Stuck in the Middle: A Place For Jr. High Parents

Welcome to The Spot. Well, that is the name right now. I am open to a much cooler name. This is a place designed to post updates to inform students and parents about what is going on in the FCCH Jr. High ministry. Hopefully, this becomes a useful tool for you. An email will still go out to the parents, but this place will include extra updates and it is accessible anytime you want.
This "Spot" is also for the students. I hope to be able talk about current things in their lives that are important to them. Things such as music, movies and even about some fun moments we have had on Fridays and Sunday mornings. This is a resource to keep people connected.

As you all may or may not know Friday Night Alive is the place to be on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month! Good times are had by all! There is a little dodge ball...OK a lot of dodge ball and other games that make us all very very tired. There is good food that is graciously given by some awesome parents! I just wanted to share another part of the evening that is equally important.
Several weeks ago we asked the teens to write down a question about anything that they were curious about. The idea was to give the teens a place to ask questions that may be on their minds and hopefully offer some answers or direction in finding a good answer. During our last Friday Night Alive we addressed one of the questions asked. All of the questions were anonymous.
The question was "I have a friend who is mad at me for standing up when she was being mean to someone. What should I do?" What a great question. We spent a few moments talking about how many of us have been in similar situations. We talked about how it is hard to stick up for someone sometimes, especially when you have to stand up to someone who is close to you like a friend. I reminded the teens that Christ finds deep pleasure when one of his children defends those who need defended. In Matthew 25:40 Jesus in a parable says, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Standing up for someone is a difficult, but honorable thing to do.
We also talked shortly about being a good friend. We talked about explaining to the friend that the teen had to stand up to about why they did what they did. Sometimes the people we hang out with have such a large impact on our lives that we must evaluate whether or not our friendships are healthy. Sometimes people make mistakes as well and do things that they know they probably should not do. This gave us an opportunity to talk about reconciliation or becoming friendly again and how it can be a hard thing. God sent his Son to reconcile his relationship with us or to become friendly again with us his children. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 talks about the act of reconciliation.
Even though we spent about 5 to 7 minutes on this question it was a great time to dive into real life situations and to see what God has to say about them. Immediately afterward we went to the gym and threw balls at each other for a while! Hopefully this gives you a little deeper insight on what goes on during Friday Night Alive. If you have any thoughts or questions let me know. Email me at andrew@fcch.org . Check back here periodically to see what else to going on in the Jr. High Ministry! Blessings!