This is kind of a long post, so I’m breaking it up into 2 installments:
The summer after my freshman year of High School, I knew God had a calling on my life to serve Him in a unique way for the rest of my life. At first, that was a call to youth ministry. It was a calling to reach my peers for Christ. And I was very intent on doing that as God opened doors and gave me chances to speak out, teach, and lead. When I graduated, I pretty quickly started working as a youth ministry intern. I was in student ministry for 12 years. And I loved it! Working with teenagers gives you a chance to impact young lives as they are developing during their most important formative years. Statistics say that people are much more likely to come to Christ by the time they’re 18 than later on. (I happen to think that there is more behind that statistic, but that’s for another time.)
I looked at youth ministry as working on the frontlines. When God called me to serve as a Lead Pastor, it was hard to imagine getting away from youth ministry. But I followed God in the way He was directing me. So I packed away my Ideas Library and continued to reach out to my peers, now young adults.
When I came over to start TCC, I knew that it wasn’t wise to start focusing on teenagers due to limited resources, etc. The Kyle area has so many young families and children’s ministry had to be the priority.
In new churches, the problem is usually that there is no one who will work with the youth. That has never been the case at TCC. As much as I thought we needed to hold off, we’ve had some great adults with a love for students from day one. And right off the bat, they started a Connexion Group for teenagers. They have gone to concerts, retreats, and best of all, thanks to the leadership of these adults, our youth have been serving in many areas in our church to fulfill God’s purpose. Many students have given their lives to Christ, gone through our membership process and been baptized.
At TCC, students are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today…