Our middle school students helped deliver more than 40 goodie-bags, complete with a shiny balloon, to incoming 6th grade students last night. It’s our way of saying, “Welcome to XStream! We’re glad you’re here.”
We’ll have a Parents’ Night in a couple of weeks, then take all the students away for a Welcome Weekend to help them start building relationships and cast vision for what a life in Christ can look like.
It’s funny, I’ve been in youth ministry for about 20 years now, and I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. There have been great years of growth, and lean times when things weren’t going so well. But the one thing that remains is the goal: helping students figure out what it takes for them to follow Jesus. We want to disciple young believers, to help them grow in their faith. All in all, it should be pretty simple.
Seth Barnes posted a good article about this yesterday. Give it a read, and see what resonates with you.
What are you doing to disciple the teens that you know?
1 Comment
Andrew · August 28, 2009 at 11:41 am
It seems like that article was missing a fourth option. Instead of “Incrementalize” there should be the option to “radicalize.”
Incremental change is fine, but sometimes radical change has the greatest efficacy. The risk is greater, but the reward is also greater.
It’s harder to stick with the status quo when you make a conscious decision to fling caution to the wind. Following Jesus can be radical… but the payoff is worth it.