This past weekend I had a few interesting questions regarding Southbrook Student Ministries.  It seems to me that there are still some parents who look at the student ministry as a ‘social’ program for their teens.  Although this point could be argued somewhat, the dominant characteristics of the ‘church’ as defined in Acts 2:42 are as follows:

⁴²They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Student ministry is no different from an adult church service.  In fact we are no different from the early church.  We strive to incorporate the same values of the early church by focusing the majority of efforts on presenting Jesus Christ in all that we do.  Let me answer some questions about our Student Ministry:

• Does this mean that summer camp is going to be about Jesus?-Yes.  Summer camp will be an awesome opportunity for students to seek God in real tangible ways.  The message will focused and small group times will reinforce solid Biblical doctrine.
• Does this mean that Wednesday night Life Groups are something more than a social get together?-Yes, we call it doing life with other believers.
• Does this mean that we will read from actual Bibles instead of our phones?-Yes, we have 100 Bibles for our students to utilize during service.  If a student does not own a Bible  we will happily give them one (for free).
• Do we have to drop our kids off at Student Ministry?-No, you get to.  We feel what we teach in the form of application is just as important to our students as our adult service and children’s ministry are to the adults and children.  We teach students at their level.
• How do you work socializing into the Student Ministry?– My focus is not on socializing but rather on presenting Jesus in all that we do.  It is true that our events have social aspects, but the purpose of the Student Ministry is to be the vitamin to the normal spiritual sustenance that the students are receiving from home.  Socialization happens before and after events, it’s not our main focus.