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Sex Is – Serious

Sometimes the things that we think are not a big deal really are. Take sex for example. Sure, it’s a big deal to some people, but other people dismiss it as just a normal part of a relationship or a rite of passage. And when treated that way, if we aren’t careful, sex becomes just something casual. But sex isn’t really casual. It’s, well, serious. There’s more to it than just a physical act. It’s more complex than that. And while we know it’s a big deal because of what “bad” things could happen, there’s a much bigger reason why it’s serious—it’s how God created it to be.

Join us this week as we explore why Sex Is Serious.

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Sex Is

Everyone has an idea of what sex is. Some people think it simply is an act to meet a physical “need.” Others believe it’s the way to make a relationship closer. Some people treat it like an addiction, while others have been burned by it. So what is sex? What was it created to be? Because if everyone has such a strong idea of what it could be and should be, maybe we need to find out what it is really and how we live with what we learn?

Session One: Sex Is . . . Serious (August 22nd)
Sometimes the things that we think are not a big deal really are. Take sex for example. Sure, it’s a big deal to some people, but other people dismiss it as just a normal part of a relationship or a rite of passage. And when treated that way, if we aren’t careful, sex becomes just something casual. But sex isn’t really casual. It’s, well, serious. There’s more to it than just a physical act. It’s more complex than that. And while we know it’s a big deal because of what “bad” things could happen, there’s a much bigger reason why it’s serious—it’s how God created it to be.

Session Two: Sex Is . . . Powerful (August 29th)
You know sex is power in our culture when it’s used to sell cheeseburgers or furniture. But sex is power in a relationship too. Guys and girls use it to get what they want. And the tricky thing about sex is, just when you think you have the power, it can backfire. When you try to abuse its power, everybody loses. You can’t underestimate the power of sex, because if you aren’t careful, it will end up costing you.

Session Three: Sex Is . . . Everything? (September 5th)
Sex is serious. Sex is powerful. But sex isn’t everything. Yes, we said it. Sounds like heresy in our culture, doesn’t it? But there’s more to relationships than just sex. Sex may meet a need, but it never fully satisfies the deepest needs we have. There’s more to relationships than that. There are plenty of married Christian people who “get” to have sex, yet find out that there’s more to connecting with another person than just physically. Yes, sex is great. Yes, sex is important. But sex wasn’t created to meet every need and be everything.

Session Four: Sex Is . . . More (12th)
Information can be overwhelming. Sometimes you just want someone to set everything aside, and get real with you. You want him or her to have a real conversation. This session is much different from the rest of the series. It takes into account the past three weeks, but also gets real with where students are. Because when it comes to sex, they may be at different places. And they need someone to acknowledge that and help them move in a good direction.

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Yak Olympics

Wednesday, June 9th Renovate Students will be holding its first ever Yak Olympics. Think gross games and general mayhem. You will need to wear modest clothing that you don’t mind getting VERY dirty, a trash bag, a towel and a change of clothes. You WILL get dirty, handle and/or eat very smelly foods and potentially YAK lunch.

Invite your friends and let’s turn this place out.

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Teen Camp Alva 2010

Summer is only a few months away and we are gearing up for a full blast of camps and events. The first camp out of the box for 6-12th graders will be Teen Camp at Alva from June 20-25. This camp is put on by the folks who run the KBA camp and promises to be a great time. I hope that you will begin to talk your friends into going with you to camp so that we can have as much fun and tell as many people as possible about following Jesus.

Cost is $130 before May 3rd and $150 after May 3rd
June 20-25
Students will need to complete both the Teen Camp Alva Health Form and a HarrahChurch Medical Release Form. These can be found on the forms page at http://wwwrenovatestudents.org/forms.

If you have any questions contact Jeremy Davidson at Jeremy@HarrahChurch.com or call (405) 454-6690 x102.

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Rock and Roll Roadshow Concert

The Roadshow 2010! from The Roadshow on Vimeo.

Contact Jeremy Davidson or Angela Bodette for more information.

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Spring Break Trip San Antonio

HarrahChurch is taking a Family Fun trip to San Antonio. Activities include visits to The Alamo, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Tubing down the Guadalupe River, Shopping, Riverwalk Riverboat Tour, Brackenridge Park and Japanese Tea Garden, and several trips to the hotel pool.

Children 5 and under will not be able to tube down the river. An alternative activity will be provided.

Cost only includes (2) meals. You will be responsible for all other meals.

We will be staying at the Doubletree Hotel in San Antonio near the airport.

Register for this event by clicking the link below.

https://harrahchurch.smartevents.com/san-antonio-spring-break-2010

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Orange Week: Refine the Message

Do remember the opening scene of Back to the Future. Check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feXM9Nml_74. Marty McFly gets blown away by the speaker. That is exactly what we want to try to do every week at HarrahChurch. One of our core values is to be relevant to the people we are trying to communicate with each week. Pastor Jimmy works really hard when writing his sermons to craft memorable phrases and ways to communicate the truth each week. In “Think Orange” Reggie Joiner states, “How you say what you say is as important as what you say.” We couldn’t agree more.

If you want people to really hear what you are saying then you need to:

• Say Less
• Say What Matters
• Say It Clearer
• Don’t Say It
• Say It Louder

At HarrahChurch we are doing this each we by coordinating each of our weekly experiences for our children and students to say the same thing. That means that even though your son or daughter is here (3) times a week they are hearing the same message in all three experiences. We believe that when we teach less, your children will learn more.

We have been spending a lot of time in the recent weeks working with architects on building plans for new Children’s and Student Worship Space that will allow us to communicate more effectively. There are still a lot of ways we want to communicate to our students and parents that are currently out of our reach. We believe that these new spaces will not only create more space for the kids, but it will create new means of communicating with them. It is not just our words that communicate to people, but our environments and classrooms communicate to people. We have enjoyed tremendous growth over the past years, but we have come to a point where we can not grow our Sunday School classes without building more classrooms or asking our adult small groups to stop meeting so that we can have more class space for our children’s classes. I feel that when visitors come to our church and go to drop their child off in a classroom that is so crowded that they couldn’t walk to the other side of the room they come to the conclusion that we won’t be able to provide their children with an environment conducive to effectively communicating the gospel. There are a lot of different learning styles for children and students, but some of them require more space to facilitate. We believe that our future space will enable us to communicate more effectively to children with a learning style other than the traditional lecture.

Pastor Jimmy and I spend time each week going over how we are going to say what we are going to say. We work hard to stay on the same page with each other. We want our messages to be sticky. We don’t want to just talk. We want to be heard, so we spend time crafting clever ways to communicate the truth each week. My favorite quote from Jimmy’s message this past weekend was, “We need intentional parenting, not conventional parenting.” He was so happy about that quote that he had to come and share it with me. He was like a kid that found a $20 bill at the park and he just had to tell everybody. That was a sticky point of his message for sure.

Finally I want to share with you that we are using every possible environment and tool in our hands to communicate our message each week If you look around the church this week you will see that our sermon series is called FamilyTimes, that we are selling a new CD curriculum for parents to use at home called FamilyTimes. This new curriculum reinforces the messages that we are teaching your children in Sunday School, Worship Care, and on Wednesday nights each week. We are sending GodTime Cards, Refrigerator Cards and/or Small Talk Sheets home with you kids twice a week for you to use at home to reinforce the bottom line for each week. We have placed posters in our halls to teach you the three important truths we want to communicate to your children. We have created the HarrahKids and RenovateStudents websites to help you learn our strategy and to keep you informed about what we up to.

So how are you keeping up with our strategy? One of the best things you can do is to pick up the book Think Orange by Reggie Joiner in the cafe or online or attend one of the upcoming training events we will be having to educate our volunteers and to show parents of preschoolers how they can use our materials at home to reinforce each month’s teaching.