
Latest updates!
- TJ's House
Sunday School TBA
Outreach Event - Friday, November 28
- more information to come!!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Youth Parents Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Senior High Ministry

This new phase of the adolescent journey is perhaps the most difficult, for the push and pull of being stuck between child and adult with no light at the end of the tunnel creates a moral desert for someone still so far removed from a clear sense of who they are. This is a time to learn from the swings—in emotion, in loyalties, and in commitments. Youth workers must allow middle adolescents to be middle adolescents, and not try to force them into superficial or feigned levels of premature commitment and responsibility.
Junior High Ministry

Early Adolescence (Junior High Ministry)
1. The importance of family. Because an early adolescent is more a child than an adult, the family still plays the major role of identification and security. Thus early adolescents are usually far more willing to participate in family-based activities and parent-child discussions than their older siblings—they even have parents (their own and others) as youth leaders. To the seasoned youth worker, this may not seem to be the case, but look deeper: Junior high has always been a tough time for kids, but today it's so threatening that adult presence and support is a godsend to kids. (And for the most part, they even recognize it.)
2. Safety, Priority #1. Ford Motor Company's slogan from a few years back absolutely defines the most vital need and desire of early adolescents. Youth ministry at this stage has less to do with how much fun the program is than how safe they feel. How we treat them from up front, what skits we use, how we choose small groups, how we handle rude outbursts or physical play—these are among the most important factors in creating a safe place to engage in the group experience.
3. Fitting in. Early adolescents have always been more concrete thinkers than their high school counterparts, but don't be hung up on this fact when it comes to teaching. To most early adolescents, the only thing that really matters is how they perceive themselves fitting in. This idea goes beyond safety to kids' sense of self in a strange and unfamiliar relational setting (the same goes for school, by the way). For example, when you teach about God's love one day, and the next sternly warn kids that they're not welcome if they can't behave, the message is lost.
Friday, October 3, 2008
come and join us!!!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
just a thought

Because adolescents are so strongly idealistic, they easily suffer disillusion with and disappointment in the church. Yet no church can adequately fulfill every ideal of every person. Disappointed young people are bound to be critical of their religiously committed parents, their youth pastor, and their church. Their own difficulty in coping with temptations further contributes to their disillusionment. They may begin to think that the Christian life is impossible.
Expect a commitment to Christian community.
Teenagers have a powerful psychological need to belong—a longing that, for adolescents with a developing faith, can be channeled into the church. While all sorts of demands compete for teenagers' time, they respect a call of commitment to a group. Being held accountable by a group of caring peers, in fact, is exactly what many teens are looking for. A structure that is explicit and even costly (meaning that other activities may be missed) only adds to their desire to be part of something that really matters.
Expect a Christ-centered lifestyle.
We must be clear about one thing: adolescents can make a genuine and meaningful decision to accept Christ. While the ways in which they think and feel about their faith may be different than in an adult faith—and while they are inclined to live out the principles of faith differently—there is no need to doubt that adolescents can make a decision to live a Christ-centered life.