CBC YOUTH MINISTRY

Welcome friends and families to CBC Youth of Houston. We are a gospel-centered youth ministry located in Houston, Texas working with students and families to experience, understand, and live out the Gospel. We serve students from all backgrounds, all ethnicities, and all stages of spiritual life. We welcome you to join us on this journey of growing in Christ and with each other. If you're a non-Christian, we definitely want to welcome you to come and see why be believe the Christian life is not only good but it is worth it.

1. Vision & Mission

2. August 2024

3. Registration for Youth

4. Evaluation Form for Youth

5. Pastor Justin on Sabbatical

6. Tentative Calendar & Save the Dates

We exist to glorify God by making disciples of all people through Gospel truths and Gospel living. Our hope is to equip all youth to love God with all their heart, soul and mind as well as loving their neighbor, community and church.

Our hope in life and death is found in the person and promise of Jesus Christ. It is His mission and His instructions we follow for the "good life" here on earth - to love God and to love others; to make disciples who make disciples; and to be the salt of the earth & the light of the world. Our youth ministry is defined by Christ, grounded in Scripture, and lived out in every sphere of influence through our students, our parents, and our youth leaders.

We are not merely a youth program or an event center. We are purposefully here to know the goodness of the Gospel and to live in such a way where it changes us and all that come into contact with us. Subsequently, all of our programming, events, philosophies in the youth ministry aim to fulfill our goals.

For the month of August, our youth ministry itself will be on a sort of sabbatical. Joining the KidsMin, the youth program will ask the youth and leaders to go to Worship service and take the second hour (i.e. SS/DGs) off for the month. This will hopefully give us some extra time and space. However, we do want to utilize the month of August to be our on boarding time so we’ll use a few weeks to train and set vision.

August 4 (11:00-12:15) - Youth Group Registration & Evaluation: Students will have a chance to complete the youth ministry registration and evaluation form. Please continue to scroll in order to understand the reasoning and liability of registration. Note, your student MUST fill out a registration form in order to be fully registered for the 2024-2025 year (i.e. liability, communication, and agreements). The Evaluation form is also a requirement for each student. The evaluation form is an anonymous, internal survey that allows the leadership to gauge where our students are at in order for them to plan and customize the scope and sequence for the year.

August 11 (11:00-12:15) - Youth Leader Volunteer Orientation & Training: Students do NOT have any formal youth programming during the second hour and parents are responsible for their students. Current and future leaders are encouraged to attend this training.

August 18 (11:15-12:00) - Youth Parents Orientation - This orientation is designed for parents of youth to understand the nature of the youth ministry, its leaders, and meet other parents. This will also offer parents to ask any questions to the youth leadership. It is worth your time, we promise!

August 25 (11:15-12:15) - Promotion Sunday & 6th Grade Welcome (c/o 2031)

Sept. 1 (11:00-12:15) - Youth Praise and Youth Group Kickoff

Registration: We ask that all students who are interested in attending (and belonging) to CBC Youth Ministry officially register using our application form below. It is open to ANYONE who wishes to participate in our programs and direction under the pastor care of the youth pastor and leaders. This form only records your personal contact information, consent because youth are under 18yrs old, and expectations of the ministry.

What does registration mean/do?

• The student wants to participate in the youth ministry on a regular basis
• The students understands what the youth ministry is about (purpose and expectations)
• The student understands the benefits and responsibilities of belonging to the youth group
• The student & parents will receive constant communication from the youth group (concerning events, details, discipleship, and follow-up)
• The parent understands the nature of the youth ministry and their responsibility.
• The parent consents to liability waivers

We know that the backbone of any healthy ministry is really the leadership volunteer team. And now as youth and youth culture continues to change, we recognize the need of quality mentors to help students (and their families) in such a time as this. We're looking for those who 1) loves the Gospel and who has been changed by it...for them to in turn 2) love students and their families...to step in for a season to serve with us. Would you consider joining us for a semester?

***Required for all youth

This evaluation aims to gather insight from a comparative analysis of post-covid youth at Chinese Baptist Church. Upon completion, the students, parents, and leadership of the church will have a comprehensive understanding into the experiences, attitudes, behaviors, and discipleship of the youth ministry at Chinese Baptist Church. Furthermore, the project will identify unique cultural and generational factors that influence the post-pandemic experiences of the youth compared to the broader youth demographic.

EVAL FORM: https://tinyurl.com/genzminsurvey

Believe it or not, i'll be starting my 17th year at CBC as the youth pastor and starting year 25 working in youth ministry. You know that feeling or have you seen those movies where the person is nearing the finish line but instead of valiantly running through the tape, they are instead on the floor crawling towards the line? Yup, that’s me at the moment. While I love so many ministry moments with the youth, parents, and leaders this year…I’m simply spent. I keep joking (but not really) that it is so hard to recover from camp year after year now.

With that said, I want to remind everyone and give everyone a heads up that starting Sept. 1 all the way to Dec. 1, I’ll be on my pastoral sabbatical. Typically, our staff is given a 3-month sabbatical every 5 years. I haven’t taken a 3-month sabbatical…ever and I’m at the moment in my career and life where I desperately need some time to…rest, recharge, refocus, and seek the Lord of direction and guidance. During this time I’ll have fairly limited interaction with CBC and its ministries and I’ll have to lean heavily on our leaders and admin during this season. I pray that many of you not only step up for another year of serving our students, but you would see the beauty and joy of serving (even while I’m not there). Of course you are still my family and my people so if there are major life updates and major needs, please reach out.

Sept. 1 - Kickoff Youth Praise

Sept. 6 - ACCESS Kickoff

Sept. 8 - DG Kickoff

Oct. 24-26 - Rooted Conference (Dallas, Texas) - for youth workers & parents

Nov. 22 - ACCESS Potluck

Dec. 13 - Last ACCESS

Dec. 27-30 - Winter Retreat (Hunt Retreat Fulshear, TX)