The big “mo”
Posted on August 19, 2008, by steve ingold, under church, parents, teens.
Good morning and everything to all you Life Churchers. As we enter into this new season of ministry we are definitely already seeing the advantage to having our students back in school. This past week we were packed out at our junior high and high school worship gatherings. This causes an amazing problem. We are running out of room! The best part about this problem is that we already have a resolution. But before I fill you all in on that, I have to say something real quick…
In youth ministries across the nation, pastors are talking about momentum. When I look at our youth ministry we are just now starting to build our momentum, with students coming back from summer vacation. The best thing that we can do is find ways to take advantage of this momentum. If we can do this we will begin to find students that stick, students that hear Christ’s message, students that develop in community, and students that have a real relationship with Christ. For a while I have gone back in forth on how to do this, and it has led to our newest structure for our mid week and weekend programs.
In the middle of September we will begin our Student Life Groups. This will be our mid-week group that will meet in homes around the community for both the junior high and high school. Sunday mornings will continue to be our worship gathering. We will have a relevant message, as well as worship from our newly formed student worship band. On Saturday Nights we will have our outreach night, filled with skate parks, video game systems, and whatever else we can think of! This last one is something I have gone back in forth about because it is basically going to be a high school and junior high hang out. How will they develop spiritually? Well I have come to the conclusion, with guidance and counseling from some of our other pastoral staff, that if we provide a venue to bring students in, hopefully we will be able to form relationships where they will want to come back on a sunday morning our tuesday night. Now the biggest and most exciting part about all this is that we do have a new place for our students to meet.
Just down the hill from Life church we have found 2 units that we can occupy with our student ministries. One unit will be our worship gathering and right next door will be our indoor skate park and games area. The units are both about 3 to 4 times larger then what we have now!!
So what does all this mean? Basically, a lot of work. We need to use that momentum as best as we can to make sure that we do not make this move a drawn out process. As we move into these two units and create an amazing environment for our students we have to make sure that we continue to move forward with our youth ministry.
This is an extremely exciting time, and God knows that I cannot make this transition happen on my own. If you are willing lend a helping hand with anything (skate park construction, donations, video game systems, worship room design, etc.) please let me know. I want our students and parents to own this room. I want us to be able to say that we put this together. If we can get this thing done the right way, there is no telling how much momentum we will truly gain, and what God will do with it.
Love you,
Steve
