YOUTH MINISTRY AT FBCTLH
First Baptist Church has a long history of dedicated youth ministry marked by both faithfulness and fruitfulness. Across many decades, the methods employed may have changed, but the purpose has remained the same: to introduce youth to Jesus, invite them to follow Him, and equip them to live as His disciples. To accomplish this, we partner with parents to support them in discipling their youth and surround them with caring adults who seek to invest in their lives and strengthen their relationship with Jesus and their relationships with each other.
We currently employ a variety of weekly programs and annual activities for our youth to grow their faith. Disciple Now is a weekend event for middle and high school students focused on big fun and small group discipleship, consisting of worship music, Bible study, prayer, recreation, lots of food, and relationship-building. Our college students, young adults, and parents lead in this effort and further strengthen the intergenerational ties within our church.
Sunday Morning Bible Study is our primary tool for small group study and discipleship. Led by a dedicated team of more than a dozen volunteer teachers and leaders, students are grouped in classes by grade and utilize an age-adjusted version of The Gospel Project, which provides the same lesson studied by their younger siblings and their parents each Sunday.
On Wednesday evenings, we offer an in-depth Bible study for the entire youth group called Collide. This is preceded by our weekly youth choir rehearsals, which seek to develop our students’ musical gifts while promoting their spiritual growth. Our youth choir helps lead in both of our worship services throughout the school year and then each summer takes the good news of Jesus to somewhere else in our state or country.
At the very beginning of each summer, our youth load a couple buses and set out on a mission trip that consists of choir concerts and service projects designed to reach some of the most needy and overlooked in a community. To help raise funds for this mammoth endeavor, the youth choir puts on an annual Dessert Theatre, a colorful and entertaining show with a mix of choir, ensemble, and solo numbers complete with costumes and choreography. Over the years, our youth choir has been able to travel to Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Nashville, Boston, New Orleans, and throughout Florida. In preparation for this trip, our youth learn songs of faith that they can then carry with them even after they leave.
This is a reminder that youth ministry is ultimately forward looking. While we walk with them through the hills and valleys of middle school and high school, everything we do now is to prepare these young people for their future – to equip them with a deep, sincere, resilient faith that will sustain them and enable them to help others find that same hope in Jesus.
Josh Hall, Associate Pastor of Student Ministries