“One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”
Psalms 27:4 (NRSV)
There are drops of water falling in the distance and mud underfoot. The darkness seems to consume the humid, yet cool air all-around. Even in these odd, rocky, mud-filled surroundings there is a diversity of life in every crack and crag. In an unlikely alien environment, everything struggles together, even in extreme adversity. For many years St. John’s has taken junior and senior high youth cave exploring and you can’t help but be affected by the experience in profound faith-filled ways.
A cave has three types of inhabitants: those that live all their life in a cave, those that live in an
d outside the cave and those that only visit the cave occasionally. Our vision for our 6-8th graders is to move our faith from simply visiting God’s grace to striving to live as much as we can in God’s abundant grace. We aren’t perfect; we are separated from God in our daily sin. In Junior High Ministry we often say we don’t want our youth and their families to merely survive… but thrive! Throughout 2009, middle schoolers and their families have been given an environment to spend time living in grace not just visiting it every so often.
In the beginning of the year (yet halfway through the school year) our 6-8th graders in our Thrive program spent an unprecedented amount of time looking in large and small groups at what God can tell us about sexuality (especially through scripture and Luther’s Small Catechism). Open, honest and frank discussions were shared and the experience has led to us considering how we can open up more opportunities for early adolescents to take on difficult situations in life. Tough topics don’t have to be dark and uncomfortable but instead opportunities for growth and life. Thrive continues to be a premiere opportunity for youth to experience God and grow in faith.
April and November were journeys of faith in the form of retreats through Youth Encounter and Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center. Several youth (and even some senior highers) took steps of faith to break away from our hectic lives to focus on our relationship with God and each other. April sent us to the Wisconsin Dells to enjoy great music, hear inspirational messages and… spend time at the water park! November brought us back to LOMC to enjoy the stories and songs of Peder Eide who led a fantastic retreat!
Speaking of Peder Eide, the Junior High ministry partnered with other ministry areas of the church to host Peder and his band at the end of September. We continue as a church to encourage families to grow in faith together and the concert provided the perfect soil to nurture family faith formation.
Summer months allowed 6-8th graders to spend a week each encountering God at Cave Camp and SALT (at LOMC). These camps immerse youth in Godly inspiring ways that nothing else can quite compare.
Sunday mornings built faith throughout 2009 in wonderful ways. Our 6-8th graders help in a variety of positions including, acolyting, assisting Joy Zone classes, ushering, and helping in the nursery. The 10:15am Genesis program provided a great time to open the Bible and connect it to our lives through the use of object lessons, Christian music videos and a monthly mission focus. Genesis raised over $300 to support children in Ecuador to attend school through youth donating their money weekly. Starting this past fall, middle schoolers had a new program that got them into scripture in ways beyond Thrive and Genesis. Our new 9:00am program iWORD, jump-started several youth into studying the book of Nehemiah twice a month. We anticipate iWORD continuing to be a great growth experience to go more in-depth into books of the Bible.
The future for 6-8th grade ministry at St. John’s looks full of wonder and excitement! Staff and Ministry Teams are studying and praying for ways we can help families focus more fully on faith through robust tools, resources and experiences. Our Junior High Team continues to provide visioning and counsel as God speaks to us in amazing ways to not just help families visit God, but to live more fully and to thrive in relationship with our creator, redeemer and guide!
Rob Gieraltowski
Director For Junior High Ministry
Need Prayer?
St. John's Lutheran Church
St. John's-Children
Worship Schedule
ELCA Resources
LOMC
Peder Eide
