GETTING STARTED AT EDGE

First, check out the brief overview of our four main programs below. Then, go the Edge calendar to find out specific dates.

1. FRIDAY EDGE

Meets on the first and third Fridays of the month during the school year. We gather in the Fellowship Hall from 7-9pm. See calendar for exceptions.

This is the rally point of our ministry and everyone is welcome! If you are unsure where to start your child with Edge, this is it.

DESCRIPTION
During Friday night Edge, Students hang out, fellowship, eat pizza, play group games, worship with the Edge band, and have experiential teaching. This is a casual atmosphere where students are encouraged to bring friends and between 150 and 200 students attend. While this is a great place to bring visitors, it is also a time when regular attendees are encouraged in their faith and challenged to make key decisions in their life with Christ.

2. THURSDAY THRILLS

This is our new summer program that runs from June to August. We meet in the Fellowship Hall from 7-9pm on first and third Thursdays of the month. (June 5 & 19, July 3 & 17, and August 7.) On August 21, we'll take a day trip to Cedar Point to end the summer.

This is a great place for newcomers to get started! Incoming 6th graders and outgoing 8th graders are all welcome.

DESCRIPTION
This is a fun five week series that will use your favorite Cedar Point roller coasters to remind you what an adventure it is to live for Christ! Students and parents will find Thursday Thrills reminiscent of our Friday Edge program, but with a few new twists and turns. Come hang out, play new games, eat pizza, and learn about the Christlike approach to issues facing students today. Bring visitors and be challenged from God's Word!

3. SUNDAY EDGE

Meets every Sunday throughout the year from 10-11am in room 9.

This time is geared toward believers in Christ, but visitors are expected and welcome.

DESCRIPTION
Sunday mornings are focused on fellowship, worship, and creative teaching from the Bible. Students socialize and enjoy doughnuts and juice for about fifteen minutes and then come together for worship and teaching. Our desire is to make Sunday Edge a place where students feel comfortable spending time with each other and leave with a challenge from the Word of God that can be practically applied to their lives.

4. SMALL GROUPS

Meet on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month from 7-8:30pm in a home near the church or in a neighboring community.

Small groups are for students already involved in Friday nights and Sunday mornings at Edge.

DESCRIPTION

• A small group consists of six to ten students of the same grade and gender connected with and lead by one adult leader. They meet twice a month in a home to study God’s Word using approved curriculum, hang out with each other, pray together, and have accountability.
• Because small groups are not an alternative to Friday and Sunday Edge, new small groups will not start until October after we have seen that a student is committed to the ministry as a whole. Students can then decide if they want to be in a small group.
• Our hope is that the small groups will strengthen the ministry as a whole by learning what it means to serve and lead. We want our committed students to no longer look at Edge as a place just for them, but to see how they can make the ministry better by bringing unsaved friends, welcoming others in, and taking leadership.
• Our adult ministry leaders are required to fill out an application with references, have a background check, and a personal interview.

Please contact Jillian at edge@hudsonchapel.org with questions.

8 Ways for Parents to Partner With Edge

How can I partner with the Edge ministry?

KEY: We are not just suggesting that you partner with us, but we are telling you that your child’s spiritual growth depends on it.

Why? Whether you like it or not, you are the number one influence on your child’s life. Therefore we need to be partners in this.


Top 8 Ways Parents can partner with Edge

1. Be a cheerleader for our ministry. That can be one of the best outreach tools out there.

2. If you have a problem, concern, question, or issue with anything we do, come to us first! Please don’t start going to other parents. If we don’t know we can’t help.

3. Ask your child about what they learned after Edge or small group. Dialogue with your child and generate spiritual conversation. Don’t let them off easy.

4. Know the purpose of each event and help us communicate that to your child. Example: The Late Night is not for you, it’s for your unsaved friends, and the purpose is outreach so who are you going to invite to this event?

5. Come to the Edge Parents Night next spring (2009). Watch for details closer to that time.

6. Actively pray for Edge, the staff, and the students.

7. Join our leadership team for the right reasons. Example: Wrong reason: I would like to keep an eye on my kid because this edge thing sounds kind of scary to me. Right reason: wow, this sounds like a great ministry, I love this age group, and I have a heart for ministry.

8. Make Edge (your child’s spiritual life) a priority. Plan ahead so that conflicts do not arise. Example: homework, sports, activities

IMPORTANT LOGISTICS

1. Make sure we have a parent email!
2. Use our website!
3. No paper calendar this year…it’s all on the web!

EDGE STAFF and CONTACTS

Todd Iannetta, Director
todd.iannetta@hudsonchapel.org . . . . 330-650-9533 ext. 344

Jillian Stouffer, Ministry Facilitator/Girls Discipleship
jillian.stouffer@hudsonchapel.org . . . .ext. 320

Jonathan Claytor, Program
jonathan.claytor@hudsonchapel.org . . . . ext. 323

EDGE GAMES '08 Parent Info

Edge Games
General Information For Parents

No pre-sign up is needed for this event. Medical and release forms are not necessary because students at no time will be permitted to leave the property.

Students can be dropped off at the front of the church (Rte. 303 side) at 7:00 p.m. Pickup is at 9:00 PM at the same location.

Students will be supervised by adults at all times without exception. (We expect between 300-400 students, and as a result we will have plenty of adult supervision throughout the night) Furthermore, all voluntary supervision will be required to check in and receive a special nametag to ensure that they are a part of the supervision team.

There is no charge for this event. However, each night students will have a chance to purchase this year’s Edge Games IV t-shirt for $5.00.

Students should come dressed to be active that night as we will be playing team games. Students do not have to be athletic to participate.

Students will be put into different teams and each team will be supervised by 3-4 adult coaches.

All students are expected to comply with the rules set forth by our Edge staff and adult leaders. The adult leaders have the right to send students home for behavior problems.

For any questions about anything concerning The Edge Games event, feel free to call or email the Director of Middle School students at the address or number below.

Todd Iannetta

Director of Middle School Students

Hudson Community Chapel

Phone: (330) 650-9533

Email: todd.iannetta@hudsonchapel.org

SKI SPLASH WEEKEND IS COMING! If your son or daughter would have a blast at a weekend retreat that includes a day of skiing or snowboarding at Peek N’ Peak in New York, and a day at Splash Lagoon in Erie, PA, than this is for them! The Ski Splash weekend takes place February 16-17 with details and registration on-line at www.edgehcc.com.

Back to edge Games Flyer

Important Date Change for Parents

The Edge Christmas Party which was originally scheduled for Friday, December 15th has been changed to Sunday, December 10th from 7-9 PM. Please mark this down on your calendars so that you remember the change especially because it is on a Sunday night, which is not a night we typically meet.

The Christmas Party will include Christmas games, Christmas cookies, Christmas music, Christmas giveaways, and a Christmas message!

Come early on Sunday and see the "Out of the blue" improv jam for the month, which takes place from 5-7 PM right before Edge begins. You will not want to miss it!

One Parent to Another

There comes a time for all of us parents when we realize that our kids are growing up. If you are anything like me, that realization hit you upside the head when you were least prepared for it. One day you have this sweet little chubby cheeked angel with a kool-aid smile and sticky fingers. Then the next day you have this gangling, moody, prickly teenager. You begin to wonder where the pod could be, and what could have happened to your little angel. For surely this is not the same child.

It is at times like this when every parent needs backup!

I have been blessed with a few wonderful friends who help me when the going gets rough. They are women here at HCC who have taken the risk to be real with me. They have shared openly their experiences, struggles, and mistakes without caring about how they may come off in the story. They have reassured me that “this too shall pass”. They have prayed and laughed with me. They showed me I was not alone.

I pray that as parents of EDGE kids we will come together in unity and support not only for the kids and the ministry, but for each other too. Please join me in that prayer and take the risk to be real.


Carol Ann Utrup
a.k.a. Maddie’s Mom

One Parent To Another

“Satan is out there roaming the earth seeking whom he may devour.” We have all read that and heard it preached. To hear it and know it in your mind is one thing, but when you see the enemy come after your child…it wakes you up, shakes up your notions of how things really are, and challenges your faith. I was driven to my knees…more like flat on my face…in prayer for my child. Many times I did not even know what to pray but just wept before Him.

My prayer life up until then was sporadic and all too often reactionary. Good things happen …Praise the Lord! Bad things happen…Help me Lord! Most of the time, I just bumbled along in life trying to do the best I could. When it hit home, I had to start walking my talk in ways that I had never been challenged to do before. I am a problem solver, a “fixer” by nature. This was something that no matter what I did I could not “fix”. I could do nothing but pray and trust in the Lord. As I prayed for my own daughter, your sons & daughters were brought to my heart more & more.

It was a simple question that started this branch of the ministry. Todd came up to me one EDGE Friday night while the band was practicing and asked me if I would round up some parents to pray while he was giving his message. I said sure, and a few of us that were there that night went to a quiet room in the church and prayed. I thought that was it, but I soon learned that God had other plans.

I only see these kids over a table strewn with pizza. I don’t know many of their names, don’t have the interactions with them that the small group leaders do. But God has burned their faces in my mind, and opened my ears to hear the silent cries of their hearts. I have seen first hand how hard it is for them out there in the world. I have become a student of youth culture, and know more about the destructive and evil forces that they have to contend with than I ever wanted to know. Now I am driven to my face not only for my child, but for all of OUR children.

Make no mistake about it, whether you want to be or not, you are at war! At stake are the hearts, minds, and souls of our children. That is what birthed “In the Trenches”. I had asked God to use me, but never thought it would be in this direction. Me Lord? An intercessory prayer warrior? I felt (and still do feel) totally inadequate for the task. But that is the cool thing about our God…His grace is enough to cover all of our weaknesses.

Please join me on EDGE Friday nights, and daily in your own prayers, in the trenches of spiritual warfare for our children.

Thanks
Carol Ann Utrup
“Maddie’s Mom”

IN THE TRENCHES

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.” Eph 6:12

Who: Parents, and anyone else, who has a heart to pray for EDGE
What: Coming together for an informal time of prayer
When: EDGE Friday nights, 8:15 – 8:45.
Where: Conference Room. Follow the signs from the Welcome Desk
Why: To see God move in the lives of our students.

Please pick up a bookmark at the EDGE registration table as a reminder to pray for this ministry.

Edge Small Groups

An Edge small group is made up of about 6-10 middle school students of the same age and gender with one adult leader. Small groups are a great chance for students to grow and mature in their faith through group discussion, studying God's Word, answering the difficult questions, and praying together! The purpose of a small group is for students to grow in their faith and to connect with other students their age. It also gives them a chance to be mentored and discipled by an adult who loves Jesus Christ. Small groups meet on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month offsite in someone's home.

So, here is how a student gets involved with a small group. He or she first starts by coming to Edge on Friday nights (1st and 3rd of the month). Once he or she likes what is going on at Edge and is committed to it, the next step is small group. To be placed in a small group, please have your parents contact me at todd.iannetta@hudsonchapel.org and tell me your name, your grade, your school, and 1 person (if you want) you would like to be in a group with. You will then be placed in a group if there are openings or be put on a waiting list to wait for the next group to start.

Currently, we have 22 small groups meeting and over 160 students involved with a small group. Our goal is to see every student in Edge to get hooked into a small group. Small groups are a place to deepen your faith, to ask questions, and to feel connected. Don't miss out on a great opportunity. Small group students are expected to remain committed to Edge on Friday nights.