Pastor Al Paulauski, From Your Pal Pastor Al, Fair Haven Assembly of God Church

Pastor Al Paulauski

From Your Pal January 2007

     There is a new and exciting development underway with students today. Young people are discovering and using their spiritual gifts. The result is that this generation of students are much more active in peer ministry and the benefits are eternal.
     A few weeks back on a Wednesday evening in youth we dealt with an issue that many students deal with. It was the issue of feeling worthless or that they can't do anything significant with their lives. As we approached that issue we discovered from reading Matthew chapter 25 that God has deposited into each of our lives gifts and talents. Therefore, the only conclusion that we could come up with is that our lives are valuable and that they are made to do something significant. Otherwise, God would not have given us these gifts.
     In recent years as we have seen students get in touch with using these gifts, we have seen many more of them stay in the church over the long haul. One of the key ingredients to keeping students active in the church is to allow them to learn and apply their spiritual gifts in ministry.
     One of the ways we do this as a youth ministry/denomination is to get students involved in Fine Arts Festival. Fine Arts Festival gives students a chance to begin to discover and practice using their spiritual gifts, while at the same time receiving constructive criticism. Students who participate in Fine Arts Festival often times find out what their gifts are and what they are not. Fine Arts Festival is coming up in March. If your child would like to begin to discover what their gifts are, have them see me as soon as possible.
     Most young people are very responsive to learning about spiritual gifts. They are intrigued that God would give them a special ability to do his work in the church. I would like to give you a couple of things that you use and talk about with your teenager as they begin to discover their spiritual gifts.
Experiment: Encourage your teenager to experiment. Sometimes the only way to know if God has gifted us in a certain area is to try out that gift. They will never know if they have the gift of teaching unless they try teaching.
     Examine your feelings: Their feelings are very important! If they experiment with the gift of teaching and they feel extremely uncomfortable or embarrassed, then perhaps they don't have that gift (at this time). On the other hand, if they were to experiment with the gift of hospitality and found out that they enjoy entertaining people, feeding the needy, etc., and furthermore, they received personal joy, satisfaction and feel used by God in doing these things, then they may have the gift of hospitality.
      Evaluate your effectiveness: Every once in a while encourage them to stop and think about their effectiveness. Encourage them to ask themselves three questions: "Am I effective?" "Am I having a worthwhile impact on these people?" "Is God using me in this particular area?" Remember: God has given everyone a gift that will be effective.
      Expect confirmation from the Body of Christ: Other Christians should be encouraging or discouraging them (with love) in what they do. Encourage them to listen to others. Weigh their input against their response to the three questions above. The Body of Christ is designed to help them understand and confirm their spiritual gifts.
      Students today desperately want to belong to a cause greater than themselves. The students who stay in church are the ones who are serving and using their spiritual gifts for the glory of God.
January Highlights
1. Grocery store gift cards. Gift cards for Kroger & Farmer Jack will again be available for purchase on Sunday, January 14th after service. By you participating in a program like this we can earn 5% of your purchases towards missions. Remember, it's free money. Please make sure (if you have a Kroger card) that you are recharging your card before your purchase. Fair Haven is also now enrolled in "Meijer Community Rewards." If you will simply sign up with Meijer for a "rewards card" (it's not a credit card) through us, they will give a percentage of your monthly spending to us. Last year you helped us raise more than $1000 for missions. Come by the table and see us for details.
2. Parent's News:
* Parents Meeting - Sunday January 7th from 12-1 p.m. Join Pastor Al and other parents of teenagers for our tri-annual parents meeting. I will give a short encouraging word about parenting, give a testimony of what's been taking place with our youth ministry, giving our Jan-Jun calendars, and be taking questions and concerns. We will again be serving a light lunch for parents and children attending the meeting. Please just let Pastor Al know of your intentions.
* Parents S.S. class - starts Sunday January 14th @ 9 a.m. Pastor Al will again be teaching a class on parenting teenagers. Anyone (even if you don't have a teenager yet) is welcome to attend. There is a sign up sheet at the Information Center in the foyer. If you have any questions about the class please see Pastor Al.
* Parents Get-together - Saturday January 27th. We will again be doing a get-together for all parents of teenagers. It will be held at Keith and Sharon DeGrandchamp's home in Livonia. It's an evening for parents to connect with each other and with Pastor Al and Lana. It will be a potluck again as well. Please sign up at the Information Center in the foyer or contact Pastor Al or Sharon DeGrandchamp.
3. Jr. High Girls Sleepover: On Friday night January 12th there will be a sleepover for all Jr. High girls at Sharon DeGrandchamp's home. If interested see Pastor Al or Sharon DeGrandchamp.
4. STL Bowl-A-Thon: Monday January 15th (Martin Luther King Day) from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. All students are welcomed to join us as we raise money for Speed The Light and have lunch together afterwards. All students who are interested should pick up a pledge form as soon as possible and sign up. The cost will be around $10 per student (includes shoes and three games of bowling) and money for lunch. See Pastor Al for more details.