Glenwood’s Youth Explosion
One of the major issues that we are dealing with at Glenwood Presbyterian Church recently is the influx of a large number of middle and high school youth from the neighborhood and surrounding area. This is a great problem to have, but it is putting a strain on our youth leaders, who have suddenly seen their numbers increase exponentially. On top of that, these are young people who have very different backgrounds than what our church is used to (that’s not a value judgment, just the truth). One of our teens recently got out of jail, and almost all of them come from broken homes, have gang issues, and no real church background.
We have recently begun to ask for outside help to supplement the ministry that we have in place for young people, which I think is a very “grown-up” thing for our church to do. I believe it shows very clearly that we are not running scared from this blessing/opportunity/challenge that God has given us, and our number one concern is the spiritual needs of these particular youth. So please pray for our youth program and for the youth of our church individually, that we might be able to meet their needs for Christ. And if you feel called to help us out in this area, please email the church at glenwoodpresbyte [at] bellsouth {dot} net.
Since our youth have been on my mind recently, I’ve run across several items online dealing with youth and their place in the church. Jeana found some of these sites while looking for ways in which we could better minister to the youth as well…
- Here’s another discussion of how children are welcomed in a worship setting, following up on an old post of mine. Be sure and check out the comments for some great thoughts.
- This is part one of a two part article on how to keep young people in the church.
- Here’s part two…
- One church opened up a hip-hop recording studio for its youth.
- The Church Under The Tree brings church to the youth rather than youth inside the church building.
- This is a good Youth Specialties article entitled Urban Youth and the Church.
- Inner city church finds new mission through youth outreach.
- But let’s don’t lose sight of the real need in searching for programs.
- And finally, here’s a great afterschool program in Michigan - check out the pictures, they are great!
