This issue has hit a cord with youth workers. The youth workers I met with this summer identified the problem of busy kids as their greatest challenge, and I also heard from several other youth workers with thoughts and ideas about this scenario via our Notebook and through various e-mail responses.

One reader wrote to say that this problem is affecting his church’s children’s program as well. This church had a difficult time scheduling summer children’s programs because so many kids had youth soccer, Little League baseball, or camp.

In the last issue of this newsletter, I asked youth workers, “What do you think? Are today’s students too busy?” Most of the responses I’ve received indicated that from the perspective of youth workers, most kids are indeed too busy. However, a good friend of mine seemed to take the opposite point of view by stating, “We (the church) should not see busyness as an adversary that needs to be conquered. We are in a busy culture—worldwide. If we are to have a significant impact on students, this culture is not one we need to defeat.”
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RBP has placed several FREE resources on our student ministries web site. You will all of the archives of this e-mail newsletter there. (Of course, you are welcome to print copies for youth workers or parents.) Our new blog format allows youth workers to connect with other youth workers from all over the world. Why not visit our site now? You can also order your curriculum needs or other RBP products on-line or call 1-800-727-4440 during regular office hours.

We are always looking for students to write for our student ministries publications. For instance, the RBP senior high student book contains a feature for students, written by students entitled, "In Your Words." Please encourage your students who may be interested in writing to look at the writer’s guidelines on our Web site. Then encourage them write their testimonies or their personal stories of what God has been doing in their lives, and send it to me at mwalker@garbc.org. Thanks for your help!
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Now is the time to place your order for the fall quarter. Make sure that each teacher has a copy of the junior high or senior high teacher’s book and that each student has a copy of the in-class student books. Your senior highers will need personal copies of our Real Faith in Life, a student devotional journal containing important in-class worksheets. You may also want each student to have their own memory verse cards, Real Faith Verses, and their own workbook for inductive Bible study, Real Faith In-Depth. Your junior high students will each need their own copies of our all-new student devotional leaflets Living My Faith, which also contains important in-class worksheets. The RBP student products are an integral aspect of our educational philosophy.

You can order on-line, or call 1-800-727-4440 during regular office hours. (Of course, you can also order RBP’s new FaithBuilders: Bible Studies for Youth, or any of our other youth ministry products at the same time.)

I just finished speaking to over two hundred youth workers about the greatest challenges facing youth ministry today. Guess what they identified as the greatest challenge? Busy kids.
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