Youth Group

Beyond Sunday mornings, our youth groups meet throughout the school year for a couple events each month. One of those is a worshipful gathering with small groups, and the other gets us out in the community in a meaningful way. No matter when and how we meet, we live out our mission to Love, Grow, and Serve together.

Love

Worship Leadership
Whether it is being an acolyte, leading worship as a liturgist, helping out with a couple readings, preaching, or playing music, we want our young people empowered in leading the church through worship and praise. There are many opportunities for students to learn about what it means to lead worship and then live that out on Sunday mornings.

Fellowship Activities
These activities are designed for the youth to get to know each other better and have a good time. God wants us to enjoy one another’s company and be in fellowship and that’s what we do on these evenings. Some activities include bowling, rock climbing, a Christmas party, a Super Bowl Party, a bonfire, a board game night, or even a retreat or lock-in.

Grow

Small Groups
One Sunday evening each month, our middle school and high school students will engage in a youthful worship experience and small group discussions. We will meet as a large group and break into Middle and High School small groups for deeper discussion and reflection. We will then come back together for some fellowship time, games, and activities!

Montreat/Triennium
Montreat and Presbyterian Youth Triennium are week long events that the Presbyterian Church holds on a national scale where high school youth from across the country gather to take a deeper look at their faith. These events often become life changing experiences for our youth.

Serve

Go and Serve Mission Trip
Each year our youth and their adult leaders go on a summer mission trip. These trips cover a wide variety of missions from serving in soup kitchens, to teaching Bible School to both inner city and rural children, to helping rebuild homes in areas where disaster has struck. The youth experience following Jesus by loving others and becoming the feet, hands, mouth, eyes and ears of Jesus. These trips conclude the program year and are a real highlight of our youth ministry.

In Our Own Community
We encourage our youth to experience what Jesus meant when he told us to love our neighbors. Some of the service projects/missions our youth participate in the past are cleaning up around the Fox River, caroling to shut-ins, our Souper Bowl of Caring offering, potting and delivering plants to church members, serving at Northern Illinois Food Bank, working with World Relief, and volunteering at Feed My Starving Children. We also regularly provide lunches for the Lazarus House shelter.