Looking at Ascent

I feel like I’ve been hit by a bullet train…those things are big and fast and they get people where they need to go in Japan…fyi. I’m just tired from the weekend but there is joy in my heart because of the many people I met interested in first serving. It was great to have the platform that I had to plug children and student ministry. But I want to take this week to describe some of the ministries going on, give people an idea of what we offer, so today we are going to look at Ascent, ministry for 5th/6th grade students:

Why: We wanted to create an environment suitable for tweens going through that transition of elementary school into middle school. We have high school students to mentor the tweens, to give them a role model close to their age and then we have adults to guide and mentor the teens. By doing this we hope to create a culture where the tweens as they grow older look to positive male and female Christian role models. At the same time we hope to teach the high school students how they can mentor and facilitate a Christian fellowship group.
Where: Theater and Classroom Wing
When: 4pm – 5pm

Before it all starts:

• 3:30pm – Adults and Small Group Leaders show up
• 3:30pm-3:35pm – Prayer and Review of the Day
• 3:35pm – 3:45pm – Small Group Leaders Go to Their Rooms and Review Materials
• 3:45pm – 4pm – Wait in theater for tweens (5th/6th graders) and greet them.

The program begins:
In the Theater

• 4pm – 4:25pm – Worship (This usually is a game/reflection and message)
• 4:25pm -4:55pm – Small Groups (There are 3 components to a small group)

In the Small Groups
Pray Together

• We pray at the end of the crowd program in the theater and ask that the groups pray together before discussion.

Share Life Together

• At the beginning of each group we want the teen leaders to check-in with the students see how their week went.
• Then each teen leader will ask the group a series of questions that pertain to the message. The questions are map to going deeper in the message.

Praying for One Another

• After everyone shares or there has been a period of silence the small group leader will ask all the pre-teens to bow their heads in prayer.

Before They Go Home

• 4:55pm – 5pm – Prayer
• 5pm – Dismissal