John Bijl
I am the Classis Youth Champion for Classis Hamilton. I walk along side youth leaders (mostly high school and young adult age), that are in classis Hamilton, providing them with resources, support, encouragement, and appreciation. I have been involved with Youth ministry for over 30 years, as a volunteer leader, youth director, SERVE host, and mentor.
Posted in: How Does Your Church Celebrate Your Students' Graduations?
In the youth leaders of our high school youth ministry would hold a catered dinner for the high school graduates and then we have a discussion time on life after high school. This is a great time where the graduates can ask any thing they want. Questions range from how to find a good church community to how do I do laundry.
We have also held in the past cooking lessons for the grads that would be leaving home. We called it dinner with seniors. We would gather the ingredients for the dinner and the grads would prepare the meal under the supervision of a parent would use to work in the restaurant industry and we would then have dinner together. It was a time of getting to know the grads better and build the relationships with them. It was a six week event and at the end of it we gave each of them a cutting board ( made by the cadets) and a knife for them to remember and prepare their own meals.
Posted in: Before You Gift a Graduate With a Bible, Do This
This is a great idea, Karen. When youth do profession of faith we do something similar. They are asked to put their bible on tables in the foyer of the church and everyone is invited to underline their favorite text and put their names by it. this has been very inspiring to many youth.