WHAT WE DO: Our purpose is pretty simple – to help middle school and high school students encounter Jesus and grow in their love for Him. We also want students to connect and encourage each other in their journey toward knowing Jesus. Lastly, we want students to love and impact their circles of influence for Jesus. We offer several different gatherings and events that will allow students a chance to come together in a safe environment, ask honest questions, discuss, learn, and worship Jesus.
Gathering for Wednesday night youth group from 6:30-8:00 PM is our first step. During the first 20 minutes or so, students catch up with each other and we play a game. Then, we have a time of worship and prayer before Pastor Mike teaches on the topic of the night. We end the evening by breaking up into small groups based on gender and age.
The next step is giving students tools and guidance to say "yes" to Jesus and become more like Him. We accomplish this by providing each student the opportunity to meet with an adult on a weekly basis to talk about life, develop skills, pray, study the Bible, and help students discover their own spiritual gifts.
The final step to help students grow in and follow Jesus comes in the form of reaching out to lost people. We help students find areas to serve in their gifts, to encounter people “here” and “there,” and share the hope of Jesus to those who have never heard. Reaching out is a priority of the church, so we talk about it often, help students identify friends who don’t know Jesus, pray for open doors, help students articulate the gospel by sharing their own faith stories, and create opportunties for reaching out.
In order to help fulfill our overall goals for students, we do our best to create environments and opportunities for students to become like Jesus together, because we’ve learned that we are better together. So we make an effort to attend fall retreats, BELIEVE Conferences, LIFE Conferences, international missions trips to the Dominican Republic, and other local ministry.
We were married in June of 2006 and spent 13 years serving at Dover Alliance Church in the student ministry before coming on staff at First Alliance in 2021. We have three children: Avery (9th grade), Gabriel (7th grade), and Kobi (2nd grade). We love investing our lives, time and energy into the lives of young people. It's a joy to see students learn, encounter, and grow in their relationships with God and each other and then reach out to love and serve others outside the church.