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Youth & General Meeting
Our Youth & General meeting vision
1. Know and serve one another persistently. (1 Thessalonians 2:7–8; Hebrews 3:12–13)
Week-in and week-out, we will work to know each other more and more deeply — sharing our hearts and lives, praying for one another, asking questions, and bearing each other’s burdens. We will be persistent learners of one another. And with everything we learn — good, bad, or otherwise — we will strive to love and serve one another — meeting each other’s needs, encouraging growth, and helping one another thrive.
4. Pursue disciples for Jesus boldly and globally. (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8)
Our commission from Jesus is clear: Go, and make disciples. God saved us in order to send us. We are lights in a world of darkness that is desperately in need. We are God’s chosen means of spreading good news and winning worship for himself in every corner of this earth. Therefore, we are to be bold where we are, and we are to be behind what God is doing among the nations. We will witness for Jesus where we are, and send and support witnesses where we are not.
2. Depend on the Lord prayerfully. (Philippians 4:6–7; Hebrews 4:14–16)
Prayer will be the regular, visible engine of our community. We need God every hour, every minute of every hour, so prayer will be our means to everything. We will look to God for everything we need, never taking his provision for granted. When we’re alone and when we’re together, we will be a people of prayer — always adoring, always confessing, always thanking, always asking.
5. Rest in the gospel confidently and humbly. (Romans 8:1, 32, 37–39; 1 Corinthians 15:1–4)
Everything we think, say, and do as a small group stands on the firm foundation of the gospel. We have been saved by grace through faith, wholly apart from anything we have done or earned. We do not deserve God’s love, but in Christ we have it. We want our relationships, our meetings, and our ministry together to be shaped by and soaked with the gospel. This message should produce the boldest confidence and courage, and it should produce the most tender and compassionate humility.
3. Meet God through his word faithfully and expectantly. (Psalm 19:7–11; 2 Peter 1:3–4)
The Bible will play a central role in our community because it holds the words of life. We need those pages more than we need food, and there are always more riches to be seen, enjoyed, and applied in our lives. We read faithfully — meaning regularly and with the eyes of faith — and we read expectantly — anticipating God to speak and move each time we open his book.
6. Work out our salvation soberly and joyfully. (Philippians 2:12–13; Galatians 5:1, 13, 25)
Lastly, we are committed to living more and more like Christ. It is the joyful privilege of God’s people to be conformed to the image of his Son. It is not pretty or easy, but it is undeniably good and important. Year by year, week by week, even day by day, we will be identifying areas of weakness or failure, receiving forgiveness because of the finished work of Christ, and then working together for change.
That’s an example vision statement — six things we hope to experience together as we invest ourselves into one another. Yours might be the same, similar, or completely different. The point is that it offers a few objective points that bring the purpose of a small group into focus and help you assess its health and progress.
