"Navigating towards a deeper understanding of Jesus and each other."
Youth Ministry Statement of Purpose
Welcome to CG Midtown’s youth ministry!
We’re hiring! We are seeking a new person to join our staff as a part-time director of youth ministry. Click here for the full job description. Qualified candidates should submit their resume and cover letter to Pastor Jim Matthies at jim@cground.org. Applications are due by May 15, 2024.
Our approach to youth ministry is to be contemplative and family-based. We work together with parents, small group leaders and mentors to cultivate an environment where young people can encounter God, strengthen spiritual friendships and grow in their compassion for others.
Our youth ministry is growing, and our middle school boys and girls need you! If you are someone who still likes to have fun like a kid sometimes, but are also interested in creating a safe space to learn about God and live in Christian community, then we would love to talk with you!
Full expectations are detailed in our Youth Leader Volunteer Covenant, but our main ask is that you commit to:
Facilitate small group time at youth group on the first, third, and fourth Sunday of each month during the school year, as well as participate in Beginnings Camp (August) and Snow Camp (January)
Model what it means to be a follower of Christ
Be willing to learn from and alongside our youth in a posture of curiosity and humility
If you are interested in applying to be a leader in our youth ministry, please complete this application form. Please contact us at youth-midtown@cground.org for more information about joining our youth ministry volunteer team!
Contemplative Youth Ministry
In Luke 2, Jesus demonstrates a contemplative faith at a young age. As a1 2-year-old, he was in the Temple sitting among the teachers and asking questions. Jesus knew he had to be in his father’s house. Young people hear from God, are learning, leading, and growing. They encounter God in meaningful, often life-changing ways!
Contemplative youth ministry is about creating opportunities for young men and women to encounter God. Mark Yacconelli writes that at the heart of the contemplative tradition is a “yearning to be fully awake and alive, the desire to be attentive to others, the longing to be receptive to God’s call in every moment of our lives.”
When we gather together, we pray and worship, fellowship and read the Bible. We often go to sacred places and we listen to the voice of God. We have a lot of fun too, because Jesus said that, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.”
We think that means going tubing, coming face-to-face with a bull moose, eating ice cream, jumping on the blob, and playing games. In other words, we pray together and play together. Ignatius of Loyola referred to contemplation as, “Seeing God in all things!”
The contemplative approach to youth ministry is designed to help youth have eyes to see God in all things.
Family-Based Youth Ministry
Most young people are connected to a nuclear family with one or two parents. Some have foster parents or strong mentors who serve in parental roles. Research shows that the people who raise children are generally the ones who have the strongest lasting influence in the lives of young people. The present, active, intentional role of a mother and father is one of the greatest and most critical gifts we can offer our children. Family-based youth ministry means that we want to work alongside the parents in raising our youth. Young people need a handful of coaches, mentors, and guides cheering them on. Family-based youth ministry sees the church as the family of God and in this family our youth have relationships with peers, with children, and with adults inside the faith community. Consider Jesus in the Temple again. His parents weren’t even concerned that Jesus wasn’t with them because they just assumed that he was with someone else in their faith community. As it turns out, he was. It just happened to be a group of teachers at the Temple. Family-based youth ministry means that both the independent family unit as well as the church play a unified role in discipling our youth.
There are three primary contexts where spiritual formation and friendships are cultivated:
Youth Group (6th – 12th grade)
The Pilgrimage Initiative (6th – 12th grade)
Youth Group meets on first and third Sundays throughout the school year. We gather together from 12 to 2 PM to eat, play, serve, study the Scriptures, pray, and navigate life together in small groups. Every fall, we kick off the new ministry year at Beginnings Camp and we launch each new year at Snow Camp in southern Michigan. In addition, small groups meet several times throughout the year for special events and service opportunities.
Small groups provide a safe place for youth to ask questions, hold each other accountable, learn biblical concepts and lessons, as well as engage in prayer. Separated by gender and age, our youth take part in small group fellowship time led by one to two adult mentors. This time allows for mentors to nurture, shepherd, and connect with the youth as well as provide a safe place for youth to ask questions and learn more about the Bible using practical formation tools, such as:
Lectio Divina
Meditation
Study
Prayer
Journaling
The Pilgrimage Initiative is a project that calls high school-aged youth into encounters that will help develop personal, relational, and spiritual maturity. The Latin word for Pilgrimage means a person wandering the Earth in search of a spiritual homeland. We go on pilgrimage because we know there is something missing and we long to encounter the divine to fill this hole.
Like the patriarch Abraham, pilgrims are called by a greater force to leave the familiar behind and come follow. Come, encounter God. Come and learn the unforced rhythms of grace. In our youth ministry, The Pilgrimage Initiative begins the moment one enters the youth group and concludes upon graduation.
This initiative is made up of seven unique milestones. A Milestone is a marker. It is something indicating that a person has moved. What is adolescence, if not movement? And a lot of it, for that matter! We see these milestones as those intentional moments along the way, which help us to notice what God is forming in our lives.
We encourage all young people to participate in each of the appropriate milestones below:
E.P.I.C. is a three-day adventure designed to invite new 6th graders to explore purpose In Christ. What is the story God is unfolding in history and how does their life fit into it? Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.”
The Rite of Passage is a year-long journey toward becoming a man or woman of God. If we do not initiate our youth, they will be initiated by media, peers, and other aspects of culture. Our children become men and women physically around the age of 13. While they are not emotionally mature enough to take on all the responsibilities of adulthood, this becomes a serious time of transition for parents and mentors to deepen a relationship with youth. The Rite of Passage will not magically keep us from all the perils of adolescence, but it will establish a strong foundation of trust and shared experiences for the parents and mentors to build on in years to come.
Direction 101 is about learning to discern what God is up to in your life. While this milestone can be experienced anytime during middle school or high school, 8th grade is a common year for youth and families to be in a time of discernment about where to attend school the following year. Whether it’s making a decision about school, a sports team, a missions trip, or some other important opportunity, we want to provide resources to help our youth discern what God is up to and how we can respond to this.
Revolution means to circle around something or to experience significant change. This milestone is five-month experience that helps youth to circle their lives around God and, in the midst of this process, to experience transformation. Based on what many traditions call catechism, this milestone is designed to instruct and enrich youth in their understanding of Christian faith and practice and to help others to do the same. It will include a process of studying each of our church’s belief statements and then introducing doctrinal questions and considering possibilities together. Jesus of Nazareth said, “If you know the truth, the truth will set you free.” Revolution is about a discovery that leads us toward freedom. Therefore, it is not simply about imparting dogma, but about encountering Father, Son, and Spirit and cultivating deeper relationships with mentors and other disciples along the way.
Wilderness is a week-long excursion in the backcountry of the Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada. In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Numbers is given the title Bah mid bar – which means “In the Wilderness.” It comes from the opening verses where, “The Lord spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting be-mid-bar … in the wilderness.” For Israel, the wilderness was an intermediate space between life and death. It was practically and symbolically a place that represented transition, change, and ultimately transformation. The wilderness is the context for this phase of the pilgrimage because what happens in the backcountry is a microcosm of what happens in the rest of our lives. The wilderness is a place to deliberately process life, encounter God, and be transformed.
Mission is a four-day experience walking the streets of Toronto. The Mission of God (Missio Dei) calls us to extend God’s blessing everywhere, to everyone. It is God’s invitation to all of His followers to participate in the demonstration and proclamation of the Good News. We participate in His mission whenever we notice what God is up to in the world and join Him in it. Stepping out of a familiar context has a way of opening our eyes and our heart to how we can join God in His global mission to restore the world through sacrificial love.
Direction 201 builds on the foundation built in 101 and expands it. Thomas Merton writes that the purpose of spiritual direction is to “penetrate beneath the surface of a man’s life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he presents to the world, and to bring out his inner spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his soul.” Direction 201 is about providing a space where this can occur. It takes place during the junior & senior year of high school to help youth pay attention to what God is up to as the young adult discerns what his or her future might hold.
Culmination. Every marathon has milestones along the way. Each mile is marked so the runner knows how far they have come and how far there is yet to traverse. Once all 26 milestones have been crossed and, yes, don’t forget those .2 miles (the struggle is real!), the finish line welcomes all runners into the post-race celebration.
So, too, this milestone project concludes with a post-race celebration for all seniors who have “finished the race and kept the faith.” The purpose of the milestones is to establish and develop a life of faith in our youth. Upon graduation, we deem the graduate a young adult, ready to face the challenges, perils, and opportunities that life will bring their way. This celebration will be expressed through the culmination of the project, which is commencement. This is the conclusion of the Pilgrimage Initiative for all graduating seniors.
And on Graduation Sunday, we honor the seniors in our youth group. There is a special gift for all seniors who have participated in the Pilgrimage Initiative. Commencement is the reminder that the mission of God calls us to extend God’s blessing everywhere to everyone. It is God’s invitation to all of his followers to participate in the demonstration and proclamation of the Good News. We participate in His mission whenever we notice what God is up to in the world and we join Him in it.
As graduates step out of a familiar context, we pray that these milestones will have served as a firm foundation and that God will continue to open their eyes and hearts to how they can join God in the global mission to restore the world through sacrificial love. As seniors look ahead to all that is on the horizon, we hope that they will also look back and remember this: You are loved by a good father; you have been cared for deeply by your faith community; and God has given you everything you need for life and godliness.
Beginnings Camp is a one-night excursion designed to launch youth group for the new school year. We play games, hike, swim, learn, laugh, explore nature, examine our hearts, and dive into the myriad of ways that God reveals Himself to us. This is a pivotal experience that helps to set the tone for the entire year.
Snow Camp takes place every year at Blair Lake Bible Camp in Jones, MI. We gather together with other youth in the Common Ground family of churches. It’s a great time to evaluate what God is up to in our lives as we drink hot chocolate, go sledding, play in the game room, worship, hear compelling messages from God’s Word and take a polar bear plunge for all who dare.
If you would like to inquire about camp or event scholarships, please contact youth-midtown@cground.org.
