The Teenagers are coming...
22 years ago I started my life of vocational ministry as a youth pastor in Guam. As I went to that assignment I believed it would be an easy one as I got to eat pizza, play games and tell teens about Jesus. It was harder than I thought...
Yet, the value of the ministry to the teens was undeniable. Over the years I built relationships with the teens and their parents that allowed me to share in their lives, bringing the love of Jesus in a tangible way.
Today, in our church, as children grow, we find ourselves in need of ministry to our own youth. We barely have enough people to cover the children's ministry, so how will we find people for ministry to the youth?
I'm excited to share about one of the ways God is providing for our church!
Our children's ministry has been growing and while we expanded into a Jr. High class this spring, we have not yet had the people to be able to provide something for the older teens.
However, that's about to change!
I've been in talks with Justin Jorstad because there are youth that have been participating in Horses of HOPE who are hungry to go deeper in their walk with God, but the horse program has wrapped up for the winter and they needed a place to facilitate this discipleship. Their need plus our need has given us a fantastic opportunity to join together so that we are inviting our teens to attend a weekly youth group meeting on Tuesday evenings from 6-8:30pm.
The meetings are funded and run by hope staff and geared for grades 8-12 and will begin each week with a meal prepared by the HOPE staff in the church kitchen. The format will include the following events:
2x month for Bible discussion,
1x month for a service project,
1x month for an outing/ big game event.
The upcoming schedule will include the following:
• Dec. 9 – “15:5” Night (Bible Study)
• Dec. 16 – Christmas Party
The calendar of events will resume in January 2026 and continue until the end of March. At which time we'll hope to have some of our own volunteers in place in order to continue some form of youth programming.
I'll be volunteering for most of the events in order to build relationships with the teens and work towards that transition at the end of March. Please let me know if you'd like to know more about volunteering with the youth ministry.
While you may see some materials with the HOPE mission branding on them, make no mistake, we are fully welcome to serve, participate, send our teens, for them to bring friends and to include this as part of our church programme. I'm so excited because I see this is a way to "prime the pump" for our youth ministry to get off the ground!
PLEASE PRAY for this new endeavour... that deep and meaningful connections would be formed between the teens and God, with the leaders, and for God to provide what we need in order to carry the ministry forward beyond March in the way that He desires.
In the strong name of Jesus!
Pastor Nate