Something was different about the way she looked. Did she get a haircut? Should I say something about her hair? I couldn't figure out why this young girl in our church looked so different. And then it hit me, she was smiling....

Shane gives us a glimpse into the summer of 2017 and the plans that Alive Youth Group has together...

A letter from Shane Kohout to parents about Summer plans in Alive Middle School. ...

Help the teens of Alive Youth Group raise funds for this year's ALIVE Camp AND get rid of some to-do list items all at once! ...

The past several summers have been a great time fellowshipping together, spending time in God's Word and going all out transforming whatever location we were going to for our teens to have an experience they'll never forget. As we were praying through plans for this year one thing we considered was how we can best minister to teens based on where they were at in life. We...

The point this past Sunday was for our students to understand the role Jesus played in physically demonstrating God’s glory on this earth, and that they would evaluate what effect truly “seeing” Jesus’ glory has or could have on their relationship with Christ. Read more from our latest Alive Middle School Meting Here...

Through Jesus and the work of the Spirit, God would establish a new covenant and give lasting life to his people in the new heavens and new earth. Jesus is the One through whom all of these promises find fulfillment, first in his sacrificial death as a necessary and just payment for sin and then in his victorious resurrection and reign as King....

God’s glory can be one of those “church” words students think they understand. Until they actually try to define it. Then, they realize they really don’t have a good grasp on what God’s glory is. After this study, they won’t have any problem knowing what God’s glory is, and how it affects their lives....

God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, and specifically Judah’s royal seed, David, the covenant blessings would com...

THE STORY SO FAR God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, and specifically Judah’s royal seed, David, the covenant bless...

THE STORY SO FAR God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, and specifically Judah’s royal seed, David, the covenant bless...

In order to finally defeat sin God would not send an animal sacrifice. Instead He would send a suffering servant and the Lord would lay on this servant the sin of all his people....

We are halfway through our 16 verses series and our 8th stop brings us to King David. While there are many things about his life that are commonly recalled such as his days as a shepherd, triumph over Goliath, Kingship, sin and repentance there is one aspect of his life that can commonly be overlooked. His desire was to build a temple as a permanent place for the presenc...

We are working on summer plans for Alive and I’ve included a calendar for your family to help you all stay informed of what’s coming up. Our hope is to give opportunities for fellowship while schedules are a bit more flexible with school being out for the summer, to create environments where we seek to be more identified as in Christ than we do by our school, sport, ac...

God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, and specifically Judah’s royal seed, the covenant blessings would come to the w...

Help the teens of Alive Youth Group raise funds for this year's ALIVE Camp AND get rid of some to-do list items all at once! ...

God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman, who is also the seed of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, and specifically Judah’s royal seed, the covenant blessings would come to the ...

Even as He concluded His condemning words to the serpent, God gave a hint at what He planned to do for the human race. He would not leave then without hope. And, in these words of hope, we find a pattern for the conflict that will continue until the new creation comes....

Genesis 3 is one of the most heartbreaking chapters in the entire Bible, because in it, we see God’s good creation turn rotten. In it, we see Adam and Eve, whom God made to love and trust Him, and to rule on His behalf, turn their backs on Him. And the saddest part of all is that every one of us can see ourselves reflected in Adam and Eve....

John Calvin wrote that almost all of our wisdom consists of knowledge or God and knowledge of self. Last week we learned something about God and His creation and rule of the world. As we move to the second week in our series, we will get a glimpse of some truths we must know about ourselves. So, before we leave the creation week behind, we need to back up just a bit to loo...

As a follow up to our post earlier this week on our new serues: 16 Verses, we wanted to let you know how our discussion on the topic of creation went. We've included Key Themes and The Story so far so you can keep up with where we're at. We've also provided some of the questions from our discussion groups to aide your discussions at home. Theme: Creation Verse: Gen 1:31 ...

There’s a popular turn of phrase: You can’t see the forest for the trees! How often this can be true for each one of us. In our new series in Alive however, we’re going to turn that phrase around: we’re going to understand the forest, one tree at a time. 16 trees to be precise....

We wanted to give you all a way to know what's been happening in our Alive meetings, here's a recap from our time together last night....

As I type this it’s late into the evening the night before a youth retreat and this is one of my favorite nights of the year! There’s great anticipation and our group of leaders met this afternoon for a time of training as well as buttoning up the final details preparing for your teens tomorrow morning. It was like Christmas morning seeing all of the details coming tog...

A recap of the recent Death Valley series in Alive emphasizing the words LORD, MY, and SHEPHERD from Psalm 23, detailing how God takes care of his children....

Here's a brief taste of what is in store for our teens at the upcoming Re:NEW youth conference! ...

A brief overview of what the Summer with Alive Youth Group will look like! ...

Change is nothing new. We live in Florida, so if the weather's stormy, wait five minutes and it will be different. But one thing does not change; we parents have a God given responsibility to train our children. Ephesians 6:4 says it this way: Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Though the ...

A new update regarding the heart, vision, and plan for the change to weekly Alive meetings starting this June. ...

An update about the new D-group of leaders who are working alongside Chris Jessee in Alive, including their roles in the youth ministry and a little bit of the heart behind why they've chosen to invest in the young people of MLC. ...

During the last Alive Parent meeting in April, we asked Angie Mendez to take notes about what we talked about regarding the direction and vision for the Alive Youth Group in the coming year. We are posting her notes here to help parents best understand what we're seeking to accomplish in Alive. ...

We can't wait for this Sunday's Alive Parent Meeting which will begin immediately following our service in the chapel. We want to make our time together as strategic as possible without making it a burden on you or your family. With that in mind here are 3 quick things you'll need to know. ...

Last night was the last lesson of our study on God’s glory. Entitled “Glory To God Through Us.” The point of the lesson was that our students would understand that God is given glory as they live out their everyday lives, especially during tough times, and that they would accept the challenge to be more identified with Christ through their daily actions and interacti...

In this update on Alive, our ministry to students in middle and high school, Chris introduces us to a group of individuals who are seeking to make a difference in the life of our teens. D-Group (short for Discipleship Group) leaders want to break down walls as students walk in so they don’t have a chance to feel lonely, scared, or bored. Our goal in Alive is an engagem...

In God’s awesome plan, only after Jesus’ purpose on this earth was fulfilled would the Holy Spirit permanently come to live in all Believers. We took look at how Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit’s new role in the lives of all those who would come to a saving faith in Christ. Jesus gave a ton of insight into this new way of interacting with the Spirit...

This week begins our series on the Holy Spirit. The lesson was entitled “The Spirit’s Promise,” and its purpose was to help students understand who the Holy Spirit is and what His presence in their life signifies, and to help them begin to express how His presence makes them feel....

We will soon begin a new study called “elements: Holy Spirit” that I pray will make a big impact on your teenager’s understanding of the Holy Spirit and the impact having Him in us and with us each day makes on his or her lives. Over the course of this study, your teenager will understand who the Holy Spirit is and what His presence in his or her life si...

From Chris: This week we wrapped up our Element’s study on God’s Word. This final sermon was entitled “The Word And Us.” Its purpose was to help our students would understand that as Christ-followers, God’s Word must be at the center of our lives. We were challenged to discover (or re-discover) a joy for encountering God in His Word....

Malcom Gladwell says “it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field.” (crazy when you think about it, that’s 5 years at a 40 hour per week pace). In a given week we’re each only given 168 hours, no matter what you do or who you are, President of the United States or a homeless man on the street. There are many opportunities be...

This week we continued our study on God’s Word. This message was entitled “The Word In The World,” and its purpose was to help our students see that Jesus’ person, ministry, and teachings represent the fullness of God’s word to us. We tried to help them see how they are to be communicating God’s Word in their day-to-day lives....

Last night at ALIVE we started our three-lesson study on God’s Word. This first lesson was entitled “The Word At Work,” and its purpose was to help us gain a more full understanding of what we mean by God’s Word, as well as challenging us to evaluate our own attitudes toward the Bible and the role it plays in our lives....

He’s Surely Alive! If you’ve seen God’s Not Dead, read on. If not, it’s well worth the price of a movie ticket, so stop reading and go see it....

We tend to hear “God’s Word” and think of our Bibles. Of course, we know that the Bible is indeed God’s Word. But a good understanding of God’s Word goes deeper than just the words on our favorite Bible app....

We’ve been studying God’s Love recently, more specifically God’s Love as a part of His Character, God’s Love in it’s greatest display through the cross and how we’re called to show or display God’s Love as those who have so generously received it. Would you consider today how you’re being called to show love to other...

This summer, Alive Youth Group is looking for two interns! What does this mean? We're looking to get two individuals involved in all aspects of our youth ministry including studying and practicing what it means to be a leader. From fun to grunge, meeting or activities planning to cleaning up afterward this will be a great opportunity to study alongside Chris and Aro...

We’ve just completed our third lesson in our look at God’s Love. It’s been a great time of study and application for us. While it’s sometimes difficult to show love the way Christ did, we talked about how this plays a part in living out the gospel for others. This final message was entitled “Loving Outward,” and it focused on help...

I'm guessing a blog on earwax removal was not what you were expecting. ...