Trees waved slowly in the afternoon breeze.

The green grass absorbed the radiant sunshine into each and every blade.

A mother duck guided her young babies through a meandering maze of lily pads and stumps sticking above the sluggishly moving river.

Sea gulls soared on the wind above the sandy shores below.

Pelicans plummeted into the ocean below, scooping up fish into their mouths.

Sea lions sunbathed as the waves lapped the shores.

And harbor seals bobbed their curious heads in and out of the water, taking careful interest of the children playing nearby.

For thousands of year, for these creatures, life has stayed the same.

It is ebbed and flowed in rhythms no different than the tide.

Not one worries about the economy.

Not one considers the national debt.

Not a one loses sleep over who will control the Senate, who will be in the White House following the next election.

There is no anxiety over recently purchased technological gadgets becoming outdated.

There is no fear of budget cuts, layoffs, or downsizing.

None of them hear the bell of the stock market ring.

None of them are fearful of growing tensions overseas.

Their hope is not found in the value of the dollar, the pride of their nation, or the strength of their military.

They simply live.

They simply breathe, eat, drink, sleep, procreate, and do what they can to enjoy their days.

They are aware of the fox, the shark, the man, and the drought.

But they do not worry.

They do not fear.

The simply know that they were created to do what they do; and they do it.

They trust in their Creator.

They live.

They die.

Nothing taking place outside of their Creators watchful eye.

If he cares for them-

How much more is He watching out for us?

How much more is His desire to do good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purposes?

So do not worry.

Do not fear.

Do not lose sleep due to anxiety.

None of these things will change your life.

None of them will add even another minute.

Be aware of the dangers that lurk, but know that you are to live and it is God who watches over you while you so.

You live.

You die.

You live on.

Live this life to the fullest.

Trust in Christ, find your hope in Him, and live for Him as you invest for the next.

We will be putting on a Good Friday Service, a Huge Helicopter-Drop Easter Egg Hunt, and a big Easter Celebration Service. The Egg Hunt is where the majority of our efforts will be focused. There will be 25k candy-filled eggs, scores of prizes, free lunch for up to 1k people, and a helicopter. And the Easter Service will be at an alternative location, a nice new elementary school gym at a local private school down the street from our building.

All of these events are huge risks: What if no one shows up? What if it rains? What if too many people show up? What if dropping the eggs from the helicopter doesn’t work as planned? What if it’s too chaotic and we leave a bad taste in the mouths of those who attend? What if a ton of people show up at the egg hunt, but not the service? What if lots of people show up to the service, but not the next week? Will canceling some of our existing services to combine them into one large service kill momentum or cause us to lose people? Will we be wasting close to $10k?? Etc…

As the pastor, I’ve thought about each one of these questions. But it’s mainly the people I run into, and various people in my life who bring these questions up….again, and again, and again.

But I choose to see these events a little differently. I could be asking; “What if it……?” But instead I choose to ask; “What if we don’t do it?” “What if we don’t…..?”

You see, I’d rather take the risk, put our trust in God, go for it, and watch to see what He does; than to not do it at all out of fear of “what if’s”. I’d hate to fail to give God the opportunity to do big things out of our own fears and complete blindness to the future.

Are there a LOT of unknowns this coming weekend? ABSOLUTELY! Do they stress me out? Admittedly, “yes”! But God is in the unknown, and in the unseen corridors of the future. I can’t see what He’s up to. But I am sure that He is working behind the scenes for His glory, the advancement of His Kingdom, and even for our…for my…good. And I’m okay with that. The only thing I can do is obey Him, and see where that obedience takes me.

Not knowing what the future holds, and asking, “What if we don’t…?” questions, builds our faith, brings us closer to Christ, and takes us to the places where God is on the move.

He invited us to listen to his short message, as he believed that it would increase our measure of faith to step into God’s destiny for our lives. Increase my faith, it did.

As Batterson talked about the meager beginnings of his, now, mega-church, he stated, that if God gives you a vision, then you need to obediently pursue it.

He encouraged pastors with big vision, yet currently small churches, by divulging how it took his church 5 years to grow from 19 to 250 people.
But one random Sunday, the
DC paper ran a front page article on the church, and as a result grew from 250 people to 500 people by the next year.

He felt that that’s when the church started experiencing the Favor of God; what he defined as, ‘when you do things that you can’t do on your own.’

Batterson told the story of how his church prayed for 5 years for a large building on the Capital Mall that they wanted to turn into a coffee shop to do
ministry out of. It took as much faith as he had to, after 5 years of praying, simply call the property’s owner.

He said that Scripture (that which is theoretical), throughout the experiences of the growth of his church and the prayers for the building, started becoming Experiential- and once it does that, everything changes.

Pastor Mark pointed out Matthew 18:18 where Jesus said ‘what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven’, and how we grossly underestimate the authority that is ours because everything is subject to Christ’s authority, and if He wants us to have it, He can give it to us.

He encouraged the leaders to stop simply waiting for God to move, and to realize that He may be the one waiting for us to move into what He’s already doing- That we need to risk the opportunity of looking foolish, because if you won’t do it, nothing will happen.

He equated these experiences to Joshua as he led the Israelites over the Jordan and into the Promise Land. That the priests had to step into the water BEFORE God parted it. And that once they passed through the parted waters and approached Jericho to conquer it, that they had to circle it in prayer.

He shared how God eventually gave their church that peice of property for the their coffee shop, along with millions of dollars of other property on Capital Hill, debt free. But that it took stepping out in faith, and being willing to circle your need in faith until it comes crashing down.

After Batterson’s message, I shared with him how my faith was built, for we too have a need of a building, an one in particular we are praying for. And it costs almost as much as the one they prayed for: $3 Million.

Our God can do the impossible, and I’m ready to get my feet wet.

As we arrived back in Salem, I realized that I had to start having regular and intentional meetings with my ministry-leader team in order to be as effective as God wants us to be. Last week, I began to watch the Elevation Church documentary “This is How We Change the World”, and within minutes God gave me some powerful notes to share with my leaders and directions on where our church needs to head in the next few months in order to reach many for Christ. I was then, supernaturally led to teach my leaders on the story of Gideon in Judges 6 and 7 and relate that account back to the notes God gave me, and the word He gave me at Generation Unleashed. The end-result of all of this, after two hours of putting everything together yesterday morning, was nothing short of absolutely amazing!

I sat down with my leaders, and for two hours, gave the most powerful message I have ever given in my entire life! I had to fight back tears (which is saying a lot for emotionless me) and literally shook as I presented something that was not my own to present. Tears, trembling, excitement, and faith came from my leaders in a way I have never witnessed.

Fellowship Church is up to some BIG things! We are attempting something ginormous for Easter. It will take God to pull it off. And after last night, we know that it is God who will go with us and do it for us!

I absolutely cannot believe how much this message to my leaders built my own faith, let alone theirs! Our leaders are now united in a way that is hard to explain. Crazy people like us, bent on doing crazy things for the Kingdom of God like we are, are crazy enough to take God’s Word literally, jump on it, and watch Him do the extraordinary in a region!

One of our leaders, who doesn’t even have an official leadership position (YET) , besides being on a few of our ministry teams, has had the craziest amount of growth take place within him over the past few months in a person that I have ever witnessed! He is on fire for Jesus and is poised to do some crazy things! Today, he essentially hijacked me from office during his lunch break and dragged me to a building I’ve been praying for our church to move into. To me, this prayer was “pie-in-the-sky”, and the answer to it was far off into the future, at best. But this man of faith knelt down on the ground in front of this expansive building, laid his hands on the glass of the front windows and out of his mouth came, literally, the craziest, most audacious, ground-shaking, mountain-moving, faith-induced prayer I have EVER- EVER heard!

I thought to myself,” What have I done to my leaders??!!” I’ve always known that I had some crazy goals for what I wanted God to do through me, but now others REALLY get it, REALLY understand! And I am liberated, and humbled. And my faith doesn’t come close to resembling the astronomically huge faith of some within my leadership team, now.

If two hours on a Monday night can induce the kind of faith I have seen for less than 24 hours; I can’t wait to see what the future holds!!!

Get ready! Get the word “small” out of your vocabulary! Stop marrying yourself to ministry methods, positions, and buildings! Marry yourself to the mission and vision God gives your church. And go where He leads!

Uuuuh….I think we’re actually going somewhere now….and I’m terrified….in a good way!

It taught me to embrace the vision God has for my life; pray in accordance with the vision He’s given, His will expressed within His Word, and His past feats and faithfulness; and to take steps forward in audacious faith to see the vision accomplished.

One such vision God has given me is to pastor a vibrant, growing, and influential church.

I know that God wants His Kingdom to grow. I know that it’s not His will that any should perish. And I know that He has put a vision in my heart to be a part of His mission of seeking and saving the lost.

I know that God used a ragtag group of His followers to start a revolution that changed the world (Acts 1 and 2). I know that God is able to split a sea in half, make the sun stand still, and speak the cosmos into existence. And I know that God is abundantly able to do the seemingly impossible in the world today to fulfill the vision He has given to me, and to each and everyone of you.

Because God wants His Kingdom to grow, because He’s capable of doing all things, and because He has given me a vision; I am praying Sun Stand Still prayers that God will use me to advance His Kingdom through a growing, vibrant, and influential church that I pastor.

Because I am praying for what God is pleased in; I am stepping out in audacious faith to see this come to pass. I’m giving everything I’ve got to the church God has placed me in, expecting that He will do what is supernatural and what seems to be impossible to see this church become vibrant, growing, and healthy!

I am specifically praying that God would bless my church body with a new facility to worship in that will accommodate the growth that God is going to give us. I am praying for a facility at least double the size of what we have now and for one that has a more modern, non-traditional look compared to the building we currently have. I am also praying that the location is one in which tens of thousands of people drive by daily so our impact can be great and our facility easy to find.

This seems a little weird, but as I was reading Sun Stand Still I felt as though God was prompting me to ask Him for the facility that was most desirable for our church. I felt as if God was leading me to pray for the building I saw most fit. I was reluctant to think about such things let alone pray for them, but after all, this was the God who wants the vision He has given me to succeed and the God who is able to do abundantly great things.

So if money was not an issue (which it’s not for God), what place would I ask God for? What location is the best? What building has the most space and the most potential for remodeling? What places are even available now? Was this too crazy of a prayer to ask of God?! What if this prayer isn’t answered in the way I’m expecting? What if this is all in my mind?!

These were all valid questions, but I prayed for the place God led me to pray for! I even had a few back-up locations! So tomorrow, I’ll share with you the locations God laid on my heart.

The local church is a gateway to the new life that Jesus offers to His creation.

My idea of the local church is people from every age, race, social status, economic level, and vocation within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

Within this local church, this community, everyone needs to be integrated in order for the community to progress and reach others with the same good news that they have been transformed by.

One way to integrate everyone is to break up into smaller communities- communities made up of: specific age groups (infants, children, youth, college, young adults, seniors, etc…), specific life stages (singles, married couples, parent, empty nesters, retirees, etc…), specific ministry passions (local missions, homeless ministries, global missions, etc…), or specific life situations (divorcees, addicts, grief, etc…); all while continuing to meet together as a large community in order to strengthen and encourage one another.

One such smaller community is youth ministry. Youth, or student ministry, consists of both Middle School and High School students. Middle School and High School students are not ‘the church of tomorrow’ as so many people like to label them, THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF TODAY’S CHURCH.

Youth ministry, a community of Middle School and High School students within the larger community of the local church, is the greatest way for the local church to reach the lost youth of their community for Christ. Not only is youth ministry the greatest way for the local church to reach JUST the lost youth of their community, BUT one of the greatest ways to reach lost people OF ALL AGES for Christ- period.

In a poll conducted by The Barna Group in 2004, 43% of all Americans who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior indicated that they did so before reaching the age of 13. The same poll also revealed that 64% of American born again Christians accepted Jesus Christ as their savior before their 18^th birthday. While only 13% of American born again Christians made their profession of faith between the ages of 18 and 21.

This means that approximately 77% of all Christians in America choose to follow Christ sometime between birth and the age of 21- with the chances to reach them declining dramatically each year. It is crucial that the local church put much of their outreach and ministry focus on children, teens, and young adults in order to reach the lost for Christ.

So, needless to say, youth ministry is extraordinarily important within the context of the local church. But what could it look like?

My idea of youth ministry within the context of the local church is similar to my view of the local church as a whole: Middle School and High School Students from every grade, school, race, social status, and recreational interest within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

It is important for Middle School and High School Students to have a ministry targeted directly at them within the local church. The reasons for this are many, a few of those reasons are- because teens face issues unique to their age group (discovering their identity, deciding what they want to do with their life, learning how to build and keep relationships, struggling with the pressures of newfound sexuality, working to get good grades, etc…), teens respond more within a group of their peers more than they do within a group of adults (because their peers are going through the same issues as them, their peers tend to be less judgmental than adults, they enjoy recreating with their peers more so than adults, etc…), and teens tend to relate more with others who share or are aware of the same generational interests as them (music, television, movies, publications, video games, web sites, jokes, etc…).

This ministry would have a weekly worship gathering for Middle and High School Students- preferably during the middle of the week so that students could be encouraged from the events that have transpired previously in the week and for the ones to come. This weekly worship gathering would have a relaxed atmosphere, yet offer high energy corporate worship music, corporate prayer, Bible teaching, and group ice-breakers or games. The weekly worship gathering would be the GATEWAY to the local church’s youth ministry where students could confidently invite their ‘non-Christian’ friends because they themselves know that their friends will be accepted by their peers and their leaders, have a good time, hear a message relevant to their lives, and encounter Jesus in a non-judgmental, non-pressured way. Serving a meal before the weekly worship gathering would be optimal as to draw students in from the community and allow the rest of the church community an opportunity to serve their young people.

This ministry would have weekly small-group meetings split up into age-specific and gender-specific groups. In these weekly small-group meetings students will develop close-authentic-accountable relationships with a small group of their peers and a mentoring relationship with their small-group adult leader. Within these groups students will eat together, share their struggles with one another, pray for each other, read and discuss the Word of God together, and hold each other accountable. Different small groups could meet at different times, but having this group meet on Sunday nights would be optimal as to encourage each other to live for Christ throughout the coming week and to discuss the topic from the previous week’s worship gathering.

This Youth Ministry would have consistent monthly events planned for students to recreate, serve, and evangelize together. These events would enable the group to grow closer together, invite their friends, and have life experiences that they may have never experienced without attending. These events could transpire both locally and in distant locations.

The Youth Ministry would have at least one retreat or camp scheduled per calendar year for Middle and High School Students to attend. These retreats or camps would give the students a rare opportunity to be ministered to outside of their local context- lowering their inhibitions to what the Lord can do in their life and opening their eyes to new life experiences.

This Youth Ministry would be led by a God-loving youth pastor who would build and oversee a team of adult volunteers within the local church and student leaders within the youth ministry. The youth pastor’s duties would be (but not limited to) to schedule and oversee all events as well as spend quality time loving, serving, and mentoring his students, volunteers, church community, and surrounding community. The adult volunteers’ duties would be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (leading individual weekly small group meetings, preparing meals before the weekly worship gathering, engaging and mentoring students at the weekly worship gathering and at Sunday services, ‘shepherding’-chaperoning- youth events and retreats/camps, etc…). The student leaders’ duties would also be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (running specific events at the weekly worship gathering like sound, video, projector, greeting, games, etc…mentor younger students, lead worship music, etc…).

A healthy youth ministry will have its leaders and volunteers visiting its student’s campuses for lunch and extracurricular activities. It will also have its leaders and volunteers developing relationships with students’ families by participating in home visits.

I believe that both the Middle School and High School Students should have the opportunity to attend ’Big Church’ with their adult family and friends so they can- learn from the senior pastor’s teachings; worship with their adult family and friends; be mentored by the adults within the church community; feel, hear, and see that THEY ARE A VALIABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE GREATER CHURCH BODY; have more opportunities to serve their church community; be involved with ministry at Sunday services (on the worship team, ushering, greeting, etc…); and so that the adults within their church community can see that the youth ministry needs their support- prayerfully, relationally, financially, and by volunteering. Some churches have their ‘youth services’ during Sunday morning ‘Big Church’ services, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I feel that it robs students of awesome opportunities that they can experience with the adults of their church community. This is one of the reasons why I advocate for youth ministries to have their weekly worship gatherings during the middle of the week.

I believe that if some of the above ideas were followed and if the local church as a whole was committed to similar philosophies, that the natural result would be growth within the local church’s youth ministry. Once the number of Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers within the local church’s youth ministry exceeded approximately 30 students, respectively, it would be wise to separate the weekly worship gathering up between the Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. This is because just as Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers face different issues and relate to culture differently than their adult community members do, the same division translates on a smaller scale between Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. So having separate weekly worship gatherings, and possibly even events, would allow the youth pastor and adult volunteers to tailor meet the ministry needs of the two student groups.

All this being said, there is not necessarily a wrong or a right way to do youth ministry. You have to do what works for the students unique to your community. And the only way to do what works, in any ministry, is to let GOD LEAD YOU- by His Word, through prayer, by His Holy Spirit, and under the direction of an elder that God has placed with you.

The local church is a gateway to the new life that Jesus offers to His creation.

My idea of the local church is people from every age, race, social status, economic level, and vocation within a local community coming together to: worship the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in relationship with Him, build authentic, encouraging, and accountable relationships with each other, serve and meet the needs of the world around them, and share the faith, love, and hope that they have found in Jesus Christ in a tangible way with all who they come into contact with.

Within this local church, this community, everyone needs to be integrated in order for the community to progress and reach others with the same good news that they have been transformed by.

One way to integrate everyone is to break up into smaller communities- communities made up of: specific age groups (infants, children, youth, college, young adults, seniors, etc…), specific life stages (singles, married couples, parents, empty nesters, retirees, etc…), specific ministry passions (local missions, homeless ministries, global missions, etc…), or specific life situations (divorcees, addicts, grief, etc…); all while continuing to meet together as a large community in order to strengthen and encourage one another.

One such smaller community is Young Adult/College Ministry. Young Adult/College Ministry usually consists of young people in the 18-30 age group in various stages of ‘young adult life’: High School Seniors (possibly attending a Young Adult/College Ministry to transition out of the Youth Ministry and into young-adulthood), College Students (attending a Young Adult/College Ministry during the school year while on campus and/or during breaks if they live in town), Young Professionals (Young Adults who attend a Young Adult/College Ministry that are in the work-force and have either graduated  or did not graduate from/attend college), and Young Couples(who attend a Young Adult/College ministry and still feel a part of that age group even though they are in a serious- possibly marriage- relationship). Young Adults and College Students are not ‘the church of tomorrow’ as so many people like to label them, THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF TODAY’S CHURCH.

Young Adult/College Ministry is the greatest way for the local church to reach the lost Young Adults and College Students of their community for Christ.  Not only is Young Adult/College Ministry the greatest way for the local church to reach JUST the lost Young Adults of their community, BUT one of the greatest ways to reach lost people OF ALL AGES for Christ- period.

In a poll conducted by The Barna Group in 2004, 43% of all Americans who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior indicated that they did so before reaching the age of 13. The same poll also revealed that 64% of American born again Christians accepted Jesus Christ as their savior before their 18^th birthday. Only 13% of American born again Christians made their profession of faith between the ages of 18 and 21.

This means that approximately 77% of all Christians in America choose to follow Christ sometime between birth and the age of 21- with the chances to reach them declining dramatically each year. These statistics point to the fact that we as Christians are not doing enough to reach Young Adults and that the early stages of Young ‘Adulthood’ is a crucial time to reach the lost. It is imperative that the local church put much of their outreach and ministry focus on children, teens, and young adults in order to reach the lost for Christ.

In addition; a recent study done by Life Way Research showed conservatively (other unscientific sources show much higher numbers) that 70% of Protestants who attended church regularly in High School said they quit attending by age 23. 34% of those who said that they quit by age 23 had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That shows that approximately 25% of Protestant Young Adults have left the church-period! This is a HUGE problem.

Life Way also cites three basic components that Young Adults look for in church: 1) The ability to connect with others, 2) the ability to participate in exploring the Scriptures, and 3) the opportunity to meet the needs of others through social action and justice. Those needs, for the most part, are not being met in the local church. Young adults who are leaving the church in staggering numbers see that the churches offer so much for their teens and offer so much for young families, but don’t offer anything for those that are in between those two life stages

So, needless to say, Young Adult/College Ministry is extraordinarily important within the context of the local church. But what could it look like?

It is important for Young Adults and College Students to have a ministry targeted directly at them within the local church. The reasons for this are many, a few of those reasons are- because Young Adults and College Students face issues unique to their age group (discovering their identity, deciding what they want to do with their life, learning how to build and keep relationships, struggling with the pressures of sexuality, working to get good grades, etc…), Young Adults respond more within a group of their peers more than they do within a group of  older adults or teenagers (because their peers are going through the same issues as them, their peers tend to be less judgmental than older adults, they enjoy recreating with their peers more so than older adults, etc…), and Young Adults tend to relate more with others who share or are aware of the same generational interests as them (music, television, movies, publications, video games, web sites, etc…).

This ministry would have a weekly worship gathering for Young Adults and College Students- preferably during the middle of the week so that the Young Adults could be encouraged from the events that have transpired previously in the week and for the ones to come. This weekly worship gathering would have a relaxed atmosphere, yet offer high energy corporate worship music, corporate prayer, Bible teaching, and group ice-breakers or games. The weekly worship gathering would be the GATEWAY to the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry where Young Adults could confidently invite their ‘non-Christian’ friends because they themselves know that their friends will be accepted by their peers and their leaders, have a good time, hear a message relevant to their lives, and encounter Jesus in a non-judgmental, non-pressured way.

Serving a meal before the weekly worship gathering would be optimal as to draw Young Adults in from the community who don’t have time to prepare a meal or eat dinner before attending a worship gathering; and would allow the rest of the church community an opportunity to serve their young people.

This ministry would have weekly small-group meetings split up into age-specific and possibly gender-specific groups. In these weekly small-group meetings Young Adults will develop close-authentic-accountable relationships with a small group of their peers and a mentoring relationship with their small-group leader. Within these groups Young Adults will eat together, share their struggles with one another, pray for each other, read and discuss the Word of God together, and hold each other accountable. Different small groups could meet at different times, but having this group meet on Sunday nights would be optimal as to encourage each other to live for Christ throughout the coming week and to discuss the topic from the Sunday morning service and the previous week’s Young Adult/College Age Worship Gathering.

This Young Adult/College Ministry would have consistent monthly events planned for Young Adults to recreate, serve, and evangelize together. These events would enable the group to grow closer together, invite their friends, and have life experiences that they may have never experienced without attending. These events could transpire both locally and in distant locations.

The Young Adult/College Ministry would have at least one retreat or camp scheduled per calendar year for Young Adults and College Students to attend. These retreats or camps would give the Young Adults a rare opportunity to be ministered to outside of their local context- lowering their inhibitions to what the Lord can do in their life and opening their eyes to new life experiences.

This Young Adult/College Ministry would be led by a Jesus-loving College Pastor who would build and oversee a team of volunteers within the local church and Young Adult/College Student Leaders within the Young Adult/College Ministry. The College Pastor’s duties would be (but not limited to) to schedule and oversee all events as well as spend quality time loving, serving, and mentoring his Young Adult Congregation, volunteers, church community, and surrounding community. The volunteers’ duties would be (but not limited to) to run and work within certain departments of the ministry (leading individual weekly small group meetings, preparing meals before the weekly worship gathering, engaging and mentoring Young Adults at the weekly worship gathering and at Sunday services, etc…).

A healthy Young Adult/College Ministry will have its leaders and volunteers visiting with their members and visitors for coffee, lunch, or other activities in order to develop relationships and trust; and mentor those they minister to.

I believe that Young Adults and College Students should have the opportunity to attend ’Big Church’ with their other family and friends so they can- learn from the senior pastor’s teachings; worship with their family and friends; be mentored by older adults within the church community; feel, hear, and see that THEY ARE A VALUABLE AND INTEGRAL PART OF THE GREATER CHURCH BODY; have more opportunities to serve their church community; be involved with ministry at Sunday services (on the worship team, ushering, greeting, etc…); and so that the other adults within their church community can see that the Young Adult/College Ministry needs their support- prayerfully, relationally, financially, and by volunteering. Some churches have their ‘Young Adult/College Services’ during Sunday morning ‘Big Church’ services or as an alternative to their ‘Big Church’ service, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I feel that it robs Young Adults and College Students of awesome opportunities that they can experience with the other adults and young people of their church community. This is one of the reasons why I advocate for Young Adult/College Ministries to have their weekly worship gatherings during the middle of the week.

I believe that if some of the above ideas were followed and if the local church as a whole were committed to similar philosophies, that the natural result would be growth within the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry. Once the number of Young Adults (20 something’s) and College Students (18-22 year olds) within the local church’s Young Adult/College Ministry reached a large number, respectively, it might be wise to consider separating the weekly worship gathering up between those two groups in order to minister more strategically and effectively. This is because just as Young Adults and College Students face different issues and relate to culture differently than their older adult community members do, the same division translates on a smaller scale between Young Adults (once again 20 something’s) and College Students (18-22). So having separate weekly worship gatherings, and possibly even events, would allow the College Pastor and volunteers to tailor meet the ministry needs of the two different groups.

All this being said, there is not necessarily a wrong or a right way to do Young Adult/College Ministry. You have to do what works for the people unique to your community. And the only way to do what works, in any ministry, is to let GOD LEAD YOU- by His Word, through prayer, by His Holy Spirit, and under the direction of an elder that God has placed with you.