I am incredibly thankful for our student ministry here at Oakhill. Not just because I sit at a desk and lead the vision for the ministry, organize and plan events and trips, or talk with students and families about God and the Gospel. I’m thankful for our church that emphasizes its desire for families and students to be a part of our church family as a whole. We want to invest in the younger generations of the church and in younger
generations of Christians. We want to be present in student’s lives at church, school, sporting events, graduations, etc. And this desire is not restrained to just students or people at Oakhill, we also want to use the student ministry to evangelize and share the Gospel with others outside the walls of Oakhill.
With this new year and our emphasis to Go Beyond Ourselves and Our Walls, I want to share some of my thoughts and plans for bringing this core value to our student ministry. First, I make sure this student ministry is led by core biblical principles and foundations. It is vital that we understand the Gospel well and are being trained by the Bible before we go and share with the rest of the world. Our weekly gatherings help teach and train our students biblically. Through Bible study Sunday morning, preaching Sunday night, and life groups that study the Bible each Wednesday night, our students and teachers can know the Bible well and be able to share what they know and understand with others around them.
Families at Oakhill can rest assured knowing that we teach biblically to our students. But as I minister to these students, I aim to not be the only teacher or discipler of them. One area I take discipleship outside of this ministry is walking with and equipping families for family discipleship. It’s one of my goals with this ministry to partner with parents and guardians to help them disciple and lead their students towards the Lord. I especially want to take the ministry outside of our church and lead it to the home of our members here at Oakhill.
Now looking at the future, there are several opportunities for our student ministry to go beyond and for others to help. Pretty regularly the student ministry goes on trips or has weekend events. These are great opportunities for students to invite friends that usually wouldn’t come to church. Likewise our events are great opportunities for new adults to step up and serve during that time. I’m very thankful that several people from Oakhill have approached me asking to help out with the student ministry. These servants go outside of what is comfortable and seek new ways to serve the Lord. The good news is our kids don’t bite, so don’t ever be afraid to become a leader!
A specific event I’m thinking of for going beyond would be our Middle School Mission Week. This week is dedicated to organizing Bible camps and projects then equipping primarily our middle school students to go and serve the Lord. We do get some high school students to help also, and we could always use more adult help! But this week is sweet because we spend roughly 2.5 hours each morning (Mon-Fri) at Bible camps in the surrounding communities where we teach the Bible, the story of the Gospel, and play fun games with kids of the community. Then in the afternoon we take time serving our community and church with service projects and making care packages. The focus of this week being serving others, sharing the Gospel, and serving the Lord with our time and efforts.
So as I close this article, I want to share with you that there are many opportunities to take a new fresh step and serve the student ministry. I’m also working hard to find new ways for our ministry to go outside our walls and serve the world around us. I’m interested in mission trips, I’m interested in Bible camps, I’m interested in taking the Gospel to each corner of the world for the glory of God. And I want to share that work and experience with our church family.
