Earlier in the service (not recorded on audio), I (Pastor Ben) spoke about some of the ways that our kids and youth ministries impact our community. If you missed what I said, you can check it out below along with some other things I didn't have the time to share.
Pastor Mike asked me to share for a few minutes about how our family ministries impacts our community. That’s a really important question. Churches should always ask, “If we were to disappear from our community, would we be missed?". Through some of the things mentioned below, I think you'll be able to say that this community needs and loves Arlington Woods Church.
KIDS MINISTRY:
- POP (Parents of Preschoolers) drop-in on Mondays- creates a community for parents and their preschool kids. We average about 50-70 people each week with a good 75% of parents and kids being from our neighborhood. This is one way we can show parents and kids that our church loves and supports them.
- Summer Blast kids nights- Each summer we run a few evening kids programs where at least half of the kids who attend aren't regular attenders at Arlington Woods. We provide supper, games and activities, crafts, music, and share a Bible-based lesson. Another advantage to this is that it allows parents to drop off their kids and go out on a date night!
- The Bike Rodeo- This is a HUGE annual community event that sees hundreds from our neighborhood come with their kids. The Bike Rodeo is also co-sponsored by Trend-Arlington Community Association (our neighbourhood community centre). Through the BBQ and bake sales, we've given THOUSANDS of dollars to help our local schools provide for kids/families in need (food, clothing etc...) and have supported other community organizations.
- The Royal Ball (coming on February 17th) is another community event that many neighborhood kids and families look forward to every year. It features snacks, crafts and activities, games, a dance party, a photo booth, and we try to share a very simple message- that God loves kids (we're sons & daughters of the King) and thinks they're amazing.
- Easter Sunday- Every Easter Sunday we have a community continental breakfast and easter egg hunt for kids before our service. Over the years we've seen many community families participate and stay for our KIDZONE program and Sunday service to hear a message about God's love and forgiveness.
- Family Movie Nights- Several times a year we host fun family movie nights and provide free popcorn and drinks to our guests. When we hosted one in January, the vast majority of those who attended were from our neighborhood. This is just a simple way we can help foster a spirit of community and provide a fun, free event for families.
- Community Involvement- We encourage people from Arlington Woods to be involved in community events. We often see several people from our church serving food or helping at the annual community winter carnival, and many of our families join in for our community clean up day.
- Other Community Initiatives- Just before last summer, we were vandalized, where a fair bit of damage was done to our building. We found out that three young kids (under the age of 12) were the ones who had done the damage. We talked to them and their parents (without getting the police involved) and Sam, our summer student, oversaw them doing clean-up work around the church all summer to help them take responsibility for what they had done.
- Restoring Hope- Restoring Hope is a youth shelter (specifically for teens) in downtown Ottawa. Over the year, kids from our KIDZONE program have donated toiletries, notebooks, small toys, snacks, and drinks, and created artwork, putting them in gift bags for teens who drop-in to the shelter. Each bag we've given sends the message that our kids (and our church) loves and values these teens. (see pictures below)
YOUTH MINISTRY:
- Over half of those who are a part of our CATALYST youth program on Fridays are teens who are not a part of our church. Each week we do crazy games, sing worship songs, hear what the Bible says about their lives, we share highs and lows about our weeks and pray together, we enjoy delicious snacks, and do a bunch of fun monthly events. Coming this Friday, we have a special guest from THRIVE (FIRST PLACE OPTIONS) who will be chatting about how to make good decisions when it comes to dating and relationships—which, I think we can all agree, is important stuff to learn BEFORE you’re dating!
- In February at CATALYST we’re running some of the YOUTH ALPHA sessions, where we watch fun video segments about the basics of the Christian faith and get teens thinking and discussing what they believe.
- Youth Offering- Each week at CATALYST we encourage the teens to give a couple of dollars in our youth offering. Every December, we get teens to vote on the needs that are most important to them as a whole, and then we use the money they've given to meet those needs. This year, the things that were, far and away, the needs our teens were most passionate about was providing emergency water and sanitation, and stocking a medical clinic with supplies through World Vision.
- Over Christmas, our teens (and kids) helped create and decorate cards for some of our church’s seniors or people who are sick and can’t be a part of our church community on a regular basis--and just last week I received a nice note from one of those seniors expressing how much receiving that card meant to them.
- Capital City Mission- Every February, our youth group has a MISSION WEEK where we take two small groups of teens downtown to the Capital City Mission to serve coffee, cookies, and sandwiches to the guests that drop in. The guests range from people who are homeless, to those who are lonely and needing community. Leading up to that week, teens can be involved by baking and decorating cookies on one of youth nights or providing snacks or sandwiches that we can bring with us. This February we will also have one of the leaders at the mission come and speak to our group about what they do and why it's important.
