Sub Group Communities

The world of a teenager in today's culture offers many different subcultures to be a part of or belong to. No longer are schools plagued with the "popular crowd" like cheerleaders and jocks and then everyone else that happens to attend the school. I graduated in 2002 and this model was already beginning to fade, although I did not have as many groups to choose from at least there was a choice.

The fact is that all students just like us are discipled, experience God, and worship differently, therefore a once a week meeting of 1-2 hours that offers a little bit of everything simply just not cut it anymore for transforming lives of teens. They need to be a part of a healthy community that goes along with how they grow and learn to be the person Christ needs them to be.

Through prayer and discernment of my situation and some frustrations of how youth ministry has been taught to me and done in the past. I have decided to offer my students a choice if you will to take part in different communities within our youth group, that I call "Sub Groups." My vision for this is that it turns our youth ministry into our own version of the verses found in Acts 2:42-47.

"42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

44All the believers were together and had everything in common.

45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. "

I hope I am not sounding like a consumerist in this approach because I don't want students to feel forced to attend because it is on some calendar that I send out, or make it seem that I am running a bunch of small youth ministry programs. But am merely trying to offer something that speaks to how teenagers function today and receive a sense of belonging within a authentic healthy community. There is no real agenda to these Sub Groups except for the fact of why they exist and what they offer.

To start we have an all girls and guys sub group that is similar to the idea of what a small group setting might look like. These groups touch on the more spiritual side of prayer, scripture, and accountability. Soon we are going to offer two other groups that alternate weeks throughout the month one being a Jam Session for the more musically inclined students. And the other one being simply opening the church doors and allowing the students to come hangout and play games. Obviously these two groups focus more on the building relationships and fellowship aspect.

For now I am announcing when these groups are taking place because it is rather new to the parents and students within my ministry context. But over time I hope that through consistency I will not have to let students know when these different groups are meeting. That they will just be part of the way they live life and how they connect with others and with our heavenly father. And that other students in our community will find out about them simply through the networking of my students that already attend. Mind you this is not a secret attempt to shove Jesus down throats of teenagers, but to allow students to be discipled and grow in the way God has created them and get to know them for who they are.

By really pushing an important sense of community through my recent lessons and through conversations with students. Other Sub Groups have surprisingly sprung up without any direction on my part but totally the idea of students. For example two of my Sr. High guys wanted to start meeting with me over chicken wings on a weekly basis. Girls now like to meet with my wife for shopping and talking over a meal about boys and other female issues.

The response so far has been far better than I anticipated and have had amazing results in transforming lives of not only students but leaders as well. I believe that as a group we beginning to understand why meeting in these communities is so crucial to our development, following Jesus and fulfilling our purposes on earth as Christians. Having a chance to have life on life experiences with my students throughout week has been an awesome opportunity, and could not imagine ever again only meeting with them once a week. I can only thank God for what he is doing within the ministry he has so graciously given to me to help out with.