Youth Director

Just over a year ago I offered to help with a Jr. High Youth Group for our church. There were a couple of high school kids that would come irregularly, but there were not any middle school aged youth.  I have a son in that age group and I really wanted him to learn and discuss things at his age level.   Little did I realize that just a couple of months later, I would be taking over as Youth Director.   I structured the classes so that we could accommodate both Jr and Sr High ages until we grew enough to separate into the 2 groups.  I began with 3 middle schoolers coming weekly.  Within a month we had a few more middle school youth and a couple of high schoolers.  I told the kids how important it was to share their faith with others and invite them to our youth group.  In just 6 short month we went from 3 kids to over 30!  By the end of the year we had over 40 kids on our roster (and are still growing).  We have 25+ actively coming each week to our meetings.  Needless to say our group has grown to the point where we have a middle school and high school youth group.

These kids are amazing and teach me each week the importance of prayer, sharing your faith and growing with Christ. Everyone of them has been touched by God in some way or another and I have got to see them bloom like flowers.  I am so proud of each and every one of them.

One thing I was not anticipating as the Youth Director was attending the various concerts, such as Heaven Fest, WinterJam, Creation Fest Tour and the upcoming Acquire the Fire.  I had no idea there was such hard Christian Rock – I try to be as cool as possible, but I guess my age shows when I can not hear all the words or all the kids are jumping around during the concerts.  I have come to realize that if the youth can look up to positive influences like this in music, then I will go to the concerts with them.  If you have never heard of Skillet, Haste The Day, KJ-52, 7th Day Slumber, Group 1 Crew, Kutless or the other many “rock & hard rock” Christian groups, I highly recommend you listen to them.

I love the “not so heavy” groups, such as Mercy Me, Casting Crowns and Jeremy Camp. Which I have to admit, all of my Youth Group kids gladly listen to with me.

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