With the current climate of our culture, it seems that there is a lot of confusion around identity. Students need time, space, and opportunities for Holy Spirit to impact their lives. We want to help them see who God says they are in Him, and how that knowledge forms our identity, our true identity- one modeled after Christ’s character. To accomplish this, we need to be more than a youth group that meets on Wednesday nights.

The goal is to help them not just find their Christ-like identity, but their value in the Kingdom. We want our students to not just feel like they belong to the “Youth Group” at LakeView but to feel like they belong to the larger body of believers. One way we have already started towards this end is by having the youth host an event for the church. Seeing the students take charge of leading activities, crafts, and food service was a great start as they used their gifts, talents, and made connections with our church family. We also would like to continue Guy/Girl connects and see students be involved in their parent’s Gospel Communities, so they can experience Christ like community outside the walls of the church.

Growing students’ identity in Christ will take time and persistence. It takes being involved in their life more than 1.5 hours a week. This is not something a few student leaders can accomplish. At LakeView, ministry is an all-hands-on-deck way of life, so we ask parents of children in LV Kids and/or LV Students programming to volunteer in some capacity throughout the school year. Students model what they see and there is value seeing family share time and talents.

A couple other ways we are trying to invest in students are “Going Deeper” and Workshop Wednesdays. Going Deeper is for those interested in knowing more about what the bible says, and how to apply it to their life. Workshop Wednesdays is where we might work together to put together events for the larger church body, or work in small groups, looking at how their specific creative outlet can be used to worship God. In doing so we hope to connect their passions with how to join and add to the praise of our God when we gather. These different options give students an environment to try their skills to glorify God, work on projects to help them see themselves as apart of God’s kingdom, and to be encouraged by adults who call out their Christ-like qualities and remind them who they are in Christ.

Our students don’t all attend the same school or come from the same town, so building Group identity is something we will work on growing amongst our students. Culver’s hangouts after youth group, for students and leaders to enjoy food and fellowship together, is one way we do this. On Wednesday nights students leave their phones on a charger at check in to encourage face to face conversation. When we make space and give shared experiences to our students group identity will grow. And if the spaces and experiences are saturated with Christ, we will begin to see youth that find their identity(individual and group) in Him.

We know we can’t accomplish anything without prayer, so we ask you to join us in lifting us the students in prayer.