The SHINE Blog

Church Growth

We had 11 people join the membership of Glenwood Presbyterian today. That represents more than a 10% growth in one day! Several of these were young people and three were baptized for the first time today as they made their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. We look forward to seeing these young people mature in their faith in the coming years.

For more pictures of the ceremony, click here. I took the pictures with my cellphone, so they aren’t the best quality, but it will give you the idea.

September 28th, 2008 Posted by Brian Beasley | Glenwood Presbyterian Church, Young People | one comment

What’s Happening At Glenwood Presbyterian?

For those that are under the mistaken impression that GPC is only a “happenin” place on Sundays, we’ve been busy the last couple of weeks. Last week was our “Power Lab” vacation Bible school, which was a huge success. Most importantly, we had five kids who made decisions for Christ during the week! Thanks to all the helpers and teachers for their hard work.

Yesterday, we let G.U.P.Y. use our building for the day - check out this link to see all the fun they had.

June 24th, 2008 Posted by Brian Beasley | Glenwood Neighborhood, Glenwood Presbyterian Church, Young People | no comments

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!

February 26th, 2008 Posted by Brian Beasley | Glenwood Presbyterian Church, Young People | no comments

Something Else In Common…

I ran across this blog post from Suzanne over at Grace and laughed out loud.  Our church has been dealing with this very issue lately, as a couple of families and children from the neighborhood have started coming very regularly to our services.  Suzanne, if you see this post - take heart.  I think it does get better slowly as the kids learn and feel more comfortable in a worship setting…

Here’s the post:

“This is the around the 3rd or 4th Sunday that youth from Glenwood have come to sit with me in the “Big Service” at Grace after middle school Sunday school. I am so very happy that they are coming and can see that they are really learning about God.

But I have a confession… I feel stared at and sometimes embarrassed by their lack of “Church Manners.”

Now I may not have children of my own, but I think that I have a good taste of what it is like for a mother to be in church and her kids to keep squirming or her baby to start fussing. She wants desperately to hear the sermon and to worship yet she is worried her kids are disturbing others and embarrassed as the woman three rows up turns and looks to see where the disturbance is coming from.”

Read the rest at Daring To Hope.

December 4th, 2007 Posted by Brian Beasley | Glenwood Neighborhood, Glenwood Presbyterian Church, Young People | one comment