What is the difference between our youth group and your favorite club or team at school? Are we just a club that prays?  Good question, huh? Too often we hear, “isn’t youth group all about having fun and doing things together and making new friends and going places?”  Well the answer is obviously “YES!” but it is so much more too.

From the moment of our baptism, we enter into a covenant relationship with God and as we get older we take on more responsibilities of living a Christian life. Our Prayer Book outlines a “Baptismal Covenant” which is our job description, our mission statement as Christians, and THIS is what separates us from the Soccer Team, the Spanish Club, the Chess Club, or any other organization that we might ever belong to. 

Here’s what it’s all about:

Fellowship, YES! But the rest of the story is regular study of the Bible and our faith traditions:  breaking bread, having regular Eucharist, and a regular prayer life. Regular church attendance and Bible Study are NOT options:  that’s just part of our covenant with God.

Youth group helps us to learn and think about right and wrong, evil and good, and our place in all of that. We look at evil and sin in our world, our society, and in ourselves—and we learn to seek God’s help, guidance, mercy, and forgiveness in all that we do, and all the decisions and choices that we make.

We learn to be an example of God’s love in this world—serving God not only with our lips, but in our lives.

We learn to find the Christ in all persons—we look for the good in all persons—as we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Finally, we learn about injustice, and we try to figure out how to make this world a better place, more peaceful and happier. We work for a world where every human being is respected and honored as a child of the God who loves us all.

That is what our youth group stands for; these are the goals and guides for what we do. And it’s funny how much fun we can have doing all of this important work!  Please join us!