At EPIC, we invited all the graduates to sit on stage and listen as stories were shared by their small group leaders Marianne Parsons and John Cooper.  Then we asked the seniors themselves to reflect back on their time at EPIC over the last four years with memories and impactful stories.  It was a great time! As is our custom,  we pranked the seniors in a special way just to show them how much we love them!!  I think it says somewhere, “we prank those we love!”  It was a great celebration of what God has done in the hearts and lives of our seniors and we will truly miss them!  But we are excited to see what God does in their lives from here!

Key Quote(s): You journey has only just begun

Key Bible Verse:  Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

News & Events:

• 4 SPOTS LEFTClick here to register for CAMP SWO.
• Mission Alabama Click HERE to get more info

Today was an awesome day at EPICmsm. For the last few weeks we have been talking about our testimonies and the importance of evangelism. Today all of the students wrote their testimonies during the service and shared them with their small groups. It was incredible to hear the students articulate what God has done in their lives and how they have been transformed by the Gospel. Students shared what they were like and what they trusted in before Christ, how they came to place their faith in Christ and how their their life has looked different since trusting Christ. Ask your student to share what they wrote with you and encourage them to share their stories with others.

CAMP: Spots are running out for summer camp. Sign your student up today! http://www.thestudentwebsite.com/2013/middle-school-camp/

Sunday’s Lesson

My salvation story = BEFORE + HOW + AFTER

• Before I met Jesus I felt that I…
  
• The important things in life for me were…
• When people asked me about Christians, God, the church, or the Bible, I…
• But then I met/heard/got invited to…
• I heard…
• Then I realized that…
• So I…
• Now that I’m a follower of Jesus, I…
• When I think about God, I…
• I still struggle with/have questions about…
• But now I can look forward to the future because…

This week at EPICmsm we kicked off a new series called Way.Truth.Life. The goal of this series is to train students to share an evangelistic testimony. We will be training students over the coming weeks but before we got started we had to take time and talk about prayer as the fuel that evangelism runs on. If God doesn’t move, nothing happens. Two of our adult leaders shared testimonies and rather than just talking about prayer we led our students through a guided prayer time. It was an awesome morning and we are looking forward to hearing the stories of God’s faithfulness in the lives of our students as the series unfolds.

Summer camp is approaching quickly. Don’t wait to sign your students up for camp this summer! Camp is an incredible opportunity for students to grow spiritually, bond with other students and have a ton of fun. Scholarships are available but forms need to be turned in ASAP. Click here to register your student.

Sunday’s Lesson

Small group questions:

1. Why is evangelism important?
2. What is the most important part of evangelism?
3. Why is prayer the most important part of evangelism?
4. Who are people you know who don’t know Jesus that you can start praying for?
5. What are some specific things that you can start praying for them?
6. Will you commit to pray for unbelievers? What exactly will you commit to do? Pray daily? Prayer walk your school? Meet with a group of friends at the flag pole? Get specific.

Middle school parent? Click HERE to read our middle school Rewind.

God is good!  There is no EPIC this weekend as we are encouraging our Students to stay home and enjoy Mom!  Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms from EPIC Student Ministry.

Key Quote(s): Stop pretending and starting being who God has created you to be!

Key Bible Verse:  Psalm 33:1-11

News & Events:

• High school: Click here to register for EPIC SUMMER CAMP SWO.
• Mission Alabama Click HERE to get more info

Wow! What an EPIC night at the Human Trafficking Forum! We are so encouraged by what God is already doing in the Tampa Bay area through some of the organizations that were represented Sunday night like Created (createdwomen.com).  Please continue to pray with us as we seek to partner with some of these organizations and discern what God is calling STF and EPIC to do in the fight to end human trafficking. For more information about human slavery you can check out enditmovement.com.

This week at EPIC we will be celebrating God and His glory during a night of worship! We are excited to simply focus on God.

Key Quote(s):

“Jesus uses us to be the hands and feet and love on the people many have forgotten about.”

“You’d be surprised how many people don’t know this is happening. We must spread awareness to stop this.” — Det. McBride

“Don’t assume this can’t happen in your neighborhood. It happens everywhere. Wealthy and middle class neighborhoods, too.”

Questions to ask you student:

What comes to mind when you think about slavery?

How do you want to be a part of God’s solution against slavery?

News & Events:

CLICK HERE to register for EPIC SUMMER CAMP SWO.

Mandatory Camp SWO Parent Meeting on Sunday, June 2 at 4:30pm at the Davis Islands Campus.

Mission Alabama CLICK HERE to get more info.

This week at EPICmsm we studied Romans 12:1-8. We talked about the fact that we can’t be anything we want to be; but that God has designed each of us a certain way and given us specific gifts in order to bring HIM glory by being who He designed us to be. We honor God when we use the gifts He gave us rather than rather than trying to be like others and wanting their gifts. Chris talked about how that has played out in his own life and how God has used different jobs and circumstances to reveal how God designed him and God’s calling on his life. We challenged students to pray for God to show them how He designed them, to reveal their gifts to them and for Him to show them how He is calling them to use those gifts for His glory right where they are (schools, neighborhoods, teams, clubs, etc.).

You can find more info on Sunday’s lesson below (including small group questions from Sunday). Talk to your students about it.

Summer camp is approaching quickly. Don’t wait to sign your students up for camp this summer! Camp is an incredible opportunity for students to grow spiritually, bond with other students and have a ton of fun. Scholarships are available but forms need to be turned in ASAP. Click here to register your student.

Sunday’s Lesson

Key Verse: Romans 12:4–5 (ESV) — 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Small group questions:

1. What gifts has God given you that give you an opportunity to serve others and share the Gospel with them?
2. What are different places in your life that are opportunities for you to share the Gospel? Examples: school, sports teams, dance, clubs, neighborhood, skate park, etc.
3. For every place they named, have them talk about how they could share the Gospel there. Who are people that they could share with?
4. Have you ever been on a mission trip? Get the student to tell you all about it.
5. Have you ever served here locally? At a soup kitchen? An old folks home? Have students tell you about any way they have served. Tell them about how you serve. Why do you serve there? How does it use your gifts and passions? Get them to connect different opportunities to serve with their gifts and passions.
6. What is your motivation to serve? What should be our motivation to serve?

He is Greater! I still love this Series title – it’s so relevant and so true!  Week three of our series was neat.  We were glad to welcome back Steve Holland, our EPIC worship leader, after the birth of his third daughter!   His daughter is healthy and doing well.  Our teaching time was kicked off by a creative video that detailed the story of Abraham’s journey of obedience to the near-sacrifice of his son and we worked through the ideas of knowing and understanding God’s will.

The He is Greater series concludes this week with the EPIC church wide partnership with Pastor Kelly Green for our Human Trafficking Forum.  All students and parents are invited to learn more about the disturbing slavery industry and to hear about what God is calling STF to do to be a part of the solution right here in Tampa! We want to fight, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 27 million men, woman and children who are enslaved around the world right now!

Key Quote(s): If you want to know God’s will for your life; you need to learn God’s ways!

Key Bible Verse:  Genesis 22

Questions to ask you student:

•             How are you ‘staying close to the guide?’
•             Why is God’s will important?
•             Do you have any ideas as to how God is calling you to serve Him?

News & Events:

• High school: Click here to register for EPIC SUMMER CAMP SWO.
• Mission Alabama Click HERE to get more info
• Human Trafficking Forum – THIS SUNDAY! 6:30 @ Davis Islands campus.

For the last three weeks we have been studying God’s EPIC story.  We started by looking at the the story as a whole. God creates, man falls, God rescues and then God will ultimately restore everything and make it perfect. In week 2 we focused on God’s rescue plan. Jesus came to die for our sins and take the punishment that we deserved so that we can be reconciled to God through faith in Him. This week we examined where we fit in the story. We are the rescued. God rescues us and then invites us into His rescue plan by sending us out to share with others the same good news that rescued us.  We challenged students to view their neighborhoods, schools, teams and extracurricular activities as where God has placed them to reach people with the good news of the Gospel. You can find more info on Sunday’s lesson below (including their small group questions from Sunday). Talk to your students about it.

Thank you to everyone that came out to Chubby’s after service. It was a great event and it was a pleasure to meet so many of you. We will be hosting “Chubby Sundays” on a monthly basis. Stay tuned for the date of the next event.

Don’t wait to sign your students up for camp this summer! Camp is an incredible opportunity for students to grow spiritually, bond with other students and have a ton of fun. Scholarships are available but forms need to be turned in ASAP. Click here to register your student.

Students’ use of social media is a critical issue. Here is a great article on instagram (the most popular social media platform among middle schoolers) and some of the issues that surround it, particularly when it comes to students identity and self-worth.

http://taylorandsarahbrooks.blogspot.com/2013/04/parents-word-about-instagram.html?m=1

Sunday’s Lesson

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:18–19 (ESV) — 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Small group questions:

1. Who shared the message of the Gospel with you?
2. Have you ever shared the message with anyone? What happened?
3. If someone was brave enough to share the message with us, why are we so hesitant to share that same message with others?
4. If we love God and are truly grateful for what he has done for us, we will tell others about him. We love to tell people about the things we love. If I find a great restaurant, I want to tell others how great it is so they can enjoy it too. If we don’t share the Gospel with others, what does that say about how we feel about God?
5. Sharing the Gospel with someone is the most loving thing we can do. If we don’t share the Gospel with others, do we care about them?
6. If we really care about people, why don’t we tell them about Jesus?
7. Who are people that you can tell about Jesus?

1. Possession – We must each truly own our own faith; we cannot simply inherit faith or pretend to be faithful.  We are either fully in or completely out
2. Proclamation – if we truly possess our faith we will share it.  There is no such thing as a privatized faith in a resurrected Jesus.
3. Persecution – we will be persecuted and experience suffering.  We should embrace suffering as God can use it to shape and mold us and because suffering will lead us to greater dependence on God
4. Perseverance – Eternity with Jesus will prove the suffering worth it.

Week three of the series will detail how we can get involved in God’s plan now that we know our roles in God’s divine plan for redemption!  And week 4 will be the Human Trafficking Forum in conjunction with the whole church and Pastor Kelly Green – All adults are welcome and encouraged to attend so that we can educate our church family on the very real problem of human slavery and how we as a church can fight against it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Key Quote(s): God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.

Key Bible Verse:  2 Corinthians 4:13-18

Questions to ask you student:

• What does it mean to truly possess your faith?
• Do you experience persecution for your faith in Jesus at school? (perhaps in the form of bullying)
• Do you feel like you have a public of private faith? Why?

News & Events:

• High school: Click here to register for EPIC SUMMER CAMP SWO.
• Mission Alabama Click HERE to get more info
• Spring Bash! Click here to register