Everyone who’s ever been to middle school knows what it feels like to imagine that all eyes are on you while simultaneously feeling invisible. Middle school and early high school are widely considered some of the most difficult years of growing up. It’s tough for kids to navigate all of the changes happening around them. The homework gets harder, relationships get more complicated and the future seems to loom over them.
As the body of Christ, it’s important for the church to come together around these kids to faithfully support them during this overwhelming transitional period. It can be even harder for students growing up in small towns where there are less opportunities for students to gather together for the purpose of Christian formation.
Christian fellowship is important to a young Christan’s spiritual development. That’s why a small church in Oil City has made it a priority to provide Christ-centered programs for kids in their community. This past summer, Oil City Vineyard assembled a team of leaders to relaunch their youth program with the help of a young couple committed to sharing the love of Christ with the youth of the church and community.
From Hilton Head to Oil City
Jesse and Cassie Seymour met as highschoolers in Lancaster Ohio. There they attended the same youth group, which proved to be formational in their own spiritual journey. They moved to South Carolina for a few years, and then made the move to Oil City, Pennsylvania after Oil City Vineyard’s pastor reached out to them. When the church’s youth group went through a season of transition, the couple felt called to step into the gap.
The first step the couple took to rethink and relaunch the youth program was to gather a leadership team to help them develop their goals and plans for the group. This included determining time allotments for worship, small groups and games as well as building a system of communication between leaders and parents. As they thought through how to structure weekly gatherings and the annual calendar, the Seymours and their team benefitted from lessons about structuring youth activities Jesse and Cassie gained in the CRM's Youth Leaders Affinity Group lead by Grove City College professor and youth ministry specialist Duffy Robbins. (Anyone who has heard Professor Robbins teach can probably guess that the structure of this ministry took his favorite shape--a funnel!)
Building Deep Relationships
As much as the logistics are important to launching a new youth ministry, it is equally important to build relationships with the students. To begin fostering that relational network, the Seymours spent the summer hosting events in an intentional effort to get to know the youth as individuals. Building relationships with students can be as simple as remembering their interests, attending their sporting events or even just asking them how they felt about a test they were concerned about.
“Personally, I love hanging out outside of youth group and being able to do unstructured relational stuff… Most of our girls love any type of crafting stuff. So they come over, and I get tote bags and we paint them and we hang out. Or this past week they came over and we used my Cricut craft machine… It also keeps me more informed because in that setting, they aren’t really aware that I'm even there, and they're more open to just talking about things that are happening in their life,” Cassie said.
Getting to know students individually allows leaders to better understand the nature of the student’s faith. In order to plan a curriculum, leaders need to determine how much their students already know and what they don’t know about the Bible so that they can plan their lessons accordingly.
Oil City Vineyard's reorganized youth group held their first official meeting in September, with a turnout of 33 students – their largest gathering yet. Numbers vary, but the group usually averages around 15-20 attendees per week.
Youth Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns
Cassie and Jesse shared that there are both benefits and challenges to launching a youth program in a small town. Launching a youth program in a rural area can look different than it does in an urban place. It has its own unique benefits and challenges. In small places, many students have grown up together, going to the same school and playing on the same sports teams. This allows them to develop strong connections to each other before they even enter the church doors. However, it can also make it difficult for leaders to navigate situations when students might have a history of not getting along or have experienced drama in their school relationships. Living in a quiet town can work in a youth ministry’s favor; many times, students are free on Sunday nights in rural neighborhoods where there isn’t a ton of activity on Sundays. On the other hand, some kids might not have transportation to get to youth group, so leaders have to come up with solutions to help them get there.
Though much responsibility relies on the leaders of the youth group, the rest of the body of Christ also plays a role in supporting the spiritual development of the youth. Jesse said the congregation at Oil City recognizes the importance of this role and has given abundantly to the ministry:
“We have people that provide food every week and take the time to do that. We also just asked for help with snacks and that sort of thing. And we had so many people bring stuff. We have snacks for the full year.”
“People just care about what we’re doing, and they love hearing about what’s happening with the youth... And there’s so many people I talk to in church that ask about how youth group is going, and they’re just genuinely excited when they hear about what’s happening and how kids are growing and all those sorts of things.”
This semester, Oil City Vineyard has focused on re-launching the youth group. In the future, they’re hoping to start offering small groups for older high schoolers that delve into deeper topics and form an after-church group on Sundays for junior high students. They’re also encouraging their students to attend upcoming Vineyard sponsored retreats.
The Blessing of Spiritual Growth
In the few short months since the couple launched their program, they’ve already seen growth within the spiritual lives of their students:
“I know it’s been so fulfilling for me to just see even small steps of growth that these kids are having, even if it’s something like singing during worship, or even just praying for somebody out loud when you’ve never done that before,” Jesse said.
Cassie reflected, “I think what I’ve noticed in the girls, just in my own observation, is how they’ve become more comfortable in themselves because of learning their identity and who they are in Jesus. I’ve noticed that they don’t feel as scared to be themselves which is really important in their walk with Jesus.”
“My hope is that years down the road, our students are a new generation of worship leaders and pastors and church planters. And even if they’re not working in ministry, they’re leaders following Jesus in their work and in their careers and in their lives”
Emily Fox is a junior at Grove City and a writing intern for CRM. She grew up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and is studying English with minors in Writing and Digital Marketing at the college. Post-grad, she hopes to pursue a career in Public Relations.
