Kingston Avenue…The Start of a Youth Group

As many know, (as if anyone reads this blog), I am in Anderson Indiana for the majority of the summer. Though many know I’m gone, they do not know what I’m doing. The church is small (maybe smaller than some of Ignite’s Sunday night attendance) yet almost 80% of Anderson is un-churched…not de-churched (having grown up in church and deciding not to go once on their own) they have never been to church in their lives. This statistic amazed me! The sad thing is that it is going to get worse. Because the church-goers are mostly made up of the same generation, the middle age people, the majority of that statistic is the resistant husbands, the rebellious children, and the simply pagan family. I am here to reach the youth. The teen aged kids in this town have been forgotten an things have been more focused on reaching their parents. This is a flawed tactic because the older the person is the shorter their life is becoming each day and although they may try to get their children and grand-children to come to a place where there is nothing for them to do, it may be an unsuccessful effort.  In Lexington, and every where else in the Bible Belt, everyone goes to church because it is the cool thing to do, everyone goes to church; but here in Anderson it’s not cool because they sing hymns only, have small churches with only a few kids and really have never developed anything for youth to enjoy.  That is my goal here at Kingston Avenue; to create a plan that can be carried on by faithful lay people in this church when I leave.  I will be teaching through Romans and will record my thoughts here on the blog, as well as teaching the kids their own little hermeneutics class .  It’s going to be fun, intense, and gone before I know it.  If you read this you should tell other ignite attenders to read as well so they can be informed on the context they will be stepping into on the mission trip in June.  More to come…

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~ by Nick on May 13, 2008.