Philosophy
STUDENTS
We are a Student Ministry not because young people are defined by being in school or because we think someone's scholastic performance says the most about them. We embrace the word "student" because we are students of Jesus. We are learning the abundant life from him.
ADULTS
The most reliable indicator of whether or not teenagers will be active in a community of faith in adulthood is the example of their parents. Next to that, we trust the entire congregation to own youth ministry. When caring adults have invested in their own faith and supported the multi-generational aspects of our life together, everyone has thrived.
VALUES
Fidelity | "Being there"
There's something about going all the way, without compromise or equivocation, that appeals to young people when commitments of all kinds, from employment to marriage, seem temporary and conditional. - Danny Duncan Collum
Transcendence | "Being moved"
"Being moved" is God's work, not ours....God has called young people to be set apart by the "oddity" of self-giving love. This sense of "oddity" - we might think of it as holy weirdness - requires an ongoing sense of dislocation from the pulse of popular culture, along with an increased attunement to the rhythms of God.
Transcendent practices lead to boundary-breaking experiences as they invite us to reach beyond our comfort zones into the new and mysterious world of the "other." - Kenda Creasy Dean
Communion | "Being known"
It is impossible to find truth without being in love. Love itself is knowledge; the more one loves, the more one knows. - St. Gregory