On Monday, a group of TeenRock students headed to South Padre Island for Student Life Camp.

Today marks the end of Day 2 and it’s been a good and restorative past couple of days.  Leaving on Monday, the weight of the summer months came upon me and I looked back to see that our high schoolers in particular have been busy.  The rate of ministry in the summer is always fast and rather breakneck but 2009 more than any other summer has been especially grueling.  

With that in mind, I asked our students to adopt a spirit of rest and find restoration this week.  It is no accident that the Lord has us at a beach with a very loose schedule of activities, so why not capitalize? 

The students have responded well.  Additionally, unity is strong and the teachings of Wes Hamilton and the worship leading of Jeremy Riddle are being well-received.

I’ve been most impressed this week by the maturity of our students.  I’ve intentionally taken an almost hands-off approach in leading them to see how they would respond.  Also I just needed to know, have we trained them to feed themselves?  Have we impressed upon them the value of content over context?

The answer is yes.

One student exemplified this with a simple suggestion.  “Hey Tyson, for devotion time tonight, would it be cool if we all rather than starting out together on the beach in one big group spread out individually or in smaller groups and reflected on the message ourselves and then came together?”  

That sounds a lot like church [KEEP READING]

I have a dad. 

My dad was always there.  He never missed a game.  He was at every concert.  He bragged about me at work.  He did everything in his power to set me up for success and catch me in the event that I somehow refused his efforts to not let me fail.

I have a dad.

At the same time, he was a tough dad, and while his toughness on me was mystifying to the 17-year-old version of me, the semi-grown up me loves him for it and would honestly have it no other way.

I have a dad.  I have a dad.

It bears repeating.  

With Total City Sports Camp in full swing, it seems that this thought continues to ping-pong around in my brain not because I’m still riding the fumes off Father’s Day, but because I believe the Lord is opening up my eyes to the harsh reality that my having a dad, is a rarity, and thus is not something that many of the campers can boast.
 
This harsh reality was brought to my immediate attention today, as I had the blessing of having a long conversation with one of the football players.  

Let me start by saying, the initial terror of starting a conversation with a high school student doesn’t go away even after 5 years of student ministry.  You still find yourself fishing, but the benefit of having done this for 5 years is you know where to fish and more importantly, you know how to pray for fish.

The Lord was faithful to my prayer, and out of nowhere, I heard a young man quote a line from the movie, “Tombstone.”  

First of all, you don’t [KEEP READING]

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It's summertime - a time for families to be together and to spends time with others.  We have highlighted some Austin-area events for us all to attend, creating opportunities for people and families in our church to connect and build friendships.  This is also a great chance to invite your neighbors to come hang out as well.  There is one event per week from now through the end of summer.  Check out the list of events below.

When you arrive for the event, look for a family or a person holding a bunch of blue balloons.  That will be the sign that you're in the right place.  Then, be bold, walk up, and introduce yourself!  Also, for updates during the week and specific location information, follow our special Twitter account for this event series - ascc_summerfun.  That will help you remember what the event is each week, as well as help you find us at the event.

Friday, June 26 - Kung Fu Panda at Old Settler's Park in Round Rock.  Pre-movie activities begin at 7:30pm and the movie begins at dusk.  Bring a lawn chair and picnic blankets for seating.  Concessions will be available.

Saturday, July 4 - HEB Austin Symphony July 4th Concert and Fireworks.  The orchestra will begin performing at 8:30pm and the fireworks will begin at 9:30pm.  Come early to claim a spot.  Concessions will be available.

Saturday, July 11 - Austin Aztex FC Game vs the Portland Timbers.  Game begins at 7:30pm at Nelson Field in East Austin.

July 14-16 - Regal [KEEP READING]

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The following update is from Laura Ingram (pictured)

Saturday we visited two villages that house students at Makarios.  The first village was large and chaotic.  We played all sports games imaginable, colored with the girls, and held babies.  We were greeted instantly and surrounded the whole time by smiling faces.  In the second village, Chichigua, the tone seemed to be a little more low key.  The twelve of us poured out of the two doors of the Guagua (our van), and while gathering my backpack, Whitney pointed out a girl in a wheel chair sitting by herself in the shade of a tree.  Immediately my heartstrings were pulled as I imagined the boy I take care of at home who is also in a wheel chair.  Over the last year, I have learned that communication is not confined to a verbal conversation, so I ran over and started to talk to her, knowing that she would have some way to “talk” back.  God knew what I did not and no matter what, He was going to use this little girl (whose name is Yiena).  Not realizing that the rest of our group was watching I felt compelled to give her my full attention and for a moment, what I saw was an overflowing love and joy come from this girl.  It is challenging to explain but in that instant time stood still and Yiena and I embraced and laughed and God showed me the complexity of His love in the simplest of ways.  As I pulled her from her spot towards the rest of the group I had to wipe my tears away.  I will always remember our [KEEP READING]

On June 5, a group of 12 leaders, staff, and students from TeenRock embarked on a short term mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  The purpose of the trip - to work with the Makarios staff in the villages where they currently have a presence, assist in some of the construction of a new school house, and continually share the love of Christ.

We have arrived at the Makarios house and the excitement is palpable.  We have spent the evening getting oriented with the culture as well as briefed on the week's activities.  Already, there is such unity on the team in terms of vision and purpose and we could not have asked for a better team to be working with.  

As we're hear, we ask that you continue to pray:

• Continued unity of the team.  We will spend the mornings together going through Scripture and the evenings will be reserved for debriefing on the day's events.  Pray that these times in the Word and in worship and fellowship will be deep and rich.
• The ministry of Makarios.  Tomorrow we will be in the villages working alongside the staff.  Pray for the continued development of Christ-centered relationships.
• Safety.  Pray for continued safety in transit and in service.

This summer, TeenRock will be heading off to Student Life Camp in South Padre, Texas for an unforgettable week.

Student Life Camps are widely known for their strong Biblical based teaching combined with powerful worship and programming.  The purpose of Student Life is to simply point students to Christ and every year these camps do just that as thousands of students descend on camps all over the country to truly experience a week of intense worship, fellowship, and teaching.

South Padre Information Sheet09.pdf

To sign up please click here 

I have some exciting news! On June 14 we're splitting our Sunday TeenRock service into separate services for middle school and high school students. Our middle schoolers will continue to meet at 9am each week, while our high school students will be invited to a service just for them at 5pm on Sundays.

Over the course of this semester, we have begun to see substantial growth in influence across a wide variety of student networks all over Austin.  We believe that adding a 5pm High School TeenRock will allow for us to reach a greater audience of students as well as allow us the opportunity to finally give middle schoolers their own separate time. 

The teaching and worship teams will remain the same.  We'll continue to meet in the Austin High PAC except for the summer when Middle School will be relocating to the Orchestra Room (the 5pm high school service will be in the PAC). Below, I have addressed a couple of FAQ's.  If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to email me.

Why 5PM?  We engaged students through focus groups and extensive conversations who were not attending TeenRock at 9AM and asked their reasoning. The top response was surprisingly not, "I don't want to get up early."  The top answer overwhelmingly was, "I would go if I had a ride."  With this bit of information, we analyzed our volunteer base and realized that our pool of people who were willing to pick up and drop off students grew significantly in the afternoon hours.  [KEEP READING]

Listen to this episode here or Download it.
This podcast can be subscribed to in iTunes or via this link.

Listen to this episode here or Download it.
This podcast can be subscribed to in iTunes or via this link.

Family Reunion + Baptism is coming up on Saturday, May 16, and I wanted to make sure that all of you know how great of an opportunity this is for your family - both for community building and for spiritual formation of your children.  The Reunion will start at 11am, with the baptisms happening at 2pm.  Click here to sign up for food tickets and for more information.

Here are some ways your family can benefit through this event:

Growing closer as a family.  It seems like we are always busy, that spending a day together as a family is a simple but important way to grow together.  Family Reunion will have plenty of activities for your family to spend time together.  Some of the activities scheduled for the day that your family will love are:

• Inflatables and bounce houses (some of them are wet, so bring a swim suit!!!)
• Playground
• Kiddie Pool
• Sports fields
• Sand volleyball
• Rockwall climbing
• Basketball

And between all of those fun activities, your family can share a BBQ lunch together.

Meeting other families at the church.  Ever wonder who your children's friends in KidStuff or TeenRock are?  Ever wanted to meet their parents?  Family Reunion is one of the few times each year that our whole church family gets together.  This is a great opportunity to meet and build relationships with other parents at The Stone, and maybe even make some new friends.

Meeting the leaders that your kids talk so much about.  Ever wanted to meet the KidStuff or [KEEP READING]