(YOUTH) What’s the Bible Say About?

MRPC Parents and Youth,

Summer youth group is almost here! Beginning July 3rd, we will meet each Wednesday night from 6-
7:30.

First of all, I continually praise God for the privilege of walking alongside and supporting you in the work of living out your calling to teach and disciple your children (Deut. 6:6-7, Psalm 78:5, Eph. 6:4, 2 Tim. 1:5-6; 3:14-15). I thank you for the trust you have placed in me and our incredible team of volunteer leaders to come alongside you in this work. Thank you for your support, your trust, and your prayers. The Lord has placed an incredible group of young people under our care. My prayer is that we will be faithful in our calling to serve and love them in the gospel of grace, constantly leading them – not to ourselves but to Christ, the only source of freedom and rest.

It is always my goal as a pastor to seek to teach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). This is why we
often make it our practice in our student ministry to work our way through books of the Bible – for
example, in the last calendar year we have covered Ecclesiastes, Revelation, and are currently studying
Ephesians. I also believe it is my calling as a youth pastor to help our students navigate the current
culture in which they live Biblically.

To that end, I wanted to let you know ahead of our summer youth group schedule that we will be
jumping back into our “What the Bible Says About …” series, where we will be tackling some of the more serious and sensitive topics. Here is what we’ll be discussing:

• Wednesday, July 3rd: Dating, Marriage, and Sex
• Wednesday, July 10th: Homosexuality
• Wednesday, July 17th: Pornography and Sexual Sin
• Wednesday, July 24th: How to Talk About Tough Stuff
• Wednesday, July 31st: RYM week, no talk
• Wednesday, August 7th: Men and Women
• Wednesday, August 14th: Transgenderism
• Wednesday, August 21st: Pool Party
• Wednesday, August 28th: First Week of School, no Youth Group

As is always the case, these harder topics will be handled with sincerity and sensitivity. With that said, as parents you have my utmost respect if you decide to hold your child/children out for some or all of
these topics. One of the books I’ll be using to help me with this material is Five Lies of the Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield.

Dr. Butterfield will be coming to Meadowview on August 24th to speak as part of a Symposium the church is hosting, Entitled “Children of Light Conference” – the entire conference will be free for the youth! She will also lead a forum with Q&A for the teenagers. Save the date! Youth must reserve tickets for this Symposium.  Adults can purchase tickets.  Learn more here.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please feel free to reach out to me, and we
can talk on the phone or schedule a meeting. In the meantime, please join me in praying for our
students and these summer meetings. Pray that the Lord will use them powerfully to help any who are
struggling themselves, or are seeking to lovingly communicate with their classmates and friends. Again,
thank you.

Your Servant in Christ,
Taylor Howsmon