Life Among Our Youth / by Scott Gronholz
Middle School Retreat / by Mike Lucero
High School Retreat / by Travis Wal

Life Among Our Youth
/ by Scott Gronholz, Youth Ministries Director
C.S Lewis once said,

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”

I have often felt that quote pressing on my heart and mind as I have thought through how we structure our youth program at Bethany.

In my Young Life background, leaders had it pretty easy in that there was only one way to do ministry: “The Young Life Way.” Now that I am a youth director at a church, I get mailings everyday from all sorts of different organizations telling me that they will literally send me a box of stuff that will tell me exactly how to do ministry at my church.

Apparently they think that every kid in every city and context is exactly the same and can be reached in exactly the same way. I try to read most of the articles and tips that come my way. I incorporate an idea into the program if I think it will help tell the truth in ways that engage our students where they are at in their lives.

This last quarter we incorporated some new ideas and stuck to some old ones. The High School and Middle School students met separately every Sunday morning for Sunday School (nothing new) and began a year-long process of studying the life of Christ.

A new idea that we incorporated was that every week the leader who gave the lesson brought an artistic rendering of what they taught. This has been one of my favorite parts about this past quarter. Now we have about 15 framed pictures hanging in the youth house of everything from Rembrandt’s depiction of “The Road to Emmaus” to a glowing picture of Tolkien’s Gandalf that represents The Transfiguration (ask our Middle School intern, Mike Lucero, to explain that one to you!).

The High School group, fresh off two summer mission trips, came into the fall quarter and experienced some small programmatic changes to their weeknight gatherings. We continued to meet every Thursday night for two hours to hang out, play games, worship, and talk about our relationship with God. Again, nothing new. What was new was the format of those week-night gatherings. Sometimes we met in small groups, sometimes we watched and discussed a movie, and sometimes we hosted a local Christian musician who performed for us and talked about their creative process.

Far too often youth that are involved in their church graduate thinking that their relationship with Jesus happens exclusively in a church building and has nothing to do with school, art, recreation, or other relationships, so this shift was an effort to deter that kind of compartmentalization of their faith. Watching movies and listening to different kinds of music at church helped emphasize the transformative truth that our faith in Christ should seep into every aspect of our lives and truly be the lens through which we view our world.

This was indeed a great quarter for the Bethany Youth group. We painted the basement of the youth house, we procured a used pool table (thanks Holmans!), we prayed in small groups, shared meals, played silly games, listened to good music, talked about life, went on retreats (read the next articles to learn more about those), had a prayer breakfast, went bowling in goofy 80’s outfits, heard about “heroes of the faith” from Dave Westburg, and visited The Family Fun Center in Tukwila.

I’d like to think that at times we ended up being original in some areas, but I’m positive that in everything we did we looked for new and creative ways to “tell the Truth about Jesus.”

Middle School Retreat / by Mike Lucero, Middle School Intern

A little over a month ago, on a rainy Friday afternoon, the Middle School group piled into vans and began the drive to our fall retreat. The drive would take a little over three hours and be filled with rainy roads, trivia games, and the obligatory discussions about girls (I drove the “guy only” van), music, video games, and movies. Having been involved in many different types of camps, I was excited to see what would be in store for our Middle School group over the weekend.

Anyone who has worked with Middle Schoolers, has a Middle School child, has seen a Middle Schooler in action, or has a reasonable understanding of the phrase “Middle School kid,” can tell you that Middle Schoolers are exactly what you expect, and yet consistently surprising with their thoughts and actions. It is safe to say, then, that the weekend was filled with much of what you would expect…snowball fights, rowdy games, cheating at the rowdy games, arguments, bruises, late nights, and some chaotic fun…as well as some great surprises.

It was great to see some of the more quiet kids come out of their shells and to see some of the older kids step up and really take positive leadership. And it was surprising how much maturity and depth was shown over the retreat. We had a Middle Schooler stand up and give a very powerful and personal testimony about his life and we had kids who demonstrated grace and self-control throughout our daily activities.

Overall, the fall retreat gave me the chance to continue building relationships with many of the kids whom I had already gotten to know, and to develop new relationships with those whom I didn’t know well already. It also gave me the chance to share my story with them (as I gave my testimony the morning after we arrived). It was, I believe, an excellent start for what I expect will be an incredible year.

High School Retreat / by Travis Wal, High School Intern

In November, the High School youth group had the opportunity to attend FALLOUT, an annual Presbyterian youth retreat. This year the retreat was held at Camp Berachah where we joined various other Presbyterian high school youth from the Seattle area for a weekend of fun, fellowship, worship, reflection, and learning.

The speaker, Kim Cooper, helped us enter into God’s truth through the use of powerful and often very entertaining stories from her own life. Kim reminded us of our identity as God’s Beloved, challenged us to ask how the world around us attempts to inform that identity both positively and negatively, and invited us to imagine what it would look like for us to live our daily lives as the Beloved of God.

After each of Kim’s lessons we were given time to meet in our small groups to discuss the given reminders and challenges, and to imagine lives lived as the Beloved of God. These conversations were definitely a highlight of the weekend.

During the weekend we were also given ample time to relax, socialize, and take advantage of the free time activities. A good number of the BPYG threw on their court gear and showed their skills on the basketball court, some took advantage of the craft station, and others plugged into various activities. On Saturday night the entire camp engaged in a Night Game, and of course the freshman/sophomore guys dominated the competition!

I had a great time getting to know the students and watching their faith grow. It always amazes me how God uses trips like this one to draw individuals close to each other and to Jesus. I pray that the seeds that were planted at FALLOUT this year will sink deep and that youth leaders will have opportunities throughout the coming year to affirm the fact that our students are indeed God’s Beloved...and that the freshmen/sophomore guys rock!