The Gathering

Mission: We believe God can transform hearts at any age and so are committed to teaching the scriptures to and creating a true community among the next generation that they might know God, and through their changed lives make His name famous and serve others.

Connect: Barna has said that as many as 75% of all teens who were raised in the church, depart from the church upon graduation from high school. While there is no consensus as to why this is the case, one reason is that in evangelical churches today, students are systematically separated from the adult community for nearly all church activities. They have their own Sunday morning services and mid-week youth group activities. While well intentioned to help students connect with one another, without some connection to the larger body of the church, it is not surprising that they will find little interest in being a part of it after graduation. To this end, we will attempt to find a balance between creating environments where students can uniquely connect with one another, but also purposely pursue opportunities for them to be fully engaged in the larger church body.

• Weekly mid-week opportunity for teaching and connection uniquely constructed for the needs of students
• No regularly scheduled Sunday morning student activities in order to provide the opportunity for theGathering to worship together as a diverse community.

Encounter: Some studies also indicate that as many as 85% of all adults who profess faith in Christ, also indicate that the beginning of that faith journey began before their 20th birthday. This indicates that God covenantally works through families to expand his kingdom. It also indicates that young people may be more willing to consider spiritual things than adults. It is the prayer of every parent, that the faith of their child becomes their own, rather than just the adopted faith of the parent. We believe that this spiritual formation and discipleship best occur in the context of small group discipleship for students as well as for adults.

• Regular small discipleship groups as a part of the mid-week event.
• Develop and reproduce student leaders through discipleship groups

Inspire: While serving others is one of God’s primary means for reaching the community around us, there are patterns in scripture that indicate that is also essential to the healthy growth of the Christian. Jesus had the apostles serve as he taught them and Paul took Timothy to the mission field with him. Seeing their own faith in action may be one of the most important components in personalizing their own faith.

• Regular opportunities for serving in CaféNext through Team G-[next]
• Periodic service opportunities in our city and the region
• Occasional opportunities to serve internationally through our mission partnerships

Please Contact Pastor Derrick: derrick@thegatheringnc.org