One of my favorite parts of my role as a student minister is the position, I have to really see God work.  Upon my arrival, there was little spiritual depth where each week it was always a mystery as to who was going to show up.  There would be behavior issues each week with adults yelling at students to behave.  It was not a great environment to be a part of.  Well, fast forward almost 2 years, we are seeing students get saved with very little behavioral issues.  We have a stable number of kids inviting their friends each week.  In each of the past four weeks we have seen new faces from students simply inviting their friends.  God has grown our youth and children's groups in big ways; both numerically and spiritually.  We are in the midst of God moving, and in a big way.  

Another big way God is moving is through young adults becoming more involved.  One of the most positive things we have done as a church is reach out to parents.  We have seen parents get involved within our children's ministry.   When we reach out to parents, we see God move throughout the home.  As you may have read through previous blogs, one of my main goals this upcoming year is to reach out parents.  I have given the statistics of what happens when a father comes to church.  When the father comes to church there is a 93% chance that the family will come to church as well.  I also attended a Central Arkansas Marriage Institute meeting in Little Rock this month.  One of their focuses is the family dynamic.  How the relationship with the father has more of an effect on a child going to church and having a personal relationship with Christ than any other factor.  It begins in the home.

We have been faithful to reaching out to the children and youth for all this time, but what is your part?  If you were to ask me what my favorite Sunday Night services of this year so far . . . they would be . . . 1) When one of our students go up on stage and spoke about how God had been moving in her life.  2)  This past Sunday, September 24, 2023,  when we simply go to talk about what our next step is for reaching the lost.  Once of the main factors I heard when talking to various members that night was that a main contributing factor of the epidemic of lostness is broken homes.  But how did we get here?  It's the lack of the spread of the Gospel to the next generation.  It is a trickle down from generation to generation not sharing the Gospel.  Many of you reading this blog may not feel called to serve within our children's or youth ministries.  What if we started to build a relationship with parents since many of you have been there?  What would that look like?  As a church, we need to be broken for the lost.  Not only broken for the lostness of the children and the youth, but also the lost in every generation.  Are you broken for the lost?  

As I have said, the Lord is on the move.  BUT - He is not done yet!  I am excited to see what God has in store for this youth group, our children's group, and our young adults!  Please continue to pray as we have a lot coming up.  

Upcoming Events:

• October 13-15 - Youth Fall Retreat
• October 15 - Pool Party
• October 19 - Ghost Town
• October 21 - Cornfield Maze
• October 29 - Trunk-OR-Treat*

* We are in great need of candy this year.  We have only raised around 1,000 pieces and last year we had 13,000 and almost ran out.  Please consider dropping candy off in our donation buckets.

-Andy Doonan