From the inception of God’s relationship with mankind, young people have had a pivotal place in the heart of our creator. When God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, He positions their hearts to include their offspring in the work He called them to do. At Good Shepherd, we follow in this foundational principle as we invite our students to know their Creator and participate in the work of our church.
In addition to Sunday morning worship, we offer our students ways to build a relationship with Jesus on a weekly basis. We believe involving our students in corporate worship is essential to their understanding of the body of Christ, but we also know students benefit from time in God’s word specifically catered to their stage of life. While calling them to growth and maturity in the Gospel, we also believe Jesus meets us where we are and we want our students to feel comfortable being wild and crazy. We want to engage their energy and intellect and see the Gospel through their hearts and minds as they reflect God as his image bearers in high school and middle school. We offer several opportunities throughout the week for our students to fellowship with each other and dig into scripture.
Large Group Meetings
Middle School on Wednesdays & High School on Sunday nights from 5:00-6:30 pm
We meet in the sanctuary or the gym at Good Shepherd and we provide dinner or snacks because we believe the Gospel meets us through food and full stomachs. We also play games because God meets us in the movement of our minds and bodies and our students experience this uniquely because of their energy levels. The Kingdom of God shows itself through the reading of His word and through a beautifully thrown dodgeball. Our Sunday evenings center around Bible study and discussion where we wrestle through the reality of sin in our lives and the call of Scripture to continual repentance and faith.
Sunday Morning
Sunday School – We include our Middle & High School students to join in with the adults in Sunday School.
Sunday Worship – We invite our youth to be a part of the large body in Sunday morning and to participate in worship.
Youth Trips
A large part of our theology of ministry involves getting our students out of Ocala. Our students hearts are shaped by the Gospel as they experience camps and retreats throughout the year. We strive to meet several criteria in our trips including:
1. The Gospel being preached and experienced by our students.
Our students experience the Word of God in beautiful ways when they hear the Gospel preached on our trips. When we pile students into a car and get them out of their normal routines, the Spirit moves and we experience Him afresh.
2. The Body of Christ being experienced outside of Good Shepherd.
One of my favorite parts of our trips began unintentionally. We have gone to camp for years and years but our students began forming relationships with other churches leaders and students and we absolutely love the way they experience the Church at large through these interactions. This has taken on different forms on various trips, from going to St. Louis with Seven Rivers to doing hurricane relieve work with Emaus United Methodist in Panama City to bing on teams together with various churches at summer camp. In each of these settings, our students see the Gospel is bigger than our church and there are other students and leaders that love Jesus and them even if they don’t see them on a daily basis.
3. The magnitude of the world being displayed to our students.
This applies more to our High School students, but taking our students to cities allows them to see the world in a different way than staying home. We have taken trips to St. Louis, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, New York City, Washington DC, Charlotte, Colorado, and Panama City and in each of these locations, our students get to see the magnitude of God’s creation and the beauty and brokenness of mankind. We believe this is a beautiful way to preach the Gospel to our students and we have watched our students go off to college in some of these cities.
We partner with Southland Student Conferences for our Middle School trips including:
Midwinter Retreat– Typically in early March
Camp Kulaqua– Third week of July in High Springs
Good Shepherd’s Youth Ministry exists to grow students’ relationships with their Creator and out of this relationship, to love broken people like us. We love students and we are honored that God gives us friendships with young people in our community.