Youth Ministry
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.
The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
This quote, spray painted on the wall of our youth room,
written by C.S. Lewis is not simply powerful, but it also divine. For this is an essential truth that Jesus
came preaching 2000 years ago, and is the message that we preach in this youth ministry as well. By now most
of you have probably read the statistics that show the decline in church attendance by teenagers who graduate
high school, and you’ve heard all the antidotes to try and correct this issue. But there is one antidote that I
am waiting for to hear and that antidote is simply lead them to the cross. And not the “cliché” cross that gets
thrown around in common conversations, but by the cross I mean the one who died on it, the risen Savior. And it
is simply because He has risen that He is alive and able to communicate His love and grace in unimaginable power.
We feel our call is to intercede for, to teach truth too, and for ourselves as leaders to obey the voice of the
Lord in order that each youth can be put in place to experience the only true life, that which comes through a
relationship with Jesus Christ. To do this we try and implement an understanding that each youth is responsible
to develop a faith based on both knowledge of Christ through diligently reading their bibles and trying to grasp
the truth about Christ. More importantly we want each youth to know Christ himself through daily encounters with
the Holy Spirit of God who is the guide to understanding the truth. To sum up the heart of how we attempt to do
all of this we repeatedly challenge the youth to first know what you believe. Many times the culprit for youth
walking away is an ignorance of just what they believe. They simply do not think about spiritual matters, and when
the time comes when their belief in the bible is challenged, they lack a foundation of truth. Secondly they are
challenged to know why they believe what they believe. If their faith is built upon a foundation that is not their
own, but a foundation that is simply what their parents or friends believe, or simply if it’s what they’re suppose
to believe it will crumble under any challenging thoughts or arguments. We diligently asked and encourage their
questions on any and all matters. And finally we challenge them, if you truly believe it what you say you do,
then you must live like it.
The Middle School (grades 6-8) aged youth meet every other Sunday morning during our church service for a
bible study called Vertical Realm. The core intent in this bible study is working on the foundations of their faith.
The Senior High aged youth (grades 9-12) meet regularly on Saturday nights. The Saturday night bible study is
located in a home and has the intent of training and equipping youth to walk in daily connection with the
Holy Spirit of God. This bible study is not only for ACTS youth and currently is approximately half ACTS youth
and half non-ACTS youth. Our youth ministry here in ACTS is continually changing as the Lord leads us to
re-evaluate our methods, but the heart of this ministry has not change, nor do I believe it will.
Joey Hartranft
Youth Pastor