No Spark or 4ORTY 2WO until 2008!

We will not be having any Student Ministry services on December 23rd or December 30th so that you can join your family for your Christmas Celebrations. We encourage you to worship together as a family and celebrate Christ's birth and the new life He provides for us! Be sure to attend The DIVINE at Point of Grace on Saturday night, Dec. 22nd at 5:30p or Sunday at 9:00 or 10:30 am or 5:30 or 7:00 pm. From all of us on the Student Ministries Team, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We will resume our normal schedule on Sunday January, 6th for the beginning of our new series: Said In (RED). See you in 2008!

SNOWFEST 2008

Don't miss out on the biggest event of the winter! We will be heading up to Afton Alps, Minnesota to enjoy a whole weekend of snowboarding and skiing, great fun and new memories with friends! The cost for this trip is $200 if you have your own equipment and $245 if you need to rent it, and you will need to fill out a signed permission slip to turn in with your money to hold your spot. This trip is going to be a great time to get away and get connected! Charter bus transportation, lodging, most meals and lift tickets are included! If you drop your spot after December 1st, you will be refunded all but $50. There are only 45 spots for this trip and it will sell out, so sign up quick! For more info, you can email students@pointofgrace.com or come to the Habit Shack in the Student Zone during any weekend service. We hope you will come with us!

DON'T MISS ONE!!!!

You will not want to miss this event! We are headed up to the incredible Y-Camp in Boone, Iowa for a weekend getaway with a ton of fun games and activities, great music, inspiring messages and plenty of free time to connect with all your friends from The Spark and 4ORTY 2WO. In addition to all that, you can choose from additional activities like Horseback Riding, Ropes Course or the daring Zip Line. You will not want to miss this retreat! Sign up at the Habit Shack at a weekend service by turning in a permission slip and money. The cost for the ONE Retreat is only $89! But you must register by October 10th... which is only ONE WEEK AWAY!! For more information please email students@pointofgrace.com or call Dawn at 515.987.9595 ext. 130. Don't miss this once a year opportunity to grow deeper with others and with God! It's gonna be a blast!

FACE THE MUSIC - New Series

Starting this Sunday, September 16th, we are beginning our new series called "Face the Music" and its going to be awesome! We will be discussing the spiritual implications from popular songs by artists like Switchfoot, Relient K, Fergie, Paramore, Linkin Park and others. Throughout the series you will get a raffle ticket for every week you come, and if you bring a friend you get an extra ticket and at the end of the series we will raffle off and give away a brand new iPod and other iTunes prizes! Don't miss one week of this exciting 6 week series!

ONE Retreat: October 12th-14th

You do not want to miss this event! We are headed up to the incredible Y-Camp in Boone Iowa for a weekend getaway with a ton of fun games and activities, great music, inspiring messages and plenty of free time to connect with your friends from The Spark and 4ORTY 2WO. In addition you can choose from additional activities like Horseback riding, Ropes Course or the daring Zip Line. You will not want to miss this retreat! You can sign up at the Habit Shack at a weekend service by turning in your permission slip and money. The cost for the ONE Retreat is $79 if you register by September 16th or $89 if you register by October 10th. For more information please email students@pointofgrace.com or call Dawn at 515.987.9595 ext. 130. Don't miss this once a year opportunity to grow deeper with others and with God.

Life Groups - Coming Soon!

Life Groups are starting up again soon! The goal of our Student Ministry is to get as many of you as possible into a small group with other students and a caring adult. Life Groups are our system of small groups that meet in homes throughout the Des Moines area from September to May. This coming weekend, September 9th, we will be discussing the importance of being in community with other Christ-followers.

We will also have our Life Group Kick-Off Party on Wednesday, September 12th at 7:00p in the Student Zone (Theatre) at Point of Grace. We hope that you can make it! Be sure to fill out a Life Group commitment card and have your parents sign it to join in a Life Group. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Katie at katie@pointofgrace.com

Day Two at Big Stuf Camp!

We had an incredible night last night and an amazing session this morning! We are learning how to live in rhythm with both God and ourselves, and then tonight we are learning about how to live in rhythm with other people. Last night after the main session we got to meet as a church group (we are one of the bigger groups here) and talk about what the student caught from the message. Jared Heard challenged them to live a life that puts God in the center so that everything else flows in its natural rhythm. Many of our student opened up about what they were struggling with and what needed to change in their life. It was a great starter! Many of them were still chewing on what we learned two weeks ago back at POG, about who we are trusting more than God. It was really cool to see that they are catching the things that God is doing and speaking into their hearts. Tonight after the session we will meet again and split up into guys and girls and go deeper in to how we can practically love ourselves and others. I cant wait! We are having a blast and the students are being blown away by the speakers and the music and all the cool stuff, like the ocean! We are loving it! Look for more updates tomorrow! :)

Midweek - BOWLING!!

This Wednesday we are having Midweek at Warrior Lanes (right across the street from Church, behind the Dairy Queen). We are meeting at 6:00p and we will be done at 8:15p and it will cost $7 which includes X-treme bowling, shoes rental and pizza! Hope you can make it! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 515.987.9595.

New Series: STORIES!

On Sunday, July 17th we are starting our new Summer Super Series called "Stories" and its going to be amazing! You will not want to miss July 17th! Our whole summer series is going to be a comic book/superheroes theme! Be sure to pick up a Student Ministries Summer Calendar as well. They are flippin' sweet! (And informative, the perfect combination...)

NO 42 THIS SUNDAY (5/27)!

Attention all high schoolers! There will be no 42 this Sunday (May 27th) due to the intense graduation party season that is upon us, as well as the Memorial Day holiday on Monday! So enjoy your weekend and congratulations on graduation! We will see you back on June 3rd, for the final week of our Beyond.Ordinary series. Also, June 10th is Move-Up weekend, and you wont want to miss it!

Beyond Ordinary

This weekend we start our new series: Beyond.Ordinary...

Ever feel like you are just not good enough..? Have you ever said, "Well if I just had his talent, I could do that." or "Well if I was as smart and pretty as her, then that would be easy!"? God wants us to learn He designed us to be just who we are, but we can learn from the mistakes of others in order to grow into the people God dreams for us to become. Who you are is not who you have to be forever! What makes the Bible different from any other religious book, is that it shows the mistakes and flaws of its heroes! Most prophets and teachers from other religions are portrayed as perfect and almost superhuman... but the Bible shows us that God uses people who are very human. Some of the greatest and most recognized names in the Bible are ones that made huge mistakes and messed up, just like us. So for the next 9 weeks we will be looking at what we can learn from some of these Bible characters. Extraordinary lessons from ordinary people! Hope you can make it!

April 15th – Moses (Extraordinary Leadership)
April 22nd – David (Extraordinary Effort)
April 29th – Esther (Extraordinary Courage)
May 6th – Job (Extraordinary Patience)
May 13th – Jonah (Extraordinary Misunderstanding)
May 20th – Rahab (Extraordinary Risk)
May 27th – Mary (Extraordinary Love)
June 3rd – Peter (Extraordinary Faith)

Also... don't forget to check out and befriend the MySpace pages of every single one of these characters! Look for them, new each week!
http://www.myspace.com/mosesfromthebible

LOCK IN!

April 20th-21st from 7pm to 7am we are having a LOCK-IN! 12 hours of craziness for only 5 bucks! We will have food, games, competitions, prizes and more food! You will not want to miss out on this event! And be sure to bring your friends, because we get 150 people to come out, then Kurt is going to shave his armpits! You will need a signed permission slip to participate. You can download that permission slip here:Once you're locked in you will not be allowed to leave until 7am on Saturday, NO EXCEPTIONS... sorry!

What to bring: $5, close toed shoes, a change of clothes, a pillow (for the wusses who’ll fall asleep), a desire to win prizes, a good attitude, and an empty stomach!

SPRING BREAK MADNESS!

STUDENTS!

If you are bored this Spring Break... the excuses are over! We have set up activities every day for us to hang out and have fun together, even during this week off of school! Here are the details:

Tuesday: Lunch at Jordan Creek Town Center Food Court (12-1p)
Cost: Lunch Money

Wednesday: SPORTSPLEX WEST NIGHT! (7-9p)
This event will take place INSTEAD of Life Groups.
Cost: Free if you are in a Life Group, otherwise $5
You will also need a signed SPW Waiver to participate, it can be picked up from Kurt or Katie or downloaded and brought with you.

Thursday: Come see "Believe In Me" (PG) at Century 20 Theaters (inside Jordan Creek Town Center) Show up at 1:30, movie from 2-4p
Cost: $5.50 for movie ticket

Friday: Pizza, Xbox Tournament and Hang out at POG
Meet in the Theatre (Student Zone) from 11a-1p
Cost: $3 for food

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Katie at 515.987.9595 ext. 133 or Kurt at 515.987.9595 ext. 134. hope to see you at all our Spring Break Madness Activities!

Ever Stays Red at Weekend Services!

Ever Stays Red will be performing at all three student services this weekend (March 10/11)! For those of you who missed the concert on Thursday night, come and see one of the freshest new bands in Christian alternative music! They came all the way from Arizona, so come out and support them! We will be continuing our "Do You Like Me? Yes...No...Maybe..." series, and talking about "I've Messed Up... Now What?" So bring your friends for a great message and a great band! See you this weekend!

Do You Like Me? Yes...No...Maybe...

Starting this weekend (February 10/11th) we will be beginning our most exciting series yet! It is called "Do You Like Me? Yes...No...Maybe..." and will address the topics of dating, love, relationships, sex and purity from God's perspective. We hope that you will be able to attend all 6 weeks of this series about these important, and often misunderstood topics.

Also to go along with this series, our Life Groups will be reading through "Every Young Man's Battle" and Every Young Woman's Battle" and learning and discussing together the need for sexual purity and a right view of relationships with the opposite sex.

Here is a schedule of the topics that will be discussed during this 6-week series:
Feb. 10/11th - Boy Meets Girl - How to relate to the opposite sex...
Feb. 17/18th - The Dating Game - When, why and who to date...
Feb. 24/25th - SNOWfest '07 - No Student Ministries services
March 3/4th - How Far is Too Far? - The need for sexual purity...
March 10/11th - I've Messed Up... Now What? - Trusting God for fulfillment and forgiveness...
March 17/18th - Q&A with Kurt and Katie - Real life answers to student's real questions..

Hope to see you for the whole series!! Have a great day!

Kurt and Katie

Too Bad, So Sad...

I have some bad news...

Unfortunately, not enough students signed up for WinterFest (High School Colorado Ski Trip) to happen. The bummer is the people that signed up are the ones who suffer the most, so if you signed up to go to Colorado, here's the deal:

You can either get your money back, or you can transfer your registration to SNOWFest '07 and come to Afton Alps in Minnesota with us instead... the choice is yours, but we hope you will come to SNOWFest! It's from February 23-25th and we will be taking the same style charter bus and staying in a Hotel near the resort. The cost is only $199 so if you put down the $100 deposit, you only owe $99, and that includes EVERYTHING! Lodging, lift tickets, rental, transportation and loads of fun! We hope you will go. You will have to fill out a new permission slip for SNOWFest, but that's no big deal. If you have any questions please call Kurt at 515.987.9595 ext. 134. Hope that clears everything up, and again we are sorry but WinterFest '07 has been canceled! SIGN UP AND COME TO SNOWFest '07 BEFORE IT FILLS UP!!