I was in Newtown the other day and noticed the remains of a "Jesus - All About Life" sign tied to the fence out the front of a house on busy King St. Someone had obviously taken offence at the sign and ripped it in half.  The sight of the vandalised sign didn't surprise me at all. With so many people walking past, at every hour of the day and night, it's a miracle that the sign wasn't vandalised earlier and its amazing that there was still half of it left on the fence! …

I recently read the book titled "Do Hard Things - A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations". It's written by 18 year old twins Alex and Brett Harris, who are Christians from Oregon, USA.
 

Their basic premise is that the expectations teenagers have of themselves in the western world is far too low, and that this is exacerbated by the low expectations adults and the society at large generally has for teenagers. …

 Young people in Years 6-8 at school are well catered for at St. Alban's. On Sunday mornings the Fungus group caters for this age group. On Friday nights EPIC Jnr also caters for this age group. Although these two groups target young people in the same age range, they are very different groups with very different objectives.
 

 
The main aim of Fungus is discipleship. …

In recent times the Skidz group (Sunday mornings, school years K-5) has been growing and last term it was bursting at the seams. On some Sunday mornings there were more than 50 children present. The decision was made to split the group into two, from the beginning of this term. So Skidz has now become Light and Salt.  

Two of the main advantages of splitting into two groups are:

1. It is now easier for the leaders to prepare and run age appropriate games and teaching material.

2. …

This term, each Friday night at EPIC, we are going to examine selected passages in the New Testament that explain key ideas about Jesus.

The series will be called "All About Jesus."

As we work through this series it's my prayer that we would all gain a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, what he has done, what he is doing and what he one day will do.

Throughout this term we will see how important Jesus is, how powerful he is, how loving he is, …

On the weekend of the 24-26^th of April, 50 young people and leaders from EPIC will be heading up to the Katoomba Christian Convention site for KYCK.

KYCK is a weekend convention at Katoomba aimed at high school students. At KYCK there is excellent bible teaching, great music, good food and lots of time to hang out with friends.
We will be joined by thousands of other young people from over a hundred different churches. In fact, …

Over the past term the youth and the leaders at EPIC have been getting behind an organisation called onemiilioncan.

You can check out their website at: OneMillionCan.

…

Each Friday night at EPIC we spend a good chunck of time looking at God's Word - reading it, listening to a talk from it and discussing it in D-Groups (small discussion groups). This term at EPIC we have been looking at the topic of Counter Cultural Christianity as we study the Gospel of Matthew. It's amazing just how unique and distinct the teachings of Jesus are when compared to the thoughts, values and priorities of our own culture.

  …

When I think about ministry to children and youth one particular verse from the bible continually jumps into my mind-

Ecclesiastes 12:1 "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come ..."

In all of our children's and youth programs at St Alban's we are attempting to help young people remember their Creator.

What might 'remembering our Creator' look like?

• When we read His Word, …

Christian music can be a great source of encouragement in the Christian life. But finding good Christian music can sometimes be a challenge.

Last year I found a big collection of good Christian music online (that is free to download) at: Mars Hill

Mars Hill Church is the church that Mark Driscoll's pastors in Seattle, Washington. …