1. Our new ministry name - “The Seed”
Starting from 2nd Sunday of August, LWF (adult group) and Exit (youth group) will become one ministry. The new name is “The Seed”. Since 2014 September, both groups began to have a joint service. Initially, we wanted to try it for a year and decide whether to continue or meet separately as before. However, when I visited Harvest in Orlando last February and saw what intergenerational ministry could be, I slowly began to consider it as God’s new direction for our ministries. So once we had good feedback about our first joint summer retreat last year, I shared this new direction with pastors and EM leadership team. All have shared that they felt God is leading us into this direction.
Even though LWF and Exit met in the same service, it was challenging to have one identity because names were different. So we now have one name. We have been designing new logo, new banners and other changes for last few months. But the biggest change will be this: Flock changes its name to “Youth House Church” and will now be lead by “adult” youth shepherd.
What brought this big change is due to the question I’ve had after serving in EM for 8 years. “How can we help youth to sustain their faith even into their adulthood?” According to research, the most lacking age demographics in the modern church is “19 to 30”. (aka “Millenials”) The biggest reason is many youth abandon their faith once they enter college/university. After my own research, I came to conclude that in order for youth to have authentic faith even after their graduation, we need to make sure they belong to a small group of community (“circle”) and have an “adult” figure who could serve a role model. (We consider college and above as adult)
Total of 12 youth shepherds in the past 4 years have served well and many confessed it helped them to grow significantly by serving. But I’ve also heard about challenges that come from leading people in same age group or even older. So I believe this change will alleviate those issues. But youth will still be able to serve as “intern” youth shepherd and learn to serve and lead without having the burden of being responsible for the entire group. (I will share the detailed changes to YHC in the near future) I would like sincerely thank all the previous Exit staff and youth shepherds for their service and comittment that lead us this far. I pray and hope the new change will bring greater unity in our group and bigger influence in the next generation.
