The SHINE Youth ministry went through a few significant transitions in the second half of 2023. There was a leadership renewal with Ps Emmanuel and Ps Serena transiting out of the ministry, Ps Eliza returning from her studies in TTC and Emily joining on staff. Seth and Mark also stepped up as co-chairpersons. We are grateful for Ps Emmanuel and Ps Serena and their dedication to the ministry all these years. They will continue to support Ps Eliza and Emily and avail themselves for mentoring and pastoral help.
SHINE Youth ministry met regularly on Sundays after service, alternating between fellowship and cell group meetings. Our leaders and pastors took turns to share about different aspects of God’s character and facilitated discussions on what it meant for our lives during fellowship. At the same time, the youths were also studying a book of the Bible in their respective cell groups.
When the Eleven30 service started in September, we made the decision to shift our youth activities from Sunday to Saturday. With this shift, we also realised the need to build up and strengthen relationships within the youth community and made further changes to the shape and form of our ministry activities. From September, we met once a month for fellowship, twice a month for Bible studies in our cell groups, and once a month for a bonding activity in our cell groups.
We hope to be able to move from being a surviving youth ministry to a thriving one, where the youths are able to discover and own for themselves what it means to be a genuine disciple of Christ within the safety of the ministry and with the support of the larger church community. We are looking to invest more intentionally in the equipping of our youth leaders and expand our team of mentors and volunteers. We have started small group discipleship with our leaders to build them up, and to equip them to journey with the youths. We have also gathered the mentors into a team to look into the development and growth of our leaders.
We have two major events coming up in 2024 – Youth Sunday (7 Jul) and Youth Camp (9-12 Dec) – and we are praying that as we make preparations for these events, God will open doors and move mightily to inspire both the youths and the larger MPCC community to love and good works.
Our youths are of course an integral part of the MPCC community life and many of us served in church-wide events like our Sunday Services, Alpha Course etc. Some of us will be there at the coming Church Camp.
We continue to pray that the younger ones in our midst will continue to love and own the ministry of MPCC and find the freedom to lead and serve where needed.
This write up is contributed by Ps Eliza, Emily with additional thoughts by the Vicar.