SUBLIME STUDENTS - CROSSPOINT STUDENT MINISTRIES

One of the most common questions parents have about Sublime is how to get their student connected into the group, especially in such a busy world. We here at Sublime understand that everyone has a life and is very busy. You and your student are no exception to that. Because of the high volume of life that we all operate under we know that no one can attend every event that we have here at Sublime everytime. In spite of this though, we believe that life is all about priorities of various things, and thus we believe that if you truly want to see your child get connected with our group there are several events that you should make a priority for your student to attend regularly:

#1. Sublime: (Connect with God) This is by far the best way for students to make an initial connection with Sublime and CrossPoint as a student. We call Sublime our "entrance point" for students coming into or just checking out our group. Sublime is our student worship time and takes place every Wednesday Night from 6:30 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. for middle school students (6^th-8^th grade) and from 7:30-8:30 for high school students (9^th-12^th grade). This is a great time for students to meet new friends, connect with our adult workers and have a safe and FUN church experience! We have incredible music, powerful worship, many interactive things such as games, videos, humor and other things to help build connection with students and adults alike. We also always have a time of opening up God's Word in a way that is relevant and understandable to today's students. Sublime is not what students think of when they think of church, encourage your students to give it a try!

#2. Student Life Bible Study Groups (Connect with God’s People): After making an initial connection with students at Sublime we want to place students in a more intimate connecting environment than they can have in a large crowd. Student Life Bible Study groups do just that. These small groups meet regularly and are designed to do two things for your student:

1. Ground students in knowledge of God's Word with special emphasis given to 8 major Biblical doctrines that are essential for Christians to have a grasp of. The plan we use will take students through the entire Bible twice from the time they enter 6th grade to the time that they graduate high school, ensuring that they are grounded in the Word and that they know the basic important Christian doctrines of the Bible completely!

2. Connect in relationship with students and adults who will help them grow spiritually. At Sublime we believe that true and significant spiritual growth occurs in small group relationships. By being a part of a group of students who regularly meet together, in and out of the church setting and by opening the Word of God together and by doing life together in relationship we believe that students can't help but grow in faith! This is not typical church Sunday school; please encourage your students to get involved!

#3. Summer Camps: Our annual summer camps takes place every summer in early June for high school students and mid- July for middle school students. This year's camp for high school students is in Panama City Beach, FL and for middle school students in Ocoee, TN. We will take church transportation from CrossPoint and will travel to both facilities (you can check the middle school camp facility out at http://www.hornscreek.com/ and the high school camp facility at http://www.bluehorizonlodge.com/). Regardless of which camp your child goes too, your student will have tons of opportunities to experience connections with other students, adult leaders and most of all with God. Students will have this opportunity to draw closer to God and to connect with other students/adults through attending our daily worship times, their smaller family group times, their own personal quiet time with God and all the fun things they will have a chance to do. High school students will get to experience ShipwreckIsland Water Park, beach volleyball, basketball, swimming in our pool, game times and naturally lots of beach time! Middle school students will get to experience white water rafting the Ocoee River, paintball, rock wall climbing, the 1000 ft. zip line, the camp wave pool and 100 ft. water slide, canoeing, game times and many other things.

#4. 2:17 Weekend (Disciple Now Weekend): 2:17 is a weekend experience for students that takes place right after the start of the school year.

Although the theme and weekend name changes every year, the basics of the event are the same. The weekend starts on a Friday night right after the beginning of the school year and lasts through the following Sunday at 12 p.m. Students gather on Friday night at CrossPoint, sign in and find out their weekend group that they will be staying with (each group of students stays at an adult leaders house that is a member of CrossPoint and that has been screened by the student ministry at CrossPoint). Groups are selected by the student ministry based off of gender, age and friends. A student is also free to request who they would like to stay with via e-mail.

CrossPoint is a whosoever church and Sublime is a whosoever student ministry. All persons are welcome at both regardless of what clothing they wear. However, understanding that parents want to protect their students from being distracted or being a distraction because of clothing, one of the most common things parents like to know is what typical dress for students in various contexts at Sublime events is. The following are not rules, just merely suggestions that we would offer to give you a basic idea about typical dress attire.

What Can I Do To Help?

Parents want the very best for their children. In a student ministry that can play out in several different ways. We here at Sublime realize that most parents of students either don't feel gifted or called to work directly with students in a "hands on" capacity in the student ministry or they simply choose not to because they want to give their own student space to feel free to open up and grow in a healthy environment away from mom and dad. However, we need all of you to be apart of our team to help make the best possible environment for students. Here are several ways you can help:

Be A Cheerleader For Sublime: The cheerleading team consists of people whose primary function is to show support for our ministry and its leaders. Their efforts to do this are self-initiated when they have time and feel the need to act. Cheerleaders don't have any specific responsibilities besides doing whatever it takes to accomplish 2 things:

1. Making sure that those in the church that are not apart of student ministry know all the good and positive things that go on. People need to know about what we are doing (and that it is good), because most of the people who attend church every week have no idea about what we do or if it is at all positive. Cheerleaders via word of mouth, e-mails to people or any other creative method let people know good things are happening with students as opportunity arises.

2. They also shower student ministry leaders with confidence and support. Student ministry is a hard, time consuming, often thankless and unappreciated job, so cheerleaders let our leaders know that their sacrifices are not unnoticed or unappreciated. This can be done in a variety of ways as well as opportunity arises.

Be A Prayer Warrior For Sublime: Our prayer warriors are not hands on with our students, but they play a huge role in our ministries success. These people are self-initiated and commit to regularly pray for our students, leaders and our overall ministry on a regular basis. The job description is simple, but the impact is eternal!

Be A Resource Person For Sublime: People who are resource persons are people who like to help by providing material things that we need or by providing their specialized talents in an area rather than being hands on with students. For instance they may not want to go lead a family group at our summer camp, but they are willing to donate soft drinks for students to have at camp, they may not want to lead games, but they are willing to build sets for games or themes, they may not want to lead a small group but they are willing to open up there home or provide food for one, they may not want to lead an event but they will set up chairs for it and clean up after it. If you are interested in helping out as a resource person, please go to the download section of this site and download the resource form, fill it out and mail it to: ATTN. Student Ministry, 8000 Liles Lane Trussville, AL 35173.

Be A Hands-On Leader For Sublime: The other option for helping out as a part of Sublime is to be a hands-on leader of students. This is the most involved but rewarding position we have at Sublime. These persons are ministers to students. They are leaders for Sublime on Wednesday nights, small group leaders, teachers, mentors and adults who just get to know and care for students. They take responsibility for the spiritual growth of students in their own hands and express initiative in accomplishing this by ministering inside and outside the church through teaching, phone calls, letters, e-mails, visits, having students in their homes, attending games or any other variety of ways to care for students. Those interested should check out the qualifications for this position in the volunteer sections of the site by clicking here.