Big thanks to everyone who joined us for our Youth Parent Meeting! We loved getting to see all of you in the Justin again and we cannot wait to see what this year holds for us and for your families! Just in case you missed it (or if you want to keep this info around), here’s Part I of everything we covered: who we are, what we’re all about and partnering with your family!
What We’re All About
The Youth Ministries is here to walk alongside and help shape the faith lives of people during the period of life when they are most likely to make a decision about whether or not they will be connected to the church for the rest of their lives. We play for keeps. They are asking hard questions about faith, about life, about who they are and about who God is, and we’re here to walk alongside them while they discover their answers.
Our goal is to meet teenagers right where they are and to facilitate opportunities for students to experience spiritual growth and transformation through a deep sense of community and belonging.
Everything we do is built on community. We believe that the Justin is much more than just a building or a collection of people but a community that is built on a shared understanding that each one of us is created and shaped in the image of God and has inherent value and worth. This is a community that sees you, knows you, embraces you, loves you exactly as you are, no matter what; this is a community of shared experience, of laughing until your sides hurt, of eating together and worshipping together, of shared hugs and tears; this is a community that shows up. Many people make friends in youth group that are their friends for the rest of their life, and we think helping your teenagers build those life-giving connections is one of the most important roles we can play in the faith life of your child.
Our biggest priority during weekly programming and big events is to create space for community, for authentic relationships to organically grow between students, adults and staff. We believe that it is in those relationships, in the space between us, in the love and care that we offer to one another that we can most experience the love of Christ and the transformation offered to us in Christian community.
How We Do Things
During programming, we use our church’s model called Healthy Plate Discipleship to structure the different things we do. Healthy Plate is based on John Wesley’s means of Grace, or how sanctifying grace does its work on our lives, through 6 main categories: worship, learning, serving, giving, praying, and playing.
The basic idea is that Christian life isn’t just about Sunday morning worship or a bible study, it’s about a whole life transformed by Christ. It’s about understanding your whole life in view of the gospel. We believe that by experiencing each of these different parts of Healthy Plate Discipleship during programming, trips and events, youth will build a foundation and understanding of what a Christian life can look like.
Our hope is that through experiences of deep, authentic community and opportunities for spiritual growth, young people and volunteers will learn what it means to live a life in pursuit of Christ and to find people to do it with. Because we are a youth ministry and most of the time, there’s a fair amount of chaos involved – dodgeball in the gym, big games out at Lyle Lodge, showing up to a middle school play or a high school football game, sitting around on the floor of the prayer room wrestling with deep, difficult questions … but I promise, nothing we do is on accident. It is all done in pursuit of these two things.
Partnering with Parents
Alright parents, time for a little bit of very obvious honesty: we, the Youth Staff, cannot do this on our own. And more than just the reality that we need help to be able to do this and do this well, we don’t want to do this on our own. We would love to partner with your family; here’s what that looks like:
(1) Prioritize your students’ participation in Youth Ministries programming and events. We know kids are busy – we certainly don’t expect “perfect attendance” and we’re always happy to see everyone who walks through the Justin doors, no matter how long it has been. We believe that everything we do is worth doing and impactful if your family can be a part of it, so we ask that if you can be here, you choose to be here. There are going to be weeks where you just can’t fit another thing into your schedule. Where you spent all day yesterday at a tournament or a showcase and things start today at 11 and getting here by 9:35, 9:40 just isn’t going to happen. I also know there are weeks where you could be here but, it was a late night last night, and your bed is comfortable, and there’s always the live stream – and yes, that does mean we’re asking you to get up on Sundays you could have off and spend at home half watching church from your couch and come here and be part of things and with these people.
(2) Partner with us – volunteer – in at least one area of our ministry. We know parents are busy too. Your time is finite and valuable, but people show up for the things they think are important. The best way you can show your kids that their church, their faith, their community are not only important, but a priority to you, is to show up with them. People have done a lot of research on this, and the single largest factor of a kid’s long-term investment in being part of a community of faith is not how many events they come to but how many you come to. We have a lot of ways you can partner with us as an adult leader, from helping lead small groups on Sunday morning to being a Refuge leader on Sunday evenings, or being a leader for trips and retreats or one-off events.
If you want to be one of our partner families, fill out this Google Form and we’ll be in touch!
Communication
We do our best so that everyone, parents and students, know when and where everything we do is happening. I honestly believe that everything we do is important and worth doing and impactful if your family can be a part of it.
But I also know that every person in here is busy. I know, I get it. So we will do what we can to let you know what’s happening and what we’re doing so you always know what’s going on and can prioritize what’s important for your family to be a part of. All our families will get two, regularly scheduled emails from us:
- First is our Weekly Email, which is going to give you a short story and what is happening this week – like this Sunday, this is what we’re doing on Sunday morning and this is what’s happening during the Refuge and this is the event that is this Saturday.
- The other is the Justin Monthly, which will go out around the 1st of the month each month and share some insight into the life of the youth ministries and give you all the upcoming events you need to be aware of – including one-offs and retreats and trips.
You’ll also get specific emails from us about trips and retreat registrations opening. If you want to make sure you’re part of our email lists, email Mirta (mpatino@myfumc.org) and she will get you signed up to stay up to date. Our goal is to make things as easy and clear as possible for you to stay connected to your church community.
We’re also very active on social media, especially on Instagram, and that’s a really great place to stay up to date on any last-minute changes and to see promo and recaps for all our events.
Resources
We are here to support y’all, as students, as families and as parents, and we have resources available to anyone who reaches out to us for them.
Just outside the double doors into the lobby, there is a bookshelf with all sorts of Parent Resources, including books covering everything from the theology that shapes this ministry to helping students struggling with their mental health to books about developmental norms in teenagers and parenting during this phase.
We also have counseling referral sheets available on those shelves that have our most highly recommended community partners on them, and full referral lists available via email with specific qualifiers like Christian counseling centers and low- or reduced-cost counseling centers.
If you or your student would like to meet with someone on staff, we’re always happy to make time for one-on-ones with parents or students. I love getting to take people out for coffee or lunch or ice cream, and it means the world to us to be part of your lives outside our normal programming hours.
We are so excited to be launching into this school year and we cannot wait to see what this year holds for your teenagers, for your families and for our ministry! If you have any questions about any of our programming, policies or you want to volunteer, please reach out to me (mbritt@myfumc.org), I’m always happy to talk!
Much love,
Matt Britt
Director of Youth Ministries
