Grace and peace. My name is Justin Wells and I am the new District Youth Coordinator (incase you missed the last newsletter). I am here to work with the youth, youth leaders, and pastors of the district to assist local churches in ministry for, with, and by junior high and senior high youth more effectively. And to that there will be a meet and greet through zoom on Feb. 9th from 6:30 to 8:00. This will be a time for me to meet you and you to meet me. It is a float in and out type of meeting, so if you can’t be on right at 6:30 that is okay. Log on when you can. I will send out the link to the meeting by email.
A few goals. One, to form district sub-groups of youth ministry. The district is large and spread out. These smaller groups will allow the youth and youth leaders to share ministries and create communities beyond the local church. These groups will not take the place of any partnerships you may have already formed. Second, to put together a District Youth Leadership team consisting of youth and youth leaders from across the district. This team will work to plan a couple district events a year, put together mission opportunities, and work to assist local youth ministries. The district has 7 youth serving as representation at the conference level through CYC (Conference Youth Council) and CCYM (Conference Council on Youth Ministries). Over the next several newsletters, they will be introducing themselves.
I am also looking for stories of youth in action. If your youth group has a project that they have been doing, I would love to highlight it in the newsletter. Send me an email or give me a call.
The dates for conference events have been posted on the conference youth website https://nccumc.org/leadership/youth/events/. Also the district youth have a FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/FairwayDistrictYouthNCCUMC), an Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fairwaydistrictyouth/), and a website (https://fairwaydistrictnc.org/youth/). I invite you to follow and like the social media pages and bookmark the website.
If you have any questions, concerns, comments, or ideas you can send me an email at [email protected] or call me at 910-591-8156.
Without further ado, let’s meet one of the youth serving on the CYC.
Hello all! My name is Will Smith, I am a junior, and I go to St Luke UMC in Sanford, NC. I am the CYC Representative for the Fairway district. As a member of CYC, I serve on the Youth Resolutions Committee, ACS Design Team, and Global Vision Design Team.
I feel that youth ministry is important for several reasons. Serving God and working with like minded youth is a really cool thing that not only allows us to further deepen our connections with God, but establish relationships with other youths in our churches, districts, and the whole conference. Being able to get close to God at a young age allows us to stay connected throughout our lives, and spread the love of Jesus Christ to everyone. Plus, the relationships made throughout ministry are very deep and can last a very long time.
Personally, youth ministry has changed my life, in lots of different ways. Ministry brought me closer to God, and I have lots of relationships through ministry in which I see God all the time. Some of my best friends I have were made through the conference and ministry. Playing guitar and serving God through my talents at conference events like Breakaway and Pilgrimage were really big in how I felt God’s presence. I’ve had the opportunity to serve in lots of leadership positions that I never thought I would. All in all, I couldn’t really picture my life without ministry, and it has really had a big impact on my life.