Youth Ministry Page
Hi! Welcome to our Student Ministries Website!
Hello!
My name is Minister Colin I wanted to introduce myself if we haven’t met, explain how youth group and confirmation is going to work this year, and invite you to join us!
Sunday School and Youth Ministry are so important to me, personally. I spent the last twenty years working with youth and kids, first as a social worker for underprivileged kids for a decade, and second as a Youth and Family Pastor. My wife Shay as well was a creative arts director and curriculum writer for a large children’s ministry, and we have two kids, one in Sunday school and one in Youth Ministry. We understand the need to connect students to each other, help foster their development as spiritual, healthy people, and to give kids fun memories of their time at church. We want church to be a safe, inclusive harbor for them for their whole lives. I will also take this moment to say that St. Mark’s is an inclusive church and that we support and welcome all races, gender expression, sexualities, and anything else that often divides us. This is important for this age group as their identities are coming to light, or they are friends with a wide spectrum of people. Because so many churches are not welcoming, I want to be very clear that your child, your children’s friends, or your family dynamic will be welcomed at St. Mark’s and that our teachings will reflect that welcome.
Youth Group and Confirmation will be combined this year. The confirmation lessons will be wrapped up into lessons given at youth group, and confirmation kids will have small semester “packets” of reflections to help guide them as they wrestle with their formation as spiritual people. They can choose to write about these things privately, do them as family conversations, or set up a time with me or Shay to process them out loud.
This year, until we know that it is safe to gather (which at this point, who knows…) Youth Ministry will be online, with a sprinkling of in-person, outdoor, socially distanced gatherings like bonfires, corn mazes, and sledding. Each week, your student can click on a zoom link and enter our Youth Group which will go from 1-2 pm each Sunday. We will play zoom games, jackbox games, explore our lesson of the week, and spend time getting to know each other and exploring what it means to be spiritual people through the heritage of Christianity. Each lesson is geared to align with the gospel text that we will be learning about in “Big Church” at 10 am, (as is our Sunday school program) so the whole family is learning the same stories and lessons, just at a developmentally appropriate level. We hope this fosters conversation at home (or at least makes it easier to get the answer to the question “what did you learn at youth group this week?”)
Below is the registration form for Youth Group/Confirmation. There is no fee for this program, and you are welcome to invite friends! Registration is important so we can prep for the number of kids and share the zoom link each week. It must be sent to each family privately for safety and will not sit on our website.
Blessings,
Colin
Hello!
My name is Minister Colin I wanted to introduce myself if we haven’t met, explain how youth group and confirmation is going to work this year, and invite you to join us!
Sunday School and Youth Ministry are so important to me, personally. I spent the last twenty years working with youth and kids, first as a social worker for underprivileged kids for a decade, and second as a Youth and Family Pastor. My wife Shay as well was a creative arts director and curriculum writer for a large children’s ministry, and we have two kids, one in Sunday school and one in Youth Ministry. We understand the need to connect students to each other, help foster their development as spiritual, healthy people, and to give kids fun memories of their time at church. We want church to be a safe, inclusive harbor for them for their whole lives. I will also take this moment to say that St. Mark’s is an inclusive church and that we support and welcome all races, gender expression, sexualities, and anything else that often divides us. This is important for this age group as their identities are coming to light, or they are friends with a wide spectrum of people. Because so many churches are not welcoming, I want to be very clear that your child, your children’s friends, or your family dynamic will be welcomed at St. Mark’s and that our teachings will reflect that welcome.
Youth Group and Confirmation will be combined this year. The confirmation lessons will be wrapped up into lessons given at youth group, and confirmation kids will have small semester “packets” of reflections to help guide them as they wrestle with their formation as spiritual people. They can choose to write about these things privately, do them as family conversations, or set up a time with me or Shay to process them out loud.
This year, until we know that it is safe to gather (which at this point, who knows…) Youth Ministry will be online, with a sprinkling of in-person, outdoor, socially distanced gatherings like bonfires, corn mazes, and sledding. Each week, your student can click on a zoom link and enter our Youth Group which will go from 1-2 pm each Sunday. We will play zoom games, jackbox games, explore our lesson of the week, and spend time getting to know each other and exploring what it means to be spiritual people through the heritage of Christianity. Each lesson is geared to align with the gospel text that we will be learning about in “Big Church” at 10 am, (as is our Sunday school program) so the whole family is learning the same stories and lessons, just at a developmentally appropriate level. We hope this fosters conversation at home (or at least makes it easier to get the answer to the question “what did you learn at youth group this week?”)
Below is the registration form for Youth Group/Confirmation. There is no fee for this program, and you are welcome to invite friends! Registration is important so we can prep for the number of kids and share the zoom link each week. It must be sent to each family privately for safety and will not sit on our website.
Blessings,
Colin