Dear Youth of Grace (YoG) and Members of Grace Church,
Welcome to a new year! We are blessed to continue leading our youth activities here at Grace for grades 6 through 12, and are very excited to welcome some consistency this year.
Due to the events of the past 18 months, our primary goal for YoG this coming school year is to build community - community among the young people, between the young people and leaders, and last but certainly not least, between the young people and the church as a whole.
We invite youth to participate in two events per month: one will be a social event such as disc golf, corn maze, or progressive dinner, and the other will be a Bible study time where we will have discussions about issues surrounding our faith in Jesus as well as participation in prayer and worship. Information for these events will be on the church website, in the E-Connection, and in emails that we send.
We also invite the youth to attend church with their families or friends during either the contemporary or traditional service. In addition, we encourage the youth to become involved in the worship services in ways like serving as a liturgist, assisting with audio/video, or participating in the praise team. Contact us if you’d like to participate in the worship services.
To that end, please consider the following questions:
To the Youth of Grace (current and future members!): Do you know what spiritual gifts are? Have you explored them for yourself? If so, where do you think God might be calling you to serve? If not, consider this passage from I Corinthians 12:7-11 (NLT):
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
To the congregation of Grace Church: Where could youth serve in ministry? How could we as a church body bring all generations together to the glory of God and for the unity of God’s people? How can we encourage our young people to exemplify the following from I Timothy 4:12?:
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
To all: Please pray for us as we grow spiritually as individuals and as members of the body of Christ. Pray as our youth begin or continue to discover their own spiritual gifts and what their faith looks like in their everyday lives.
In Christ,
Aaron and Elizabeth Wilcoxon
