Students
Our Philosophy
We believe that students are an integral part in the life and body of the church. We view our role as walking along side families to provide teens with opportunities to encounter God and grow in their faith. We intentionally focus on a hand, head and heart approach to discipleship - providing opportunities for students to have hands-on experiences and encounters with God, teaching the Bible and providing head knowledge so that students can talk about what they believe and why, and stressing character transformation to have hearts more like Jesus. Other values that guide us are integration and discovery; integration into the full life of the church and providing space for students to wrestle with and discover answers to their questions and doubts. Finally, we believe that all of these are most effectively taught through strong, safe relationships.
Two data points that motivate why we do what we are: the number of students leaving the church when they reach college (Barna Research) and that students growing up in the church are not rooted and established in Christian Doctrine (Christian Smith, Soul Searching).
Junior High, we focus on building meaningful relationships with peers and adults, continuing the work from Children’s ministry to build a foundation of knowledge of the Bible and core Christian doctrine with a heavier emphasis on application. When students reach High School, our focuses shifts to prepare students for taking their faith out into the world. Small Groups become more important as students wrestle with key doctrine issues, and we focus on teaching rhythms of spiritual practices and disciplines that give them tools to discern God’s wisdom for their life.
"A faith without some doubts is like a human body without antibodies in it. people who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience or tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic... Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts - not only their own but their friends and neighbors." Tim Keller
What does that mean for our family?
Sunday Mornings
We use a hybrid model that keeps students grades K-9 in the first part of the service for the music worship. Once the teaching portion of the service begins, those students are dismissed for their classes. When students reach High School, we believe that they should be fully integrated in the life of the church, and therefore do not offer classes for that age, but rather, we make sure that our worship services are applicable and relevant to that generation as well. We also highly encourage high school students to use their gifts, talents and passions to serve within the church. Students serve in all areas of the church such as the media team, worship team, welcome team, and children’s ministry.
- We do this so that students learn about worship by participating and seeing their parents, role models and peers worshipping. We also want students to be involved, have ownership and a passion to be a part of the bigger, intergenerational church. Our desire is that students will know and experience the value of the local church and seek out a faith family when they go to college or move away from home.
- The transition plan we have worked on includes having the younger children attend the main service once a quarter, and then our Tween and Jr High Class participates in the full service once a month on communion Sunday.
Youth Calendar
You will not see a jam packed youth specific calendar. We believe that intergenerational faith experiences are the most impactful, so we attempt to make most all of our church events for all ages. Students are encouraged to participate in all church events, from men’s retreats to mission trips. We try to minimize the number of youth specific events so that your students can worship, serve, learn and live alongside a wide variety of followers of Jesus.
Youth Leaders
Creekside is a church full of youth workers. There will be a variety of people from within Creekside who lead programs, teach classes and work with your teen. Our youth director will oversee all youth activities and focus on the needs of our youth but will not be involved in all youth activities so that students develop a wider range of relationships, and so that the entire church feels a connection with our students.
