I can shake it. I can't shake this overwhelming sense that God is calling us to take a significant step of faith in the area of family ministry. By family ministry I mean the work we do to reach, disciple and support our children and students. This also includes the ways we support and resource parents as they seek to help their children grow up with a strong foundation of faith and a life-changing relationship with Jesus.
We are already taking some exciting steps in that direction. As of last night's Day Camp planning meeting, all 100 openings were full. Our registration for Soulfest is the highest it has ever been. We are already up to 120 registrants (many of them going as families and for the first time). And I don't know if you have heard, but in the fall we are launching a brand new program entitled “Mastering Motherhood.” It is a faith-based outreach program to support, encourage, equip and connect moms. This program has been running in other regions with incredible results and Rock Church will be the first to offer it in NH.
It takes a great team to lead our Rock Church Day Camp! We still have several opening to help!
Day Camp and Soulfest are wonderful, exciting, catalytic events that help us pour into our churched kids, and reach unchurched children and youth. But they are still seasonal events. What we really need, to follow up, is to redevelop our ongoing children's and students ministries. These help us connect young people to our church community, and to Christ, in an ongoing way. Following Covid, both our Nextgen ministry and our youth groups have struggled. We need to offer strong, fully staffed Nextgen and Student Ministries in order to reach our young people in an ongoing way.
So I'm not going to beat around the bush. We need help. We need people who are willing to invest themselves in the faith development and spiritual growth of our young people. In the short-term, we have a great team assembled for day camp (being held August 16th to 20th). But we still need some more folks to serve in this area. You could find out more at this link. Looking ahead to the fall, we need people who have a heart for the young who are open to serving in some capacity in Nextgen or Student Ministry. If you think God may be calling you to get involved in some way, you can email me at Steve@Rock-church.org. Also, there is a Nextgen volunteer meeting in Sandown this Monday (July 26) at 7:00 p.m.
This is an important area for us, so you will hear more in the days ahead. But for now I would ask you to keep it in prayer, and if God is calling you to get involved in some way, please let me know or speak with your campus pastor.
Have a blessed week. I look forward to seeing you Sunday as we continue our new series “Backstage.”
Love you all,
Pastor Steve