Youth Update – October 2022
The October break is now upon us, so it feels as good a time as any to reflect on what’s been happening over the term so far within our youth group.
We bounced into the academic year with a trip to Ryze Adventure Park where over 50 of us enjoyed an adrenaline infused evening on the trampolines, airbags and foam pits. This was a great kick off for our Friday Night programme this term and the momentum has continued with numbers in the high 40’s to early 50’s of young people attending our Friday Night programme.
Friday Night’s this term have involved many of the old favourites including football, table tennis, crafts and baking. There have also been some new elements introduced over the last wee while including activities such as Magnitude favourite Spikeball and our S4-S6 Hangout Room, a popular space for our older young people to come and chill with a hot drink in a relaxed atmosphere with friends their age.
We have also had some one-off nights on Friday’s where the focus has been on spiritual elements. At the beginning of September, we had a Testimony Night, which sees a leader share their faith story and the night’s activities are then based on an aspect of their testimony. Jonathan Montgomery shared at our September one on a night built around construction, with numerous construction competitions judged by our testimony giver. Later on in September, Megan Slatter led a Bible Journalling activity for our young people to see how they can use their creative giftings to help them study God’s word. The youth loved letting their creativity out at this as 20 of them chose to spend the night with Megan practicing this for themselves (some with their shiny new journalling Bibles!)
In October, we then had our latest Encounter Service where on Friday the 7 October, 58 of our young people gathered for an extended night of worship, word and prayer. The night began with a café featuring lots of home baking from the wider church family before we moved through to the Ladycroft sanctuary to be led in an extended time of powerful worship led by Dave Crow and Sarah Stevenson. The returning Andy Bennett then shared a thought-provoking word on Being Courageous, looking at the topic from the perspective of the book of Joshua, which led into a time of ministry focusing on a number of aspects of courage. Seeing the young people so open to prayer was a particular highlight with many being courageous in seeking out prayer from the team of youth leaders there. The night finished with some celebratory worship as we rejoiced that an incredible SEVENTEEN young people had either re-committed their life or had made the decision to follow Jesus for the first time.
This was just one, albeit major, highlight of Youth this term and demonstrates how God is up to something special within the Youth Group of St Mungo’s. Away from Friday’s, we have been enjoying going through the book of Acts at our Sunday Bible Study, gaining a real insight into how the early church lived out their faith and thinking about how it can inspire us to do so likewise in the 21st century. We have had a couple of great Envisions where Savannah and Anja, respectively, brought words around taking your faith public. Both spoke with a spiritual maturity far beyond their years and we’re excited to continue to be inspired by our young people as they share on topics relevant to them at Envisions. Youth Worship is back in its flow as well with both practical and teaching nights taking place. The work Dave, Katharine and the youth worship team are doing with the young worshippers is evident with many of our talented youngsters beginning to filter into our worship at Youth Activities once again.
This term has also seen the launch of a new programme in Deeper, a once-a-month leadership programme for all in S4 upwards (including our recent leavers) who consider themselves to be committed Christian young people. The programme has been produced to help our older young people explore God's word in a deeper way, whilst learning and discussing together how to lead more productive lives as Christians in whatever settings they are in. The goal with Deeper is to help those involved develop their faith in a deeper way, along with their individual God-given giftings in order that they can use them for God's glory both now and long into the future when their time in youth is a nostalgic memory for them! We have seen 25 of our older youth regularly joining Deeper since it began in August with great chats around spiritual gifts, spiritual disciplines and mission statements. We’re excited to see where this goes over the rest of the term as we look into leading counter-cultural lifestyles and being positive role models for others, before moving into apologetics in the new year.
We are extremely thankful for what God has been doing in our Youth Group this term so far and are excited to see what comes next in the lead-up to Christmas with lots planned including social nights like Mungo-Opoly, Christmas Parties and a Christmas Ceilidh and spiritual focused events including Testimony Nights, Envision’s and Prayer Walks – in addition to all our usual activities!!! It’s set to be another busy, but we pray majorly fruitful season in St Mungo’s Youth and we thank God for each and every one of the young people we get to serve, along with the wonderful volunteer team who make this all happen!
If you’re reading this and inspired by what’s going on please be praying for more, but also why not consider joining the wonderful youth team. The youth team is a wonderful one to be a part of, making a difference into the life of not just the next, but the current, generation of people who are impacting the world for Christ. We can guarantee you a lot of fun will be had as you do! If you might be interested, please get in touch with Jonny (jonny.slatter@stmungos.org) to find out more about how you could be involved!