FAQs

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What is "DNOW " or "DNOW Weekend"? Disciple Now Weekend, DNOW Weekend for short (Sometimes styled as DNOW WKND), is a local church youth conference that is hosted by one church that invites multiple youth groups to join for the weekend. This weekend consists of Friday afternoon into the afternoon of the following Saturday (estimated around 24 hours). This is not considered a lock-in, but more of a conference with worship, large group study, small group study, and recreation.

Where is DNOW Weekend located? .

Is my church attending? We ask that you contact your church's youth pastor to see if your church is attending. Students who attend as a guest with a church they do not call 'home' are welcome to attend. Just make sure that church's youth pastor is aware of this student attending ahead of time, preferably before the DNOW deadline. DNOW Weekend is not a closed group. Early in the year before the weekend starts, we will have meetings with youth pastors/youth leaders who have participated before. If you and your church youth live in the Ballard County and McCracken County area and would like to attend, please reach out to Spring Bayou Baptist Church.

Can college students / young adults attend? DNOW has a small ground centered around young adults (ages 18-23 and out of high school).

How long is DNOW Weekend? Our Disciple Now Weekend is estimated around 24 hours. Friday afternoon starts at 6:00 pm with supper, then ends the event around 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm on Saturday.

What do I need to do for registration?

How much does it cost for students to attend now?

What do adult volunteers need to bring? We ask if you feel lead to be a volunteer this weekend and as a representative from your church to fill out the adult volunteer registration form and provide your youth pastor with a background check before the deadline. We will also have a volunteers meeting in January/February to let you know all the details and answer any questions. The meeting will be announced and your youth pastor will let you know time, date, and location of the meeting.

What ages can attend? At DNOW, we have small groups for guys and girls from 6th grade to 12th grade. We also offer a small group for 18-22 for college/early career young adults.

Does DNOW Weekend accept debit/credit cards for payment? For payment of students and chaperones that attend, we do accept debit/credit cards in advance to give you a receipt for your church records. We also accept cash and checks on the spot that Friday afternoon for youth pastors, and we can provide a receipt then as well. We ask parents to pay the student fee directly to their church and not Spring Bayou Baptist Church unless this is your home church.

How long are the sessions at DNOW? Large group sessions will be around 30-45 minutes or however long the Holy Spirit allows the Word to be presented. Small groups will follow each large group session.

How many sessions are there?

Is there food provided? Yes. We will eat together Friday night for supper and Saturday for lunch. Church Youth Leaders are responsible for making breakfast arrangements for Saturday morning. In the past host homes have prepared their own breakfast which is fine. **If you or your student has a food allergy or food intolerance, please be sure to inform us on the registration form so we know ahead of time.**

Who picks small groups? We don't want any youth group to worry this weekend. Our DNOW team will take all the students and young adults who have registered and mix them up into small groups based on gender and age.

When do we worship?

When do we play games?

Can parents and visitors join the weekend? DNOW Weekend is designed to establish spiritual freedom from the pressure or distractions of the world through technology, school, or whatever it might be. We don’t exclude parents from DNOW Weekend, especially if parents are willing to volunteer. We just ask that you respect the decisions made by the DNOW Staff, and your church’s youth pastor and also respect the time students are deep into the Word and in worship. Our main goal is to give students the room to worship Jesus and to be a listening ear in small groups. If you feel called to volunteer, please talk to your church’s youth leader. If you are a parent or a church member who doesn’t feel called to volunteer, we ask that you pray for these youth within the universal church and the generation of today.

Is it safe for my teen to attend? Security and safety are our number one priority at DNOW when we start assembling our teams months before the actual weekend. We have our own DNOW security team present during the hours we are at Spring Bayou Baptist Church in all the buildings. We scan the building at all times to make sure everyone is where they need to be. Our security team will also scan the parking lot as well. Every youth pastor will have a survival guide which list in there what we ask students not to do during the weekend.

Are cell phones allowed for students? We have left this decision up to Youth Pastors/Leaders on if students or where students can access their phones. We do ask for students to not be on their phones during the worship sessions and the small group sessions. If you need something to record notes, please bring a notebook and pen. If you use your phone for the Bible app, we do ask that you bring a physical Bible to eliminate distractions from others.

Does my teen need to bring money? We do not sell anything at DNOW Weekend nor do we require students to pay for anything outside of the admission fee.

What happens incase of an emergency? Disciple Now Weekend is hosted in March, and there has been times where it has snowed in the past and thunderstorms could very well pop up. We keep our eyes out at the forecast to make sure nothing too severe pops up. If there is something that pops up and in case of an emergency, Spring Bayou Baptist Church has proper plans to keep our students and DNOW staff safe. Youth pastors will keep parents informed about any inclement weather.

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