Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Greetings! I pray you’ve all had a blessed summer full of relaxation. It’s been a long while since we last met or spoke about things. I understand that the first time any of you had heard of the fall schedule changes for Wednesday nights was Sunday, to which I apologize. I believe that the below statements may help you all understand better what exactly is going on on Wednesdays starting in the fall. The church leadership is currently working on redefining what our discipleship process at Hope will officially look like. The idea (which will be better defined later) is that everyone at Hope: 1) Receives God’s Word (goes to Sunday church and Bible class), 2) Grows in faith (is involved in intentional daily devotion and has a growth/encouragement group learning with them), 3) Spreads the Hope of Christ (is part of a team that serves the needs of the community). Stages 1 and 3 are somewhat easier to look at from a church organization/programming standpoint than objective #2, and the leadership has struggled with how to do this. How do you get productive, objective support groups with both accountability and fellowship? For some, the current small group system works well, for many others, though, it doesn’t. We all agree that personal devotion and support from peers is important, exactly how we facilitate that to the best of our abilities has been the challenge. For children, Wednesday night Crosswalk fits the bill. For Jr. High, Confirmation fits the bill. For Sr. High, BASIC is working to fulfill this need. For adults, however, there’s no unified direction. This is where the young adult group at Hope comes in. The staff, looking for models that work for all the adults at Hope, saw what was going on with our group and saw this as a good model. In theory, what has young adult ministry at Hope looked like? 1) Do some reading/reflecting over the week on your own, 2) Meet and greet for a time, 3) talk over the text and reflect on what it means. The desire is to take this idea and allow it to permeate all the Wednesday night adult programs at Hope. So, this is what will be the format of Wednesday nights during the fall. All adults (young adults included) will have multiple options of offerings they want to take. Each different subject will have an expectation of some work done on your own during the week, and each subject will have a definite beginning and end (with a new round of topics starting/stopping at once). Each Wednesday night will begin in the Fellowship hall, with 15 minutes or so to get coffee, tea, pop, snacks or the like and make connections with friends. This will be not exclusive to young adults, but instead will be for everybody involved. Young adults are absolutely free to mingle with each other, but are not limited to that. We may say a prayer together in the big group, sing a song, watch a video clip, or some other group activity at the end of fellowship. After that, each group will divide up into their own classes and break up around the facility for the remaining hour of Wednesday nights. As of now, there are 5 sessions being offered for Wednesday nights. I’ll be facilitating one spending the time reading and reflecting on Ephesians in the fellowship hall. For this first round, the Ephesians study will not be limited to our young adult group, which I know may frustrate some. The format of the evenings, though, will be different from Sunday night Bible class, though. The intent of Wednesday nights is for groups sitting at tables to discuss together what they learned throughout the week, reflecting on how God has grown them as disciples, sharing with each other, and the like. Tables usually seat around 8. This means that the young adult group, in the larger context of Wednesday night, can still stay together if the desire is there. In this way, your interaction with each other is mostly unchanged. The difference is that there will be other groups around you studying the same things. I will be there to facilitate and answer questions as the need arises in the individual groups. For this first round, all the groups in the fellowship hall will be studying Ephesians (in their own groups of course), for the next round we desire groups to expand out and try studying different subjects as they desire. I know this is a change, and like any change it may be difficult at first. I have greatly enjoyed the time with our young adult community, and it will not cease. The desire is simply to allow the greater adult community at Hope to experience similar kinds of fellowship. You all have no idea how many people have approached me at Hope and desired to be part of the young adult group, but couldn’t because they were too old. Others, who have desired to come and are technically in the young adult age range, have told me they didn’t come because they didn’t feel like young adults. Yet others who have come in the past have ceased to attend young adult class because they just felt old or at a different stage of life than the rest of the group. I still desire our young adult community to thrive on Wednesday nights, I just want others to grow as well. I know this is a long message, and it won’t answer everyone’s questions, but it is the sincere hope of the staff of Hope that you understand why we are changing what we are changing. Please consider giving this change a chance. If you are still interested in keeping our group together, simply sign up for the Ephesians study after church on Sunday. We’ll order study guides for everyone who signs up. This is a commitment, I know, but Jesus calls us to commitment. See you all soon.
Pastor Pete
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