Apr 27 2012
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Apr 27 2012
Adult Helpers Nursery Helpers Needed!
This is a special plea for help in the Nursery. Approximately 8 families currently use the Nursery on a regular AND irregular basis and all of those families are making a point to “help.” To share the love, we’d like several more adults to sign up to help.
It’s as easy as walking in the door and spending an hour with beautiful children.
However, as we become aware of how we need to protect our children, there are some requirements.
- The “staff” attendants for the CV Nursery are high school youth; therefore, at least one “adult” must be present if there are ANY children to care for.
- Anyone helping with children in the Nursery must complete and pass a background check, as outlined by the Church staff and council. Blank forms are available from the office, in the Nursery and at the Children & Family and Worship & Music bulletin boards. It takes just a few days to receive background check results. Simply drop it off, mail or fax (952-454-0300) it to the CV Office.
- Anyone who has passed a background check for other activities (i.e., Faith Trek, VBS, etc.) has completed the requirements.
Among those children who are often in the Nursery, we are unable to predict when and/or how often there will be children to care for in the Nursery. If there is “one” or more, an adult must be present; if there is none, the volunteer adult isn’t needed, but we still need to have someone scheduled.
We truly need your help and would appreciate it if you could occasionally find one hour to be the “adult” in the Nursery. Watching our children “grow” is a gift from God, as are the children. If you know of anyone else who might be interested in helping, they should sign up on the schedule at the Worship & Music bulletin board or contact any of the team leaders.
Please help! As always, let us know if there are any questions or suggestions.
Janice Johnston
Joyful Servants Coordinator
952-432-6452 / jjj2@charter.net
Apr 27 2012
TEC – Minnesota Metro Lutheran Teens Encounter Christ
For some, it’s the stories about struggle that resonate most. For others, it’s a tale of abuse, addiction or loss that grabs opens their heart.
Over the course of three days, kids who attend Minnesota Metro Lutheran Teens Encounter Christ weekend walk away with a deeper relationship with God and a better understanding of where to find Him in their everyday lives.
Started 25 years ago, Minnesota Metro Lutheran Teens Encounter Christ is a peer-led retreat aimed at bringing youth (9th grade through 1 year post high school) together to explore their faith, experience God’s Love and develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. “At TEC, kids share their personal stories and show how through different things going on in their lives, Christ has been there for them,” Paula Nierengarten, one of the adult volunteers at Christus Victor who has long been involved with TEC. “When kids come back from TEC weekend, most have a better relationship with God and they learn to look for Him in the little places.”
The weekend begins at 4p.m. on a Friday afternoon, known at camp as “Die Day.” That first day serves as a time of personal reflection. Saturday is Easter, “Rise Day” – a celebration of the newness of life through Christ’s resurrection. Sunday is “Go Forth Day,” where participants prepare to go home and meet the challenges of sharing Christ with those around them. While some might think of TEC as just another bible camp, Nierengarten has seen firsthand the impact TEC can have on youth.
“All of us come to the table with different opinions and ideas about what our faith is,” Nierengarten says. “To begin to evangelize about your faith and what you believe, you have to do it in a safe environment because otherwise, you could be shut down right way. TEC provides that sort of safe environment.
The kids that walk in reluctant to explore their faith, or perhaps unsure of what they believe, leave with a fresh perspective and an open heart. TEC helps them build up confidence in their faith and figure out how they can share God’s word with others, Nierengarten said. By the time the weekend is over, most of the kids are ready and willing to share that faith with others. Many walk away with such a high level of confidence, that they return to the church leaders; helping with communion, leading at Sunday School and volunteering more time with the younger kids of the congregation at Vacation Bible School.
“These kids figure out their faith, share their faith, do deeper bible studies and become leaders in the congregation,” Nierengarten said. “Those are the kids that keep our youth programs alive.”
Apr 27 2012
Expanding and Deepening Youth Ministry by Lyle Griner, Director of EveryDay and Peer Ministry Leadership
Privileged to help train and coach the Christus Victor Youth Ministry team!
Kids are too busy to participate? Not true! Busyness creates emptiness. Busy kids are often the most spiritually hungry kids. Kids make time for what is most meaningful, and gives purpose.
Ministry is built on relationships. God became flesh and dwelt among us. (Jn 1.14) It is in the caring, welcoming and affirming acts of others gives an understanding of God’s Love. We love because Christ first loved us. (I Jn. 4:9)
Expand and deepen ministry? How? We train and equip relational faith people. That is why Christus Victor’s youth ministry is growing. The math is simple. If you have one person doing all the relational work, you end up with 4 to 8 kids. That is a person’s relational capacity for keeping up with people on a weekly basis. So, we have trained some dedicated youth and amazing adults in Peer Ministry Leadership who now are leading WED night high school gathering. The numbers are up, and new depth added. As kids are learning and being led by other kids who can pray, lead faith life discussions, and open a Bible to explore. Kids listen to kids! They are real people modeling out an every day, everywhere and every relationship kind of faith.
Applaud! Encourage! Ask about candle times! about Grace Place! about Faith and Life discussions! Most of all get to know a young person you have not met yet. Care, welcome and affirm that young person. They are not too busy. Especially if they have not gotten a chance to get to know you!
Apr 27 2012
FAITH STORIES – Paula & Stephen Nierengarten
Paula & Stephen
Sometimes faith is accepting God’s will at the toughest of times. For Paula Nierengarten, the realization that she and her husband could not have their own biological children was a true test of faith.
“I won’t say I didn’t say, ‘What did I do wrong? God don’t you love me anymore?’ ” Paula says of those difficult days. “But I never turned away from worship. God will give you what he wants to give you. We figured God had a purpose for us.”
Indeed, God had a plan for Paula and Steve. Today, the couple has more kids than they could ever count, serving as parents to dozens of youth at Christus Victor. Whether through Spirit Bound – which is how Paula and Steve first got involved with Christus Victor – or at Minnesota Metro Lutheran Teens Encounter Christ, Paula and Steve are ever-present in the lives of many of the congregation’s youth. “Being involved with Spirit Bound and TEC allowed me to parent without being a parent. It fulfilled a need that Steve and I had in our lives,” Paula said. “I have more youth friends than I do adult friends. It’s a good feeling.”
Today, Paula’s deepened her commitment to the congregation’s youth by serving as a volunteer youth leader. “I’ve worked with teenagers who haven’t heard of God,” she said. “It puts it on my heart to make sure they get to know Him. I can’t imagine where I’d be without God.”
One of four children – and a twin, no less – Paula grew up in a Christian family. “I just accepted Christ as being part of my life,” she said, crediting her mother and grandmother with giving her a strong faith foundation. “We were of the generation that when Mom went to church to work on the rummage sale, we just went. We didn’t say, ‘I don’t want to go.’ We went and we helped.”
Still, it wasn’t until the ninth grade that Paula truly accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. That was the year she and her sister were transitioning out of a parochial elementary and middle school into public high school and discovered Chuck Jacobson and Young Life – a nondenominational group that met one night a week at someone’s home to worship, celebrate with music and share stories of faith.
“It was a way for my sister and I to figure out how God worked outside of our little family and our environment,” Paula said. Paula’s faith has grown even stronger since she married Steve. “I have an extremely positive husband. I can come home and complain about something and he will put a positive spin on it. That is a blessing,” she says. “Surrounding ourselves with people who love the Lord as much as you do is also important. So is being in a community of believers.”
Paula is drawing on that faith again today as she helps counsel her mother, who is caring for her aging father. “I find myself encouraging my mom’s faith, which is what she did for me growing up and when I couldn’t get pregnant,” Paula said. “Sometimes bad things do happen, but I think He walks through those bad situations with us.”
Feb 01 2012
Holy Communion Preparation
All 5th graders and any older youth who have not received 1st Communion preparation, are invited, with their parents, to attend a series of Sunday morning learning experiences to better understand
and prepare to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
Holy Communion Preparation begins on Sunday, March 4, at 9:45am. We will meet each Sunday morning: March 4, 11, 18, 25, and April 1. 1st
Communion will be received during the Maundy Thursday worship, April 5 at 7 pm.
Information will be coming out to the 5th grade families. If you have an older child who would like to participate in Holy Communion Preparation, please contact Pastor Kent at (952) 454-6927 or
pastor.kent@christusvictor.org.
