We caught up with Dan Wicks, our Youth Worker, who came on staff in September. Dan is also helping the church with Events Management and our Sound & Lighting Tech.
Dan, what have been the highlights of your first three months working for Hope Church?
It has been an incredible three months here at Hope. I came in to the role in September and it feels like my feet haven’t touched the ground yet. We have seen our youth numbers rise, culminating in our Christmas party with 24 young people present. This is great to see and I am excited with the rate of growth we are seeing.
We have had to increase our Sunday morning provision and now meet in 2 separate rooms as Grid and Substance. In September we changed the way Tuesday nights worked and introduced Deeper, an evening where the young people can come and go deeper with God. One highlight was a split boys and girls session. With the guys, we saw God speaking to us through prophetic words - it was incredible to see them listening to God and responding to his voice. The girls spent time looking at self-esteem and God’s ideas of beauty. This was followed by a time of group reflection and prayer. The most amazing thing was the feedback after the session. One parent told the team their daughter opened up to her parents like never before, explaining the whole session and how God had spoken to her. Some parents said their boys came back ‘buzzing’ from their night of prayer and prophecy. Then in November I had the privilege of gathering together the whole Youth Team to share my vision and we had a time of prayer and discussion about the coming year ahead. There was a great buzz about the place and what God is going to do in the future.
What’s going on in the youth work at this time?
In September, we launched our new mentoring program and we now have 80% of our young people hooked up with a mentor to meet with every couple of weeks. We also meet every Tuesday with Deeper and Café alternating weeks. We regularly see young people come and chill out at café as well as meet with God in a variety of ways at Deeper. Grid and Substance have outgrown their rooms and so we should see a new venue in 2015 for Substance.
What are you excited about looking forward to 2015?
The biggest and most exciting thing that we are launching in January is our new identity. Youth4Hope has served us well for the past few years but it is time for a change. As of January 2015, the youth ministry here at Hope will be known as LEGACY – a generation redefined. We will have a new identity and program launching plus a number of fresh and exciting opportunities opening up for the young people here at Hope. We will see Deeper go weekly on Tuesday nights, with Café running fortnightly on a Friday Night. We'll have Bi-monthly worship nights, a weekend away in April and the launch of Legacy Youth Council. I am so excited about January 2015 and the year ahead.
As you are aware this kind of programme cannot happen without a large and committed youth team. We are always looking for people to join the team. So if you have a heart to see the next generation redefined to be the people God made them to be, please get involved - we need you!
There are opportunities to serve in so many ways with Legacy. You can mentor a young person, get involved on a Tuesday night with Deeper, Friday nights with Café and Sunday mornings with Grid (11-14s) or Substance (15-18s). If you feel that serving within Legacy is the place for you then please contact me and we can talk.
