Kathryn and David: thank you guys so much for your Christ centered attitudes in the race. I look forward to working with ya’ll in the future and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through both of you in this upcoming year. This is just the beginning! On Friday night I laid out my goals and vision in my presidential speech. I wanted to reiterate them here for those of you who may have missed it and want to know what I’m about.

Worship, Attitude, Action and Prayer. A short and sweet way to remember it is WAAP! (These are not in order of importance) These will compose the core of my vision for this upcoming year, and here is how I plan to carry them out…

• Worship: Exd 15:2 “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

We will start every meeting with worship.

• Attitude: Phl 2:1 “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:”

How am I going to implement a Christ like attitude in this club? I cannot force a mindset on someone and I am not going to. What I can do however, is set the example by having a Christ centered attitude myself, and encourage others to do the same. This is what I am going to do and if you don’t see me living this out, you have my permission to WAAP me!

• Action: Rom 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Lukewarm Christianity is not an option for me or this club. The Specific Actions are, making a prayer wall at every tournament, participating in community activities, (for example, the pro-life speech contest we had last year, the service day at Camp of the Hill’s children’s camp, the Travis County Healthcare District committee meeting, The Texas Rally for life and others, should they become available.) Conducting worship nights at the tournaments, and pursue Christ centered attitudes.

• Prayer: Jam 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Phl 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Our chaplains will pray before every meeting, meal and at the start of every day of a tournament.

Those are my goals.

This is my vision:

Titus 2:7 “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”

Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Love you guys. God Bless,

~Nathan

Four ARC students participated in this year’s Academy. The short films they produced over the course of the summer can be viewed here:

Week 1: The Cup

Week 2: Identity

Week 3: All You Can Eat

Week 4: It’s In The Bag

Their final production, Obsession (not yet posted online), was awarded first place in the closing film festival.  Congratulations to Christina Hastings, Jonathan Morgan, William and John Umstattd, and the rest of their team!

Affiliate Registration Fees:

Before September 15th: $30

September 15-December 31: $40

After December 31: $50

For details regarding affiliation, check the NCFCA website.

Be active

Be your child’s best encourager, supporter, and provider of exhortation (i.e. “coach”)

Commit to coming to ARC meetings and encouraging others

Stay current with all email updates

Take your speakers to at least 2 official tournaments

Be open to activities outside of club time (brainstorming sessions, etc)

Remind your student to keep God first

Practice Christian apologetics

Sweepstakes

14th Beth Maisano

Apologetics

2nd Beth Maisano

Original Oratory

14th Nathan Exley

Persuasive

9th Beth Maisano
14th Christina Hastings

Thematic

12th Daniel Gaskell

Lincoln Douglas

7th Anna MacDonald
11th Kathryn Clarkson

Lincoln Douglas Speaker

13th Avery Lill
18th Kathryn Clarkson

Team Policy

4th Snodgrass/Strack
23rd Maisano/Morgan
24th Lill/Upham

Speech: Limited Preparation

Limited Prep events involves giving a speech on the fly with little preparation on a topic you probably weren’t expecting. 14 ARCers qualified over all three events in this category! This includes eleven who qualified in our signature event, Apologetics, where students learn how to defend and explain their faith on the fly.

To find out more about Limited Prep, check out our page.

Apologetics

Daniel Gaskell
Kathryn Grace Clarkson
Avery Lill
Anna Macdonald (First Time!)
Joshua Upham
Marshall Yaklin
Beth Maisano
Ben Snodgrass
Christina Hastings
Alex Billups (First Time!)
David Huber

Impromptu

Kathryn Grace Clarkson
Avery Lill
Ben Snodgrass
Daniel Gaskell
Christina Hastings
Willliam Umstattd (First Time!)

Extemporaneous

Ben Billups
Daniel Gaskell

Platform Speeches

A “platform speech” is usually what you think of when you hear “speech.” Students in this event persuade and inform their listeners in a conversational manor. Unlike in limited prep, the speakers must script their speech and have 10 minutes to make a difference!

Eight ARCers are competing in Platform speeches at the Regional Qualifier. Congratulations!

Original Oratory

Nathan Exley
Ben Billups (First time!)
Beth Maisano
Jonathan Morgan
Grace Einkauf
Marshall Yaklin
David Huber

Persuasive

Christina Hastings
Beth Maisano
Marshall Yaklin

Interpretation

Interpretation is a lot of fun. It’s like acting without props… in a suit. In these interpretive events, Austin Rhetoric Club Members take a piece of literature and interpret it using their body and voice, but without using any props. That even includes the floor and (in Duo) even the your interpretation partner!

14 students made in various interpretation categories. Way to go!

The ARC Interp Page.

Thematic Interp

Paul Exley
Katie Morgan (First Time!)
Daniel Gaskell (Nationally Qualified!)
Alex MacDonald

Duo Interp

Exley/ Exley
Huber/ Huber (First Time!)
Morgan/ Morgan
Macdonald/ Macdonald
Hastings/Snodgrass

Dramatic Interp

Nathan Exley
Anna Macdonald (First Time!)
Grace Einkauf
Jonathan Morgan
Christina Hastings
Kathryn Grace C

Humorous Interp

Grace Einkauf
Marshall Yaklin
Nathan Exley
Kathryn Grace C
Paul Exley
Daniel Gaskell

Debate

Debate differs from speech in that it involves not only communicating and persuading, but also responding to objections. Throughout the tournament, students learn to present both sides of an important issue. In Team Policy, they also learn valuable teamwork skills with their partner.

Note: First time means that at least one of the members of the team is going in debate for the first time.

Team Policy

Gaskell/MacDonald
Billups/Billups
Maisano/Morgan (First Time!)
Clarkson/Exley (First Time!)
Lill/Upham (First Time!)
Snodgrass/Strack
Exley/Yaklin
Adkisson/Simmons (First Time!)
Harris/Snodgrass (??? – yeah, we’ll claim ‘em)

Lincoln Douglas

Kathryn Clarkson
Christina Hastings
David Huber (First Time!)
Avery Lill (going to Nationals!)
Anna MacDonald (First Time!)
Katy Maisano (First Time!)

What’s Important

More import than winning awards or recognition is the future. What are you going to do with these speeches and skills? At the Austin Rhetoric Club, we’re not training speakers who just show up at tournaments, but speakers who take the skills they’ve learned out into the world and shine their light Matthew 5:16 style!

If you would like to help train the christian leaders of tomorrow, please sign up to help judge at the Region IV Tournament in Austin.

Thanks in advance!

I hope you enjoyed hearing Rick Green’s patriotic talk at our October party and hayride. You know how he loves to encourage fellow speakers and future leaders! Rick spoke about our founding fathers and gave out several of his books to students that could correctly answer his history questions.

If you were not there, you should also know that Rick Green is currently running for the Texas State Supreme Court. Why should that matter to you?

1. As most of you know, Rick is a fellow homeschool dad and was also homeschooled himself. His was one of the early homeschool families in Texas that paved the way before the Leeper decision. Texas just lost our only homeschool dad on the Supreme Court, and homeschooling has been an issue at state supreme courts recently… recall the California Supreme Court almost destroying homeschooling last year when ruling that homeschool teachers must be certified. We need to know that there is a Justice on the court that will stand up for the Leeper decision and protect homeschooling.
2. Parental Rights. I have known Rick for almost 10 years, and I know he is very strong on parental rights. He worked hard last session to get SB 1440 vetoed by Governor Perry. This bill, which was tacked on to a non-controversial bill at the last minute, would have given CPS unprecedented access to your children without probable cause.
3. Voting in judicial races is important for all of us.

Ezra 7:25 “Set magistrates and judges… all such as know the laws of thy God.”

From all the reports I’ve heard about the New Braunfels Round Robin it sounds like ARC was very well represented and did a fantastic job. Kudos to President Ben Snodgrass, the ARC officers, coaches, parents, and the whole club for your leadership, participation, and cooperation on Saturday.

I just wanted to make a quick announcement that a music video called “Forever” that was created in September with the help of several ARCers was accepted into the Young Christian Filmmaker’s Festival in Bryan, TX and will be shown this Saturday, November 21st.

Attendance is free and all are encouraged to come, participate, and learn. The festival will be held from 10:00 – noon at the address below:

First Baptist Church
3100 Cambridge Dr.
Bryan, TX 77802-4613

If you haven’t seen “Forever” online yet then you can watch it here. You’ll see some familiar names listed below the video.

If you have further questions just email me or give me a call. One last note, the latest project made with Alex Lerma was uploaded yesterday. You can watch it here.

Thanks,
Paul

When: October 16, 1:30 pm – 8:30 pm.

Where: Hope Chapel, 6701 Arroyo Seco, Austin

Cost: $20/student, $10/sibling. No charge for parents. Pizza included.

The schedule can be found here.

Register today!