I’m excited about Friday nights; I’m excited about Youth Church! I am confident that as we teach God’s word and seek to live out the life we are called to in Christ, our youth will flourish. I am confident that as we bring greater shape to what we are building in partnership with our youth there will be even more stories to tell of God’s great work amongst us.

As we have moved toward a community on Friday nights that gathers for the purpose of hearing God’s word and living out the Christian faith as servants of Jesus, I have been encouraged by the fruit of our youth. I think of one person who is super keen for their atheist friend to come to Fridays. She wants her friend to know Jesus, and she knows we are called to partner together to see God bring transformation. I think of a youth who is regularly talking to leaders and other youth about the issues he discusses with his friends. He wants to be better equipped to answer his friend’s questions. I think of stories I hear of youth taking a stand for Jesus even when it’s awkward around friends.

Our parish has a rich history of ministry and mission to youth, and I am keen for what is next. We want to call our teens to know Christ deeply, serve others and be driven by the mission of Jesus. And we are doing this. I am looking forward to seeing our youth thrive in Youth Church and hearing their many stories of living for Jesus because they know “now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.”

We are a Reformed Evangelical Church

That sounds good, but what does it mean?

We are Reformed

Being Reformed, suggests our theological heritage is found in Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, and is formed through people like Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger.

The most important characteristic of “reformed” thinking is its stress on the loving, gracious sovereignty of God over all his creation and in every area of human life.  

On the grand scale all of history is moving towards God’s intended end and purpose (Heaven, or the Kingdom of God).  

On a smaller scale God has done everything to secure salvation of each one of his people.  God always speaks first and we can only respond to God.  God saves us into his church in Christ.

However we are not just Reformed,

We are Evangelical.

In being Evangelical, we believe the gospel has the power to save.  And so we are called to preach it to the nations.  Not, only to the nations, we believe it is by the word of God that we teach and correct each other.   We believe it is through the word that we are trained to live as God’s people.   It is through the word of God, preached and taught, that the church is built and able to stand against ‘every wind of teaching’ (Eph 4)

The Seeming Contradiction

Being Reformed, and Evangelical may then seem a contradiction.  We believe it is all God’s work, yet we believe God does his work as we preach the word to each other and to the nations.  

The blessing of being Reformed Evangelicals

Affirming these two descriptors together keeps us from:

1. placing our emphasis on what we do rather than on God’s saving power in evangelism.

2. a preoccupation with the near goal of personal conversion rather than the final goal of Christian maturity.

Using both words, “reformed” and “evangelical”, to describe ourselves is a reminder that we don’t have to choose between sound doctrine and evangelistic zeal. The two go hand in hand. Our commitment to evangelism—to personal conversion, a call to repentance and faith, to a spirit-filled life of freedom, joy and humble obedience—arises from our theology. It is God’s character and his purpose, revealed to us in the Scriptures, that drive us forward. As Paul put it, “knowing the fear of the Lord” and “compelled by the love of Christ”, we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor 5:11–21).

Over the last month I have asked questions about what WAY is on about and why might we call it “Youth Church.” As I have been thinking through this, a great question was asked this week from a teen about what ministry to invite friends to? It’s a great question because outreach is at the heart of what we are called to do.

As we think about mission and our youth, we all recognise its importance. Growing deeply in our love for Jesus is formed out of mission and leads to more mission. We deprive our youth if we don’t partner with them in gospel work.

I want to see outreach flourish with our teens. Wouldn’t it be great if each term we had specific opportunities targeted at inviting friends? These events, maybe we call them parties (or something else), provide an opportunity for teens to focus on bringing friends and cement a culture of mission.

The concept is nothing new at WAY. But we plan well for these events. They look different to a normal night, and we prepare our teens to invite and engage their friends. And then afterwards, reflect on how we can do it better next time. We would build up to these nights and seek to follow up teens afterwards. They are fun evenings but with the goal of something much deeper.

Teens that own something on Friday nights and want to bring their friends to is what I desire. Teens thirsty to know God and fired up to talk about the gospel with their friends. I’m sure we all long for this.

• “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

• “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11.

• “love one another deeply, from the heart.” 1 Peter 1:22

Since God SO loved us, we love one another deeply from the heart.  One of the many ways we do this, is by WELCOMING all into God’s church here at St Johns!  We want to help people join us well and feel that they truly belong to God and to each other as Christ’s body, the church. 

If you are new, or feel ‘new-ish’, or would just like to come along – you are warmly invited to join us at a WELCOME afternoon tea on Sunday 15th June, from 3pm in the church hall.  This is a very relaxed time to have a cuppa together, get to know us better and find out ways you could feel more at home.  If you can think of someone you think would benefit from coming along, please invite them to come along with you.  All welcome.

To further help people connect well with us, we are running a 2-week series called ‘The CONNECT series’, on Mondays 23rd and 30th June 7pm.  Over two evenings we’ll explore how God’s purpose shapes our lives, relationships, attitudes and spiritual growth.  Again, this is for anyone who feels a bit new, but also for anyone to see how you could be involved in our mission of loving God and making Him known in the Hawkesbury.

“My command is this:  Love each other as I have loved you”.  John 15:12

Last week in the newsletter I reflected on WAY and realized that what we are doing is “church” - be it for youth. In our culture we observe “youth” to be their own demographic of people. It is a transitional phase that neither we comfortably call children, yet we do not recognize them as adults. The fact that we think of “youth ministry” in its own category is a recognition of the helpfulness of this distinction.  And so, we must think through how we might best disciple youth in this transition between childhood and adulthood.

Naming WAY ‘youth church’ acknowledges that for a time church for youth may look different but do essentially the same things.  Youth will gather because they are mad about Jesus.  They gather to serve God and each other.  They gather to hear from God’s word and to pray together. They gather, and in doing so, say to their friends Jesus is not only real, but all of life is about him.

But youth church is different.  It is largely led by youth, with leaders to help and teach.  It is much more active than Sunday gatherings.  There are games and activities along with everything else.  There is more interaction, but most importantly it is the context in which our youth learn to do church together.

As our youth grow older and leave, they come to our Sunday gatherings understanding church is not a passive exercise.  It does require their participation in coming before God’s word, praying with and caring for their brothers and sisters.  Our hope is that we are raising a generation of followers of Jesus that take God’s call seriously and be trained in serving God and each other.

So, Youth Church on Fridays is just part of the picture.  Of course we don’t want our youth disconnected from Sundays.  Sunday gatherings are not their primary church, but they also realize the Friday nights are just for a time. But an amazing time working out what it is to do church (and life) together.