Reformatting for the Future
November 25, 2009
The most exciting thing in working with young people is that they are full of energy and full of potential. If you can steer their energies in the right direction, you not only affect their future life ahead, but also the lives that person will interact with as they go. What is at stake in the direction of young people is the direction of the Church. This means that what we are doing in the House Student Community is of utmost importance – How will the church look in the future? They way young people are living their lives now will determine what the church will look like then.
With this in mind, we have made several changes over the last year in the student ministry at WABC. We are trying to restructure our ministry to learn to better reflect and live out who we are in Jesus and what it means to be with him on his mission. The most significant change is moving Tuesday nights from guy’s and girl’s Bible studies to what we are calling Missional Communities. We are meeting in separate, smaller groups based on location. This is for the sake of experiencing life together more as a family (hence the smaller numbers in each group) and living out Jesus’ mission to a particular people in a particular location (hence meeting based on location). There are many other benefits to this format, but these are the main ones.
It is abundantly clear in scripture that believing the Gospel is not simply agreeing with its message, but a changing of identity that is expressed in action. This connection between belief and action is hardly as natural as we tend to think. We learn by practice how to be in Gospel-driven relationship with each other, and how to serve the world around us. The hope here is that when a student from WABC moves on into other areas of life they take with them the knowledge and experience of what it means to be the Church, and not simply attend a church service.
Serving with you for the sake of the Gospel in our young people,
Aaron