up7street
Last night we had a bi-weekly up7street meeting. I thought I would post a few thoughts to give you an idea about the reasons behind the launch of up7street. In December of 2008, Arlene and I were talking about our pre-teens and teenagers and trying to figure out what the next step was. Rather than continuing with our “girls club” and “boys club” we decided to combine them and launch a new ministry. We launched up7street 11 months ago for ages 12-19.
We wanted an active, vibrant ministry that took our teens to the next level spiritually, developed young leaders in our urban setting, built community among them, and bridged the gaping hole that exists between teens and adults in the church world!
We have designed up7street around a small-group platform, but all the small-groups meet at the same time. We have four different teams each with a set of team leaders. I am very thankful for our leaders, we could not do this without their help. We have food, a time of worship, a “talk” usually given by me, small-group time and activities. We have experienced growth almost every time we have up7street. And it has fed our teen class that meets on Sundays until we almost have no room where our teens meet.
We really work hard in creating a welcome environment, urge them to bring their friends, and we do our best in making the talks relevant to what they are going through in life. We have talked about temptation, friendships and sexual purity just to name a few of the topics. We encourage them to ask questions, and they ask some tough questions!
In 2010 we plan on making up7street even more effective. One of the things that we are focusing on is developing leaders. We are going to give opportunities for our teens to develop their leadership skills in the adult Sunday service, provide additional ministry opportunities and launch a new mentoring program that we plan on launching in February.
up7street is an exciting part of the Gospel Center. Please pray for our teens. I want every one of them to be fully devoted to Christ. Last night, at the conclusion of our talk, (we talked about being ready to die, complete with having a casket at the front of the sanctuary) about twelve teens raised their hands that they wanted to become a follower of Jesus. up7street is worth every investment that we put into it.
I love what you’re doing with your teens! Keep it up! To answer your question about the greatest need in the CHM I think it is discipleship and accountability. I think the Wesley Class Meeting offer revisited and adapted today.
Jon, you are right. We need to be doing a much better job on both accounts. Do you think small groups can be structured to meet some of the criteria Wesley implemented?
That was supposed to be “need” not “offer”
Excellent! Such a needed ministry.
Thanks Sharlyn. I never thought of myself as a teen teacher. But god has given me the desire to see this through. So grateful for his help.