St. James Youth
Goals for St. James Youth Ministry

To create and encourage a safe place where your teen can be at ease without fear of exposure and without artifice or defense. It is my belief that an environment of safety facilitates love, purity, vulnerability, and openness. In other words, a safe place is where ministry can happen.

To teach the Bible. This means giving the kids a general familiarity with the major historical events and major themes of the Bible. The practical side of this is that your teen will eventually have an idea about where Exodus and Ephesians would be found.

To love and respect prayer. I believe God is constantly looking for ways to spend time with His creation, but due to our busy lifestyles it is hard to hear Him. Prayer is a way for His creation to deliberately spend time with the Creator. There is no better way to become like our Lord than to spend time with Him.
To have FUN!! Fun events promote participation. Participation is essential because it teaches us how to interact not only with our friends, our family, our church, and ourselves but how to ultimately interact with God.

To lead frank discussions about living the Christian life, addressing such issues as modesty, sex and peer pressure; to arm your teens with understanding and conviction.

These goals, although important, only serve to promote the ultimate and underlying goal of a youth group, which is to emphasize the work of Christ; especially His work on the Cross. What happened at Calvary is the culmination, the summary, and the point of the entire Bible. Therefore, the goal of this youth group is to honor, remember, and venerate what Christ did on the cross by having fun, loving and respecting prayer, and learning the Bible, all in a safe environment; a place your teen can relax and be himself or herself.