NETworks Youth Ministry
The transition from intern to youth director has gone very smoothly for me and Networks is partway through another great school year. It really has been a blessing to be able to work with these kids and point them towards Christ and His love and grace. I’ll try to recap to the best of my ability what happened in Networks from January through September, and then from September through December. Weekly events:
Middle High
The Middle High group meets on Wednesdays from 3:00 to 4:45 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. This group is made up of grades 6-8. A typical Wednesday starts off with a snack provided by one of the kids (parents). Then we play a game for 20-30 minutes to get some of their energy out. We take them outside as much as the weather allows, but we do have space inside for indoor games during the winter. After the game, we have a short worship time lead by one of the senior high leaders. The kids have really been enjoying the worship this year. I then give a biblical message addressing topics that young teenagers have to deal with. A couple of times this year we have watched part of a video series called Revolution. After the message, we break them up into small groups led by high school and adult volunteers. The group dynamic has changed a lot from last school year to this school year. The 05’-’06 group was mostly 7th and 8th grade students, whereas this year’s group is dominated by 6th graders. A younger group offers different challenges, but it has been going well and I think we are making good strides with them.
Senior High
The Senior High group meets on Wednesdays from 6:00 until 9:00 at the Crossing Point (The Point). This group is for students in grades 9 through 12. Most of the kids come between 5:00 and 6:00 to just relax and hang out until supper is served around 6:15. Some of them do homework during this time, but other activities are board games, video games, ping pong, and just socializing. I think it’s good to have this time where students can get to know one another better and be relaxed. We start our evening worship at 7:00 and have a time of worship music led by our Networks youth worship team. Once again we have a very solid worship team, we have been blessed with musical students willing to be a part of this. After worship I give a biblical message to the students and then they break up into small groups. The small groups are split up by grade and gender and each group has their own adult leaders. After small groups we all gather back together and circle up to have a final prayer. The students are then free to hangout and play games until 9:00 when we clean up The Point and head home. The spiritual maturity for a senior high group has really impressed me since I started working with Networks. These kids aren’t here just to hang out and play games, but they are here to worship God. That’s so exciting to me and I earnestly hope they will take that desire to praise the Lord with them when they leave here.
Monday Night Bible Study
Last year Bible study was on Sunday, but I wanted to switch it to a week night so there would be more of a purposeful effort to come and also commitment to the study. It’s been a little bit of a struggle getting people to come, but we’re trying new approaches to see what is most likely to get students to come. The first half of the year we read through and discussed the book of James. The students who came really got a lot out of it. The next thing we’re going to try is a book about finding your identity in Christ, so I’m really hoping that goes well. We meet at 7:00 P.M. at the Hudson Bagel Company.
Sunday Hangout
Every Sunday The Point is open for kids to come and hang out from noon until around 6:00 or 7:00. This provides another opportunity for the students to fellowship and get to know each other better. We typically play board games, Polish ping pong, and there is a Madden Football video game league. This year we had ten people join the Madden league. This is something that has gone on for two years now. I think the more time students spend around the youth director, the more they’ll know that I do really care about them and desire for them to have a relationship with Christ. I think that leaves more room for impact than if they only saw me one time a week.
Special Events
We have a number of special events held throughout the year. Here are some of them and what we do.
Moonlight Mystery Madness
Or MMM as we affectionately call it. This happens every October and what we do is join all the other youth groups in Hudson in taking middle high students to random fun places around Hudson and The Cites from right after school until midnight. The trip is limited to 150 kids total and always seems to reach capacity. This year we went to the ice rink in River Falls, Jump in Woodbury, The Maplewood Recreation Center, and other little stops along the way.
Thanksgiving Dinner
We bring together both senior high and middle high for a Thanksgiving dinner every year at St. Paul’s. It went very well this year, about 60 people total showed up for the meal. After the meal everyone went over to Harvestime Outreach Church for a time of worship and a message. We went from needing two turkeys to three, but I managed to pull it off in my first attempt. Thank goodness for those Reynolds turkey bags!
Holidazzle Parade
We took the Networks bus to downtown Minneapolis for this year’s Holidazzle Parade at Nicollet Mall. After the parade we went to Chipotle to eat and then headed back to Hudson. We had 12 students attend.
Hudson All-City Worship
Four times a year we get together with the other youth groups of Hudson for a combined worship service. It is a great opportunity for our youth to be together with other Christians from Hudson and fellowship with them. Our worship team played for an All-City last spring and it went very well. The speaker is either a youth pastor from Hudson or someone brought in by the EYC (Ecumenical Youth Council).
History Movie of the Month
This is something I started while interning at Networks. Once a month I pick out a history movie to watch on a Saturday afternoon. We have a short discussion about the actual history behind the movie and then enjoy with some popcorn and pop.
New Year’s Eve Party
Once again we had the New Year’s Eve all-nighter. We had around 15 kids come and the evening consisted of midnight worship, movies, board games, video games, and lots of food.
Winter Retreat
We’ve done a winter retreat for the senior high students for the past two years. We go to The Wilderness Fellowship in Frederic, WI. This has been a good opportunity for the students to sled, play games, relax, and also spend time alone with God. One thing we’ve done and will continue to do is send the kids off by themselves for about an hour to just focus on God and listen. It’s been a great experience.
Trips
Breakout
Breakout is a trip that we take every spring break. Last year we took 12 students to Missouri. The first few days were spent with Christian Wings for the World and we repainted an airplane hanger and helped put up the steel structure for a new hangar. The head of CWW even took us up in one of his planes on the last day. We then headed up to St. Louis to work with Jubilee Community Church. They are working on restoring run down homes in the more ghetto part of St. Louis and then selling them for cheap to families. They want to fill the neighborhood with Christian people and really change the area. Our middle high students helped clean appliances at Jubilee’s new church building (an old grocery store) and the senior high students helped clear out an entire backyard that had about three inches deep of trash in it. It was an excellent trip and I think everyone made strides in their faith. For 2007 we will be going to Gulfport, Mississippi to help rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Mishpack
Last year we took 40 students to Bozeman, Montana in late July. The first week of the trip was working with Habitat for Humanity. We got to work on three houses this year and we got to see the finished homes that we had worked on last year. All of the kids worked very hard and we accomplished a lot. We had a day off on Saturday and on Sunday anyone who wanted could go to Yellowstone National Park. The next day we headed into the Gallatin Mountains for five days of hiking in the wilderness. There were no mishaps this year except for Ben getting lost one day. The trip was really great again. A couple students gave their lives to Christ and a couple rededicated their lives to Him. Some students who were maybe a little wishy-washy in their faith really solidified it during the trip this year. I was so great to see. This year we will be heading back to Montana for the third year in a row and expect another great trip. To go on Mishpack, each student is required to do 24 hours of service projects and attend Mishpack University sessions every couple weeks to prepare them for the trip.
Cornerstone
We went to the Cornerstone festival in Bushnell, Illinois again this year. Cornerstone is a five day Christian music festival where we camp out in tents and go to concerts all day. There are also speakers, sports, swimming, and a prayer labyrinth, along with many other activities. We took almost 20 people with us this year and had amazing weather. It was a really fun trip.
Conclusion
It really has been another great year for Networks. I would just like to encourage all of you to continually lift these youth up in prayer. They have a lot of challenges facing them at this point in their lives and it’s so important for them to get that solid foundation of Jesus Christ right now. The hard part sometimes about youth ministry is realizing that as badly as we want them to have that relationship with Christ, we can’t do it for them. It’s a decision that they have to make for themselves. That’s another reason why I just ask that you be praying for God to be changing their hearts and their attitudes to be open to Him. Once again, it really is an amazing thing to be in youth ministry. I couldn’t be enjoying it more even through all the challenges it presents. Thank you for all the prayers and support you’ve given to me.
Dave Pulsfus
Networks Director
715-386-1446
netyouthmin@yahoo.com