Faith Students

FaithStudents 5.2

“For the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.” – Hosea 4:1b

STORIES MATTER…

The story of Hosea is a hard one to wrap our minds around. It is the story of a marriage that has been betrayed and then the betrayed person buys back their love and redeems them and forgives them. 

This is an illustration of how God loves His people. He gives them a hope and future and then they betray that love. Instead of giving up and allowing them to just walk away, God redeems His people. The story of Hosea is in the Bible because we need to see from God’s perspective what it means to turn and run and then be redeemed. 

Because we are the betrayers. 
We are the unfaithful. 
We are the people that run away from Him who loves us.

BUT, why does this story matter…

This story matters because we are not forever betraying people, we are not always unfaithful, we are not the sum of every time we walk away. He chooses not to see us that way. He calls us His! He calls us His workmanship. He calls us His bought with a price and belonging to Him. So this story matters because the story of redemption is not just a story, it is our identity. 

So how well do you live this story of redemption and not just hear it, do you share your story…

ACTION POINT

We have a tendency of showing our students the clean version of ourselves and not showing them the imperfections. I think many times with my students I allow them see my imperfections when they come up, but I don’t intentionally show them my need of redemption or share with them my stories of unfaithfulness to God. 

The reason is clear, because I don’t want to reopen wounds. our students need to see our flaws and how we walked through it. what is the story of redemption in us that is at work…does that make sense? It is not safe, but it is good. 

God is not safe, but He is oh, so, good.

If you have questions please let me know at: scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-monthly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens

Links

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 5.1

“But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” – John 20:31

STORIES MATTER….

My father was a big camping guy. I learned to camp and to fish early on (he tried to teach me to hunt, but that never took). My uncle and dad would go camping and fishing and since I was the only boy in the house my dad would take me (my sister wasn’t into camping as much). I learned a lot of things about camping and hiking that to this day I remember. 

One thing I always remember about coming home were the stories. Didn’t seem like a lot happened when we left and it didn’t seem like a lot happened on the trip (the odd buffalo showed up). However, when we got home there were always stories we would tell my mom and sister. I would even tell my friends what happened. Because even though it didn’t seem like much it was far different than the usual.  

I go camping with my kids and at night we are in our sleeping bags getting ready to go to sleep and a kid or two will ask for a story. It doesn’t even have to be good they just want to hear a story. Something they can enjoy. Stories about how Carrie and I met, stories about when I went camping, jokes,  spooky stories, just something they can enjoy.  

We love a good story and telling stories is what we do. We want to get lost in the stories and enjoy not knowing (sometimes we enjoy knowing) what will happen next.  

Let me ask you what your favorite bible story is… 

ACTION POINT

This year we are telling stories. We are telling His stories. We are telling our stories and we are telling the stories in God’s Word because we are part of the family of God. wnl, god they are part of our family. We tell the stories because they are our culture and of our family. when we tell family stories we get into it because it’s about us. 

So my action point for you today is to tell your students your favorite bible story, but tell it like it is a family story and something that they will ask about later. Tell me your favorite story and why it is your favorite. What about that story makes you happy or challenges you often. Because no matter how old they get they still want to hear a good story. 

If you have questions please let me know at: scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

Links


Sept 12 | Sunday Morning Class Begins. We will be going through The Story
Sept 13 | Prayer Walk | Meet at Faith Church at 6:30pm
Sept 20| See You At The Pole. 7:30am at your schools flagpole
Sept 24 | Bonfire Night at East
Sept 29 | Worship Team Tryouts

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4.22

“For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” – 2 Chronicles 7:3b

God Provides… 

Got to be a little honest, I am tired. This last week of a mission trip here in Austin and going into our Prayer @ The Fair week -it is busy time and I am looking forward to seeing how God provides. Cause He will, Cause He always does. 

Our missions trip was focused on blessing others. We wanted to share Christ with others and in many ways we get to share Christ when people see that we love them and are willing to bless and help them in anyway. It was great to see the students bless others when they were tired and running on fumes and yet still blessing.  

We had a chance to bless the Austin Park & Rec. Department, Mower Council for the Handicap, Cedar River watershed district, and the jay c hormel Nature Center. I ask that you please be in prayer for these groups as we desire to see God continue to bless them and use them in our community. 

One thing that was great to see was when we asked God a question we were able to see the answer in front of us. We asked God for our group to be a blessing and help to others. We prayed for that and focused on being a blessing and going the extra mile for people and we heard back from them that we are a blessing and that they felt blessed. 

Sometimes when we are direct and ask God to show us something very specific – we see that happen in amazing ways.  So what do you want to see this year in your students and in your lives, pray into that, read His word about that and ask Him to show you that over and over. 

Action Point

This is the end of our summer and the beginning of our school year and we are making plans and getting ready. Here are a couple events that we would love to have your students attend and have a chance to connect with them. 

This Wednesday is Summer WNL @ The Fair (11th)
Our last regular Summer WNL is the next week (18th)
Lastly, Our Amazing Race meets at the High School at 6pm (25th)
Prayer and Praise Night is at 7pm (8/1)
WNL Kickoff/Cookout (8/8)

If you have questions please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

Links

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4.21

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” – Psalm 27:1 esv

Strongholds 

I have been thinking about this word stronghold a lot. What is a stronghold if you use Psalm 27:1 as a guide? The Lord is the stronghold… not a stronghold of right now or of my relationships, but of my life. What does stronghold imply?

I reason I have been thinking about this has to do with our summer wnl series we are doing. It is Neil Anderson’s ‘Who I Am In Christ’. Basically, 32 phrases from scripture of who we really are if we know the Lord. 

Christ does this often, speak truth into who we are in Him because He knows that if He does not tell us who we are in Him we will fill that definition with our own thoughts and our own thoughts are dumb (1 Cor 6:15-19)! Recently I have been having conversations with students and adults that are struggling to trust what God says and I think it comes back to knowing what the Lord says about us and that being a stronghold.

Do we actually hold onto what He says about us with great strength?

Do we share with others who they are in Christ with confidence because of what scripture says?

Action Point

Thank you so much for sharing truths with your students. I pray that they trust in what God says with strength of conviction and power in what He says. I pray things we talk about (July-August) will challenge what your student hears and it will challenge the wrong thoughts that the enemy wants to tell us.

I encourage you to simply speak a truth to your student this summer. Take one a day, there are 32 and so you could do each of them twice for the rest of the summer or just be sporadic if you want. 

If you have questions please let me know at:

scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

Links

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4.20

“And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord,’” – Ezekiel 36:23 esv

God will…

It is an amazing statement when God tells us what He will do 12 times in 11 verses. God is telling us what He plans to do in and around us for the sake of us. I am amazed that He says what He will do for us but yet what he requires of us is pretty unbalanced.  

Do you ever feel that way?

Do you ever feel like what we receive from God is far greater and way more substantial then what we have to give up? Let’s take a look at the list of what He says He will do just in Ezekiel 36:22-32

  • Vindicate the holiness of my great name
  • Take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries
  • Sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean
  • Cleanse you
  • Give you a new heart
  • New spirit put within you
  • Remove the heart of stone
  • Put my Spirit within you
  • Be your God
  • Deliver you from all you uncleannesses
  • Summon the grain and make it abundant
  • Make the fruit of the tree … and the field abundant

Then in verse 32 he says, ‘It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.’ 

This statement intrigues me….

So god does not do this for our glory or for us, but yet we can see the great things we receive from this relationship and what God declares He will do.  However, it is not for our glory or for our benefit, but because He is a good God.

Action Point

So I have a challenge for you. Read Ezekiel 36 sometime this week and spend time in reflection of what He does for us. If you want, right your own list of 12 things that we are in Christ. I am going to challenge students to do this exercise in July at our Summer WNL and we will be talking about this with them, but take some time to do this with them now.  

I’ll even give you a cheat sheet, but I encourage you to  spend some time to answer these for yourself and get your students to do this too. Not only what He has done for us all, but what He has done and promises to do for just us. Make it personal. 

Thank you for trust in our ministry.

I am asking you a question constantly this year: Who is God putting in your life to Love Sacrificially

If you have questions please let me know at: scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

How can I pray for you or your student?

Scott Owens 

Links

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4.19

“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For whom hopes for what he sees?’” – Romans 8:27 esv

Hope that is seen

I have a lot of hope in these students. They have faith and perseverance to follow Christ that is challenging to other students and it is also encouraging to us adults as well. These students struggle and need assistance in many ways, but they also pursue and want to follow Christ in very honest and vulnerable ways. It is great to see. 

Students have a lot of hope. Remember when you were a student and you had so many things ahead of you: Career, Marriage, Vacations, Relationship Issues, Passion, Death, Births, Changes and Moves. All of them are learning experiences that our students have in front of them that we get to see played out.  these are experiences that we already had. Hope comes with all of those choices and decisions.  

‘In this hope we were saved. Hope that is seen is not hope…

If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience’ (Ro 8:24-25)

We know that our hope is found in Christ and trusting that ‘for those who love God all things work together for good,’ (Ro 8:28) means that we rely on His ability to lead us well. So part of hope is reliance and we see that the longer and longer we live this life, but our students do not have that hindsight. 

So allow them to have hope. Hope that is not seen, but believed in….we are blessed to have students that seek out the Lord and desire to grow closer to him.

Action Point

Take moments to encourage them and show them that waiting on the Lord is not just hard, but it is life-giving.  

We are not doing a bi-weekly newsletter during the summer, but instead we will do a monthly newsletter in July and August. Feel free to follow us on Facebook or Instragram or get the text alerts so you can learn about what is happening. We normally take off the month of June, but pick back up in July. 

Thank you for trust in our ministry.I am asking you a question constantly this year: Who is God putting in your life to Love Sacrificially

If you have questions please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

LINKS

EVENTS

May 26th Graduation Banquet at East
June 16th Bonfire Worship Night at East
July 7th Summer WNL Begins at East
Aug 11 Summer WNL at The Fair
Aug 25 Amazing Race

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4.18

“So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, ‘Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.’” – Nehemiah 8:11 esv

Three Weeks Left

We definitely feel like we are in the home stretch of our year. Looking back it has been a longer year than normal. We took off last Spring for about 6 weeks and did the whole zoom thing. So we started back in June for summerWNL and just kept going all the way through till now. Normally we take off the month of June for the sake taking a break/rest/sabbath/pause/stop and not just twiddling our thumbs but getting ready to minister again. 

The end of our long school year is here. may 19th will be the last WNL for the 2020-2021 year. We do have events in June and all summer long and we will be getting those dates and calendars to your students in the next weeks. the calendar is posted on the newsletter this week and you can also print off a copy to hang on the fridge. Make sure and ask your students to participate and invite friends so they can stay involved. 

However, we need to ask the question, how do we finish well? How do we end on a high note?

This year our theme was On Your Mark… and we talked often about being ready to run the race that the Lord set before us and being ready to share the hope and joy that we have in Christ. It is our hope that students don’t just see Wednesday Nights as the holy night during the week and that WNL is their two hours away to seek God, but that He invades and gives hope in all situations, that every moment is holy. For all the days are holy (Nehemiah 8:11) so go out in your day and be used by Him to share about this peace that we have.

I ask that you prayerfully lead your students to take value in what we did this year. What did we talk about and what are the next steps in our faith. Our last three messages at WNL are about going out and sharing the gospel because of His love for us. I pray that your students will do that in intentional ways and share that hope with joy. 

Action Point

Make your home holy ground!

Faith needs to stem from home. Many times we make the church as the main base where faith stems from, however, studies have shown that when faith begins at home (Deut 6) and it is brought into the home then it sticks further in a students mind. It is my hope that faith is in your home and that you have those conversations with your students. 

So the action point for this season is to talk about what God is doing in the world, in your hearts, in our conversations. 

What is God doing in the World?

What is God doing in your Hearts?

What is God doing in our Conversations?

Thank you for trust in our ministry.I am asking you a question constantly this year: Who is God putting in your life to Love Sacrificially

If you have questions please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

LINKS

May 26: Graduation Banquet. Please send 5 photos of your graduate to students@faithchurchaustin.org for our banquet video by May 21st.

Summer calendar is on our website. Be sure and check it out, download it and plan to attend some fun summer events

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4:17

“the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” – Ephesians 3:15-18 nlt

Ephesians People, Start Falling In Love With It Because We Are Going To Be Living It!

In case you have missed it this coming weekend is our Most Amazing Spring Student Inspiriting Vacation Event. It is planned and expected to be amazingly wonderful and awe inspiring. So this weekend we are looking forward to a lot of fun things: Mud Dodgeball against a quilters group, Eating dessert with every meal, playing youth group games like four-on-a-couch, and whack ‘em, worship and messages that will stir our souls and each other. 

It has been a really weird and interesting year and one thing we can depend on is that when we rely on Christ we can run to him and others will be there to encourage us along the way. So I rejoice that we have this time together and as of right now we have 66 students and adults that are planning to be with each other to share, encourage strengthen and bless. 

How you can be a part…

PRAYER! Here is a list:

Jarrod Norvold is our speaker, he has been a youth pastor for almost 20 years, he is a musician, father and soccer coach. Overall, he is great guy, but he is speaking on Ephesians and the value of being the body together. 

Faith Young and Free is our band. It is the youth band that regularly leads us on Wednesday and every once and a while on Sundays. They have a little more time to worship and spend time leading us closer to Him so pray that do that with all joy.

Alongsiders are going to be with your students all weekend and they have to try and encourage them to sleep at night and encourage them to share how their faith is going during the day. Pray for patience and insightfulness.

Lake Beauty Camp is where we are going and that we are able to bless them and that we don’t break anything.

Students coming back changed and with a heart for God and others. When we step away for a weekend we find rest and God can enter in and do amazing things. We are praying for Amazing Things to Happen!

Non-Action Point

Here is a challenge for all of you parents that are sending their students to MASSIVE this weekend, Write them a letter! 

Write a letter to your students about who you see them as and what God can do for them this weekend. Take a moment to write a letter about how much you love and pray for them and what a weekend like this can do for their faith. Share your personal experiences about growing in Christ.  Make it honest, Make it encouraging and send it with them or you can send it to me (scott@faithchurchaustin.org) and I will give it to them Friday night. 

Thank you for trust in our ministry.I am asking you a question constantly this year: 

Who is God putting in your life to Love Sacrificially

If you have questions please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

LINKS

DATES TO REMEMBER

Dinner with Grama Josie AND Death By Salsa are this Wednesday April 21

Guatemala applications must be turned in by April 28th

Graduation Banquet is May 28th at East

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 14.6

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 esv

I was greeting people as they came into church on Sunday and I met a man I knew and asked him how he was doing. his response was not new or different, but it did take me aback and cause me to just listen and take stock in what is happening nowadays.

‘Hey Sir, how are you doing?’

‘Hey Scott, I am doing amazing…I am just feeling so blessed in life right now and so yeah…things are going good.’

‘Things are good? Family?’

‘Yep’

Work? Kids?’

‘Yep, I am feeling blessed in this season of life!’

Then he just starting talking about how God has opened His eyes to all the wonderful things and good things that God is doing and how life could be different and yet in this ‘Season’ of life he is feeling unbelievably blessed.

I am writing this on Tuesday, April 6th and in a couple of hours I will be going to the funeral of Adelia Mae Dundas. Today is not an easy day and for the Dundas family it is only a day that the Lord can sustain them through.

Going through a ‘Season’

What does it mean to go through a season? 

Sometimes we have wonderful seasons of blessings and sometimes we go through difficult seasons of frustration and feeling dry like we are going through a desert. We understand that there are good times and also bad times in life. sometimes we assume that this does not happen in our faith. It does happen more often then we think and honestly many of these are based on our own perspective and mood. 

What kicks us out of our difficult times or makes us notice the good moments?sa We open our eyes in the difficult moments and realize that we are blessed. That no matter what we have happening we can care and love others going through far worse and we can be that joy to others and that allows us to know that this season, however long it lasts, will be done. However, He is always good.

Non-Action Point

We have two large things coming up this spring and summer. We have a MASSIVE spring retreat coming up the weekend of April 23-25 and we have 40 students coming, but would love some more. You can register your student at faithchurchaustin.org/students.

Our High School students are planning on going to Guatemala this July and we have applications for any student that is interested in coming on the trip. We do have an informational meeting if you are interested in coming, this Sunday at noon. If you are interested in coming please let me know because I don’t have many attending.

Thank you for trust in our ministry.

I am asking you a question constantly this year: Who is God putting in your life to Love Sacrificially
If you have questions please let me know at:

scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

Links

Informational Meeting Sunday April 11th 12:00pm at East building to discuss mission trip to Guatemala for high school students. Please let Scott know if you plan to attend.

Massive Registration is on our website. Don’t miss out on this fantastic weekend. http://www.faithchurchaustin.org

FaithStudents

FaithStudents 4.14

“Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding,” – Romans 14:18 esv

I would love a definition about what mutual upbuilding is and should be. I know what it could be or what the ‘Churchy’ definition can be when we are in a small group, but what did that look like in the first century with believers scattered. Do you ever feel like we come up with an understanding to what the scriptures are saying but sometimes you wonder how far we are off from those that wrote the words?

Many times in my faith I have wondered (as I am sure you have as well) how far I have jumped off (or from) what the original authors meant. I mean I think I understand what Charles Dickens meant when he penned ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…’ but what was in his mind when he wrote that genius opening to A Tale of Two Cities?

Romans 14:18 is at the tail-end of a letter written to believers in Rome from Paul. In this part of the letter Paul is talking about not being hinderances to the growth of the body and the value of being an encouragement. We have a responsibility to encourage and build up the body. We cannot wash our hands from the body when we don’t like elements of what they think, but instead we are to build them up even if they don’t want it (2 Tim 3:16-4:5)

M.A.S.S.I.V.E.

We have a chance to do this in a very real way with our spring retreat (April 23-25) at Lake Beauty Bible Camp. It is going to be the Most Amazing Spring Student Inspiriting Vacation Event!! (See what we did there??) Cost is $95 for the whole weekend if your student is registered on or before March 24th, scholarship money is available because we want students to get away to experience the Goodness of God.

We are going to have a spring retreat with just our student ministry for the weekend. We have a speaker coming, our worship team is leading us in worship and we will be doing awesome fun events like Campfires, Polar Dip, Sauna, Mud Dodge Ball, Laser Tag, Challenge Ropes Course and more. We are focusing on getting away and hearing from the Lord what He is doing and saying in our lives so we would love to have your students. 

Action Points

What does Mutual Upbuilding mean to you as a believer if you know Christ as your Lord and Savior? 
Does this verse apply to parents to take ownership of the faith of your students? 
Does that look heavy-handed or does that seem like a guiding hand? 
What does the ownership of your students faith look like?

I am asking you a question constantly this year: Who is God putting in your life to Love Sacrificially
If you have questions please let me know at:scott@faithchurchaustiin.org, facebook.com/FaithChurchStudents, instagram.com/fcstudentmin/

Our bi-weekly emails will be focused on encouraging you parents with resources and filling you all up to disciple your students. How can I pray for you or your students?   

Scott Owens 

LINKS

April 23-25 MASSIVE Retreat. Registration open on our website. Early Bird ends March 24. Save $30 and register now

NO DIG April 4
NO DIG April 25
NO WNL April 31