Overall: We minister to students who are in all different places in their journey with God, and as a result we try to make sure we offer challenges as well as solid basics.  We find that students learn best when they feel comfortable and are connected to the group they are learning with, and for this reason we almost always start out with some activity and greeting time and work hard to incorporate fun and meaningful events and activities.  We work hard to balance reaching out to new people, equipping our current believers with Biblical skills, serving our community together, and praising Jesus together.  We also understand that the primary spiritual influence on any students’ life ideally comes from their parents and we try to help equip and support parents as much as possible.

Sundays: Our Sunday Morning Bible study is when we focus on equipping our students with the word of God in a fun and relevant way.  Recognizing that we won’t be able to teach every aspect of the Bible in the brief time we have together, we use various studies and techniques to not only teach that particular lesson, but also to get across how to study the Bible.  We generally alternate studies that are textual (focused on a particular book of the Bible) and topical (focused on peer issues) about every 10 weeks.

Weekdays: Our weekday gatherings are when we focus on praising and experiencing Christ together.  We have a theme each month that helps them understand the connection between their day to day life and their relationship with God and each other.  During “large group nights” we share a message that is engaging to help them think things through, have students actively leading parts of this night to help them grow and lead, and purposefully provide many opportunities for them to be connected with both caring adult staff and students.  During “small group nights” (which happen every third week in place of “large group nights”) students meet with the same group of students and leaders in an area separated from the other groups to allow for deeper connections, and to have discussions about that month’s theme.  We have incorporated small groups into this same night on every third week to try to balance the importance of meeting in a small group with the practicality of everyone’s busy schedule.