By Nic Cass
During my time at Faith, we have worked to develop the mission and vision of our youth ministry program. We began by looking at our youth vision statement “Equipping youth for life through the CROSS.” This vision illustrates our goal of working with youth to build up and equip them in their faith. Now as I continue to share with you the whole of our youth ministry, what we will focus on over the next few months is not a program or a plan, neither is it a vision nor mission statement. Instead, it is a framework that gives understanding to where youth may be in their faith lives and a framework that helps us as leaders know how to meet youth where they are and encourage them on the journey in their faith.
Last month we started by examining the community. Within the community we then have the crowd. A crowd youth is one that has connected with us through outreach or relational events but is likely not a regular attendee. These youth may be Christian or non- Christian, but they are aware of our ministry and have connected to us in some way, however minor. If you remember back to our core values, one of those was being outreach-minded. This first step is our outreach mindedness at work. This is looking for events and opportunities to engage the youth of our community in the work of our ministry.
Within the crowd we then have the connected. A connected youth is one who desires to attend ministry-related activities and is a part of what we do on a regular basis. These are Christian students who have connected with other believers and have a desire to grow in their faith. Now within those in the connect circle, there can be a wide range of biblical knowledge and understanding, but a common thread they share is the desire to learn more. As we work with youth, we continue to teach them so they can be equipped to live their lives focused on the cross.
