Freedom in Authority: Part 2 - UNDER AUTHORITY, living in Freedom

Kevin Meland and his wife Chris are the founders of Mountain Haven Marriage and Family Reconciliation Ministry and authors of the book "The Hope Filled Marriage".

In the second part of this short series, Kevin talked to the students about honoring your parents.

Speaker: Kevin Meland
Title: Freedom in Authority: Part 2 - UNDER AUTHORITY, living in Freedom
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Freedom in Authority: Part 1 - UNDER AUTHORITY, living in Freedom

We naturally convince ourselves that little or no authority over our lives equates to freedom. In this first part of a short two week series we talked about how maximum freedom is found under the authority God has placed over us. When we learn to live under God's ultimate authority it will impact all other aspects of authority that is over our lives.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Freedom in Authority: Part 1 - UNDER AUTHORITY, living in Freedom
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Immanuel: God With Us (Luke 2:1-7)

We have been going over the book of Luke at Vineyard Christian Fellowship. I was given the task of Luke 2:1-7, which includes the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Immanuel: God With Us (Luke 2:1-7)
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Moral Boundaries: Part 4 - Purity

What a finish to the Purity series! God moved in a powerful way and we saw 6 people give their lives to Christ for the first time, and over 40 students take a vow to purity. Pastor Cory and I signed a "Committment to Purity" certificate with each student making the vow just like they will do when they sign a marriage certificate.

In this final talk we chatted about why Jesus is the Lamb of God and what that means. How His forgiveness puts us back to the standard of how He created us. We follow a God who makes us white as snow and that is the same with out purity. Because of Jesus, we can start over our purity lives today.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Moral Boundaries: Part 4 - Purity
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Moral Boundaries: Part 3 - Purity

John Maxwell said, "show me a leader without a vision, and I'll show you someone who isn't going anywhere". In part 3 of our Purity series we discuss about how we need a vision and goals to go into the battle for our purity. If you don't have a vision and virtues to guide your life then your circumstances will dictate your behavior.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Moral Boundaries: Part 3 - Purity
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Necessities when doing sermon prep.
1. Coffee
2. Pandora playing a Mozart station.

Moral Boundaries: Part 2 - Purity

Pornography...a billion dollar industry that is saturating this generation with a false perspective on what sex, purity, and our design for how relationships should be. Pornography is an addiction that alters and effects our brain in an amazingly devastating way. Our culture and media is ran through sexual impurities and the results is a generation of abuse, depression, suicide, rape, and moral bankruptcy.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Moral Boundaries: Part 2 - Purity
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Moral Boundaries: Part 1 - Purity

What a way to start off The Edge for 2009...by talking about purity. In part 1 of this purity series we take a look at God's design for sex and how He is the designer and creator of sex. Sex is a good thing because it's a God thing, so sex must be used by His design.

We also look at the what our culture and worlds teaching of sex is and the difficulties that provides.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Moral Boundaries: Part 1 - Purity
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Why Imago Dei Teams?

One of the big changes going into this new school year for The Edge is the addition of Imago Dei Teams, which most people call small groups. Imago Dei is a latin term for "Image of God". This is short conversation about why Imago Dei Teams are important to The Edge youth group and why we are adding them to our program.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Why Imago Dei Teams?
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New Year

Well, we are only two days away from launching The Edge for it’s second year.  God moved in amazing ways last year.  We saw more than 60 students declare Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and worship through music was released from the hearts of the students in a powerful way! 

We have changed many things going into this year and I believe God keeps planting vision and direction on my heart for His youth ministry here in Canon City.  There have been TONS of organizing this past month and now it’s time to put it into action.  I am excited and wait in expectancy for God’s heart to be captured by the next generation here at The Edge.

First topic of year… PURITY! Here we go.

Go God!

The Edge 2008-2009

Extreme Blog #10

Our final video blog from Extreme Mission. I hope you enjoyed them and thank you all for your prayers! The trip was a huge success!

Extreme Blog #9

Extreme Blog #8

Extreme Blog #7

Extreme Blog #6

Extreme Blog #5

Extreme Blog #4

Sorry it took so long.. enjoy!

Slow Internet

Hello!

We are in Mexico and slept at our hotel last night. There was an AMAZING lightning storm that came through as we were going to sleep. Constant lightning which made it look like a strobe light outside.

Extreme Blog #4 is ready to upload, but the connection from where I am sitting is really bad and it didn't complete the upload process last night. I will try and get it up somehow.. someway.

Thanks for all your prayers.

in Him
Scott

Extreme Blog #3

Extreme Blog #2

Extreme Blog #1

Our Extreme Missions group is set to leave tomorrow for an amazing time. We are heading down to Nuevo Casas Grandes in Mexico. There are Thirteen of us going down from the 12th - 20th of July. Please pray for us. I will try and post a video blog nightly from the day's events if I can get internet access.

This first video blog is from our team building BBQ this past Thursday. We did some fun team building activities and this video is the last one game we played. It wore us out!

We split up guys and girls. The girls went first, but we didn't record it. The object is to prezel your bodies together as tight as you can and the other team needs to pull you apart. It hurt so bad because it was hot and we were sweating and hands pulling on skin at full strength = stretching skin. OUCH!

See you all tomorrow...

Wisdom Choices - Part 2: Decisions

In part 2 of this series we took a look at Proverbs 7, and how the "simple" or naive young lack experience and time. We always need to seek wise counsel and listen to those who have time and experience, especially in situations we are in. We often make decisions based off the moment, and not on how it will affect our lives.


Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Wisdom Choices
Title: Part 2 - Decisions
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Wisdom Choices: Part 1 - Decisions

Started a new series under the Wisdom Choices priority point here at The Edge. We are specifically talking about Decisions. This series is based off a book by one of my favorite pastors Andy Stanley from North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The book is called "The Best Question Ever" and is seen on the left.



In part 1 of this three part series we discussed what that "Best Question" is and how it can be used to fool proof our lives.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Wisdom Choices
Title: Part 1 - Decisions
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Walking Close to Jesus...

I recently gave a conversation at our main service here at Vineyard Christian Fellowship. I was given the passage of Hebrews 13:1-3 and through the preperation for this talk it totally wrecked me.

Are we as Christ followers following close enough to Christ where we are adapting to His character? We were created to adapt to the environment around us, so is Jesus a part of your environment?

NOTE: This conversation starts by reflecting on Easter Sunday when our congregation members gave cardboard testimonies on what God has done in their lives. The audio starts in a weird spot and you would have no idea what I'm talking about unless I gave this little "heads-up". If you don't know what a cardboard testimony are..... then check out this YouTube video.

(watch the testimonies... very very powerful! The song is "How He Loves", one of my favorites right now.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Title: Walking Close to Jesus
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Healthy Relationships: FRIENDS - Ultimate Friend [part 6]

To finish up this series on FRIENDS we will talk through the Ultimate Friend in Jesus Christ. We talked about how we want FRIENDS that are wise, how our friends influence us, and we usually draw towards people who accept us. As we put Jesus as our Ultimate Friend, He accepts us exactly where we are, He will influence us, and we will become wise from walking by His wisdom.

We put this sermon on video because it has a lot of visual components to it. There are some choppy areas so please forgive us.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Healthy Relationships
Title: FRIENDS - Ulitmate Friend [Part 6]
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Healthy Relationships: FRIENDS - Testimony of FRIENDS [part 5]

Brad Hearon blessed our socks off by sharing his testimony. Brad has an amazing story about running with the wrong crowd, getting caught up in the wrong things, and experiencing a life that truly burned to the ground. Brad started a non-profit organization called H.E.L.P. and he travels around the U.S. speaking to young people. You can learn more about his non-profit and story at Brad's MySpace

Here is a short promo that we showed at church to promote this amazing night at The Edge Youth Ministries. We saw 10 students give their lives to Christ and many other recommit back to Him.


Speaker: Brad Hearon
Priority Point: Healthy Relationships
Title: FRIENDS - Testimony of FRIENDS [Part 5]
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New Heights Night of Music and Worship

Healthy Relationships: FRIENDS - Friendly Fire [part 4]

Friendly fire definition is:
"discharge of a military weapon that injures or kills a member of one’s own armed forces or an ally."

When a unit of the armed forces are in combat their guard is down from the members they are fighting with, and occasionally they will get hit by someone they trust in their unit.

A lot of us will put "friends" in our unit, whom we put our guard down around. They hit us with influence to do something wrong, they hit us with lies, they hit us with confusion, and it can alter our lives forever. These are counterfeit friends.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Healthy Relationships
Title: FRIENDS - Friendly Fire [Part 4]
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Healthy Relationships: FRIENDS - Acceptance [part 3]

We long for acceptance and fear rejection, and many times, we will place our lives sole position where we are accepted. When we think about our FRIENDS, do they have the 5 qualities we want in a FRIEND, or are we compromising what our convictions are because they accept us?

As you watch this music video by Casting Crowns, you will see that what this girl desires is to be accepted. When she does feel acceptance, from "Prince Charming", she isn't first drawn by his convictions and morals but by just being accepted and it hurt her.

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Healthy Relationships
Title: FRIENDS - Acceptance: Do You Accept Me? [Part 3]
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Healthy Relationships: FRIENDS - Influence [part 2]

FRIENDS and influence go hand in hand. We are influenced by our friends in an amazing way. A prison inmate who has a life full of gangs and gunshot wounds even claimed that, "you usually turn out to be who you hang out with". The bible warns about this and so does the world.

So what kind of FRIENDS are you putting around yourself? Are they the wise, the fool, or the scoffer that the book of Proverbs talks about?

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Healthy Relationships
Title: FRIENDS - Influence: Are You Chicken? [Part 2]
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Healthy Relationships: FRIENDS - part 1

The most influential people in a teenager's life are their friends. This is a start of a new series on FRIENDS and the importance of surrounding ourselves with wise friends.

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the three types of people the book of Proverbs talks about: The Wise, The Fool, and The Scoffer. Not only do we want to take inventory of the friends around us, but also take a look at ourselves to see where we might stand today. As a friend to someone, we will influence in a negative or positive way.

Download the study verses on the wise, the fool, and scoffers by clicking here

Speaker: Scott McNiel
Priority Point: Healthy Relationships
Title: FRIENDS - Part 1
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Married Life

It's been a while since my last post or sermon upload. We took some time in December at The Edge to watch The Chronicles of Narnia and have discussions about the movie. It was awesome and we saw many students come to the Lord during that time. We are starting a new series this week on Healthy Relationships: Friends.

Grace and I recently got married on January 10, 2009 and it was spectacular. Everything went so perfect and it is amazing being married...finally! We are enjoying living together in our house now, which was a bachelor's pad before, and let me tell you... it's great having an amazing cook around at all times. Our honeymoon was in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, which is close to Puerto Vallarta. The weather was a perfect 85 every day and we totally needed the time to relax. Here is a short video of me parasailing on the honeymoon.
God Bless