Vision: Deeper in Youth

Somebody once said, "I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words."

Everybody has an opinion on the state of our society and the challenges that face our young people. Some are optimistic, some are pessimistic, and some fall somewhere in between. It's important to remember that not everyone expects the worst. What if we refuse to believe the worst in today's youth but instead call them towards God's best for their lives? 

The above quote is actually from Hesiod, an 8th-century BCE Greek poet.  Even Greek poets who lived 2,700 years ago struggled to understand best how to nurture the rising generations. You may perhaps already know that the majority of Jesus' 12 disciples are thought to have been teenagers. The youngest was most likely John, sitting somewhere in his early teens. Jesus takes these young people and radically transforms the world, establishes his church and uses them to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

What if we began to believe and expect that our young people can be used in similar ways? What if we shifted from the ancient old hat narrative of 'no hope for young people', to 'God can use them in a mighty and dynamic way'? 

Our young people have the ability to engage in their faith, rely on the Holy Spirit and see God move in extraordinary ways. The same Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, that is at work in our lives, is also available to our teenagers. At DTI our young people engaged in worship, prayed for and had words for one another - many of them encountered Jesus in new ways and were filled with the Holy Spirit. We want to make sure there are opportunities across the year for them to be encouraged to continue to go deeper in their faith and relationship with God. It is important that we don’t wait for a couple of big events each year, but that their faith is continually an active part of their lives!

Let's begin to get excited about their futures and expect the kind of depth that comes from walking closely with the Lord. They might surprise us all with the way in which God can use them in His Kingdom. 

In this next season, we want to take time to reset the table, empower our youth leaders and engage our young people on a deeper level, helping them thrive in their faith. Our young people are not the ‘church of tomorrow’ but are very much a part of the church today, they can encounter God in the same ways that adults can, and can (and do!) hear from God and minister to others. We are so excited for all that God will continue to do through our young people!

What is Youth Small Group?

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20

To commune with God in fellowship is practically commanded of us in the Scriptures. Time and time again we see the disciples gathering together to share stories and challenge each other’s faiths. It should be no different for us in our personal journey with God and one another, including our young people. 

In 2024 we kicked off our Youth Small Group to give our young people who have dedicated their lives to God to delve deeper into the Bible and their faith.

So what’s our Youth Small Group all about, and how does it help them in their faith and everyday lives? 

What is Youth Small Group?

Much like an adult small group, our Youth Small Group is a space twice a month for our youth to gather, play a game or two and then head into a topic exploring God, christian faith or practising ministry.

In 2023 we were blessed to have so many youth being baptised, which gave us the opportunity to evaluate how we support our young people in their personal faith journeys. 

Youth Small Group has been created as a space for youth to delve deeper into their faith in a meaningful way, crucial at their development stage. We want to equip our young people with a fuller understanding of doing the Christian journey together and help shape their experience of church which will prepare them for when they are adult believers and out in God’s kingdom.

Like the wider church, there is so much power in personal invitation. This new small group gives our Youth Pastor Hannah Raden a space to invite young people ready to dive deeper together, whilst having plenty of fun along the way!

Why is togetherness so important for young people?

Young people have to process all manner of life experiences; bullying, university choices, peer pressure, exams…

Add a constant stream of information from social media, and it doesn’t make for a promising environment for faith development. 

Youth Small Group helps young people take a step back and be with real people in a real space, helping them to solidify their identity as beloved believers and to go out to every corner of society for the gospel. 

Small group offers our young people the opportunity for perspectives to be challenged and personal journey’s to be encouraged.

It allows them to grow together.

One of the fundamental values of youth work is participation.

At the core of what we do is the youth voice.

Although we have kicked started the life of the Small Group with a programme looking at creative prayer, we are really looking forward to jumping into some of the topics and books of the Bible that interest our young people. 

By letting their voices be heard, it allows young people and adults alike to hear more of the ways God is moving in our lives.

More information on Youth Small Group

Our Youth Small Group is aimed at older Youth who have been baptised, committed their lives to God or are ready to delve deeper into scripture.

For more information on Youth Small Group email Hannah Raden at hannah.raden@suttonvineyard.org or speak to us on Sunday!

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Want to help young people develop in their faith and relationship with God? Serve on the Sutton Vineyard Youth team! Email hannah.raden@suttonvineyard.org or speak to one of our team on Sunday about how you can get involved.

Tom's Sutton Vineyard Story: Focus, Youth and Community

At Sutton Vineyard we have so many amazing stories of God moving in people’s lives to serve our community and develop as individuals.

One of those people is Tom, who serves as a leader in our Youth ministry.

Our Senior Pastor Julian spoke to Tom about focus, the joy of serving and how his faith has developed in his everyday life:

Julian: Good morning! How are you doing? 

Tom: Good. Yeah. Good. 

Julian: So tell us your name and where you come from? 

Tom: My name's Tom. I come from Croydon.

Members of the congregation cheer 

Okay, good. Yeah, we like that

Julian: Did someone just boo?

Tom: It's not that bad! 

Julian: We can pray for him afterwards. It's okay. But you love the Lord though, so it's all good.

So Tom, what are some of the things that the Lord has stirred in you recently? 

Tom: So I had quite a tricky 2023 for a few different reasons. My faith was tested in lots of different ways that I hadn't been tested before and perhaps I hadn't expected to be.

There was something that we did as a small group at the start of last year, which was to find a word for our year. And for me that word was focus. It wasn't immediately obvious at the start how that was going to be relevant, but over the course of the year I came to realise that having the focus on God with all the other stuff that was going on around me was really important.

So yeah it was really hard at times, hard to be proactive in that.

Julian: I love that you start with a word. We did a straw poll just after New Year's on resolutions, and only two people raised their hands. And so this word of the year that's carrying you through is something that God's kind of unsettled in you, that you need to actually draw down your attention to Focus.

Tom: Yeah. Well, the thing I realised was that I wasn't always particularly focused, and it's quite hard to be proactive in that. Simple things, prayer, reading the Bible, even coming to church and being in spaces like this, having that as a focal point of your life is not always easy.

Julian: No, Absolutely. 

One of the ways you serve is by leading our young people on our youth team. What inspires you most about serving our young people? How is the Lord growing you through serving them? 

Tom: So when I was youth age, I had some brilliant youth leaders and was really blessed in that.

So that gives me a lot of the motivation to serve in youth. But having been around the church for a while, I'm sure some people might be able to empathise, you can get bad habits creeping in. You can maybe get a bit weary. The energy levels can drop. But being around the youth is amazing. The energy, the optimism, the positivity that some of them have and their desire to sort of act out their faith is is really amazing.

It's a real privilege. I'd really encourage it.

Julian: Can I ask you, do you understand all of the phrases they use? Because I was a youth pastor for many years and I thought it would never happen. And it's happened. 

Tom: Haha, no!

Julian: Right, so we're in the same boat. We don't feel left out! And yet you can still serve our young people. 

Tom: Embrace it, embrace it.

Julian: In what ways have you experienced spiritual growth through your working with our young people? 

Tom: It's a great team to serve on. There are some phenomenal youth leaders. When you serve on Youth, you spend a lot of time around the leaders on the camps like DTI (Dreaming the Impossible), on Friday Nights, at Youth Small Group. And so I learn a lot from the leaders as well and how they approach things. When you have a responsibility to teach people about faith, Church, God, Jesus, all of those things, the challenge that I find is being in a place where I can communicate that clearly and understand that. It makes me realise the simplicity of a lot of the things we do at Church. We sit there and we really overcomplicate the foundations that we all know we should have enough faith that we sometimes neglect. 

Julian: So as we as we look at the way we serve, one of the things we do as a church is we come in, we get built up in the faith and then we also give out of what gifts and talents the Lord has given us. But obviously committing to serve and going the way that you are is a bit of a time commitment in a variety of ways, because, for instance, you know, it's not just on Sundays, is it? How do you balance that commitment to growing in your faith, serving our young people and maintaining a positive presence as you go about your daily work as well? 

Tom: Yeah. that's a huge thing for me. I think it's really important to have spaces in the Church that you give to that maybe draw on your energy levels and youth is that. It's great, but it can be tiring.

But also having spaces that you can learn from and grow in. And so small groups are great and I really appreciate the community that you have in that and the learning that you can get from that.

And I think that's really important in a work setting. I work in the civil service, so it's not always easy to share about your personal life, faith or otherwise. I have the odd conversation. I had a conversation with a guy last summer after DTI, and found out that he also serves as a youth leader in a church, I didn't even know he went to church! So it was really nice to have that community with someone to sort of support me.

But what I do try to do in the work setting, if I can't talk about my faith because it just doesn't come up so much as, is think of what I can control. I can control how I act and try to apply the sort of principles that Jesus taught us to have in work. 

That's honesty, integrity, kindness, how you treat people.

I try to bring that in where I can. 

Julian: And what I love about that is this if you call it, there's three aspects here where Tom is a part of our church. You're serving our young people, but also that's a catalyst for conversation in your everyday life. All of these things play together in helping extend the table in different ways because you're serving here in what you’re familiar with on a Sunday. But actually it has an impact on all areas of your life.

Thank you for sharing!

If you’re looking to find out more about serving on any of our Church teams, visit our Join a Team page or email hannah.miles@suttonvineyard.org for more information!