AYM 2.0

The goal of the church is reach and equip God’s children. So that’s our goal with Advent Youth Ministry. Reach and equip. And we believe God’s love is so compelling, God’s grace is so overwhelming, the fruit of the Spirit is so life-giving, that we’re going to make a new effort at accomplishing this goal.

In a lot of ways, we’re doing the great stuff we’ve always done. But in some ways, we’re giving AYM a refresh and doing something new and exciting! 

Here’s the overview of where we’re going with AYM, how we hope to reach and equip God’s children, and how it might work for multi-site ministry this school year.

Reach more students 

If our encouragement is to invite everyone every week, we end up inviting no one. We need clearer and better avenues for new students to take part in AYM and hear about Jesus Christ.

Foster greater discipleship

We can’t have students falling through the gaps. We need to do a better job at connecting students that want to follow Christ with trusted and mature Christian adults in discipleship relationships. We need more exclusive gatherings for this so that students who really want to get real and step up can do so.

Both contextualize and unify the youth ministry of both campuses

The blessing of multi-site ministry is to have ministry contextualized to each location. But at the same time, we can leverage the resources of the entire church for bigger gatherings and unified connections.

 

With those goals in mind, we’d like to redesign some of the aspects of AYM to share the love of Christ among 6th-12th graders. The imagery of a home is helpful to imagine the three different gatherings of AYM:

Front Porch

The front porch is where everyone is welcome to gather and enjoy. It’s easily accessible and a place for connections to be made. It’s a place where the identity of the house is put on display and invitations are extended to come on in.

Huddle Big Nights

About once a month

Sundays, 5p-7p (doors open at 430pm)

Both campuses at one location (Cordova CLC for now)

Themes (e.g., Glow Night, Hawaiian Luau, Color Wars, Red Carpet Christmas Dinner, Star Wars Night…)

Super easy to invite friends to (invite cards, social media shareables, bring-a-friend contests…)

Decorations, games, dinner, worship, Gospel talk, testimonies, prizes

Designed and run by the Big Night Team, but all advisors are welcome to come and enjoy!

Big Night Dates: 9/11, 10/2, 10/30, 12/4

Living Room

The living room is a constant, reliable, real place of love and growth. It’s where the family gathers to talk and learn. It’s where truth is explored and relationships are deepened.

Connect Groups

Every Sunday, 9am in Arlington, 10am in Cordova

Campuses separate

When enough students are present, groups are split by gender and Middle School / High School

5-year curriculum step by step through every book of the Bible and major Christian beliefs

10-minute introduction, then split into groups

Studying the Bible with open-ended discussion questions

Mutual encouragement and prayer together

Kitchen

The kitchen is where life is real. It’s not the tidiest room, and that’s good. It’s a place of invitation and expectation. When a small group of people hang out in the kitchen, life is shared and truth is put into practice.

Huddles

Sundays (when there’s no Big Night), 5pm-7pm

One advisor with 2-4 students

Be open with one another about life, faith, struggles, and successes

Huddle leaders will be provided with a guide for each week’s discussion

Doors open at 5pm to hang out and play games at each campus

Groups meet from 530pm-630pm

Dinner is served from 630pm-7pm

Each Huddle leader is asked to turn in a number from their group for dinner by 2pm on Sunday. This encourages each leader to personally invite their Huddle members each Sunday.

The goal each semester is for Huddles to double their number of students by the end of the semester so that they have to split into two groups the following semester.

This allows for seniors to lead middle school groups

There is potential in the future for high school groups to meet during a different time of the week or even a different place (Crave, Starbucks, McDonalds…)

Huddles Dates: 9/18, 9/25, 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 11/6, 11/20, 11/27

 

Some of the hopes of all this:

This gives students a clear place to invite their friends. With prizes for most friends invited and systems for moving those new students into deeper relationships in the group, we hope to have more students there to share the Gospel with.

Big Nights and Huddles will build each other. We’ll use Big Nights to put Huddles on display with testimonies and attendance prizes. Then encourage students to get involved in Huddles. Leaders and members of Huddles will also encourage one another to be at the Big Nights and invite friends.

I believe this contextualizes ministry at both campuses really well, and at the same time puts a lot of the energy and resources of the big group gathered in unity every now and then.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, or if you have a theme suggestion for a Big Night, we’d love to hear from you! Email Greg at gaydt@adventpres.com.