Let’s Do This!
Welcome to the new school year, everybody! We’re really excited for the new year, especially to welcome a massive upcoming class of 6th graders. This is the largest new class we’ve had in years and we are really looking forward to getting all the new families involved. To all our new parents, hopefully this update will help you get oriented, but feel free to reach out to me (Joel) anytime if you have any questions about the ministry. We want to support you all however we can.
Wednesday Nights
Our large group gatherings will continue to meet on Wednesday nights from 5:30-7:30 PM, starting with a kickoff party August 11th with pizza and ice cream (we’ll settle the cookie dough vs. cookies and cream debate from Sunday school once and for all)!
We’re trying something a little different this year with the format of the meetings as it always feels like there’s more we’d like to do than we have time for. So this year we’re going to be rotating certain elements week to week. We’ll always have time for fellowship, games, and the Bible lesson, but one other element will rotate each week.
- On the first Wednesday of each month we’ll have music.
- On the second Wednesday we’ll have small groups focused on building community and sharing how the students are growing personally in their walk with Christ.
- On the third Wednesday we’ll have music again.
- On the fourth Wednesday we’ll have small groups focused on discussing and applying that month’s teaching.
- And in months where there’s a fifth Wednesday we invite parents to stick around and join us for dinner to hear about what we’ve been learning and talk about how to apply it to life at home!
This Fall’s Topics
This Fall we’ll be looking together at the topic of Engaging God’s Word. We’ll be talking about the nature of scripture, why we can trust it, how to study the different kinds of literature in the Bible, and more! With all the new 6th graders coming up we hope this will lay a solid foundation for the rest of their time in the ministry and beyond, giving them the confidence to grow in their faith and know where to go for answers to life’s most important questions.
And speaking of important questions, throughout this semester we’ll be gathering questions from the students which will form the content of our Spring 2022 series – Frequently Asked Questions. These can be questions about theology, the Christian life, contemporary issues, or whatever else, and we’ll try to demonstrate how to use the skills we learned in the Fall to answer those pressing questions from scripture.
Staying Connected
In addition to our weekly gathering, we regularly have fellowship events to help youth and their families connect and grow together. We’ll be providing a calendar to help get an overview of the semester (still finalizing some dates before putting that to paper), but the best way to stay up to date is through our Remind group. If you want to get text updates on youth events, join our Remind groups by texting @rocepic (for middle school) or @roc1X1 (for high school) to the number 81010. If you have any questions about our ministry or ways that your student can get involved, please contact the Director of Family Ministry: Joel Trigger, 804-761-4218, joel@riveroakschurch.com.
