The game starts at 8:30. Students are welcome to leave or stay; we'll be watching until halftime, at which point we will all go home and can continue trash talking via Twitter/Instagram.

Remember, the purpose of Roots Sunday Night is for our students to bring their friends! Chances are, if you're reading this, you or your child has been a part of Roots Student Ministries. It is our students' responsibility to invite friends to come hang out with us, have a great time, and hear about what God is doing! Students, send a text right now. Invite someone. Parents, ask your child who they're bringing. We want every student on the Eastern Shore to hear about Jesus!

Have you ever taken a big risk? I’m not talking about eating your mom’s broccoli casserole after too many days in the fridge.  I’m talking about something that could have only ended with a big win or a big disaster. Asking a girl to prom that has never talked to you. Pep-rally dance-off. Stealing second base in the last inning of the playoffs. If you’ve ever gone all in, taken a big risk, there’s only one reason you did it. The payoff. For every risk, there’s the promise of a reward. And if the reward is worth it, if it’s enticing enough, you just might be willing to do things you might otherwise never consider. Did you know that serving the people around you can be risky? Not only is there no guarantee of being successful, of actually helping someone, but serving also means putting our comfort, our convenience, and our reputation on the line.  On the other hand, choosing not to serve others has risks as well. Not only could we miss out, but those around us may go without something that they really need. Either way, there’s a lot on the line. So the question you have to ask is: Am I going to play it safe or am I going to go all in?



Let’s be honest, the subject of giving to help others makes us all a little nervous. It’s not that we don’t want to help others or give to the needy. It’s just that most of us feel like we don’t have much to offer. Maybe you have an allowance or a part-time job, but that doesn’t mean you’re exactly roll- ing in the dough. What can your two or five or even ten bucks do to help someone, really. As a student, it’s easy to feel powerless when it comes to giving and serving others. But what if that isn’t true? What if we have more power to help others than we realize? What if giving isn’t as complicated as we make it? The book of Proverbs teaches that we all have the power to give. And by doing so, we may get more in return than we ever imagined. 

We announced a while back that we are in the process of forming a student leadership team. I wanted to give you all an update of what is happening! The name of the team will be the Roots Student Servant Team. The Bible makes it clear that leadership starts with a servant's heart. This will be evident in the role our RSS team will play.

We began by accepting nominations for students for who they already look up to as leaders. We received a ton of nominations - thank you to everyone who participated! There was a little confusion over this step, so I'd like to clarify. A nomination process is not an election. The nominations simply tell our adult leadership team who is already perceived as a leader, so that we are sure to include those students in our team formation process. Receiving multiple nominations is the same as receiving one.

The next step is an application. The students who were nominated will be contacted individually and asked to apply. We are starting this step this week, and will have it completed by November 2. That means if you were nominated, you will be contacted in the next 10 days. We have been crafting an application very carefully, and they will be distributed very soon. A student who has been asked to apply will fill out the application and return it.  The adult leadership team will read the applications and follow up on them as necessary. 

The Roots Student Servant Team will serve a year-long term from January - December. Graduating seniors will finish their service during the Summer, not continuing during the Fall when they have moved on to college. 

We appreciate your patience as we travel down this unmarked path. This is new, exciting territory for us, and we are being very intentional as we progress towards the team's formation. Pray for us and pray for the students who may be serving in this critical role!

This series is about that subtle voice in the back of our heads - the one that constantly grades ourselves based on what everyone else is doing. It's something that we all wrestle with, yet no one talks about. The world we live in tells us "this is good, that is better" in so many areas in our life. You have a smartphone? Well, it's not as cool as that other phone. You drive this type of car? Too bad it's not this other car. 

Have you ever looked at someone else and thought, “Does he/she have more ______ than me?” Comparison is being caught in the trap of constantly asking how we measure up to others. “Do they have more money than me?” “Do they get more attention from others?” “Are they more talented than me?” We preoccupy ourselves with these questions, but God has a better plan. Jesus tells us a story of three servants, each entrusted with a certain amount of money, to illustrate the question God would have us ask—a question that will free us from the comparison trap once and for all.

This week, we're wrapping up our Comparison Trap series. The "bottom line" for our conversation on Sunday is this: What really matters is what you do with what you have. You may have less than others, or you may have more. What God looks at is how you use it.

This is an article from Orange, the source of our curriculum. Please read about what we're teaching!
We’re Teaching This:

On a scale of one to ten, how do you measure up? Are you tall enough? Pretty enough? Smart enough? Funny enough? And on that scale, which number represents enough? Do you have to score a ten or will a solid seven do? How about a five? It’s better than average, right? Most of us measure how we’re doing by how everyone else is doing. Not a day goes by that we’re not tempted to glance to our left and to our right to see how we measure up to the people around us. This is especially true at school. We see everyone else’s grades, clothes, athletic ability, talent, and popularity. And it’s easy to feel like we don’t measure up.  So we adjust course, try harder, spend more, and then compare again. It's exhausting. In this 3-part series, Andy Stanley explores the difficult—but not impossible—challenge of escaping The Comparison Trap.

Think About This:

Parenting is hard. We probably knew going in that it wouldn’t always be a walk in the park. But, as a parent, have you noticed there are some curve balls that you just don’t know how to handle? 

Chances are, you knew your kids were going to be different from one another. But it’s also likely you had no idea just how different they could be until you started raising them—until they hit a certain age and suddenly what you assumed would be true of one of your kids because it was true of an older one—just isn’t. Sometimes it feels like you have to learn how to parent all over again with each child. And sometimes not just with each child, but through each life-stage your children experience.

We may not do it on purpose, but there is a tendency to compare that comes so naturally and so easily. We bring attention to the ways our students are different from their siblings, their friends, our friends, and even earlier versions of themselves. It’s so tempting to say, “But why can’t you just be like______?” The problem is, comparison rarely works. It doesn’t make students want to try harder and it can often lead to resentment toward the parents and the sibling with whom they’re compared. Even within the family, there is no win in comparison. 

Sameness isn’t even really a goal worth shooting for. Maybe there are traits in one of your children that you’d like the others to take on. That’s great, but you probably don’t want them to be exact replicas. A better goal is to be intentional in learning, studying, and celebrating the personality and wiring of each individual child. 

Try This

No one wants to feel like they don’t measure up. Especially not in the place where they want to feel the safest and most secure. Work on making your family and your home the place where who your child is celebrated and not compared. 

This week, point out something in your teenager that you appreciate. Find something that you have seen grow and develop in them that is a strength and then tell them how proud of them you are.

Then find something that, at first glance, feels like something you would change—that you would compare to someone else and wish away. And then find a way to leverage it. To see the good in it. For example, 

• “I know I’m often on your case about talking too much in class, but I want you to know that I also love how social you are. You are great at managing a lot of friendships.”
• “I know that I get upset when you fight with your younger brother, but I also recognize that you’re just trying to get him to act in a way that is more socially acceptable. Thanks for wanting to help him.”
• “Yesterday we had an argument about playing guitar instead of cleaning your room. While I still want you to have a clean room, I’m also really proud of you for working so hard to learn to play the guitar well.”

Finding a way to celebrate something you had vocally been frustrated over in the past will mean more than you can imagine to your student. Don’t underestimate the value of your affirmation. 

Get connected to a wider community of parents at www.orangeparents.org. 

Memorizing just doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? Maybe you’ve had to memorize something for school and found yourself wondering why? In a world where you can Google the answer to just about anything, why would anyone bother to memorize? There must be a better use of our time. That may have been exactly how Joshua felt. He was just about to take over leading the nation of Israel from Moses. It was no easy task and there was a ton that needed to happen. At this pivotal moment in history, God tells Joshua that the key to his success hinges on him committing his time and attention to knowing and meditating on scripture. It probably seemed counterintuitive. He had work a lot of other work to do. But through his story we find that keeping God’s word in us is the first step to dealing with anything that’s going on around us. 

Join in the conversation this Sunday morning at 11:00 am! And don't forget to invite your friends to Roots Sunday Night at 6:30!