Pastor’s Page

Hibbing Alliance Church

4220 3rd Avenue West

Hibbing, MN 55746

Office: 218-262-6685

www.hibbingalliance.org

“The Hibbing Alliance Church exists to lead

people to Christ, enabling them to become fully committed to

His purposes.”

PASTOR’S JULY ARTICLE

Continued on page 2

“Teenagers Didn’t Exist Before 1965”

Within the last few months I have been learning a lot about the strug-gles our teenagers face and the low expectations we have for our teens.

My learning curve began after we lost our Associate Pastor/Youth Pas-tor. Then last year I accompanied our teens to Valley Fair. I also be-gan evaluating raising my teen now and how different it is compared to raising his older siblings. I have overheard tragic stories of teen home life here in Hibbing. I was grieved at the senseless death of two of our Hibbing teens just re-cently and how their peers re-sponded in their grief. I have been researching the teen culture of to-day, not only what they face, but also what they are engaged in, and it is not pretty. Two new books be-ing added to our church libray speak to these things:

“Aggressive Girls, Clueless Boys” and “From Santa to Sexting”.

I also read a book called, “Do Hard Things—A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations” by Brett and Alex Harris. This was written by two teen-age brothers. One incredible truth was that the term teenager was never used until a mid 1960’s article from Reader’s Digest coined the term. Up until that time children were expected to move directly from adolescence to adulthood. They were expected to develop in their abilities socially, emotionally, spiritu-ally, and mentally with a strong, pro-ductive work ethic. In essence, they were to mature and fend for them-selves before they reached the age of twenty.

The book cites example after exam-ple of strong, reliable leaders who were very young. An example is a twelve year old who took command of a ship of

Prisoners and safely guided the ship back home. Biblical characters like David, who slew the giant; or Josiah, who brought a revival; or the virgin girl, Mary, who gave birth to the Christ Child are all exam-ples of young adults being used by God.

Unfortunately, once the term “teenager” caught on, adults started putting them into a “weakness” cate-gory. We no longer expect them to do great things other than get on the varsity team or get good enough grades to pass a class, or to simple just stay out of trouble! And then we tend to lower the bar even further to the point that we excuse bad behavior with statements like, “Well, all youth do that kind of stuff so we might as well expect it”, or “it’s too hard for children to memorize Scripture”. Instead of developing responsibility and a strong work ethic we buy them electronics and expect nothing from them except good eye and hand coordination. They practice that for hours on end “dumbing” them-selves down, with our blessing. And because communication devices have become so accessible they chat, text, Tweet, Skype, Facebook, and even communicate dribble through their gaming systems. We adults have encouraged our youth to be unmotivated, lazy, and spoiled. And for some reason, we turn around and complain about it!

Since our young people have so much in “things” and so little in “expectations” they complain loudly to their community, their church, and their families, … I’M BORED!”

Recently, one of our people, sent me the following quite directed toward young people by a college principal …

Northland College (NZ0 principal John Tapene has offered the following words from a

judge who regularly deals with youth … “Always we hear the cry from teenagers,

“What can we do, where can we go?” … My answer is, “Go home, mow the lawn, wash

the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons,

and after you’ve finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational

facilities and your parents do not owe you fun. The world does not owe you a living,

you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy, and talent so that no one

will be at war, in poverty, or sick and lonely again.” In other words, grow up, stop

being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone, not a

wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are and important and you

are needed. It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.

Someday is now and that somebody is you!

After I read this, I shouted, “AMEN!” I do not want my son or our youth to believe that all life is about is having fun and getting what they want. I believe strongly in their ability and their future. They have so much leadership and productive potential. Let’s not surrender them to the thinking that they have nothing to offer until after college.

Proverbs 22:6 states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Adults, it is our responsibility to provide and do the training. Youth are creative. Youth have no prob-lem developing healthy ways to be entertained, but they certainly need adult guidance in the develop-ment of their character and skills. They need role models and mentors. They need us.

Is it possible to recapture a culture which defines our teens as adults? I believe so because I believe in our teens.

Pastor Kevin

Friendly folk needed to help deliver gift bags to the ladies at the Greenhaven Apartments on Wednesday, July 11th, 6:30-8:30 pm (Rain or shine!).

The Mission’s Committee is planning it’s 3rd Annual Greenhaven Meet & Greet for Sunday, August, 12, from 2-5pm. So……

* Start praying—God is at work here! * Set aside winter wear for all ages (this was a BIG success last year!) * Consider being part of this event!

More details coming soon, so watch for them!!!

July Ministry Schedule

Nursery

July 1 Brooke S. & Amy S.

July 8 Jodi & Logan Anderson

July 15 Jen L. & Bridget M.

July 22 Barb S. & Michelle A.

July 29 Brooke S. & Carol M.

July 1 Kris Anderson July 2 Jim/Phyllis McGuire Leland Nyberg July 4 Pam Reini Ruth Pechovnik July 11 Val Norenberg Noah/Brooke July 13 Tim/Diane Wickstrom July 14 Shirley Sunnarborg July 15 Lorinda Freeman Porsha Ellefson July 16 John/Connie Nylund July 17 Eric Monroe July 19 Emma LaVigne July 20 Dave/Marsha Nelson July 22 Don/Clara Downs July 25 Don Mohawk July 28 Barb Buchwitz July 29 Josh Anderson David Meineke

BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES

Ushers

July 1 Matt Anderson, Terry Fisher, Harlee Sirjord, Everett Dague July 8 Dave Nelson, Lonny Schmelzer, Joel Maki, Fran Laine July 15 Bob Hyatt, Mark Larson, Rick Norenberg, Terry Lanska July 22 Matt Anderson, Terry Fisher, Jon Kilen, Bob Modlisz July 29 Dave Nelson, Fran Laine, Harlee Sirjord, Everett Dague

If we missed your birthday or anniversary we apologize! Please

let us know so we can add your

Greeters

July 1 Don & Vi Mohawk

July 8 Jim & Phyllis McGuire

July 15 Dave & Gloria Bush

July 22 Fran Laine

July 29 Jim & Phyllis McGuire

Youth Group has ended for the summer break. Please pray for our youth during the summer months as they face all the challenges there are to be-ing a teen in our culture. Thank you to all who do pray and financially support our youth. We really appreciated all that the church does for us! We are hoping to have a couple of bowling/pizza nights this summer, movie nights, a lock-in or two, and a take a trip to Valley Fair at the end of August. We will be needing helpers for these events, so please let me know if you are available to help out. We have several youth heading to Big Sandy Camp at the end of July, so please pray that God will use this time to work in their hearts. We are planning a major kickball tournament for the United Services Youth to be held at Vic Power. The date will be announced soon. We will also need a lot of helpers for this tournament. It will be a fundraising event for missions work and there will be 30+ teams involved. Once again, thanks for your support of our youth. Please continue to pray that they will be able to stand firm in their faith and to rise above the things of this earth and be holy!. They are our future church! Thank you, Noah Schmelzer

Vacation Bible School July 16-20th

8:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm

Children Ages five to 5th Grade (grade they finished this year) are invited to attend Hometown Nazareth! Registrations are now being taken. Bridgit Maki is in charge of registration, so make sure you give your completed form to her! Our gym is being transformed into Nazareth. Marsha Nelson is overseeing this project. Please see her if you are available to help in any way or have items that you can donate. Our next VBS meeting will be on Sunday, July 8th, after the morning worship service. Please plan on attending if you will be helping at VBS so we can finalize any details that are left to do. On Satruday, July 14th, at 9:00 a.m. we wll be finishing the decorating in the gym. Anyone who is available to help, please come and lend a hand. There is a table in the foyer with items needed for snacks during the week. Please check out the list and help fill the list out. There are still opportunities to help out. Please contact Gloria Bush if you are available to help in any way. THANK YOU!!!

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