet at the church at 7:00 pm(or 11:00 if you have Fri night plans) for fun and fellowship. We'll have breakfast in the morning and finnish up at 7:00 am. The lockin will feature great games such as ultimate frisbee, fear factor and many more.

Experiencing the Psalms

Sunday nightslall year long Darell will be preaching the Psalms. He will be using “orientation,” “disorientation,” and “new orientation” as his structure for the Psalms. This is pretty cool, but we will be complimenting it with also exploring Psalms in a different way when the youth meets. Our emphasis will be on experiencing the Psalms- through music, readings, prayer and other stuff (You know I like to keep things a little mysterious so you don’t know exactly what is in store). Our first meeting will be August 20 (also the last day for “Grease”) and we will have a special guest musician (Brandon Rodgers, the worship leader from Park Avenue Baptist Church). If you are in choir- stick around, it is a little more singing but should be a different enough in style and I think you will find it refreshing. If you aren’t in choir- Come on to the church at 6:00, this is for everyone.

When: August 20, at 6:00 PM
Where: Youth House

Wednesday's Back

Remember last year, when I visited the church and there was this fancy Wednesday program featuring dinner and then a youth group Bible study or something along those lines. Well its back and better than ever. Im pretty excited, one of my first experiences with yall was leading a Wednesday night program. "So what do we have instore for this year?" you may be wondering. A lot. Of course theres the food at 5:30. Then theres the seeing your friends in the middle of the week and fun conversations. On a regular basis you should be able to expect some fun games or activities, a brief Bible/book/thematic study/discussion/brainstorm/experiment/experience/activity. I hope that really paints a clear picture of whats in store.

For the next few weeks we will be doing 101 (a designation in college of an intro level course). We'll start with Old Testament 101 and take an overview of the whole Old Testament in 4 weeks. I think this will be pretty interesting and informative and at the same time build a good foundation for some of the serious Bible study we will be doing thoughout the year.

You may want to read over the entire Old Testament as we may be doing a gameshow style event.

Have a good week yall
Josh

Malawi Fundraiser

This Saturday New Heights Baptist Church Youth will be doing a fundraiser for Missions in Malawi from 11:00-4:00. We were invited to attend and I wanted to pass along the invitation to yall. Whether or not any of us can attend, I think it is awsome to see what God is doing around the world and even through youth groups around us. I love the opportunities we have to serve God here at FBC, but am trying to remember what is going on with or brothers in sisters in Christ at different churches. Its kind of nice to see some of the different pieces of the puzzle (a reference to this past weeks sermon) can come together.

Directions
158 Lamar Rd.
Macon, GA 31220
Click here for a Map

Youth Council

Ready to become even more involved in your youth group? Committed to growing spiritually? Do you have a passion for helping others? Do you have ideas for the youth group but no where to express them?

This years Youth Council will re-energize our church's commitment to spiritual growth and youth involvement. We know that being young doesn't mean you don't have good ideas, or strong committment or any of that stuff people sometimes think about youth. Youth Council isn't for everyone though as it requires an ability to commit time and effort to planning and working to improve the youth group as well as to grow spiritually.

An all new application form will be available starting Sunday, August 13. There will be two representatives for each Sunday School Class age group (7th&8th), (9th&10th), (11th&12th). Criteria for selection will include a lot of factors suchc as commitment, availability, diversity (we don't want all girls for example, or three people from one family) and will be determined by the Youth Committee. Stay posted for more details or contact Josh (jgribble@averett.edu) if you have any questions.

Water Wars

Well, like it or not the summer is almost over (except for Hannah who has already started school) so we had better enjoy our last glorious moments of summer fun. There is no better way to do that than some good old fashioned water wars. The battles will begin promptly at 6:30 if some youth show up at 5:30 to fill up balloons and prepare. Otherwise battles will begin, uh, whenever we are ready. Please wear swimsuits (keep them modest ladies) and be ready to party like its the last day of summer (even though that isn't till the next day).

When: Wednesday, Aug 2 @6:30
Where: In the field behind church

Lakehouse

We will be going up to the Smith's lakehouse this saturday. It should be a lot of fun swimming, skiing/tubing or just hanging out at the lake. Lunch will be provided. Please bring $5 to help cover the cost of food/gas.

When: This Saturday, Jul 29. 10:00 @ church.
Where: Meet at church- will be going to the Smiths Lakehouse
How Much: $5

The Update

Ok, so a bits gone on and I thought I'd let yall who couldn't make it in on it all.

Movie Night- This was a bit of a shocker. So far we have watched Glory Road, and End of the Spear. Last week was a bit of a surprize since many were expecting the light hearted teen angst-filled geekfest of a comedy, Napoleon Dynamite only to find the serious story about Missionaries (and even babies) getting killed. Granted, it probably also was happier in the sense that it show the bleak reality of human nature but how love, compassion and forgiveness could transcend violence and pointed to a type of life that has a meaning that Napoleon Dyn. himself is so desparately lacking. Anyway, the idea last night was a comedy and several folks brought movies in. Two of the big comedies I thought would have a good chance of being voted on were Pink Panther and School of Rock. However, in a shocking twist of events the dark horse romatic comedy Dave somehow emerged teh victor after a couple of rounds of elimination voting. I'll admit I was surprized as were the perplexed proponents of Shool of Rock and they were vocal about their dissent. However, an hour later I observed that they were glued to the TV, laughing at all the jokes, holding back tears at the sad parts and yes, staring with that hard to describe look girls have during chickflicks during the romantic parts.

Guild Wars- This has been the week that Guild Wars has exploded. We are continuing to work on the youth blog and have begun to establish a bit of a schedule getting online and... fellowshiping. A couple highlights include the addition of Woody as our newest member and the continued progress of Kevin as he has marched his way into Tyria. Our next scheduled game where we all try to get on is this sunday afternoon, possibly around 2:00.

Youth Interning- Thanks for your help guys, we are moving into a great year thanks to your effort. Youth are the backbone of any youth group (that shouldn't be hard to figure out with the name and all but sometimes us guys in our twenties aren't as smart as we could be) and you guys are continuing to make the FBC Youth group great. I was in a staff meeting with Darrell and Glen and I proclaimed- "This is going to be a great year for our youth and children's ministry." I wasn't just saying that, usually I am not one to predict too great of results because I don't want to raise expectations higher than I can meet. Here at FBC I have seen yall in action and I am convinced that I can make that big promise because yall have big hearts and are going to make this a fantastic year full of wonderfulness (yeah, I think thats a Taylor Expression). In other words, its going to be so dang much fun.

Frisbee Golf

A lot of people have been asking me, "what the heck is Frisbee Golf?" Well, thats a dang good question and I finally can give a good answer. The player (such as the super hot Korean holding the blue disc to the left) attempts to throw the disc from the starting location to the basket in the fewest throws, just like golf. The basket, hole three in the pic, has chains so that when you throw the disc into the chains it (hopefully) drops and falls into the basket. Like golf it involves the use of specialized equipment such as discs designed for driving, flying strait, curving a certain dirrection or for putting. My brothers and I like sports and enjoy competing with one another. We find Frisbee golf to be a pleasant challenge. My mother, on the other hand, enjoys going for strolls and hanging out with friends and thus loves Frisbee Golf for different reasons than us. All in all, you must try it to really understand and I bet you a dollar (or less) that you'll love it.

Ps. This was posted by Josh so yall wouldn't think Kasey and Hannah are the only one doing any work around here.

This Week's Plan (July 16-22)

Wednesday~2:00-6:30~youth interning*
Wednesday~6:30-8:30~movie night (feel free to bring a comedy to choose from)
Saturday~8:30am-?pm~frisbee golf and secret place in Atlanta(lunch provided)

You guys should definitely come! It will be so dang much fun! We need ideas on what movie to watch on Wednesday.

Youth Interning is a super cool way to kill the summer boredom. Rather than sitting on the couch at home twiddling your thumbs, you can show up at the church and hang out with other youth and even make a positive contribution to the world. Last week at youth interning we created a graffitti wall, made a trip to walmart, made various signs, updated the blog and maybe some other stuff I forgot. Also there may have been a lot of time spent in talking with eachother and using the internet and in general goofing around. I have a children's event today (July 19) so I wont be back to the office till closer to 2:00, so that is a better time to come by if you want.



written by Hannah and Kasey & Josh

End of the Spear

On Wednesday, July 12 we watched the "End of the Spear." It was good and all but it was very violent and a lot of people died. It was about missionaries that went to the jungle to tell the word but the Indians ended up spearing them and they died. Instead of hoping for revenge, the families of the missionaries went and lived with the Indians and the Indians were able to break the cycle of revenge.

Kasey & Hannah G.

This Week

Well, its not a huge week, but we have a couple things going on. Let me remind you to read your newsletters closely, there is tons of fun info in there that you might not see with a quick skim.

So, Wed. we have movie night from 6:30-8:30 in the youth house. I'm leaning towards Napoleon Dynamite (and have even prepared a bit of a hand-out) but could always have my mind changed. I think its a pretty fun group movie and if you aren't too into the movie show up anyway just to hang out (yeah, a couple girls who I won't mention snuck off and started painting the bathroom).

Thursday moring if your bored swing by the church. I'll open up my office and put y'all to work. We have quite a few things to work on. A couple things off the top of my head are working ont he blog (yeah, how bout some cool graphics or something right) or pulling a scrapbook together. It might not be too early to start working ont he next newsletter either. Finally, you could make some phone calls or whatever too.

Saturday we are finnishing up (I hope) work ont the youth house. Hopefuly Darrell and Glen will show up and do all the hard work after their vacations. We will try to hit the rest of the spots that really need paint, do another once over on cleaning and maybe move furniture or whatever. Not food this time, just work- It won't be nearly as fun I know but thats why we are trying to recruit Darrell and Glen.

Glory Road- The Road to Success

The title says it all: "Glory Road." It is the road to glory and success, and it is not an easy one, the helpful coach reminds us, but one that requires determination and singleminded effort. To all you non-basketball players out there, what parallels can we see between the pursuit of basketball glory and Christian glory? In what way can we take lessons from how the coach led his team and apply it to our lives.

Glory Road- Bigotry

“Glory Road” told the story of a basketball coach in Texas who made the controversial step of recruiting black players. One of the main themes in the movie was the negative effect of racial prejudice. What scenes in the movie stood out to you about racism or overcoming it? Who do we find it easy to look down on based on based on our preconceived notion of what “people like them” are like? How can we overcome our own prejudices?

Bowling Pics Available

Check out more photos at Yahoo Youth Pics.

Game Night

MONOPOLY WINNER
1st Place: Matthew, uh, you know the one who's brother's name is Brian- I'm not really sure about the spelling of his last name (Czarnowsky?).

2nd Place: Kevin Slaughter

2nd Place continued: Me

Honorable Mention: Billy Stephens. Also, thanks for bringing the game.

I hope everyone else had fun but don't really know how the games turned out. Feel free to add a comment about other games.

Baby Got Book

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Movie Night- Ideas Needed

I hope y'all are excited because movie night is on its way. For those of you wondering what type of movies we will be watching let me assure you it is not crazy stuff only a youth minister would find enjoyable. We are talking about actual movies here. Anyway, I haven't decided what to watch for every week and am open to suggestions. I would pefer in the PG range but could probably swing a PG13. Popcorn and soda provided.

When: July, every Wed from 6:30-8:30
Where: The newly painted youth house.

COMMENT WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR MOVIES

VBS Activities

Its been a busy week at VBS. We have had a bunch of youth helping out. From leading music, drama, leading a group to helping out with games there was a bunch to do. Monday we all went over to McDonald's. Wednesday was a little more exciting with a pool party at the Smiths which was a blast. I was a little scared when we pulled out the chuckwagons (kind of like jacked up golf carts for offroading) but fortunately noone died. Today we played Monopoly with Billy who just got out of the hospital this week for surgery. Rember to keep praying for him as he is still recovering. In any case his monopoly skills were none the worse for wear and he pulled out a questionable victory (we had to quit early but he was doing pretty good). We will most likely do a water day one of these days just for youth since I'm holding back the youth from having as much fun with water balloons and all that. Maybe in the next couple of weeks.

Bowling

Tuesday, June 27 @ 5:00 PM

Get your bowling shoes and get ready for some fun (bowling shoes are not needed). I'm not sure what it will cost, and I'm pretty sure its in Macon, but rests assured I will find these things out before we leave. I am sure, however that it will be a heck of a lot of fun and you will love it.

Choir Tour

I should probably put like 30 or so postings for choir tour considering how many memorable events I experienced. To sum it up in one sentence, it was an incredibly long, wonderful with great singing, fantastic busboys, several problems and a lot of telling people to be on time, be quite etc., Laila asking me how old I was and then why I was going bald so young, lots of fun playing Monopoly in the mall, NO MOVIE THEATER in the mall, six dollars per meal, two trips to the hospital (including the most painful shot I have ever received) but no injured kids, great adult volunteers, a pretty bad job leading Bible Studies by me but some improvement once I got to know y'all, staying up too late every night, waking up too stinking early every day, a great time in Philly at that school where the kids were amazingly cool, no Philly cheesestakes (although I had one in Hershey Park), rained out downtown Philly trip, awsome roller coasters (though 6 flags is still number 1), seriously deep moment of worship singing in the cave, cool amish (that the girls thought were hot), great pics and website updates, and most importantly 31 new friends who I really do love and am proud to call "my kids." Check out the yahoo pics, they should say a lot more than I could possibly fit into even a few more posts.

Getting Started

Well, I've been here at FBC close to a month, but I guess I should recap as if I've been doing this here blog all along. Well here goes...

Things started off fast with me ending up here at FBC. I was finnishin up the semester at McAfee School of Theology in the ATL when I got an email about there being a job opening in Forsyth. I called up and let them know i was interested and the ball started rolling. After the first interview with the dilligent and ridicoulously hard working Youth Comittee we scheduled a couple more. Although I met Glen and Darrell, I was not turned off too much since I had a chance to meet many youth as well. I was skipping the last two weeks of class to go to Korea, but did have time to lead a Wednesday night program before leaving.

While in Korea I met Sunny's (my fiancee) for the first time and that wen't great. They don't speak any English so I was pretty nervous. I also received an email calling me here to be presented to the church as the new Youth and children's guy. I was thrilled to say yes. When I got back we had a good ole' BBQ dinner and some ultimate frisbee followed by a vote the next day.

And that, lady's and gentlemen is the story of me coming here.

Ps. As always, check out my yahoo pics for extra pictures.