Gillionville’s August LAUNCH is an exciting moment on the ministry calendar. It is a time set aside to celebrate the end of a relaxing summer and the beginning of exciting new endeavors. The same holds true as well for our student ministry.
One of GBYouth’s ministry tenants is to train students “to be service-ready for the Kingdom.” By this we mean that when they graduate and move on to college and career, our young people are already accustomed to serving in the local church. With this tenant, we state our desire to shape students that will have both the experience and the expectation to serve in their future faith family. Student service should be more than a summer mission trip abroad, or occasional community project. It should be ongoing. Service should be a platform for discipleship. It should be how the church functions and grows.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…”
This fall, GBYouth is excited to launch a new discipleship initiative called Everyone Serving Everywhere (ESE). ESE is a very simple idea; provide opportunities for students to serve according to their individual personality, passion and skillset. This is how we are doing it: First, we spent time studying the composition and function of the church (i.e. 1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12). Second, we are surveying all of our students, capturing their personality types, unique interests and abilities. Finally, from the collected data, we are recruiting students to serve in the great myriad of roles that makes our ministry function and thrive.
Our student surveys crafted to capture our students' personalities, passions and skillsets.
Everyone Serving Everywhere is not a program. It is also not for a season. It is the way forward for our student ministry. It will become an essential part of our discipleship. It will be a visible part of—an onramp to—GBYouth’s leader and teacher development. We ask that you pray with us as we launch this new endeavor. We pray that God will use our students’ gifts to build up one another as He builds His church!
HEAD HEART HANDS
Service is a vital part of the GBYouth ministry. Being on mission with Christ is the natural outworking of following Christ. (James 2.18).