Youth Ministry at Trinity Park - Angus Macleod

As you may have heard many times already, I am the youth director at Trinity Park.

I am so excited to be here and be part of this church but also for my role with middle and high school students. I personally am a bit biased, but I think this is one of the best areas to serve in church.

This is because teenagers are some of the best thinkers in a church. They are people who are good at asking how and why questions. This may sometimes frustrate you at home, but our youth are grappling with who Jesus is and what that means for them as they grow up. Many of them have wonderfully heard lots about Jesus over many years and are now wrestling through this and thinking and asking lots of the how and why questions about Jesus.

I don’t think questions are a bad thing but a sign that God is at work. We want them to be theologically curious, and we as a church welcome questions because the Bible welcomes questions and has answers for many of them as we look, discuss and study together, as we seek to love God and enjoy him.

My role as a youth worker is to be a partner:

To support parents and guardians to answer these questions at home and to reach, love and teach their youth and to also welcome friends and neighbors in.

To support youth as they look to grow, thrive and develop into people who love and serve Jesus, their families, the church and their neighbors. And to help them live distinctively and live life compellingly for Jesus wherever God places them now and in their lives to come.

Our youth come from many backgrounds and like different things, but the good news of Jesus is the unifying message that enables them to grow. We want them to have meaningful experiences, building lasting relationships and we want them to feel known, seen, heard and loved in a grace-filled community.

I’m here to support the wider church to find ways we can pray, love, be involved and care for all the youth God has blessed us with. It’s a mighty provision from the Lord to have so many, and also a responsibility to do all we can to seek their good and flourishing, and that they might know Jesus personally and experientially. One thing you as the church can do is just talk to them and be present over the long term, or supply snacks, which keep our youth ministry running.

If your youth are grown up or yet to get there, or you do not have your own children, you can still play a huge role in discipleship, being involved in the lives of families and their youth. Supporting their burdens and being blessed by them, being part of their family as we all are part of one church family. Other supportive adults play a huge role in the development of youth and are a key link to them continuing to belong to the church into later life.

The youth are not just the church of the future; they are the church right now. I hope you all will join with me and the youth volunteers to pray for this ministry. Think of creative ways you can get to know families and ways you can point all youth to Jesus in many little ways over many years.

I would love it if every student could be with us each week, especially as we get started this term. Please could you make it a priority. I know life is busy and full. There is homework to do, Netflix to relax to, and many other things on. But I think learning the Bible together and growing and having fun together is so important. This year we are studying the Gospel of Matthew; we will build up a picture of who Jesus is, what he has done and why that matters above all else in this world.

If you have any questions or want to know more about anything we do or how to be more involved, please come and find me or send me an email. I would love to talk with you and answer your questions. Or invite me over for a meal. I love food, and would love to join you and your family around your table.

Thank you for joining with me in youth ministry at Trinity Park Church!