Confirmation huddle    Oct. 2011

Those in attendance:  Matt Sobolik, Linette Angelastro, Marcus Friederichs, Donna Baird, Tracie Fickenscher

6:30-7:00pm= Hi’s and lo’s,  read Phillipians 4:4-9, pray

7:00-8:00pm= 

-how’s it going in general?  How are small groups? How has format been so far? Do people feel like they know what they are doing in terms of covering our areas..being outside with kids, cleaning up after dinner, getting to small groups ok…do we need more time for small groups?  I’ve noticed that some groups are praying together…that’s great…is this a reason for allowing for more time?

Action: Discussion about how it might be nice to have  a little more time in small group.  Decided we needed to do better at starting at 6:30 even if it means not letting students out to play on blacktop.  PE will try to dismiss at 7:25pm

-up-coming topics:   The Promise Continues (Jacob wrestling with God), Moses and Wanderings, of Tents and Kings (Saul and David), Psalms, Wisdom Literature (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job)…difficulty is covering such a broad sweep of Scripture…will do general summary while still focusing on specific story… does anyone want to share life story for any of these topics or know of someone who we might invite?

-how is it going talking about the topics?  Do you have time to get to them?

Action:  Talked about needing more time (see above)  Also talked about how it would be good to do some of the skits in the large group.

-are the journals being used?  Should we buy the next set for new year, just make our own, or not even use them? 

Action:  There was a variety of discussion on this.  Some students not using them, some are. General sense was that the nice book format with colors is more attractive and appealing than just printing them ourselves.  Decided that Guides would try and solicit direct feedback from students the next couple of weeks and get back to Pastor Erik.  Also talked about just getting enough for those students who really used them as well as having parents help pay for the journals as a way of helping the budget and getting buy-in for the program.  No one thought it was too much to ask to have parents help buy them.

On a related topic, there was discussion about how best to get parents involved with following up on weekly check in with their youth.  It was suggested that included in weekly e-mail we could put the theme verse and a reminder to parents to have time with their youth and sign off on sheet and explain why we are doing this (because we believe faith starts in the home and the church is just there to support it).  Pastor Erik to follow up on this.

-up-coming events:   

Friday Nov.  4= Never-Ending Night…meet at 7:30pm at Mount Cross

Wednesday Dec. 14=  Christmas caroling night…remind guides how this works and that we will need them to drive

Discussion:  Linette may not be available to drive but other guides should be able to help.

Confirmation students serve as Sunday worship assts. for :    Jan. 29, Feb. 12 , 2012…we will split the class into two groups with adults assigned to a group, we will do little “training” session Wednesday before, and let kids pick to a certain extent of where they want to go

Discussion:  It was suggested that extra time be spent with the readers since even though it is great to have the youth helping, when lessons are not read well it distracts from worship

-Budget request…Learning committee no longer exists, so the guides are my Junior high youth ministry team…need their approval for 2011 budget (see back for where we spent money last year)…journals were bigger expense this year along with backpacks…should we do those again?

Discussion:   There were some good questions clarifying what certain line items were for.  For example it wasn’t clear what the cost at CVS pharmacy was for.  Pastor Erik explained that it was for developing pictures for making posterboards after events.  Everyone thought the backpacks were a great gift to confirmation students and should leave in an amount to purchase them. (The cost for them shows up under Pacific View printing).  There was consensus that we should keep budget at $1,700, allowing money for purchasing journals while at the same time having the understanding that we could charge for them as well.

Closed in prayer