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ChristCare Groups Bring
Multiple Blessings to Youth

How many teens does your congregation serve?

Melody: There are 120 young people from seven high schools in our youth population. It is sometimes a challenge to serve that large and that diverse a group. What we've seen over and over is their strong desire to have a place that is theirs in the life of our congregation. At least 80 of them have found that place in their ChristCare Groups for youth.

Christ United Methodist Church has been enrolled in the ChristCare Series since 1993 and was one of the first ChristCare congregations to form ChristCare Groups for its youth.

How are these ChristCare Groups organized?

Melody: When a new young person joins our youth program, he or she is invited to join a ChristCare Group. Currently we have six groups for junior and senior high students, one group for each grade from seventh grade through seniors in high school. We separate them by grades because we've found their needs are different at each age. Our groups meet on Sunday mornings, and. each group has three adult ChristCare Group Leaders.

What is happening in each area of group life right now?

Melody: The four activities of the ChristCare Groups work beautifully with youth and provide many entry points for reaching and serving all of our teens.

Prayer and worship consists mostly of group prayer time. We see so much growth in our youth as they pray openly for one another, for our community, for their schools. Our groups also take turns leading worship at our large youth group meetings.

The seventh grade ChristCare Group poses with one of their "adopted grandmas," whom they visit as a missional service project.

Biblical Equipping works well with all ages of youth. Some of our youth are even leading Biblical Equipping sessions, and their insights are sometimes much more discerning and applicable to others their age than ours as adults would be. Several parents have called to tell me that they are amazed by the spiritual maturity their sons and daughters have shown since joining a ChristCare Group.

My daughter is an eighth grader. It has been exciting for me to watch the Scriptures come alive for her through Biblical Equipping. Now events and characters in the Bible are real to her. She can relate to them and apply God's truth to her own life.

Our ChristCare Groups for youth excel at missional service, having a strong impact in our congregation and community because of their commitment to this part of ChristCare. Some of the projects our youth have worked on are visits with those who are ill, preparation and delivery of holiday baskets, intercessory prayer, construction of a ramp at the home of a person recently confined to a wheelchair, home repairs, and meal preparation for the elderly.

The caring and sharing that happen in our groups are phenomenal. One of the most important aspects of caring is something I've observed happening outside the group meetings. Group members attend one another's school events. They even support competing teams, which is difficult to do amid school rivalry.

The eighth grade ChristCare Group built and painted birdhouses which they donated around town.

What other evidence of the effect of ChristCare Group Ministry have you seen in their lives?

Melody: Our youth want to be involved in the life of our church. Even those young people who don't have support at home for attending worship and church activities find a way to get here for their groups. These ChristCare Groups are their place; they have ownership of their groups.

Some of the most memorable times for me have been seeing young persons who are new to our church find their place in a ChristCare Group. Our groups are responsive to new members and provide a very accepting atmosphere, which is not typical for teens, especially teens from rival schools.

What effect did the events of 9/11/2001
have on your youth?

Melody: In their ChristCare Groups, they openly expressed a variety of feelings--confusion, fear, denial.

They dealt with their reactions to the many losses, the possibility of a draft, and changes in our society. I'm glad we have our groups in place to support them during this time. ChristCare Groups provide a stable, safe place where they can talk about difficult issues whenever they come up.

Melody: Involving our youth in ChristCare Group Ministry is the best thing we've ever done for them. This is the best tool we've found for building relationships in a large, diverse group such as ours. This ministry has also given more of our adults a way to serve and grow as Christians. So ChristCare Groups will continue to be a major part of our youth program.

In the future we want to train some of our young persons as ChristCare Group Leaders and would then let them assist the adult leaders.

We are also considering asking our adult ChrstCare Group Leaders to commit to staying with the same group from grade 7 through grade 12. This will provide continuity and security for group members. It would also give our group leaders the opportunity to see these young people grow and mature as Christians.

I can't imagine a greater blessing for a youth program than to have ChristCare Group Ministry. It has brought many and varied blessings to me, our youth, and our congregation.

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