An independent Baptist church.
Archive for April, 2011
April 27, 2011
Dear parents,
As you all know… our teens are absolutely filthy rich, and the youth ministry is self-supporting! Not quite… but we wish, sometimes!
The purpose of this letter is to simply convey to you that we appreciate and understand your position and want to help you financially in any way that we can. With SO many things to do, your teen will most likely not be able to make it to every activity. However, I can’t let that stop me from pushing each trip I feel will benefit some people in some way, and I carefully analyze each trip, each cost, and every bit of promotion.
We try to be as intentional and deliberate as we can be in every decision we make, and while some things may not make sense, it has usually at least been discussed by me and my wife. For instance, earlier this year we simultaneously promoted the Youth Winter Rendezvous (Jan. $120), the Preaching Rally (Feb., $5), Heartland College Days (Mar., $200), the Youth Conference (Apr., $120) and Camp Ironwood (not until July, but $50 registration was due in Mar.) Not everyone was able to sign up for each event, but that wasn’t the goal. Most of the teens we wanted to see go on each trip were able to make it (i.e. some of the seniors for the college trips), and the ones who were willing to put some effort into raising some money were able to either 1) get sponsored, or 2) at least offset the total cost.
My desire is to eventually get to the place that if a teen really wants to go and is willing to work, we will make it happen. I won’t personally be able to finance every teen that wants to go, and I don’t want to take away all parental responsibility. But I DO want to make sure each person gets a fair shot at attending these trips, and I WILL take as my main responsibility the job of motivating them to want to come on these trips with us! I’d like to discuss a few things with you, and if you have any additional thoughts, please let me know.
Sponsors. First, God’s been good to our ministry, and we’re always deeply thankful to those who want to sponsor kids for big trips. I’m humbled by those who approach me and ask how they can help, and it’s a bitter-sweet time when I tell them I don’t need their help. One side of me wants every teen to be able to make it to camp and other trips, and another side of me hates to impose. However, when I think of the big picture from different angles, I then have NO problem asking for money. Mainly, those benefits are: 1) it’s a blessing to give, and 2) it allows a student the opportunity to be in prime environments (godly preaching; cell phones, tv and other distractions are absent; etc.) If youth ministry provides those types of opportunities… I’m in! J
On that note, if you like what you see going on and want to be involved, we’ll basically always have needs from those who can’t make it to trips because of money. We’ve told the teens that if they’re willing to put out and really show an interest in going to anything, we can make it happen financially. What we DON’T want is a welfare, communist, lazy mentality, so we’ll definitely make them earn it as best we can; but I just wanted to communicate that with you. I’ll try to think through what each sponsored teen is involved in and almost judge it as an hourly “rate.” (i.e. “John” anonymously had $200 given to his account to cover the difference, and I would expect John, then, to put in roughly 15-20 hours at the church. These types of “hours” might include a couple mornings of soul-winning (3), a couple afternoons of work (5 including drive time), and maybe a nursery slot for the ladies or a special cleanup after church for the guys or something.)
All of that is to say… we won’t just give them loads of cash and let them off easy. That literally goes contrary to a Bible principle, and I don’t want that mess on my hands. Mostly what I’m after is a grateful spirit, and from that gratitude a willingness to serve and work. “Wow… someone paid for me to go? Oh man… I want to do something in return!” I’ve heard that very thing said and I appreciate that spirit very much.
Budgets. If you’re ever concerned (or even curious, for that matter) about our funds and are wondering what we spend money on, we’d LOVE to share our entire budget with you and show you what has been spent where. Please call my cell if you ever have any questions (951) 719-7191, or see me at church and we can show you a spreadsheet of all expenses, income, fund-raisers, certain individual accounts and more. We’re keeping careful records of all that we spend including gas costs, hotels, trips, Preaching Rally expenses and more. As the years progress we hope to simply 1) build trust and 2) more effectively track and plan our budgets. Bear with us especially this first year.
Fund-raising. Sponsorships are not our only way of funding. In fact, MOST of our money will come from fund-raisers. Weekly babysitting opportunities for FPU, the garage sale, Comedy Night, certain work days and more will help offset some of your costs, and we do all we can to help in this area. Without getting too creative, intensive or overbearing, we hope to at least provide a needed buffer for you! This year has been and will continue to be spent tracking and analyzing all the needs, both of the ministry (costs of gas, amount of trips, etc.) and the individuals (camp payment, gas and hotel costs, etc.) Thank you for bearing so much of the financial load, but that you also for understanding the amount of input from our church members, also.
Dreams. Go big or go home… that’s my motto sometimes! Some really great things could be done in the future, and some of those might be things like missions trips, senior trips, and rewards trips, to name a few very broad ideas. I look at what these teens could be some day and think, “What would help this person take the next step?” Some day, a missions trip might result in a teen being called to missions. Or, as the years progress I know we’ll grow closer and closer to the teens and want to spend one last time with them before they take the next huge step of life: college. Maybe some day we’ll be able to take our upper-classmen somewhere for a time of bonding, challenge, fun and final personal goodbyes… I’d LOVE that! And what about challenging them to memorize a chapter of the Bible and taking the ones who do it out to a nice dinner together?
I’m a dreamer by nature and I see such BRIGHT futures for all these teens. What a huge responsibility that you as parents have, but what an incredible opportunity to train up the future of our church. Thank you for letting us have a smidgen of their lives! If there’s EVER anything I can do to help them or help you, please let me know.
In faith,
Ryan Rench
April 22, 2011
Dear Parents,
You may have noticed by now that Ken and Gina Baker have been sitting with the teens, giving testimonies from youth trips and taking your teens home after activities. In case you had not heard, we have chosen the Bakers to help us with in the youth department, not only with the workload of visits, letters and activity preparations, but in assisting us in leading the teens.
If you’ve ever read the book Good to Great, by business author Jim Collins, you’ve heard the analogy of getting the right people “on the bus.” Surveying the needs of the youth ministry and the various church members and their gifts, we wanted to get the right people on the bus to help us with our ministry.
We added Ken and Gina Baker to our youth staff back in February after a time of prayer and consideration, and for the last couple months they have been absolutely invaluable in their contribution to the spirit, the workload, and the investment in our teens. Now, with the right people on the bus, we’re working on getting the right people in “the right seats.”
I chose carefully the term leading in the first paragraph because I see the Bakers literally as an extension of Pastor and me in assisting you as parents through the church. They have fully “bought in” (their wording) to our burden for your teens, and their sole and driving desire is to be servants. I want our teens to catch that quality in the Bakers more than any other quality, and the Bakers’ servant leadership will prove invaluable over the coming years.
We don’t know exactly what the Bakers will be doing, hence the analogy “getting in the right seats.” Neither do we know exactly how long they will be involved with the teens. God’s timing will prove all that in the end. What we DO know right now is that the Bakers are a blessing and simply desire no more than to be used. HOW they will be used is yet to be discovered, but my main concern right now is that your teens see and catch the value of the Bakers’ servant hearts.
Encourage them like you’ve encouraged us! They’ve already been impactful and we’re looking forward to what God has planned for the Teens of Faith because of this step.
In faith,
Ryan Rench
SUNDAY MORNING
Pastor Rench ”The Broken Box”
Mark 14:1-9
Click here to listen. Right-click to download. (Scripture)
Click here to listen. Right-click to download.
SUNDAY EVENING
Pastor Rench ”The Passover”
Mark 14: 12-28
Click here to listen. Right-click to download.
This is the most recent prayer letter from the Au family, our missionaries to Hong Kong.
Wednesday Evening
Pastor Rench ”Life’s Transitions”
II Samuel 2
Click here to listen. Right-click to download.
This is the latest prayer letter we have received from the Nelson family, our missionaries to Australia.
Classic Christianity
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to day, and for ever.”
We live in remarkable times. The e-communications era has not only made it much easier to find things easily which once were very time consuming, but it has also provided a means for the cornucopia of variant and culture driven religious upstarts to ply their philosophies. To these people, the plain dressed truths of classic Christianity are dated, stuffy, overly cautious, too preachy, judgmental and boring. Unaware that they are comprised of just the same crowd of people Paul encountered so long ago in Athens, they spend “their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” (Acts 17:21) Religious radio man, Harold Camping is now telling his diminishing band of adherents that the rapture of the saints will definitely occur on the May 11, 2011. He said that if he’s still around on May 12, then it means that he is unsaved! Though it is possible that the Lord may return on that day, it is just as possible that he will come before that, or after. One would think that after the many embarrassments of all those many religious prognosticators who’ve stumbled before him, that Camping would have learned. Classic Christianity has always preached the possibility of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, while at the same time recognizing that the date of his return would not be revealed beforetime. Why even Paul himself wrote of his hope of the return of his Saviour during his lifetime. The Pagan Mayan culture is all the rage now, the message being that the end of the world is not May 11, 2011, but 2012. Why? Because, we’re told, the Mayan’s calendar ends at 2012! Maybe they just got tired of chiseling by then. Maybe the calendar man died. Classic Christianity stays with the always relevant Word of God which states, “but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Mt. 24:36)
The advertisement goes out for “Contemporary Worship styles,” and the Mars hill people Paul spoke to 2000 years ago show up again now. They sit and stand and sway and hum as a pretty average “worship” team bang their drums and pick some pretty average licks on their electric guitars. Then a young urban-cool looking fellow, with maybe a discrete tattoo or two showing just at the neckline of his fashion tee-shirt strolls up, sits on a stool, …and “shares.” Some, maybe a lot of what he says is not objectionable, but what is not said, what is never mentioned, what is avoided is where the greater damage is done. The word “contemporary” was carefully chosen. It suggests the desire of the promoters to keep up with the current trends and fashions of present culture. The real time effect and impact of “Contemporary Christianity” is found in a root of its own descriptive word. It is temporary. “Contemporary Christianity” in its fever to keep in step with corresponding culture, has two unchanging problems: 1. It’s always about a ½ step behind, and 2. It’s continually having to change. No wonder its temporary! Classic Christianity, by contrast does not attempt to mimic the surrounding culture. Classic Christianity frames its choices regarding, direction, walk, conduct, associations, music, dress, amusements, etc. by application of Biblical principles which are plainly defined. The “Relevant Religion” movements that come and go are by nature confined to the confusion engendered by their insistence that nothing is absolute.
April 13, 2011
Dear parents,
Boy! If parenting is anything like certain seasons of the youth ministry, I don’t know if I’ll EVER get sleep… but it’ll be exciting! The thing about my position is that I don’t have any live-ins, so I just send them home to YOU to recuperate!
I’m referring, of course, to the bustling new year. We pretty much kicked 2011 off with many things happening, and (contrary to what you might be thinking) it was all planned and all intentional. A major goal of our first year was just trying to get to know the teens, and as we planned our 2011 calendar last November we knew it would be quite a Spring! Well… we were right so far!
We rejoiced over much of what God has done over the past few months when we had our Parent Meeting a couple weeks ago, and now in this letter I want to accomplish a couple things: remind and inform.
Rejoice with us. As I said, 2011 has been awesome already, and we believe God’s got more in store! In January, the rigorous preparations for the Preaching Rally paid off with a wonderful day in late February (2-26). Several teens made decisions and you can see pictures and hear the preaching at preachingrally.com.
The following week (3-5) was our Ping Pong Tournament where we raised about $400 for… gas! Then, we’re thankful to the Bakers (Vince and Elerie) for wanting to give back to the youth ministry, and they hosted the teens at their house (3-11) for TONS of ice cream and fun games. The following Monday (3-15) we hit the road for Heartland in OKC, and you can listen to the preaching from that trip at teensoffaith.org. The Saturation Saturday (3-19) was attended by a few teens, and the following week (3-26) of door-knocking in San Marcos was another good time for service as well. Even though we lost the 100% Attendance Sunday competition (3-20), it was great to get our teens involved in the outreach, making calls and texting their friends about it that week. God blessed our attendance with a high of 36 that day and 40 the next week (3-27)!
Then, with the Temecula public schools on Spring Break, we headed to Lancaster on Wednesday to attend their Youth Conference (Apr. 6-8). With these multi-day college trips we hope to 1) expose them to Bible preaching, 2) expose them to Bible colleges, and 3) surround them with an environment in which God can speak to them without all kinds of media, school and other interruptions. While fun is a huge benefit to these trips, fun is not the emphasis. We love to make memories and are intentionally taking pictures and reminding them of the fun times they had, but the main goals are ultimately for spiritual impact, as you saw from the wonderful testimonies the following Sunday evening.
There’s more coming. Not all activities are for fun (although though the teens make fun happen pretty much wherever they are!) Our first Learn-To-Work-Day is coming up soon (next Sat., May 23) and all the teens are invited to serve at church for a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon (see teensoffaith.org for more info).
Our Youth Leaders’ Retreat (4-28) at Ironwood is coming soon, and I’ll come back loaded with new ideas! Thank you for allowing my wife and me to be involved in retreats like that. I don’t know if you realize how needed those types of things are for us. We’re sincerely grateful.
Also, we just confirmed with Bro. Si Rangel that we will be going repelling in a few weeks (Sat., May 7) out in Warner Springs. Safety is the highest concern with Bro. Si, and we will certainly have a great time on this Saturday trip.
We’ll always be encouraging trips like the Rendezvous, Youth Conference, College Days, Master’s Men Conference, and Summer Camp, and I hope you as parents do the same. If financing is an issue, please let me know. Another letter I send in this series will be completely about the Teens of Faith finances, our fund-raisers, sponsorships, involvement, expectations, budgets, and expenses, and even through helping them financially we want to provide the best environment possible for your teens to flourish.
We’re grateful for the opportunities you afford us to work with your teens, and if there is ever anything that we can do, please let us know. I’m looking forward to hearing back from you on your thoughts, and I really pray that our relationship continues to grow. Thank you and have a great week!
In faith,
Ryan Rench
This is the first of six letters to parents that I will be writing over the next few weeks. What started as my monthly letter to parents ended up being a three-page document, and I STILL wanted to expand on each main point… so I did! Only now, you won’t get it all at once in a mini book. 
I hope the letters are encouraging and challenging, and over the next few weeks you can expect information on:
- Prom
- Activities
- The Bakers
- TOF finances
- Thinking spiritually
- Training your teen how to greet guests.
I pray for you parents often, and I want to be a blessing in any way that I can. Please let me know if there’s any way that I can help, and if you have any questions or comments, fill out the comment form or the contact page. I’ll receive your email basically immediately and will try to get back to you as soon as I can.
Thank you again for being a HUGE blessing! Enjoy letter one of six…
April 12, 2011
Hello, Parents!
I know I’m not the boss… you are. I know I’m not the parent… obviously, you are.
But, I feel a big-time responsibility to help these teens’ spiritual lives in any way that I can, and I want to be sure to speak up if I can be a help. I know you’re primarily the ones who are always looking for ways to help their spiritual lives, and I appreciate that about our parents VERY much! YOU are the primary reason they are where they are, and I’m just grateful to be able to work with such a fine group of young adults.
Although maybe they can sometimes wear down any of your reasons for not letting them do certain things. I recently preached to them about one of those “certain things”… prom. I approached the lesson, as I try to always do, as something that will ONLY help them spiritually, and I tried to logically approach prom and analyze its various aspects.
- 1. Representing Christ. First, as a Christian, I am to represent Christ. You may often be asked, “What’s wrong with it?” Why not ask back, “What’s right with it?” How will it enhance your walk with God? How will it grow you as a Christian? In my mind, anyone who’s wanting to be counted on GOD’S team (Romans 6: 1-11) would want to stay as far away as possible from anything that might bring a question mark to others’ minds. By going, would you feel uncomfortable and guilty the whole time? By NOT going, you would be able to be a testimony and witness for Christ by explaining your position.
All right, Bro. Ryan… I promise to be a great testimony and represent Christ in everything I do. Can I still go? Well, read on.
- 2. Dating. Temptations surround you at prom. You’re constantly pushed to have a date, and the drive of prom is guy/girl relationships. Even if it’s only going out with a group of friends and you have no official “date,” the fact is, people act differently when they’re with a mixed-gender group. Temptations surround both guys and girls, so why put yourself in that situation? Further, synonymous with the word prom is the word dance. What good comes from dancing together? I don’t know if I could ever be convinced that “It’s nothing. We’re just friends.” Okay… then go dance with your buddy over there too. No guy would dance with his guy buddy… it’s just not right. Be careful not to defend that which God does not defend.
I promise, Bro. Ryan… I won’t have a date, I will constantly have my guard up for temptations, I won’t dance, and I won’t even touch a member of the opposite sex. That’s good, but…
- 3. Dress. Speaking from a man’s perspective, I don’t usually see modesty and purity represented by most formals. I hurt when I think that young ladies do not value themselves enough to dress modestly, and that fathers allow their daughters to dress provocatively. I also hurt when that type of dress is defended! A young man might say “It’s no big deal, Bro. Ryan! I can handle it. It doesn’t affect me.” Well, to that I say you’re either 1) over-stimulated or 2) lying. God has made men to be attracted to ladies by sight, and any act on that attraction outside of marriage is what the Bible calls fornication. Lust drives most of the clothing selections, and I just want to “blow the whistle” and warn Christians to ALWAYS check their motives for everything they do.
All right… I’ll wear a dress that goes from my eyebrows to my ankles (ladies only, of course!), I’ll injure my leg so I can’t dance, I’ll contract chicken pox so I don’t touch a member of the opposite sex, I’ll be a Christian testimony the whole time, and (for the guys) I’ll wear a blindfold so I am not tempted by sight. Wow. Sounds fun now (note the sarcasm)! But…
- 4. Music. What style of music pops into your head when you think of prom? Is it a driving beat? A sultry, low tone? Could it be described as provocative? Usually. If it’s more of a “party prom,” I seriously doubt that means they’re moving to the more upbeat GloryBound Quartet from Heartland! The whole night, I seriously doubt the music could be considered godly and helpful to someone’s spiritual walk with God. Just in the car ride there, what kind of music is playing in the car? I’ll destroy the car’s radio, Bro. Ryan, so we won’t have bad music in the car. What about when you get to the prom? Would it be the same without the music?
So far, only a blind, lame and deaf person with chicken pox is good to go!
- 5. Association. This subject could be expanded and taken down multiple roads, but the Bible principle of separation and holiness ought to drive our motivations for what we do. God’s primary characteristic is His holiness, and we are to strive for that attribute above all others. With the word prom comes many other associations, and right or wrong, logically (and even statistically) you can’t disassociate prom from these associations. Why choose to put yourself in a situation that is associated with underage drinking, premarital sex, lust, dancing, drugs, after-parties, arrests, and pregnancies? While I would never associate that with any individual who is in our church, why would his or her attendance at prom NOT condone those behaviors? How would participation in prom say in any way that those associations are wrong? “Well, I don’t participate in those activities.” I’m sure you don’t… but apparently you’re okay with it. Ask yourself if GOD is the motivation, or if FUN is the motivation.
Ignoring these warnings is a slippery slope, and I wouldn’t want to be the one who tells God on judgment day that prom is okay. Love God and let Him be the one who determines your choices. Love others and live to serve, not BE served. Hopefully you’re able to see a few of the dangers and keep yourself away. I hope to be an encouragement in any way that I can, and if you ever need anything, please let me know. We love you all VERY much! Have a great week and do right.
In faith,
Ryan Rench
SUNDAY MORNING
Pastor Rench “What Impresses You?”
Mark 12:35-44
Click here to listen. Right-click to download. (Scripture)
Click here to listen. Right-click to download.
SUNDAY EVENING
Pastor Rench “A Look at Noah’s Family”
Gen. 6
Click here to listen. Right-click to download. (Scripture)
Click here to listen. Right-click to download.
