Or perhaps I should call this the state of the Sanctuary address...
Greetings from Sanctuary Youth Group!
What an incredible time it has been these last two months. The youth group is growing (we average 10 to 12 teens most Wednesdays), nearing completion of Francis Chan’s series “Crazy Love” and we’re gearing up for our annual trip to the Acquire the Fire conference. Also, Shana Rugani-Byrne has really stepped into the youth ministry and been an incredible blessing. Faithfully coming and leading one of the discussion groups every week and helping with just about everything else.
How is this for great things God is doing? Last year I stepped out in faith and preordered 18 tickets. I now have to consider purchasing more because as I write this we have 22 people signed up to go.
22 people! Who would have thought?
With this added blessing comes a greater call to prayer, please pray for:
1. We need another female leader. I’ve asked Rachel Harmon but I haven’t heard back from her yet.
2. We need another van. I’m asking various people (including the Tabernacle of David) but still, pray.
3. People to continue to bless us financially. I don’t want finances to stand in any youth’s way.
4. God’s incredible power to pour out on the 1000’s of youth attending Acquire the Fire. No one should leave this event untouched. I’d like to see minds blown that weekend.
The second big thing is that we are wrapping up the “Crazy Love” series. This series has been a great blessing and a call to action in my life and the youth, and coming out of it I feel like there needs to be some tweaks to how I go about “youth group”.
Because it is so easy to go through something like a dynamic series or a high energy conference but let it slip away I feel that it’s important to create within Sanctuary strong relationships that go beyond the superficial. How is this going to happen? I’m not sure, but there are two or three things I’m going to try to do:
1. Small groups: We started breaking into small groups during the “Crazy Love” series for discussion. I’d like to continue this, breaking into even smaller groups for prayer.
2. Testimony Nights: Either monthly or bimonthly, I want to try having a sort of “open mike night” when the youth can come and share what they are going through or what God is showing them.
3. “Spring Cleaning”: This may be the hardest one of all: I remember that some of my deepest friendships were forged not on road trips or at amusement parks but working side by side with them. I want the youth group to be out serving the community in tangible ways, starting with the members of the church and hopefully branching out from there. What this would look like on a practical level I’m not sure of, so I’d appreciate your prayer as God shows me what it will look like.
Further out into the horizon are even more exciting developments:
Open Door youth groups: Recently I was able to meet together with Jeff and Marissa Page, and Kevin Escher (youth pastors from Open Door San Rafael and Petaluma respectively) and we discovered a mutual desire to do things together. Once again, I have no idea what that will look like, besides prayer, encouragement, sharing of resources, and meetings and events where those three Open Door youth groups gather together.
Screen Printing: I recently received an unexpected financial blessing and after much pondering I’ve decided to invest it into something I hope will bless the youth ministry: Getting myself set up for small scale screen printing (t-shirt printing). I’m hoping this will be an opportunity to not only create some economical shirts for the youth group but be a possible fund raising opportunity for Sanctuary in the future. If nothing else it will be fun.
Please continue to PRAY for Me, Shana Byrne, Jeff and Marissa Page, Kevin Escher and everyone else involved in helping with the youth groups. PRAY for wisdom and grace as we attempt to follow the path that God has prepared for us. PRAY for Matt, Jesse-James and other members of the youth group that have slipped away. PRAY for all the youth that are coming faithfully each week that God would continue to draw them nearer to him.
Thank you,
With blessings:
David Harmon
