Changing Seasons
It’s hard to believe that summer is over and a new school year is starting up. As we transition into Fall (or, as it should be called here in Florida, still-basically-summer-but-with-school), we’re excited to keep growing together in our knowledge of Christ. Here are some of the things coming up this semester that we are really looking forward to.
In this update, you will find out about…
- Topic for Wednesday night meetings this fall
- Partnering with parents/guardians
- Remind app
- “The Roundup” (top 3 youth-oriented articles we’ve seen recently)
Tackling Big Questions
The topic for Wednesday night large group this coming semester is The Meaning of Life and Other Easy Questions. We’ll be talking about how Christianity is not just something we believe alongside a bunch of other things — but the fundamental truth about life, the universe, and everything.
We’ll consider the big questions of life:
- Truth (is it all relative?)
- Origin (where did we come from?)
- Identity (who am I?)
- Meaning (what’s it all about?)
- Morality (why do the right thing when the wrong thing feels better?)
- Destiny (where’s it all heading?)
We’ll talk about how all of us have assumptions about the answers to these big questions, whether we have stopped to consider them or not. The world is constantly bombarding us with messages about the answers to these important questions, but often in subtle ways that we don’t realize are shaping our beliefs. We hope that by the end of the semester every student will come away more firmly anchored in the truth and aware of the false messages that fight for their hearts & minds.
Partnering with Parents/Guardians
At the youth vision meeting in May, we talked about our core values as a church when it comes to student ministry and some ideas about how we can practically apply those. One of our beliefs is that God has given parents the responsibility of passing the faith on to the next generation and that the church is called to work together with parents to support that.
We don’t want parents to delegate their kids’ spiritual formation to youth workers and treat the church like a spiritual drive-thru, where we drop teens off and pick them up when they’ve had their weekly dose of Jesus.
As a practical way to try too live this out this year, we are starting a new tradition of youth family dinners. On the first Wednesday of each month instead of having parents/guardians simply drop kids off for youth group, we invite them to stick around and enjoy a meal as we interact together — youth, leaders, and parents — about what we’re learning and applying it to real life.
Our first youth family dinner will be on September 4th. We will talk about how to use technology in a healthy way. I hope you will join us!
Communication Reminder
Make sure you never miss out on what’s happening with the ministry. Text @rocepic (for middle school) or @roc1X1 (for high school) to the number 81010 to join our Remind group and stay up to date on everything.
The Roundup
Here are some of the top articles we’ve seen recently that deal with Christian discipleship from the perspective of teenagers and their families. Everyone in the church is invited to read these as a way to learn how we can help our young people navigate life!
