featured – Renew: Youth Ministry at Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Overview:

Ministry Value #2: “Youth need significant friendships that add value, encourage growth, and validate each person’s worth. The church provides a place for youth to support one another in a way that they might not experience anywhere else. These types of relationships can be life changing.”

A few questions to get started:

Who is someone in your life you’d consider a significant friend? Why? (they “add value, encourage growth”?) Can a significant friendship exist without these things?
Think about everyone else (those not considered your significant friends). How do you validate their worth as a human being?
Now think about the church. How might it offer something not found anywhere else?

In John 15, Jesus tells the disciples that being connected to God is like fruit being connected to a tree. A branch can’t produce fruit on it’s own; neither can we. And then Jesus says a couple of interesting things:

“This is how my Father shows who he is–when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.” (v 8, The Message translation)

“If you keep my commands, you’ll remain…in my love…This is my command: Love one another the way I have loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.” (v 9-13)

There are a lot of commands in the bible. We tend to complicate it and the church gets a bad rap for doing so. And while there is more to this train of thought, one thing is pretty clear in this passage: When we love our friends to the point of death, we are like a tree producing fruit. For those of us in the church, this is our calling.

Do you experience this type of love in the church?
Do you contribute to it or detract from it?
What could happen in the church if it was known for creating these types of friendships?
Does that really exist elsewhere? Why or why not?

This kind of love can exist outside the church, but there’s a bigger potential for it here because we have these words from Jesus. We have a calling to it despite our differences.

See more explanation of these ideas in the message below.

Resources:

Middle School & High School Renew Message

Renewcast 10: Ministry Value #2 – ft. Mark F & Jenna L

Renewcast 11: Ministry Value #2 (Part 2) – ft. Jeffrey R & Carina M

Overview:

Ministry Value #1: “We believe the church needs to be a place where all youth are welcome and find belonging. This happens through authentic, meaningful relationships between adults and youth.”

Genesis 2:18 – God says, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

It’s no question from a quick read in Genesis that humanity makes choices over and over again that lead to death. But God, he creates and sees that “it is good.” And verse 18 shows us that God also knows what is “not good.” So then since humanity chooses actions that lead to death, we could say that only God knows what is good, and what is not good. And here we see that God desires for us to be in relationship with one another.

Relationships in the church, then, have potential to offer what God is referring to when he says, “it is not good for man to be alone.”

What are some ways that relationships have helped you? (write out some thoughts)
After doing that, now think about the different things that have helped connect you to the church (people, experiences, etc). Which is the most significant of these things?

Your answer to that second question might suggest that relationships are most important. This is why we believe that youth need “authentic, meaningful” relationships with adults. This is why God says, “It is not good for man to be alone.”