Bridgeway Christian Church

Dear Student Ministry Parents,

I’m writing this letter to you to update you on some upcoming changes in the ministry format. As we roll them out I would like to assure you that the changes at hand have been well thought out, well reasoned and well planned. At this time we are making the announcement that we are changing our weekend service formats and that this change will be taking place on March 7th. The change will entail condensing all of our youth services (6 services in total 3 JRHS & 3 HS) for our weekends down to one (1) service per each age group.

Currently we are offering services at every service time the church has. However we are finding  this model of ministry to be counter productive to building community among the students therefore making their growth in depth a more challenging, if not self-defeating, process. It leaves many students with a feeling of divided community and lack of belonging as they try to feel out which service time they want to plug in to. This has an effect on their ability to really feel rooted. Students derive their sense of belonging from a different set of perceptions than adults do, they feel energy and excitement from a larger crowd, it more or less validates that they are somewhere they belong and that where they belong is identified as something of value or credibility. We as adults are able to bypass the need for large crowds and seek the intimate feel of a smaller group, but as most of you would recognize this was something we all matured into.  Due to this and in an effort to better utilize our volunteer staff as connection points we have made this decision.

As of March 7th we will move to a restructured service schedule for the youth and this is what it will look like :

Saturday 5:00 PM – no service
Sunday   9:00 AM – EDGE CAFÉ Jr High Service
Sunday 11:15 AM -  WEEKEND REFUGE High School Service

We understand that this limits the service options for our families, and we understand that there may be some inconvenience involved, however, we also believe that ministry to your children is being adversely affected by being spread over so many time slots. We hope that in our desire (yours as parents and ours as pastors) to see these kids grow in their relationships with Christ, in their depth of friendships, and in their connectedness to their community, we would be able to look past the inconveniences this may cause.  Our hope is to minister most effectively to the students, and to do that, understanding how they process and gather information through communal interaction is key. We hope that you understand our reasoning behind this and know that we are open to your feedback and thoughts. Please know that all of these things, pros and cons, considerations, arguments for and against have been prayerfully considered and we have only moved forward with the full consent of the Elders of the church. Please join us in this exciting new endeavor to make ministry to our students as impactful as we can!!

In His Strength
Justin Pritchard
Pastor to Students & Young Adults