High School Musical 2: news

What is the High School Musical?
-the top-selling CD of 2006
-a global viewership of over 250 million

And it is getting hotter...

Less than six weeks after the premiere of 'High School Musical 2,' it appears the tween world is still passionate about Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan and the rest of their pastel-colored fantasy world of secondary education. More than 17 million watched the first U.S. telecast. Since then it has reached nearly 49.8 million people across 12 countries, The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DCQ) (NYSE:DIS) says.

David Crowder's New CD: Remedy

To be honest, I am slow to recommend Worship CD's or even Christian Band's in general. David Crowder is my one of my favorite bands, Christian or otherwise and I love his new Remedy CD... so pick up a copy or download it (legally) from iTunes...

let me know what think.

My favorite track is "Can You Feel It"

Mosaic series (part 2)

We were shaped by God.. each one of us. We are not an accident, and infact we are more on purpose than we can ever realize. As God made the universe, he made one of us... for all time... in any place... just one. He put us in the time of his choosing and shaped us in the way of his liking.
Together we represent his image. All to often we struggle with being different... sticking out... but that is exactly what we are designed to do. We each individually represent some aspect of God's image, that when viewed together paints a picture of who he is and how much he loves, to the world. The world desperately needs to see this picture. You are a necessary part of it. Don't hide your part, or the image may not be complete.

1st Corinthians 12: 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

So don't sell your soul on the alter of cool... being just like everyone else is a betrayal of the awesome beauty God uniquely fashioned in you!

Mosaic News for September 25th, 2007

Hey everyone, Kings Kids have been working hard to help me out. I thought it would be really cool if we had a Mosaic News Podcast that we could use to tell our announcements and just say hi every week. We will eventually have a real news desk and work out some kinks... but we thought that we might as well get started... so here is our first ever newscast... enjoy!

Middle School Musical (part 5) "Bullys" (Sorry for the Delays)

Hey Middle School Friends...

Sorry if you have been waiting for our promised episodes of MSM... we have had a few technical difficulties...

but seem to have it worked out now!

Brandon

Sorry for the Delays

Hey Middle School Friends...

Sorry if you have been waiting for our promised episodes of MSM... we have had a few technical difficulties... but will have a new episode up very soon.

Brandon

Mosaic Series: and Original series on beauty, brokenness and community

"Mirror, mirror on the wall... who is the fairest of them all?"

This famous line gets one thing wrong as to the question that most people ask mirrors. We do not ask if they are the fairest, but if we are fair at all. Are we beautiful in any way?
Genesis 1:27 states that "God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Later, Psalm 139:13 says:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully

The truth is that all humans are created in the image. Even if the image is so faint that it is nearly unrecognizable, it still reflect value and beauty in the slightest hint. Each person contain a unique expression of the value of beauty of Christ himself. So the mirror in our heads is not always honest in its ruthless appraisal of self-worth. It sees the flaws, whereas even the greatest flaws cannot hide the indisguisable beauty of God found in each of us.


Often we look in the mirror and wonder if we are normal. We are not. We are a one of a kind masterpiece made in the image of God, but that is a good thing. Who would want to be exactly the same as everyone else... ie."normal"

Some moving Videos from the Awake conference.

Godsquad has come to a intergalactic Nexus...

OK, most of you know this already, but we changed the name of our Tuesday night program (formally known as GodSquad). Believe it or not, Tuesday has been Godsquad since the early 70’s (see Jill Briscoe’s letter in the previous post). The name has served the ministry well for many years, but has decided to retire this year. Tuesday nights will be called Nexus from this point on... don’t worry though, if you still say God Squad every once in a while we will know what you mean.
Names are a big deal but really a ministry is so much more than a name. While named Godsquad, this ministry helped change thousands of lives, and this is still what we are all about. There are thousands of middle school students that live in the greater community surrounding Elmbrook Church, and we want to do whatever we can to make the life and love of Jesus real to each of them.

The New Name is NEXUS

"What in the world is a Nexus?"

We sure are glad that you asked, because we were just dying to tell you!

According to the dictionary, some of the main definitions of Nexus include, “a connection or series of connections linking two or more things,” and “the central or most important point or place.” Drawing inspiration again from the idea of creating a place where the four main worlds of our students (church, friends, family, culture; see explanation in previous posts) connect, Nexus seemed like a sure fit for our Tuesday night program.

Arriving at Nexus wasn’t an easy process by any means. We began the process of re-naming Tuesday nights over a year and a half ago. Our attempts included:



Unfortunately, none of these held up to closer scrutiny. (Soma is the greek word for body, but also a psychedelic drug. Vibe was an interesting idea... but too many adults liked it... Verge was lame from the beginning but we were really searching. Finally, Atomic, we all liked, and even had a cool logo for, but when you think of atomic you think of bombs and thousands of lives lost... not love --or at least that’s what I think of-- so we kept searching...)
Even though Nexus wasn’t our first choice it has really grown on us, and we trust it will grow on you as well...

Jill Briscoe on the History of GodSquad.

In the days God Squad began there was a TV Show called the Mod Squad—I don’t even remember what it was about except I believe it featured a group of wild teenagers and their adventures. We decided to have another kind of group who had the same things in common but this time it would be God that was the common thread. We wanted to be a group of kids who loved the Lord Jesus and had adventures for Him.

In the beginning there were 6 kids – all Middle School. My 2 children Dave and Judy were in that group. There was nothing specific for that age and I wanted something for my own teens they could invite their friends to so I began God Squad. It was small but provided a peer group of Christian kids who loved Jesus and wanted to stand for Him. It helped them at school to know others believed as they did and could support each other in straight living and truth in the face of ridicule and un-truth..

The group rapidly grew. Kids found Jesus and soon we had over 30 some from Church and others from School. We met in homes and eventually brought the large group into Church as we had just built a new Church building. After a few years the group numbered 3-400. It’s good to meet in the big group when you are a minority at school. It helps to see there are many believers in Him and you’re not “odd!” It gave the kids a feeling of believing in something bigger than themselves and worth joining.

We continued to meet in small groups too as that helped provide Christian friends and support. Peer pressure can be positive as well as negative. I wrote a musical drama called ‘Sitting on the fence’ when I was in The UK and we brought it to the USA, added American music, and took it on the road as a means of winning people to Christ. I discovered kids don’t need entertaining to keep them in Church--- we can’t compete with the worlds entertainment any way- They need ‘employing’ to keep them. Put them to work: challenge them and give them tools to share their faith. We took our little drama and our music to Brookfield Square, parks in the summer months, and we even went to the lake front to meet kids and share our love for the Lord. We set up games, invited others to join in and finished up with music and an informal sing along on the Lake front. The Middle School kids loved the adventure and were wonderfully brave as long as they could do it in 2s and 3s. We went to Summerfest and gave away Bibles and had many adventures as a good ‘God Squad should.’ Dave, our son, grew up to become our Middle School Pastor!! All 6 original kids are in ministry.

I understand that the name may in this sad and violent time have wrong connotations so will be interested what you come up with as your new name.

Blessings, Jill (Elmbrook Minister at Large)

Stuart and Jill Briscoe were ordained as Elmbrook’s Ministers at Large in November 2000 when Stuart concluded 30 years’ ministry as Elmbrook’s Senior Pastor and Jill completed 30 years of leadership in Middle School ministry, Women’s ministry and Elmbrook’s Drama productions. Since that time they have been available to the church of Christ worldwide visiting every continent at the invitation of the indigenous churches and individuals and conducting ministry designed primarily to strengthen the hands of those who work in some of the difficult and dangerous places around the world.

To learn more about what Jill is up to now, check out Stuart & Jill’s website:

http://www.tellingthetruth.org