THE VISION
Creekside Church’s mission, “Leading people everywhere to a devoted relationship with Jesus Christ,” must include reaching the younger generation in our church and communities with the Gospel and discipling them as future disciple-makers. The elders have been seeking God’s face in bringing in a new hire to directly help Creekside reach and teach the young people currently attending our Wednesday night Youth ministries as well as those who are not, particularly teens in grades 6 through 12.
THE VALUE
Realizing that the youth of today are bombarded as never before with the forces of evil. Dishonesty, immorality, pride, and perversion are rampant, reinforced, and readily accessible. Youth are the most vulnerable and impressionable, and increasingly they are growing up in homes that are unstable. They’re also historically receptive to the Gospel (Most Christians come to Christ before the age of 18).
These factors seem to make a strategic investment in staff to intentionally reach this demographic sensible. For a church our size, it’s a bold and big move for sure, and one that apart from the Spirit of God working will not succeed. But we are relying on a great big God with power to do far beyond what we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), and we want to approach Him with this large vision and trust Him to see what happens. We are making an investment, the returns of which are unknown, but it’s an investment of eternal value. Ours is to plant, water, and trust God for growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
THE VALIDITY
We rejoice in the good work that God is doing through Creekside in the lives of Junior High and High School age students in our Youth Group.
We rejoice that God is bringing the nations to us, and we realize our responsibility to make disciples among them.
We recognize the limitations that our volunteer-only staff have in serving not only those students who are coming every week, but in reaching out to the vast number of young people outside of our church family who need to hear the Gospel.
We recognize that the future of Creekside depends upon younger people coming to Christ and getting involved.
We realize that bringing on a younger staff member directly involved with students will impact not only the students but also convey to other younger individuals and couples that Creekside is serious about discipling younger generations.
We request your help. We’re asking for input and involvement from our Creekside family, and that you’d consider supporting this vision in prayer, financially and in personal activity.
MORE TO COME
If you have any questions, reach out to Pastor Steve or any of our Elders, and look for more information in the coming weeks!