So, its been official for some time now, but I haven't posted it here yet. 24SEVEN is officially meeting at two different churches now. On Sunday nights we are meeting at St John the Apostle Episcopal Church in Pottsboro and on Wednesday nights we are meeting at Christ Church Cathedral in Sherman.
This is the first step into what we are hoping will be a much bigger ministry. We are hoping to recruit other churches to join with us.
I've been in youth ministry for over ten years. I've served in huge churches, medium sized ones and really small ones. I've always tried to connect with other churches to work together to reach students. One of the things that I've noticed is that there are a lot of small churches in every town that have families and youth age students, but don't really have a youth program or have a program run by a parent or a young person barely older than the students in the youth group. I'm not knocking parents or volunteers... they are a critical part of any program.
What we are doing with 24SEVEN youth ministries is reaching out to these smaller churches and offering to partner with them and to connect with us to maximize our efforts to reach young people. We simply ask that each church give what they can afford. My "salary" comes from a combination of donations from the churches involved and some of the parishioners and my own support network.
It is kind of a radical approach to ministry, and to be honest, we are still working on the logistics of the whole thing. We are thinking that we might rotate the churches that we meet in, or we may just have to meet at the church that can provide the space that we need. Right now we are meeting at Christ Church Cathedral in Sherman and St John the Apostle Episcopal Church in Pottsboro. About once a month we ALL meet together for a fun night or big event. We are hoping to add more churches soon, maybe even some in Denison.
Like I said, it is a radical approach. It is going to require leaps of faith for some people, it will require a bit of out of the box thinking and the breaking down of denominational walls and stereotyping. I think it will be worth it.
This is the first step into what we are hoping will be a much bigger ministry. We are hoping to recruit other churches to join with us.
I've been in youth ministry for over ten years. I've served in huge churches, medium sized ones and really small ones. I've always tried to connect with other churches to work together to reach students. One of the things that I've noticed is that there are a lot of small churches in every town that have families and youth age students, but don't really have a youth program or have a program run by a parent or a young person barely older than the students in the youth group. I'm not knocking parents or volunteers... they are a critical part of any program.
What we are doing with 24SEVEN youth ministries is reaching out to these smaller churches and offering to partner with them and to connect with us to maximize our efforts to reach young people. We simply ask that each church give what they can afford. My "salary" comes from a combination of donations from the churches involved and some of the parishioners and my own support network.
It is kind of a radical approach to ministry, and to be honest, we are still working on the logistics of the whole thing. We are thinking that we might rotate the churches that we meet in, or we may just have to meet at the church that can provide the space that we need. Right now we are meeting at Christ Church Cathedral in Sherman and St John the Apostle Episcopal Church in Pottsboro. About once a month we ALL meet together for a fun night or big event. We are hoping to add more churches soon, maybe even some in Denison.
Like I said, it is a radical approach. It is going to require leaps of faith for some people, it will require a bit of out of the box thinking and the breaking down of denominational walls and stereotyping. I think it will be worth it.
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