Youth Ministry

ABOUT YOUTH MINISTRY

The purpose of the SVPC Youth Ministry is to provide an environment and rigorously inclusive programming where students (defined as 6th-12th graders or “youth”) and their families are able to experience what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, to equip them to be able to articulate that faith, and to empower them to live out that faith in service to themselves and others within the context of a church community and the world. In short, our purpose is to create communit(ies) for youth and their families to connect with God and each other.

We strive to foster a ministry that reduces harm to others, seeks the liberation of God’s people, and mirrors radical grace and radical hospitality to all young people we encounter. View our SVPC Youth Ministry Area Charter here.

THEOLOGICAL EXPECTATIONS & YOUTH MINISTRY AREA COMMUNITY NORMS

• We seek to always make God bigger, our theology deeper, and our love for the world wider.

• We agree to use expansive language about God.

• We agree to see each child in the programming as a child of God.

• We agree to model adulthood authentically. We consent to learn in public and be honest about our doubts. We don’t have all of the answers and we know faith is often messy and ambiguous.

• Use a restorative (not punitive) justice model when it comes to discipline: we repair where harm has been done and heal together as a community.

• We agree to honor difference and mystery in our theology.

• We reject all forms of language about people that is ageist, racist, sexist, and othering.

We strive to foster a ministry that reduces harm to others, seeks the liberation of God’s people, and mirrors radical grace and radical hospitality to all young people we encounter. View our SVPC Youth Ministry Area Charter here.

Please take a moment to introduce yourself to us here.