What's Going On?

 

 

 

As a young man, I went to a small church located on Saticoy and Wilbur (currently named “La Iglesia De Poder De Dios”)  and was both the youth pastor and youth group.  (This micro-youth group was perhaps an extreme example of living for an “audience of one.”)  In any case, I spent much of my early teen years hoping and praying for Christian friends.  In fact, the only Christian friends with whom I had any relationship were those friends whom I had led to the Lord.  I literally had to “make Christian friends.”  This experience of growing up without the benefit of a youth group compels me toward my hope for our kids at the Valley Vineyard.  My hope is this:  Community.  I want a group of kids that are a congregation- not a crowd, a cause- not a concern.

 

I see two things as necessary- two things inherent in the word “Community.”  The first stems from the prefix “co.” In other words, my hope is that our kids will form into a body of young believers who share their lives with one another.  As the aphorism goes;  Love is a four-letter word spelled T-I-M-E.

 

The second aspect of community is likewise obvious and emanates from the root word “unity.”  Thus, I envision the youth at the Valley Vineyard together pressing towards the higher calling of our God.  I hope for a unity, where all  teens are welcomed into this pressing onward together, not only as a local body of youth but also as connected to the larger body of the church and the Christian Community as a whole.
In my later teens, God answered my prayer and placed me in a youth group that became a family to me.  With those friends, I have forged life-long relationships.  I have found that community can connect a kid to web of relationships that can counteract the inundation of our American youth culture.  While the statistics show that only one-in-ten kids who are raised in the church still attend church in their twenties, I believe that we can invert that statistic.  Life-long relationship with those who are pursuing God and his counter-cultural ways is the goal of our community here at the Valley Vineyard.
You are invited.

 

Dan and Michelle Keenan