STRATEGY
Worship
We hope to create environments for teenagers that will point them to our amazing God who is worthy of our worship. Using an ancient-future approach, we hope to teach them both why we worship Him and how we worship Him, corporately and privately. We want to help our youth become active participants and leaders in our Sunday morning services and the life of the church. Our desire is to develop life-long worshippers who will use their spiritual gifts to expand God’s Kingdom. We want to send them out as leaders of the Church long after they leave our youth ministry.
Community
God is three persons in One: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just as the three persons of God are in relationship with one another, He has created us in His image as relational beings. We want to help middle and high schoolers learn how to be in relationships with one another, with their families, with their church family, with their peers, with their authorities, with those they lead, and with those in need.
Mission
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. He has called us to join Him in that mission. We believe that we find life when we give it away. In addition to teaching the value of serving, we want to give students regular opportunities to experience the joy of serving.
RHYTHM
We invite youth and families into this rhythm of Worship + Community + Mission through a monthly rhythm of 4 unique discipleship environments: (1) "The Q" for 6th-8th graders; (2) "Drive" for 9th-12th graders; (3) "SNL" for 6th-12th graders and (4) Sunday Morning Servant Teams for all youth.
The Sunday morning environments, DRIVE and THE Q do not meet weekly for 3 intentional reasons.
- We want to “leave kids wanting more” and have found that both students and leaders are more likely to be invested when they don’t feel as spread thin or burned out.
- We value family time and have found this rhythm to be life-giving for families.
- We value service and have found this rhythm to enable our youth to serve in different ministries throughout our church and city.
Sunday Mornings
The Q: Middle School (6th-8th grade)
Our Middle School discipleship environment is on Sunday mornings at 10am. We call it "The Q" because middle-school students have lots of questions and we want this time of catechism to help answer those questions.
Drive: High School (9th-12th grade)
Our Sunday morning High School discipleship environment. Sunday mornings from 10:15-10:55 during the "middle hour". We call it ‘Drive,’ not just because high school is a time when teenagers learn to drive a vehicle, but also because a drive is:
- A journey.
- An organized effort by a group of people to achieve a particular purpose.
- Determination and ambition, an urge to act a certain way.
- A move in a specific direction.
We want to help high schoolers navigate the transition between being a kid and being an adult. We want to help them understand their ‘urges’ and the call that God has placed on each of their lives. We hope to lead them in the specific direction of following Jesus.
SNL (Sunday Night Live) for Middle and High School
SNL meets every Sunday night from 6:00pm-8:00pm. We typically meet at Church of the Redeemer at New Garden Park, but the first Sunday of each month, small groups meet at other family’s homes. Middle & High Schoolers are encouraged to bring friends to SNL as it’s a laid back environment where we talk about topics teenagers are dealing with. We also break into small groups by grade and gender.
Sunday Morning Servant Teams
We encourage all middle and high schoolers to serve regular on Sunday mornings, once a month, on one of our Servant Teams. (Children’s ministry, AV, Hospitality, Take-down team, etc.)
Summer
Each summer we spend a week at Camp Booyah, where youth get to serve in the community in the mornings, play together in the afternoons, and worship together in the evenings.
VALUES
Gospel-Centered
Our priority is to focus everything around Jesus and the work Christ accomplished on the cross. While we do often discuss our behavior and morals, we want to place way more emphasis on pointing kids to Christ’s power than their will power.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” –Ephesians 2:8-9
Family Focused
We believe that parents are called to be the primary faith trainers for their kids. The home is to be the center of spiritual formation and the church is here to help. We want to encourage parents to lead their families by practicing family spiritual disciplines: Talking about Jesus, praying together, reading God’s Word together, and serving together. We want to support parents with regular communication and practical tools. We also invite and encourage parents to attend any of our youth environments with your children.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." – Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Fathers..bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” -Ephesians 6:4
Relationally Driven
Our youth don’t need adults to ‘teach’ them so much as they need adults who ‘know' them. We do not want our youth ministry to be a separate entity of the church. We want our teenagers to be integrated into the full body of Christ and in relationships with every generation: serving with younger children and being mentored by older adults.
“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but our very lives as well because you had become so dear to us.” -1 Thessalonians 2:8
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