Fasting is a spiritual discipline that has, certainly in the USA, fallen by the wayside. Richard Foster, in his Celebration of Discipline, makes a humorous but very sad comment regarding the American attitude toward fasting. He said something like this – In our culture (American) if we don’t eat three full meals a day with several snacks in between we believe… Continue reading
What are your kids doing this summer? Why not have them spend some time giving back? We are so excited about our summer missions opportunity for our 6th-12th graders. Continue reading
This month at Powerhouse’s Kids Connection our kids are learning about Paul the Apostle and how important your friends are to the person you become.
We all can look back on our lives and think of friends that made a difference. As we know Paul had many friends that gave him strength and championed him to continue to spread the gospel to all. Paul knew he had to surround himself with people who believed what he believed and lived out the gospel accordingly. Continue reading
It was 1992 and I was a youth pastor at a local church in Wyckoff, NJ. A father of two kids in my youth group asked me a question, “Hey Jeff, you’re a youth pastor, so tell me why so many kids can’t function today when they come out of college and into the work place.” I asked him Continue reading
Easter has begun for our kids here at Powerhouse. This past Sunday we had our Easter Egg Hunt. The kids were ready to go with their baskets and enthusiasm. Now from my past experience Easter egg hunts usually end with a few tears. At least one child if not two or three don’t get enough eggs or want the eggs their sister or brother or friend got. Someone usually falls or trips or gets run over by a bigger kid. So as I counted down from ten to let the madness begin, I stopped and told the kids lets pray first for your safety as you go hunting for eggs. Continue reading
It was on a short-term mission trip that I was asked one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked as a pastor. It was our last night on the Six Nations Indian Reserve. There were 26 of us, 19 teens and 7 leaders. We had finished building two cabins, a 100′ water line, shower house and dock on the Grand River. We also shared our faith with scores of children. We were all sitting around a campfire, when one of the teens asked… Continue reading
Do you have a student involved in PYG (Powerhouse Youth Group)? Then be sure to sign up to receive our weekly text messages. When you sign up you will get periodic updates about events and happenings within PYG as well as a weekly “drive time” question, which will be a short open-ended question about the topic of the night at our Sunday night gathering, so you can keep the conversation going outside of Youth Group! Signing up is super simple. Continue reading
In my last post I covered option # 2 of 3 on why the innocent suffer or why is there evil in the world? Today, I’ll finish up with option #3 – God Exists and Evil Exists. Within this option there are actually three choices: Evil is greater than God and therefore… Continue reading
The Easter season is under way here at Powerhouse’s Kids Connection. This month we are asking the question, “Who is Jesus?” All of our classes are learning about the life of Jesus. Our younger classes are learning about the miracles Jesus performed and the impact they made in His ministry. Our older classes are taking it a step further and learning about the prophecies of the coming Messiah and His ministry. Our kids are learning how every aspect of Jesus’ ministry was very intentional from the prophecies to the parables, to the miracles and the people He chose to share His ministry with. Our kids are opening their eyes and ears to the word. They are leaving church full of the Spirit and with an enthusiasm for their faith and all that it can do for others. God is good and we praise him for our kids and the teachers who minister to them.
Join us every Sunday to learn and live the life Christ wants us to. Our church serves everyone including the towns of Ramsey, Allendale, Wyckoff, Suffern, Mahwah, Oakland, Waldwick, Glen Rock, Ridgewood, Saddle River, and many more towns.
Last week at PYG we wrapped up our series Behind The Scenes with probably one of the most important topics we have discussed thus far. The issue of suicide is a real issue that sadly almost all of our kids wrestle with in some way, shape or form. As we spoke in PYG I did a quick survey to see how many of the teens had been effected in some way by suicide. Not surprising, close to 100% of the teens in the room said that either they or someone they know have wrestled with suicidal thoughts. Sadly there are a great number of kids who are never able to process through their feelings and eventually get to the point where they feel “having no life at all is better than living the life I have now.” Continue reading