Throughout the school year, the First Youth calendar is packed with worship services, small group gatherings, trips and retreats, events, and various fellowship opportunities tailored for 6th-12th grade students in the Northwest Arkansas area. It is exciting and rewarding to provide such a diverse programming lineup for our students as we seek to grow in our relationships with God and one another.
The wonderful thing is that as we look ahead to the summer, there really isn’t any slowing down! June and July are filled with a variety of connectional and faith-building opportunities for our students as we navigate the summer months. While these times together build off the same themes and goals that we strive for during the school year, the fun thing about our summer gatherings is that they can actually provide for additional opportunities that are unique to this time of year. It’s always something we look forward to!
As we prepare for Summer 2024, be sure to mark your calendars for the following:
- Local Mission Project, June 23rd-28th - Local Mission Project, or LMP, is our annual summer mission camp that we host at our church each June. Open to students who have just completed the 6th-12th grades, during this week, our students and adult volunteers are sent out in the community to help our neighbors in any way we can, including wheelchair ramp and deck construction, painting, cleanup, and much, much more. In the evenings, the group enjoys daily worship services, exciting activities and events, and time to grow closer to one another through fun and fellowship.
- Promotion Sunday, July 14th - Students entering the 6th grade for the 2024-2025 school year are officially invited to join us in First Youth programming! There will be opportunities over the summer to join in with the group as a whole as well as several gatherings in which just our younger students will be invited.
- Backyard Bible Study, Weekday Evenings Beginning in July - Our Backyard Bible Study gatherings are always a highlight of the summer! During this time, we meet in host homes around Springdale for a meal, Bible study discussion, and time for swimming and outdoor fun. This summer we will offer a weekly gathering for those students entering the 6th-8th grades and a second gathering for those entering the 9th-12th grades. Stay tuned for dates and locations as July draws near!
- Float Trip, July 28th - Our annual Float Trip is a great way to end the summer! Each year at the end of July we head out to the river for a day of fellowship and fun. All students are invited to join us on the last Sunday of July for this much anticipated day. Sign-ups will start in early July!
- Trips & Events - We have several outings and events planned as well throughout the summer! Be sure to check out our calendars as they are released to stay up to date with everything we have going on. There is something for everyone!
- Crossroads Worship - In addition, our Sunday morning worship services will continue throughout the summer! We meet weekly on Sunday mornings upstairs in our youth worship space with doors opening at 9:30 AM and our service beginning at 9:45 AM and concluding at 10:45 AM. Music is led by our youth worship team, and in July, we like to open up the opportunity for our students to share with the group during our “student-led month.” We love worshiping together and hope you make plans to join us for these special worship opportunities!
We truly enjoy taking a year-round approach to our youth ministry scheduling, and we believe the summer months can provide some fun and meaningful ways for our students to continue to build community with one another and strengthen their relationships with God.
There is power in community, and there is also immense power in allowing our students to find and fulfill a sense of belonging in their lives. Both of these things are essential to healthy spiritual growth and Christian living, especially in the lives of teenagers. We know the world can be a difficult place to navigate and can be filled with broken relationships, difficult circumstances, and lonely moments. These things can become increasingly distracting and isolating and lead to more and more teenagers desperately seeking a genuine community where they can experience a true sense of belonging. In this search, we want the church to be the place where our students can satisfy these human needs and experience an environment where they can be their true and authentic selves.
This is always the goal we are striving for in our youth ministry. We want our students to feel comfortable in the church environment and with each other, as this is when we see the greatest spiritual transformation take place. When students establish a Jesus-focused community around them like this, it is amazing how the Lord is able to work in their lives. This is the way in which we are designed, and it is a beautiful thing to see lived out.
When you look at the summer, maybe this can come in the form of a backyard swim night, maybe it’s a day in fellowship with one another on the river, or maybe it’s a week of mission work focused on helping our local community. Sometimes, in the flexibility of summer, this may even come in the form of an informal, last-minute snow cone run with a group of leaders and students who just needed an opportunity to talk about what is going on in their lives. Whatever, whenever, and with whoever it may be, the goal always remains the same: how do we foster and bring about opportunities for our students to grow in relationship with God and one another?
Sometimes, this may even happen in the moments we least expect. It’s amazing to see how a game of basketball between acquaintances can lead to lifetime friendships or how a moment of shared laughter between friends over some ice cream can lead to further garnering of trust and stronger Christian relationships. Community is what God desires for us, and it can be incredible to watch this take place. When we grow in our relationships with other Christians, we grow in our relationship with Him!
If you know a middle school, junior high, or high school student seeking this type of community this summer, I encourage them to join us at First Youth. You can keep up with everything through social media, text communications, email, monthly calendars, and more. All of this can be found by clicking HERE.
To God be the glory!
