Philosophy of Youth Ministry  

Our passion is to see as many Junior High students as possible come to a personal relationship with Christ and then enable them to serve like Jesus. The Junior High years offer us a unique opportunity for this kind of ministry in the local church. To do that effectively we must look at what Jesus said and understand how He developed his crew of young followers.

How Jesus accomplished this hinges on two key statements he made:

THE GREAT COMMISSION
“Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:18-20

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

The reason the church exists is to make fully devoted followers of Jesus.

As we look at these two key passages we see 5 key purposes that the church needs to be balanced in to help us accomplish our mission as parents and youth workers of making young disciples.

• Purpose of Evangelism
• Purpose of Discipleship
• Purpose of Fellowship
• Purpose of Ministry
• Purpose of Worship

This is a strategy which allows each students to fit in at their level of commitment. This kind of discipling ministry is one that provides a ministry for each purpose of the church and to each student at their level of interest.

For Wildside Junior High the strategy would look like this:

Primary Purpose                          Program                                         
Evangelism                                          Mania (Friday Nights)
Discipleship                                         CREW Servant Team Fellowship                                           Wild T Groups &  Summer Chaos 

Ministry                                              Adult Ministry Team
Worship                                              Fuel (Sunday Morning)