One Homeless Night

One Homeless Night is an event where young people have a unique opportunity to step into the shoes of their homeless peers for one night, while also providing critical help to programs at Synergy Services. 2,000 youth are homeless every night in the Kansas City metro area, and this is an opportunity for your teen and your family to engage this very prevalent issue.

On Saturday October 15th, across the entire Kansas City metro area, thousands of youth will participate in "sleep-outs" to raise funds and awareness to youth homelessness.

Synergy also has a One Homeless Night Rally coming up on Thursday, September 8 at 6:00 pm at our Youth Resiliency Center (2001 NE Parvin Rd, Kansas City, MO 64116). At the rally we will be able to answer any questions you may have about One Homeless Night, including how to get people involved in your community and how to pick a site. 

If you're interested in participating, please contact me, or visit Synergy Services One Homeless Night overview page.

More All-Family Gatherings and Services at Shoal Creek?

Two weeks ago Shoal Creek tried out an "All-Family" service in place of our normally adult-targeted service. The controlled chaos can't be described, only witnessed! 

Coming out of that Sunday, we wondered, "Could there be a more regular place at Shoal Creek for more "all-family" type gatherings such as this? Would families take advantage of programs and events that were designed to engage the whole family's spiritual journey at the same time? What might happen in a family's spiritual journey if we designed gatherings for the family to grow closer to God together, instead of always splitting them up?"

Have you ever wondered the same thing? Or, if you were able to experience our All-Family service from 8/21, did you come away from it wanting more opportunities to grow closer to God with those you call family?

Shoal Creek is looking for and gathering people who are intrigued by the thought of providing more gatherings and services similar to the 8/21 All-Family service. We're searching for people who are interested in working with others to create spaces for families to journey towards God together.

Might that be you? Might coming to a Sept 11th brainstorming/planning meeting be a next step for your family's spiritual journey?

Please think about it, because we believe that there are families out there looking for a place to learn how to do "family", and Shoal Creek may be the place God is leading them to find. Having more regular All-Family gatherings could be the "hook" that leads them to a place where God can intersect their lives, and you and your family could be a part of making that happen.

If you can't make the Sept 11th brainstorming/planning meeting but are still interested in being a part of this, please contact me and let me know.

First Ever Shoal Creek Family Olympics

Want to help plan for an AMAZING family experience?

Sunday August 21st we will be having our FIRST EVER family Olympics. There will be food, games and prizes for all. Best of all it follows our FIRST EVER all family event at nine thirty and eleven am on that same day! 

A planning meeting is set for this Sunday after the 11am service in the main office area. Lunch will be provided. 

NOTE! The people who attend this meeting will also be on site and working during the Family Olympic event. So to allow families with younger/elementary age children to enjoy the event together, we are looking for adults/teens to attend this meeting and serve who are not at that life stage. 

Please contact Candy Moran if you can make the planning meeting this Sunday, or if you can't make the planning meeting but still want to be a part of the Family Olympics on 8/21.

What do young people really want in a church?

"What do young people really want in a church?" - If you've been wondering what might increase your teen's affinity for church, you might be surprised to find out what really motivates many young people to attend--to be challenged.  As one 20-something put it, 

“I think many churches have fallen into a consumer mindset as a default mode. Churches have tried to appeal to people’s desire to feel good. But the problem is, if you’re just trying to make people feel good, church isn’t going to measure up to that.”

The link and quote come from the Fuller Youth Institute. FYI is going to be publishing a book this fall called "Growing Young", a research-based look at what actually attracts teenagers and young adults to church. They are uncovering many seriously insightful data points from their qualitative and qualitative studies that can help us as Shoal Creek think about concrete steps that families can take to help our students have the fullest spiritual journey possible.

Concerning this particular article and quote, have you and your student thought about finding a place to serve on Sundays? If not, it is worth having a conversation about, as most Shoal Creek students that have found a place to serve on Sunday have continued to desire to attend Shoal Creek all the way through their senior year in high school--a BIG WIN!

If interested in finding a place for you and your student to serve, please contact me and we'll get you hooked up.