A few gifts I'd love to have for Christmas

tis the season to be ill

Apparently I've been "bad" this year because Santa has joyously given me a cold. Or the flue, maybe allergies. Whatever it is its knocked me out for about a week. In light of that, THE CHRISTMAS PARTY WILL BE CANCELED ON THURSDAY NIGHT!

I do apologize and wish everyone a wonderful Thursday night off. Spend some quality time with your family, finish your last minute shopping or have your own Christmas party. Either way PULSE will not be meeting this Thursday. I will see everyone on Sunday as we conclude ADVENT CONSPIRACY.

Advent Conspiracy

This Sunday the theme for Advent Conspiracy is "Give More." In PULSE we will be focusing primarily on the gift of relationship. Giving has never been about the dollar amount or how shiny the item is. Giving has always been about the sacrifice and furthering the relationship with someone else. Our Three points this Sunday are...
1. Give to the least of these (Matt 25:31-40)
2. Give to the church (Eph. 4:11-12)
3. Give to the relationship (Matt. 22:37-40)

Below are a couple ideas of what it means to give relationally.

1. Give a bag of coffee with the rule that only you and the person you give it to can drink it. And when you drink it each of you tell stories of your past and how you became the person you are today.
2. Meal of the month. Pick one evening every month for a year and make dinner for another family.
3. The gift of a hug and a shoulder to cry on.
4. Write a loved one a song or poem.
5. Restaurant Trump Cards! Every person in the family gets two Trump Cards and can use them anytime throughout the year. When the family decides to go out to eat and someone doesn't like the restaurant they can simply play their trump card and go to whatever restaurant they like. Simple, but very fun! Especially when others trump the trump card.

I hope these items give you some ideas of ways you can give the gift of relationship to the ones you love.

A Year in Review

October 16 was the day that I completed my first year as Pastor to High School Students and Desert Springs Church. Its been a year of crazy adventures. I've been able to take students on a couple of retreats, a marathon party at Disneyland, teach them Jesus' love, and help them connect with God in everyday circumstances. On top of all that I got married to my beautiful wife, Darcy! It has been a busy, and fruitful year at Desert Springs Church.

I'm really proud of our high school students who have trusted our church leaders and have brought their friends into our ministry. When we separated high school students from jr. high students we have a total of 4 students on Sunday morning. A year later we have an average attendance of 15 students! This is exciting news. I'm eager to see what God has in store for our ministry in this next year.

I want to thank two groups of people for their love and support. The first goes to the parents of the high school students. It has been a joy partnering with you in raising your kids to love Jesus. I appreciate your feedback and am excited to hear the endless stories about your kids. Secondly, I'd like to thank my volunteer staff! You have been instrumental to the lives of high school students. Your presence and being available to students is the perfect gift of love for any high school student. Thanks for playing the ridiculous games, praying for our students, and changing their lives one week at a time. Ministry does not happen without you!

THANK YOU for making this past year a wonderful experience!

Fighting Poverty Isn't Sexy

I couldn't hear soft melodic music, nothing moved in slow motion, and the laughing faces of children were difficult to come by. In downtown LA I discovered helping the poor is anything but sexy. The glamor from the movies seemed to be missing from my experience.

Maybe its me, but I think we have this helping the poor thing all wrong. Occasionally Christians will have a service project to reach out to the poor.The motive is to help others but I can't help but wonder if we're also helping ourselves by releasing our guilt and checking off the "service" box in our Purpose-Driven Life. This becomes an act that doesn't get repeated until the next all church service project. What would happen if Christians had a lifestyle of service and demonstrated God's love on a daily basis as apposed to service projects?

I discovered something interesting in the Gospels, Jesus has favorites! It seems He really loves the poor. I've often said that I love the poor but I'm discovering I don't love them nearly as much as Jesus does. I hardly ever spend time with them. I wonder what would happen if Christians spent more time with the poor. Would we continue to label them "the poor"? Would our church language change from reaching out to the poor to reaching out to James and his family? Would we discover what their true needs are? Maybe it isn't money, clothes, or food. Maybe its a relationship. Could it be that their greatest need is having someone care for them and pray for them? Mother Teresa said it best, "If we truly have a heart for the poor we will know their names."

Our new Thursday Night teaching series is title, "The World Around You." This will be a very challenging series. Some of the topics that will be covered are child slave trade, hunger and starvation, Child Soldiers, Slaves, and poverty. I would love to hear your feedback on these topics. Please email me (sosborne@desertspringsfamily.org) with any stories, suggestions, and ideas.

Current Study

Loving your enemies is the current topic for this Thursday night. I ran across some images that have challenged me. How do we, as Christians love people who have done tremendously evil things throughout their life? I'm interest in hearing about your thoughts on these pictures as well as the topic of "loving your enemies."

A Shout-Out to Parents With Difficult Teens

I've just finished reading a chapter in my uncle's book, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe, titled "Dumb Idea 3: A Godly Home Guarantees Godly Kids." He talks about guilt that parents can have in regards to their kids, along with wishful thinking and advice on what to do once kids leave the church. Its an easy, and fun, read that I thought would be helpful for many. I hope this will bring a little more piece to your home and a better understanding of parenting teens.

Finished With End Results

I'm learning a new way of thinking. I've been at Desert Springs Church for a year now and I'm learning to evaluate my experiences so that I can grow from them. It’s been said that experience is the best teacher but I'm learning that EVALUATED experience is the best teacher. So here is my evaluated experience...

Every week I encourage students to do BIG things for Jesus. I mean BIG THINGS! One of the disadvantages of always encouraging students to do big things is that it takes time to accomplish those things. That of course means they are rarely awarded for what they accomplish. Follow me here. If they accomplish two “big things” a year that means they will have only been rewarded twice that year for acting on their faith. This is never a good thing. I'm learning that the journey is just as important as the end result. I wonder how much better the end result would be if we encouraged students along their journey instead of applauding their finished product?

Would test grades be higher if students were applauded for the decision to study instead of going watching Transformers? Would the family unit be more peaceful if the student’s attitude was acknowledged more than their daily chores? Would students dress modestly if adults vocalized how beautiful they are and look them in the eyes and thanked them for making/keeping their commitment to honor Christ with their bodies? What would happen if every time a student would talk to someone about Jesus they were applauded, instead of waiting until they brought that kid to church?

Every high school student is in a different place in their journey. The job of loving adults is to come alongside of them, recognize, and encourage them on their journey – not grade them on their spiritual “to do list.” May the youth of Desert Springs Church feel the love and comfort of caring adults who play a vital part in their journey with Christ!

No longer aware for awareness sake

PULSE is making a valiant effort to change the lives of others around us. We have pretty consistent attendance at both our gatherings as well our events. It’s exciting to see the students wrestling with ideas and ways to apply what the bible teaches to their lives. As a youth pastor to high school students it brings me tremendous joy to watch this process.

It is my prayer that we will be able to further instruct our students on what it means to love the poor and those who are vulnerable in our society. Thanksgiving and Christmas are a natural time for this process to begin. Sadly, it usually ends after Christmas as the New Year approaches and we focus on new commitments and fresh starts. But what happened to the older commitments we made the previous year? How about the commitments we made in November and December about caring for the poor? Did those simply get placed on a shelf only to be taken down again at the end of the New Year?

PULSE is using the holidays to kick-start a lifestyle of taking care of our community. We are done being aware and talking about the needs of others. We want to continually act on what we have learned from scripture throughout the year. Our hope is that the same time next year will be nothing like the same time this year!

80's Bowling Night

Join PULSE this Thursday (17th) dressed in your ‘most excellent’ 1980’s bowling attire! We will be bowling at Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino from 7-9. The cost is only $5 per person and includes shoes!
Make sure you have a ride to and from Fantasy Springs as we will not be meeting at the church. Bring your friends, bring your $, and bring your bowling skills, cause its on like Donkey Kong!

Whats happening at PULSE?

DARCY AND I ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!

That’s going to change things up for the next couple of weeks. We will continue to have our regular Sunday morning gatherings in the LOFT at 10:00am. I have two very special friends of mine who will be speaking for me while I’m away.

Thursday nights will be postponed until September 10. Enjoy the time off and use it to get ready for the new school year. Maybe even take one last day trip with the family. But to get to relaxed because on September 10^th we will have our first gathering of the new school year, Superhero Movie Night! Students are encouraged to dress up as their favorite superhero and join us as we watch Iron Man from 6-9pm (there will also be superhero trivia and prizes for the winners).

Lastly, it is time to say goodbye to our graduated seniors. We love them and I have personally been blessed spending time with them. There is a BBQ for all college aged students on September 12, at 6:00pm. For more information please contact Pastor Mike Patterson at mpatterson@desertspringsfamily.org.

Welcome

Welcome to the PULSE high school ministry blog. Here you'll be able to find tons of information about our ministry including events, teaching series, books and other resources for parents, highlights from the lives of students who attend PULSE, and some thoughts and dreams from Pastor Steve Osborne about Jesus and church.

If you have any questions please email me at sosborne@desertspringsfamily.org.

Serving YOUth,

Pastor Steve Osborne