Junior High.  (The years when your life goes from mostly carefree to really tough.)

 High School.  (The years when choices are made and habits are formed that impact the entire course of your life.) 

 Our goal for the Willowbrook Christian Church Youth Group is to provide students with the skills and the support they need to go through these years – and not just to survive these difficult years, but to thrive in them – to be kids who can make a difference in their schools, who can show their peers and their teachers what somebody can do when Jesus helps!

 To accomplish that, we are targeting 4 areas of emphasis this year: 

(1)               improving Biblical literacy of kids who are in our youth group.

(2)             creating a sense of unity among our students,

(3)             fostering a deep appreciation for the joy of serving others, and

(4)             strengthening the bond between parents and kids.  

We meet on Sunday evenings during the school year from 6:00 – 8:00.  (That’s for both Junior High and Senior High kids – altogether – which is great as they all discover that there is much value in hanging out with kids who are not in their grade!)  Along with parents and young adults who are willing to help, our Sunday evening gatherings are made up of team building stuff and studying the Bible, watching videos and eating, we play volleyball and Scum, we talk about life and laugh and pray together. 

We also have  meet on Wednesday, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. so that age-specific Bible applications can be part of students’ lives each week. 

We also do service projects to give teenagers a chance to practice the spiritual discipline of being great (“the greatest among you”, Jesus said, “is the servant of all!”).  We clean the church building together.  We ring bells for the Salvation Army.  We help with yardwork for those who can’t do that themselves.  We participated with a bunch of other youth groups in a week where serving the disabled, the elderly, and the poor was the sole reason for coming together.

 And, we do stuff just for the sake of enjoying time together.  Recently, we took a trip to Buffalo to be part of a Kutless concert, we spent a night bowling together, we did team building at Camp Arrowhead one afternoon, we drove to Syracuse to be part of a football tournament! All of that because it’s fun to be together!  And there is more in store!

 Youth rallies, overnighters, trips to Christian colleges, summer camp, mission trips, all part of what we do in order to show students the best way to do life – with Jesus and others who are trying to be like Him!