This resource gives planners of youth group meetings everything they need to carry out theme-based programming. Each of the six themes includes five options (some configuration of programs, Bible study, service project, out and about, and community-building games), plus related food suggestions, decoration ideas, music and video recommendations, celebrations, publicity helps, and a retreat schedule. Also includes background for leaders about the themes, Scriptures, and the relevancy to students.

On July 31, 1869, twenty-two members of the holiness movement of the Methodist church gathered to pray on a beach on the New Jersey shore. Before long, Ocean Grove was established as "God's Square Mile, " the first permanent camp meeting dedicated to the pursuit of both holiness and recreational activities. In this richly illustrated account, Troy Messenger looks at the numerous informal amusements of summer life at Ocean Grove and provides a glimpse into a fascinating moment in the development of both nineteenth-century religion and an American leisure culture.

Like other seaside resorts of the time such as Atlantic City and Coney Island, Ocean Grove boasted a festival atmosphere and offered such diversions as baby parades, oriental bazaars, pageants, beach games, ushers' marches, and drills by the Young Rough Riders. While guests were forbidden to drink, smoke, play cards, or drive their cars on Sunday, they were encouraged to enjoy other pursuits that would have scandalized pious Methodists of an earlier era, such as relaxing on the beach, taking the summer off, attending popular amusements, and staging comic gender satire with cross-dressed men. At Ocean Grove, however, even seemingly frivolous activities had a higher purpose: every aspect of daily life was focused on the attainment of perfection and all were performances of "holy leisure."

The genius of Ocean Grove, Messenger argues, was in extending holiness from the parlor meeting to the beach. Here, conservative evangelicals discovered a moral imperative to enjoy rest and recreation. By praying and playing together, the people of Ocean Grove acquired a unique understanding of self and community, one that illuminates theliberal social-reform movements of the nineteenth-century religious middle class and the early leisure industry.

Stories of faith, sacrifice, commitment and sheer grit are part of the foundation and fabric of the Church of the Nazarene. Read about the extraordinary, everyday people of faith who overcame great odds and made life-changing sacrifices for the sake of the church. Such as, the theologian who started in a converted chicken-coop, the district superintendent from skid row, the pastor extraordinaire who was elected to the beer board, and the Nazarene 'Mother Teresa.' Every effective movement in Christian history succeeded because unsung heroes gave themselves to a great cause. That cause for the Nazarenes was holiness of heart and life. Each story is alive, filled with a magnetic heartbeat, and provides a bridge to connect contemporary believers with unsung heroes of the past. These stories about very human people will nourish your spirit and remind you of the amazing delight of living the Christ-led life.