What youth group is actually for, written by someone who grew up in it ... and then came back to serve in it.
The Redemption Church youth group consists of about 50+ students ranging from various backgrounds and grades 6 through 12. These students face a lot of day to day pressures: academics, sports, social pressures, family struggles, plus navigating the world of technology and social media. At a very basic level, the youth group exists to provide support, community, mentoring, consistency, and a way to make meaning out of their experiences. Through participation in this community of faith, students can explore their emerging identities, learn faithfulness to a group, experience mentoring, learn to inhabit the tradition, connect with God through sacred space, and find a support system that can help them navigate a chaotic, stressful, and demanding time of life.
Youth group isn’t a competition. Unlike most other aspects of our lives, there’s nothing to win here, so students can’t establish their identity through achievement alone. Instead, youth group is a safe place to discover their own identity as it is shaped and shared within the group. In almost every other environment, students are asked to prove themselves, to win a sense of worthiness through achievement. Redemption’s youth group is nothing like this. This group asks nothing of you, demands nothing, except for your honest and faithful presence in this space. There are no requirements for belonging and no demands that must be met in order to be accepted. All students have to do is show up and be themselves as best they can. As students listen to each other, make space for each other’s experiences, and learn to tell the truth about their own lives, they ... whether they realize it or not ... agree to go on a journey of self-discovery together. The hope is that as students tell their stories, and learn the story of God, they will come to a sense of who they are becoming, not just as individuals, but as part of the people of God.
Youth group is a community of people who are learning what it means to be faithful to one another. This happens while playing games, hearing lessons, participating in small group discussions, taking trips together, and in the spaces before and after youth group. But across everything is this underlying concept that youth group is a place to learn what it means to be cared for and to care for others. As students and leaders show up in support of one another they grow and experience belonging.
Small group leaders serve as adult mentors, providing guidance and teaching, listening to students, and holding their stories with respect. These adults aren’t there to enforce religious rules. They’re there to listen, to help students process their experience, and to give them the confidence that even their struggles will shape them in life-giving ways. There are also opportunities for student mentorship. Older students are given the responsibility to help lead the group through the senior internship program, and as they share with the group during our yearly traditions. As younger students observe the older students serving as senior interns, as they listen to wilderness stories or senior speeches, they get to see the progression that awaits them if they keep coming back. Through this peer mentorship they can see a path to follow. They learn how to be a team player, and gain the confidence that they can do it themselves.
Redemption Church observes the seasons of the Church Calendar, engaging in the rhythms, practices, and traditions other Christians have followed for generations. Our U18 leaders have spent years developing age appropriate ways to observe the Church Calendar. Simply by participating in the yearly rhythms of youth group, students go on a sacred journey. Many students will move through this church calendar seven times over the course of their years in youth group. This will not only teach them Christian practices and the story of God, but will give them a sense that they’re part of something bigger than themselves, something ancient and transformative. The Church Calendar gives a framework through which they can learn how to relate to God, self, each other, and the world around them. As the seasons come around each year and they engage in the same rituals and practices once again, it brings incredible stability to the long trudge of middle and high school.
Part of our rhythm involves the observance of sacred space, an age-appropriate contemplative spiritual practice such as a time of personal reflection with a story, song, video, or scripture passage. The goal is to provide an environment where students can gain the confidence that they have everything they need to connect with God, just as they are right now. They don’t need to have grown up in the church. They don’t have to be an adult, or even really understand what they are trying to do. All they have to do is be in the moment, find a place of reverence, and engage their bodies, minds, and spirits with God. These experiences of God are deeply personal, but are also communal, experienced together as a group.
Rest / Stillness / Contemplation
A practice of SabbathWriting / Reflection / Call and Response
A practice of ConfessionReading / Iconography / Visio Divina
A practice of Re-memberingDrawing / Building / Painting
A practice of CreatingAs humans we search for ways to make meaning of our lives. Sacred space is a practice that helps us make meaning of ourselves and the world around us.
Nothing can be more important to students than to find a place they know they belong, a place where they can tell the truth about their lives without being judged or punished for their mistakes. Students learn to hold each other’s stories, support each other, and be encouraged by their peers. This can be incredibly life-giving. Students are asked to bring all of their experiences to this place (including the good, the bad, and the ugly) where they will find nothing but wholehearted acceptance and solidarity. This is a rare and precious gift for students who often feel judged, or who are not always comfortable sharing their experiences.
It shaped and molded my imagination about myself and the world. It changed the way I relate to others and gave me a sense of hope that I am not alone.
Youth group gave me courage to be myself. In middle school and high school I felt pressure to find my “thing.” Like many kids, I compared myself to my peers and felt that there was nothing I was really good at. Youth group made me realize that I am already enough. It taught me how to love and be loved. And through that process I began to believe that I am competent and capable in what I do and who I am. On Sundays when we bless the kids in church we say “...may they never know a single moment that they don’t feel part of the people of God.” That line from the blessing resonates deeply with me. It reflects the journey that I went on. It has become a mantra that cues me to remember I belong where I am and am not alone.
The hardest part of youth group for me was graduating. When I went to college I missed my community, and all it provided. I was realizing: youth group had ended, but its effect on me was ongoing. As I began to reorganize my life at school, I could see patterns in my actions that mirrored the way the youth group was organized. I turned these patterns into weekly practices that I now follow. Each day I choose a practice that I think will fit the theme of the day and that connects back to things I picked up from the church. Below I will list the themes and descriptions of some of the practices that I do.
After graduating I turned the patterns I noticed in youth group into a set of weekly practices. Each day I choose one that fits the theme of the day.
On these days my focus is to set aside time to be calm and quiet. Much like sacred space, this practice offers a break from the noise and chaos of the week.
Here I practice community. Like the church community taught me, my focus is on making connections, learning from others, and serving those around me.
These practices remind me that being uncomfortable is good. Expanding your horizons and encountering new things can be rewarding even if at first difficult.
We all go through seasons of wilderness. Gratitude helps remind me that I matter and that my life matters. I have found that this weekly rhythm helps ground me in times of pain.
At this point in my week I take a chance to contemplate my week and my feelings. Here I try to run towards my emotions or spend time in self reflection. The affirmation piece of this practice is not to build false confidence or to brag. Instead the idea is to work on self esteem. I try to forgive myself for my mistakes and build confidence for the next week.
My hope is that these practices will provide activities for others to do when they are away or feel distant from God. You may find these practices fit well with you, or you may find that the themes and descriptions encourage you to form a different habit. These practices embody what I learned from youth group, provide meaning to my life, and offer a chance to practice my own form of ministry (or leadership) in the groups around me.
God doesn’t run away from our brokenness. God runs toward it.
Redemption Church’s youth group is not meant to be a distraction from normal life, or a form of escapism from the pain and brokenness of the human experience. Students won’t be told that God is going to fix what seems wrong, or solve all our problems. Rather, they will be told the good news, that God doesn’t run away from our brokenness, God runs toward it. God is with each of us through every single experience of life. And along the way, their participation in youth group will offer them a sense of identity, the experience of faithfulness and mentoring, an invitation to inhabit this ancient tradition, to connect with God, and to find and provide meaningful support along the way. As students show up for one another, and listen to others tell the truth about their lives, they may realize that they are not alone.
Lewis Suttle wrote this as the capstone project of the 2026 Redemption Church summer internship. Questions about youth ministry are always welcome ... email Cole McGee or plan a visit.
