Tag: youth ministry

Don’t Eat the Last Twinky

The following post is from How to Plan a Mission Trip. To view the original post, click here.

For years, I have invited long term missionaries to the trainings I do with short termers. One story in particular stood out… the missionary recounted how the remoteness of their field left little room for luxury. Each time they returned to the USA, they brought back a package of Twinkies for the freezer. On a family member’s birthday, they pulled one out… put a candle in it… and sang Happy Birthday.

One summer, a short term team came. The missionaries offered the typical “mi casa es su casa” to the team but were horrified a few days later when one of their children ran in blurting through tears “They ate the WHOLE Twinkies package!”

Undoubtedly, the short term missionary was hungry for a late night snack, walked to the fridge and said to a teammate “Dude, they have Twinkies in here! Want one?” One simple act of inconsideration obliterated a year’s stash of birthday hope.

Short term missions can easily deflate, discourage and undermine the work of a long term missionary. How do you make sure that your team does the opposite on your visit? Here are a few principles to follow.

1. Go as a servant rather than a consumer. Ask short term participants to discuss how they would want a guest to behave in their own home. Then ask them to apply these thoughts to their stay as a guest with the missionary.

2. Let the missionary set the pace. Sometimes a short term missionary attempts to help by being proactive and creates more work for the host. Show your willingness to help, but let the missionary tell you what to do, how much and when.

3. Remember, they may want something different. It may be that help with the dishes is far less important than the enjoyment of carrying on a full conversation in English. Missionaries have physical and emotional needs that result from their location and service. Be sensitive to these needs and try to meet them, even if they are not so obvious at first glance.

What Teens Need

by Amanda Roozeboom

The following is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 magazine. To view the whole magazine, click here. 

There is a lot of discussion regarding the “Needs of Adolescence”. Most scholars agree that teens need: love, security, community, purpose, creative expression, achievement, structure/clear limits, self-definition and confidence/self-worth. Chap Clark summarizes it this way, “Teens need Identity, (Who am I), Autonomy (Do my choices matter) Belonging (Where do I fit)”.

I would add teens need a faith that lasts beyond high school! In Kenda Creasy Dean’s book, Almost Christian, her research found that teens with “consequential faith”, faith that lasted beyond high school, had four characteristics: a God-Story, Community, Calling (purpose) and Hope.

Teens need a God-Story. Dean describes teens that have a “God Story” as; “Christian teenagers who referred to their faith frequently, interpreted their lives in religious terms, or grasped their faith traditions’ primary teachings also had a ready religious vocabulary at their disposal.” There is power in testimony. Kids will speak as we speak! Youth workers need to make sure that we are equipping our teens for life-long faith by passing down a clear and vibrant faith vocabulary.

Teens need a Community. Teens will find community in parties, in school activities, in sports, in online gaming communities, etc. As youth workers, we need to make sure our teens are also finding community in our sanctuaries during Sunday worship, in our main youth group sessions, on service/mission trips and in youth convention experiences.

Teens need a Calling (purpose). They need a place where they can contribute, a place where their voice matters. Youth workers therefore need to be advocates for our teens. We need to give them opportunities to lead prayers on Sundays, help make a committee decision or choose the color of the youth room walls! I love the part in C S Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe when young Lucy asks the Beaver if the godlike figure Aslan is safe, “Safe? Said Mr. Beaver…Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he is good. He is the King, I tell you.” Let’s strive to give teens a calling worthy of the King!

Finally, teens need Hope. Young people look to adults for meaning and hope. They need us to model a theology marked by patience, determination and humility as we face challenging research that causes us to question who we thought we were. This world needs adults who model hope as Kierkegaard described hope – “leaping in expectation”. Do we joyfully “leap to faith” not because we are faithful, or our ministries are faithful – but because our God is faithful?

Our teens have many needs. It is our job, as adults, to actively engage in fulfilling their need for a life-long faith. Join me in striving to give our teens God-Stories, Community, Calling and Hope.

The Battle is His

The following is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 magazine. To view the whole magazine, click here. 

I will never forget my first year of full-time youth ministry. It started in 1996, 20 years ago, with Youth For Christ! There were many first time experiences like leading a student through the plan of salvation and a summer youth group trip to Colorado with two students released to me from the local juvenile detention center. I look back on these years and have so many great memories and emotions, and 2015 was no exception.

This past summer, while visiting many of Youth Unlimited’s summer experiences, I found myself at a first time Serve site in Brighton, ON and experienced sites like Grand Rapids, MI and Port Perry, ON. I also found myself at the Special Needs site in Ottawa, ON and in Chicago, IL at the Live It convention. As I traveled, I experienced students worshipping, praying, serving, playing and reading scripture. I had a front row seat to the power of the Holy Spirit transforming student’s lives…what a blessing! But I must be honest; he was also working and transforming me.

If you have been in ministry in a paid or volunteer capacity, you, like me, can testify to the “highs” and “lows” of our calling. There are those mountaintop moments when we see that one special student make a decision that will forever positively change their life or when we get a turnout of students we never could have dreamed! However, there are also the results that are just the opposite, which can drive us into the valleys. I have certainly had many of both over the past 20 years! Through each of them, God continues to teach me life and ministry lessons. This past summer he reminded me that he is the one that changes student’s lives, not me or even Youth Unlimited experiences. The battle is his and, therefore, I need to give it back to him by putting the students and this ministry at the feet of my Lord through prayer!

As we step into 2016, let’s be sure to make Christ the center of our life and ministry. May it start with each of us personally and intentionally spending time at his feet in prayer and reading his Word. May it overflow from there into every aspect of our ministry.

God is good and worthy of praise! As you see his blessings, be sure to thank him. I would love it if you would also share it with the Youth Unlimited staff and I. You can do that by emailing me at jeff@youthunlimited.org.

Partners in ministering to students,

Jeff

TV and Kingdom Work

by Barry Ruiter, Youth Unlimited Account/Business Manager

The following is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 Magazine. To view the whole magazine, click here.

I admit to often watching television shows that feature buyers looking for a fixer upper home to renovate, programs that chop, cut and rebuild cars, or even the show where a specialty builder constructs treehouses for clients. I generally like shows that renovate and restore. In watching these types of shows, I’m reminded of my role and yours in the Kingdom, and specifically how it relates to Youth Unlimited.

For Youth Unlimited, I have a very much “behind the scenes” role. I pay bills, make deposits and generally put the dot on the “i” and the cross on the “t”. I am quite removed from the ministry work that happens when Youth Unlimited holds or arranges their events and yet, I am an important cog, as are you, in the Kingdom work that flows from this building.

Let me take you back to the TV theme to explore that thought. On a show called The Guild, cars are routinely rescued from slow erosion at the hands of rust and moth. In a twist, a recent episode revolved around an antique toy car, about the size of a shoebox. Besides the intrigue of assigning this “miniature” work to mechanics used to working on full size cars, there was the challenge of finding or creating parts. One such part was a small brass internal gear that was stripped and unusable. The mechanic scratched his head several times and remarked that he wasn’t a “watchmaker”, but in the end, he hand filed a brass rod down into a working gear. The payoff came when the owner of the car received a restored car that looked good and was functioning exactly as it intended.

I help Youth Unlimited function as intended by virtue of being a little, but important, internal gear. If you are reading this, then you should also know that you play some role in helping the functionality as well. Imagine if the miniature car were presented to the owner, but was missing one wheel. What if it was repainted, but the rear window had a big crack or was missing.

As I think of how I support the work of a Serve project, I think too of how it requires teens willing to put hand to shovel. I think of how it requires volunteers and host churches and I think of how it requires finances. There are many cogs, parts and pieces that make up a functional ministry, one that lives up to the owner’s specs. The staff at Youth Unlimited, you and I are a “Guild” of a different sort. We are craftsman charged with completing the King’s ultimate restoration project. I’m praying that we function exactly as intended.

Finding the Missing Link at Live It

by Tony Butler

Spring Antioch Baptist Church

The following is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 Magazine. To view the whole magazine, click here. 

Our mission at Spring Antioch Baptist Church is to help our youth grow into what God wants them to be. We desire for them to first know who God is for themselves. But we also want to show them how to experience God in their everyday lives. Our lessons and our activities are geared to help them see God for who he is.

Through an organization called the Old Town Spring Heights Task Force, which is made up of churches of different faiths, backgrounds and cultures, we met Brandon Bajema of the New life Christian Reformed Church. He told us of an organization called Youth Unlimited that had ministry geared towards growing youth in Christ. At first, I was really skeptical because we had been to conferences before and left them with nothing and felt robbed, but Brandon was persistent in getting our youth to Live It. Eventually, my pastor and I decided it would be a good thing for our youth. We registered and waited in anticipation.

All along the way from Houston to Chicago on our trip to Live It, I looked at the kids and wondered if they will get something from this experience. Would they be challenged to grow on their level of understanding? Would they be ready for such a radical introduction to something this new to them? All kinds of questions ran through my mind, but I realized that it was more of an issue for me than it was for them.

After two days of travel, we arrived at Live It and immediately felt God’s presence. As we exited the van our kids began introducing themselves to every youth in sight. My wife, Vanessa, and I sat back and simply marveled in what we saw. This was just the beginning of what was to come. As we registered, it began to sink in as the spirit of excellence in which Youth Unlimited operated in began to shine through. If there was a problem, it was handled with a smile and heart felt action. My wife and I were blown away yet again.

I’ll be honest; the first night of worship was a little awkward for our youth. They had never had worship that was so free and it took a little getting used to but they caught on. By the end of the service they had their hands raised and were giving praise. This was another milestone accomplished and the bar was set.

The next day was track time. Myself, my wife and two of our youth took the leadership track. We also had one youth in the service track, one in the arts track and two in the athletics track. The leadership track took my mind to another level on the first day. Our teacher and her staff gave us what I didn’t expect. I expected to get a lesson about following certain steps to become a good leader, but we spent the week learning to get ourselves in order, so that we can be effective. Our teacher’s transparency and candor were refreshing. She showed us that you have to be genuine because youth will sniff out a fake in a minute. We were encouraged to learn to spend more time alone with God in order to hear what he has to say for us to do. It was sad to see the end of an experience like this draw near. A class like this has never touched me before. My wife Vanessa was encouraged beyond belief. The two youth, Tony Jr. and Jeremy that were in class with us were changed and I saw the change in them. It was truly awesome.

One of our youth, Michael, who took the arts track, could not believe his experience. He was challenged to stop holding back on his singing for God. He was shy before the class but his newfound confidence changed that.

One of our youth, Leon, who took the service track, had an eye-opening experience. He was shy and really didn’t talk to people he didn’t know. However, from working and reaching out while on work sites, he was changed. He now meets no stranger and is ready for whatever comes his way.

The last two of our youth we brought, Da’Vean and Jade, both took the athletics track. They were not expecting to be challenged in something they were good at, but the challenge was not physical, it was spiritual. It made them see, as believers, there is more to everything we do than what we see.

The biggest plus of the whole experience was the beautiful people we met and still have contact with. The kids made friends they still chat and text with. It was absolutely wonderful to see so many different denominations and ethnic backgrounds coming from different places in Canada and the United States loving God together. We were touched in ways that just blew our minds.

Live it proved it was not just another conference, but a life changing experience. It helps to get you and your youth’s focus towards Jesus, where it should be, which I’ve felt is the missing link in many conferences I have been to. They point to heaven, but not to Christ. I will guarantee that our youth will be attending more Youth Unlimited events because this experience has made a great difference in their lives.

Now I Know

by Tim Ryan
Director of Junior High Ministries
West Shore Evangelical Free Church

The following is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 Magazine. To view the whole magazine, click here.

I was blessed with the opportunity to take a group of senior high student mentors and special needs students to the Fruitland Special Needs Serve in July. As a youth pastor, I’ve had many opportunities to take students on mission trips, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like a Special Needs Serve!

First, we experienced the embrace of the entire church family. I was personally blown away by the commitment to the success of the week by a large portion of the church body. They had thought of every little detail and were so sensitive to the needs of the visiting team members throughout the week. As I talked with one of the host church volunteers, I discovered that he and his wife had taken the entire week off from work so they and their two girls could serve our team through transportation, meal preparation, small group lessons and more!

As the week progressed, it became apparent that many others in that small church had made tremendous sacrifices to make it all happen. Everyone on our team felt cared for—as if we were visiting family for the entire week! This was evident when Adam, one of my students, was referring to the hosts as brother, sister, mom and dad!

The host team also did a phenomenal job finding worksites that were very meaningful; yet adaptable to special needs team members. It was a joy to watch special needs students and their student peer mentors working side-by-side helping ministries do the work of Jesus’ hands and feet. In some cases, that meant sorting and prepping eyeglasses and hygiene supplies for shipment around the world. In other cases, it meant preparing fresh produce and packaged foods for distribution in the community. In every case, we were blessed to learn more about the agencies we worked with and the impact they make for God’s Kingdom.

On our last night, our site leader asked the peer mentors to finish the statement, “I used to think ______, but now I know _______” (regarding students with special needs). The answers that my students gave to that one question alone spoke volumes to just how deeply God used the week of Serve to stretch and grow their faith. One student related how previously she thought that students with special needs couldn’t really fully understand God or worship him in a deep or meaningful way. Now, as a result of her special needs Serve experience, she knows that students with special needs are blessed by God to connect with him directly without many of the self-conscious barriers that she came to recognize in her own relationship with God.

Toward the end of the long van ride home, I asked the students about next year. Every single one expressed a desire to do it again if they have the opportunity!

Join the Ripple

Most people can point to a moment of impact that changed their lives forever. That moment of impact is the moment people begin to live, interact, see the world and believe differently. It’s not uncommon for an individual’s moment of impact to form a ripple effect, and further impact the lives of others, who then impact the lives of others and so on.

At Youth Unlimited, we’re continuously and gratefully amazed by the impact made for and by Christ at experiences like Serve and Live It. We’re blessed to have seen first-hand at these events the impactful moments in individual students’ lives and the ripple effect that stems from these moments into a beautiful tapestry of churches assisting churches, building the Kingdom of God.

Youth Unlimited’s Serve and Live It events are not about a one-week experience. They’re about the impact and the ripple effect that ensues. They’re about the student from London, Ontario who spends a week in Houston, Texas and returns home convicted of her call to share the gospel with her friends. They’re about the couple in California who saw the impact Live It made on their own children many years ago and how they’ve grown because of that impact, and continues to invest in the organization so that someone else’s children might be impacted similarly. They’re about the church in Holland, Michigan who returned home from their Serve experience in Washington D.C. and saw both the need and a way to meet the need in their own congregation/community for a food pantry.

Youth Unlimited’s Serve and Live It experiences are about the church, who helps the church, who helps the church, and so on, and that ripple can begin with the impact of a single student.

One Serve participant said, “To see the grateful faces of the many people we helped was eye-opening. It just goes to show that every small, helpful action can have an impact on someone’s life. This trip helped me realize that there are not only problems in places thousands of miles away, but that there are empty, longing hearts wanting to be filled right here in my own community.”

Another Serve participant reflected, “Through just this past week, I have found what it really means to be free—to be so free in Jesus Christ that I feel like I have to tell the world. Serve changed my life and got me back on track. Praise God!”

At Youth Unlimited, we’re humbled and blessed to play a role in creating a space for the ripple effect of impactful moments to begin. With your financial donation, you, too, can be a part of creating that space. You can help impact the course of a student’s life, who has the ability to impact his/her congregation and community in big ways, who have the ability to impact other congregations and communities as well.

Would you join the ripple with us and make an impact?

Humbled to make an impact with you,

Jeff Kruithof

Executive Director

Youth Unlimited

Adam Settle Serves

Adam Settle was born with a rare metabolic disease, Cobalamine-C dysfunction, that prevents him from effectively metabolizing protein, which may result in damage to neurological systems including eyesight and brain function.

Despite his underlying medical struggles, Adam approaches life with a can-do attitude, believing there is little he cannot accomplish. His spirit has touched the hearts of many in the community. He is considered by some to be a mascot for the Northern York High School, encouraging the players and students as a coach, physical trainer and security guard. As a freshman, he was featured as a guest player for the varsity football, basketball and volleyball teams.

Adam Serves | Youth Unlimited | Teen Summer Missions

Despite being legally blind, Adam loves to participate in ball sports, ride his bike and paint. Adam has developed a small following of patrons. Of his many abstract paintings, the most sought after are: Sandy – the Hurricane, Meadow with Flowers, Stained Glass, Sunset and Roosters.

Jerry Meadows of Youth Unlimited, spoke with Adam about his experience this past year at Serve, and the following conversation was recorded:

Why did you want to go on this Serve?

I’ve never been on a mission trip with a church team and everyone else in my family has. I have 7 brothers and sisters and they’ve been to Honduras, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, the UAE, etc. My family is on a mission for Christ and I wanted to go.

I have traveled a lot and even went to Cambodia on a family trip a few years ago but this was different. I got to go with my church and my peers.

What was your favorite worksite on Serve?

Two of them were pretty good. At one, we sorted eyeglasses, and eyeglasses mean a lot to me since I am legally blind. Those glasses were going to people who couldn’t buy them or people in another country that couldn’t get them. At another work site, we sorted donated food.

Honestly, for some of the days I did not feel good at all. I was very hot and that made me tired. The Host Church and team took really good care of me and made sure I rested enough and kept encouraging me to do what I could but not push myself.

What do you do in your free time?

Well, I never have free time (laughing). I’m always doing art. I’m doing full time art – full time business and full time school. I like to keep busy.

Do you enjoy any sports?

Football, basketball, volleyball, soccer – all of them. Some of them I play, but I help the trainer and encourage the players.

What kind of art or business do you do?

I had gotten several commissions to do art for individuals and some for companies or churches. A couple that I know from church are actually flying me to Florida to do a beach painting for them.

I started a business called, Adam Art.

Any last thoughts on Serve?

It was a great feeling to experience it with my friends and make new friends.

I had so much fun at Serve.

Life Changing Serve

Three high school students from Ferry Memorial Reformed Church in Montague, MI attended Huron Serve in July of 2015.

Sure, they enjoyed getting to know some new Canadian friends and trying poutine for the first time, but they also allowed Serve to change their life in larger ways. Many of the work projects at Huron Serve were in small rural communities. As one student, Seth, experienced working with people in rural poverty, he said, “Serve opened my eyes to see lots of people in need in areas you wouldn’t think there would be a need – in a small town”. A freshman, Cecilia, adds, “I didn’t realize so many people were in need”.

Huron Serve encouraged students and leaders to look at the world through someone else’s eyes and to build relationships with those they came to work alongside. The youth leader, Mike, appreciated this aspect of Serve. “I thought I was helping others before (in other service projects), but it was more about making me feel good about myself, not thinking about how they feel”. Seth agreed that treating someone with dignity and getting to know them is important, and he says, “It is more than giving someone on the street a bottled water, it is sitting down and drinking water with a person.”

A senior (now a college Freshman), Lauren’s, experience with Serve was one reason she changed her major from English to Social Work. She has always had a big heart for people on the margins, but her experiences at Serve working with homeless and people living on the edge of poverty helped her realize what she really wanted to do.

As a leader, I am enthusiastic about my Serve experience. I took three quiet, introverted students with prayerful confidence that they would be enfolded by their small group teams and find a place to belong and to serve. I appreciate that the the Serve experiences I have been on emphasized a relationship with God at the core of all we do – including serving others. We are encouraged to treat all people with dignity and respect. The feeling wasn’t that the volunteers come with answers or even with “help”, but that we work together; in fact, getting to know someone and hearing their story may be the “help” that we both need most.

Trendy Teens (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from last week’s Trendy Teens (Part 1 of 2):

Another key way to engage with students is to control our atmosphere! While none of us can always control every situation and decision our teens make, we can control the atmosphere in our homes and church youth groups, and atmosphere is everything!

In Jim Burns book, Teen-ology he says; “While no home is perfect, and you will experience conflict with your teens – Here’s the deal: I don’t think we should solely blame our kids for the chaos in the home. Their “job” as teenagers is bound to cause some chaos and conflict. They are experimenting with behaviors, challenging authority, and generally doing things to mess up any positive atmosphere around them. Your job in the home is to set a tone and atmosphere that is more conductive to a better environment in the family. (It’s not going to be easy). If your family is living at too fast of a pace, or if your own life is filled with chaos and conflict, don’t expect your teens to set a positive atmosphere in your home. And don’t expect communication to be all that good either. It’s back to the intentional parenting of teens by staying calm, working a plan, and getting as emotionally healthy as YOU possibly can. To set a better atmosphere you will need to 1) be intentional 2) sometimes have to decide when certain behaviors and choices are just not worth a battle. (If your children see you as constantly nagging or criticizing them, don’t expect them to enjoy hanging out with you).”

Research is still showing that parents are the biggest influence in their teen’s life. Parents have the opportunity to make the biggest impact in their teen’s decisions. While we as adults can’t always control the decisions teens make regarding drug use, sex and friend choices, we can control the way we engage with the culture around us. We have power, through the Holy Spirit, to help our teens to be rooted and established in love, and not rooted in the popular trends all around them. It is messy work, but our teens are too important to ignore. Engage in their world and remind them of “real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of”.

Trendy Teens (Part 1 of 2)

Looking back on the trendy fashion, music and entertainment from the 60’s and beyond, one common thread remains; it was the teens that were the “trend-setters.” If we look at the current trends in music, technology and entertainment, it is teens that are still influencing trends today. Therefore, as loving, caring, faith-filled adults, how should we respond to cultural trends from a Christian perspective?

Let’s first look at how Jesus interacted with and responded to culture. I love the way Brian Housman describes the way Jesus interacted with the culture around him in his book Engaging Your Teen’s World. He writes, “Jesus came to heal and renew what sin has infected – by revelation and instruction he (Jesus) reattaches the soul to God the source of its being and goodness and restores it to the right order of love.” Notice those verbs; Renew, Reattaches, Restores. He doesn’t ignore, or respond in panic or fear.

Unlike Jesus, our first response is too often to reject or ignore tough questions and hard battles. However the best way to deal with issues of culture (music, tech, entertainment) is to engage!

Look at the story in John 10:6-10 where Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The Message says it like this; Jesus told this simple story, but they (the disciples) had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

“Will freely go in and out”—Notice Jesus doesn’t lock up the sheep. Dead bolt the gate shut! Keep the sheep completely sheltered, in hiding. John Rosemond, that man who coined the phrase “helicopter parent” says this; “Too many parents are ultimately carrying the burdens of their teen’s problems on their own shoulders. No teen will become a responsible adult if their parents carry the load for them. It’s not healthy for either party!”

So then, how do we engage without taking on our kid’s burdens? Whatever you do, don’t stay silent. Silence will often lead teens to jump to feeling of shame! Things so terrible we dare not mention them. When we try to engage, too often we ask simple (yes or no) questions. Then we’re surprised or disappointed when all we get is a simple yes/no/fine answer. Instead, begin your questions with phrases such as, “What do you think about…” or “How do you feel about…” These are open-ended questions, and can be quite helpful. Try them. They work!

To be continued…

Why Use ThereforeGo?

The following is an excerpt from the ThereforeGo Fall Magazine. To read more, click here.

Life Changing – the single most important thing that can happen in a student’s life is that they form a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ and commit to living for him.

In a world so full of noise and distractions, ThereforeGo’s SERVE mission experiences are incredibly effective at creating the space for students to encounter Jesus. We have testimony after testimony from students saying their SERVE experience was the moment in time when they first came to understand Jesus’ love, grace and desire for a personal relationship.

Because these experiences can be such an integral point in a student’s life, ThereforeGo is committed to having the following values as essential components of every one of our experiences: worship, reading scripture, introducing students to our broken world that needs Jesus, serving in the name of Jesus, fostering healthy adult/student relationships and encouraging students to live their life for Jesus.

In order to make this happen, ThereforeGo works with a team – the SERVE mission experience is not created in some office and then packaged and sent to 30 different host sites across Canada and the United States. Each SERVE site is created and led by a planning team of volunteers who live, worship, work and raise their families in the community you will be serving.

Prepared & Organized – Each planning team is trained and equipped by the ThereforeGo staff, and each February, all of the teams come together to be trained, share best practices, network and worship together. During this weekend, there is also a lot of celebration for what God has done over the past year and a lively discussion about the coming year! Many of our planning teams have been hosting SERVE for years. From the lessons learned over 25 years of offering Serve and the sharing of best practices by all the planning teams, every site is well prepared and organized. From the speakers, worship teams, community life, food and meaningful worksites, we will provide a great experience for you and your students!

Intentional – Each SERVE site also uses and teaches from the same theme and devotional material. The 2016 material was written by the next generation of church leaders, students from Calvin Theological Seminary. To ensure it connected with students, they tested it by teaching it to a church youth group and then adjusted it according to how it connected with them. The material focuses on Mark’s Gospel, allowing students to see how Jesus Christ, walking through everyday life, identified in people and communities both the hurtful bruises this world has left on them and the incredible image of God in them and how they can do the same in their lives.

Customizable – If you feel your group could better benefit from the SERVE experience in a different way (i.e. for larger groups, those looking to build their own group dynamic, those planning a multi-generational trip or any others in a unique situation), customizing SERVE gives you the chance to set dates, modify the schedule, lead your own worship sessions, etc. while ThereforeGo supplies the key values found in all of our faith-forming experiences.

What does a SERVE day look like?

7:00 AM – Breakfast/Prepare Lunches | 8:00 AM – Devotions | 8:45 AM – Leave for Worksites

4:00 PM – Showers/Free Time | 6:00 PM – Dinner | 7:30 PM – Evening Session

9:00 PM – Small Group Discussion | 10:00 PM – Snack and Free Time | 11:00 PM – Lights Out

Want to know the latest information about SERVE and ThereforeGo Ministries?