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Country Club Christian Church Youth
Mark Your Calendars!
Over the past week Youth and their Parents have been planting flowers all around the church campus. Thanks for all of your hard work!
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This Sunday
Join us for our livestream worship service at 9:01, 10:00, or 11:00am by visiting cccckc.org. Each hour features the same service, blending our worship styles and including music, scripture, a moment for children, communion, prayer, and sermon. We invite you to grab some bread and juice before to share in communion.
We'll meet for
virtual youth group
from 5:30 to 6:30pm to catch up, play a game, and stay connected! To join, click the direct link below, or call the phone number and enter our Meeting ID. We'll continue meeting on Zoom each Sunday night until further notice.
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 Reflection from Tyler
In this week's devotional, I included a link to an article from the Fuller Youth Institute: "Naming loss and gratitude with young people in these uncertain days." In it, the author emphasized the simple importance of naming what we're feeling right now. We're sad about lost opportunities. We're grateful for fresh connections with friends and family. We're anxious about those who are facing sickness and economic despair. We're encouraged by the willingness of so many to help and put others first.
I've been working my way through The Eternal Now, a 1963 collection of writings from Paul Tillich, one of the most influential American theologians. In one entry, he talks about the power in naming: "In ancient times, one believed that one held in one's power the being whose hidden name one knew. One believed that the savior-god conquered the demons by discovering the mystery of the power embodied in their names, just as we today try to find out the hidden names of the powers that disrupt our unconscious depths and drive us to mental disturbances. If we gain insight into their hidden striving, we break their power."
What feelings can you name right now? What loss? What gratitude? Naming negative emotions doesn't make them go away- but it gives us the power to see them more clearly and navigate them more smoothly.
As a Christian community, we are also challenged to name where God is moving and emerging, even within the challenge and tragedy of our time. Tillich was convinced that God was more than a being- instead, God is the ground of being; and thus, God is present with and within everything around us. "Spirit is not a mysterious substance; it is not a part of God. It is God Himself... present in communities and personalities, grasping them, inspiring them, and transforming them." We owe it to ourselves, to each other, and to our world to name the things around us: the loss, the grief, the gratitude, and the somehow-persistent presence of God that holds us even now and invites us into deeper creativity and healing.
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Senior Spotlight
We celebrated six of our youth who are graduating high school this year with our Senior Spotlights
! Check out information about each of the seniors
online
or by checking out our
Instagram
.
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Prayer Line
If you would like to record the meditation and prayer on our daily prayer line,
sign up here. You can find instructions on how to do this
here.
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CCCC Art Challenge
You may have seen the classic art challenge going around where people recreate a famous piece of art from home by dressing up and getting the pose just right. We've grabbed a few photos of the stained glass and other pieces of art in our church building for a challenge of our own. Choose one (or more) of these images and recreate it at home- dress up, get together with family, and strike a pose! Who will have the best recreation? Send your recreations to April, Catherine, or Tyler!
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Updates and More Information
Summer Service Learning Update:
After much discernment and conversation with other church staff, our youth ministry team, and youth ministers colleagues, we have decided to cancel both of our summer service-learning trips to Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. Instead of out-of-state service-learning trips, we will plan for a
service-learning week here in Kansas City for both middle and high schoolers from July 19 through 24.
This week will offer us a chance to serve with our mission partners like Micah Ministry and Cross-Lines and to learn about their work, especially in response to the crisis of this year's pandemic. We will also partake in projects that benefit individuals and ministries within our church, like making gifts for or visiting homebound members. In doing so, we will be a prophetic witness of God's transformative love for our neighbors in need. This will be open to all current 6th through 12th graders, and friends not yet involved with CCCC are welcome and encouraged to join. Stay tuned for more information about the framework and details for this opportunity. Until then, mark your calendars and let us know if you have any questions.
Texting Updates: Stay tuned with all of our activities via text reminders! Sign up here.
High School Social Hour: High schoolers are invited to join in games & conversation together every Tuesday from 4:30 to 5:30pm on Zoom at
https://zoom.us/j/215090450
.
Pastors' Class: Pastors' Class will meet for their final online class on Wednesday, May 27, from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Stay tuned more information about baptisms.
Senior Lunch & Recognition: Stay tuned for more information about a date and how to join in the celebration of our seniors!
Tall Oaks Camp and Conference Center has made an important announcement regarding their programs and summer camp opportunities. All activities are suspended through July 31. They are exploring alternate opportunities for camps that have been cancelled; stay tuned for more information. Find the full announcement online
here and a FAQ online
here.
If you would like to volunteer as a stay-at-home unit to door an outdoor project at Tall Oaks, they're accepting volunteers Tuesdays and Thursdays through May. More information is available online at
https://www.talloaks.org/volunteer-wish-list
.
Summer Youth Group Events
We'll have more information about summer socials, service opportunities, and more on a rolling basis as stay-at-home regulations change and we determine what is safe and possible.
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Rev. Tyler Heston
Minister of Youth
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Hear about events and receive reminders through text updates with the software Remind.
Click
here
to sign up.
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