Dear Family,
Our youth group in Chester has been growing. Every week, we have more teens. We average 30 every Monday night. Praise God! These teens get to hang out, goof off, and hear about Jesus. What could be bad about that? Nothing! But there is a thought in the back of my head that if these teens are not going to church, how will there be any lasting fruit? My teammates and I went rounds with this question. We would make announcements about Highland House (our church), and we would encourage the teens to come; in the end, very few did. So we prayed, listened, and acted. We prayed for guidance. We listened for instruction, and we acted out what God told us to do. We cancelled youth group. We still hung out with the teens, we still did activities with them, but we channeled it all through Highland House.
In the process of becoming “church centered" instead of "youth-group centered" we knew there would be the benefit of church growth. There would also be casualties with the loss of teen involvement. But the positives overwhelmed the negatives, and here we are, months into the decision. Our teen attendance at church has doubled and is continuing to grow. We watched the Holy Spirit softening the hearts of several teens. As we watched this, we felt God leading us to spend intentional time with nine active and regularly-attending teens. We call them, The Crew.
The Crew is a group of guys and girls who are not all believers, but we see their hearts being softened through their actions, questions, and involvement in Highland House. Some of them sing on the praise team, help fold chairs, show up for prayer meeting, come early for set up, and are learning the sound system. So now, on every other Monday, we meet. We hang out and talk about what leadership is all about, who Jesus is, and ultimately, how to love (I say “we” because I am learning this too).
Would you please pray for The Crew: Lee Lee, Day Day, Vera, Irvin, Terrence, Teresa, Amanda, Malcolm, and Courtney? These teens are awesome, and I am pumped to see what God has in store for them in the coming months. Pray that those who do not know Jesus will find Him, that those who love Jesus will be strengthened, and those who sense a calling on their life will want nothing more than to honor God in all they do.
0 comments:
Leave a Comment