Guest blogger: Jennifer Bond
Each week as we leave the sanctuary we ask this question. When then say “We will go out to be God’s people in the world.” What does that look like? What does that really mean?
There are some things that we do here in the Justin that seem a little crazy from the outside. Making five gallons of Nickelodeon-esque slime to pour onto an intern’s head? A little crazy. Cheering on youth who are being fed chocolate pudding blindfolded . . . by someone else…
About once a month at the Refuge, our Sunday night youth programming, we have a Worship Night, where we gather in the prayer room, worship together, and take on a topic that is relevant to the adolescent experience, but is either too heavy or needs too much time to unpack for us to do on a Sunday morning. This Sunday, we’re talking about self-harm.
This past weekend at the Refuge for All Saints’ Sunday we had our own little canonization service, and honored some perhaps previously overlooked saints, such as beloved coaches and teachers, Brenda Kegans, 9th grader Taylor Ledbetter, youth group alum Chris Vardy, and Dave Alvarado.
This weekend, Matt and I (along with 2 of our most beloved volunteers) are taking a small group of our juniors and seniors out to Lyle Lodge with a distinct aim: to help them leave youth ministry well.
As one of five churches accepted in the Innovation Lab, we are setting about a project that will use a combination of design thinking and practical theology to creatively imagine what the future of ministry to the young people in our midst might look like.
This weekend at The Refuge, we’re going to be having a conversation centered around worry and anxiety. We have all experienced some form of anxiety . . .
Our hearts are broken for the Paschal High School community today as they mourn the loss of one of their students to a tragic accident.
Way back in the beginning (or sometime soon thereafter), God made humanity in God’s own image. And then God looked at us and declared us good. And that works as something we just say, right?
Next weekend at the Refuge, we’re diving into a conversation about body image, disordered eating, and what it means to live, not just as a brain in a jar, but as a living, breathing, body.