JOURNEY HIGH SCHOOL MINISTRY
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High School
Journey is name of the high school youth program at Community of Hope. Our goal is to help high schoolers on the journey through navigating school, friendships, and a relationship with Christ as they start transitioning from school to the bigger world of college and beyond. Any adult working with our students completes and passes a background check.
Sunday Morning Bible Study
Middle and high schoolers are invited to join us Sunday mornings for time in fellowship and learning about the Lord. Bible Study happens during the school year from September through May at 9 am before our worship service. Bible study pauses over the summer months. During the 2022-2023 school year the youth will be watching and discussing the TV show called The Chosen. Click HERE to learn more about it.
Sunday Night Youth Group (September through May)
Sundays are a fun time full of games, food, and activities. Nights are often themed. Past themes have been: Glow Night, BBQs, Duct Tape Night, Capture the Flag, Photo Scavenger hunts, service projects, and more! Around the holidays we like to do seasonal activities like going to the pumpkin patch in October, or heading to the Zoo Lights around Christmas. Youth group events are sometimes combined with our middle school youth and sometimes separate.
Throughout the year we have additional fun traditions such as our annual White Elephant Christmas party, Blazer Games, bowling, and more!
Summer Youth Group (June through August)
Over the summer, we have youth group on Wednesday night. We start the summer activities with Tour de Fries, our French fry tasting event. Over the summer we have many campfires complete with s’mores and hot dogs. We play with water balloons and squirt guns. We have a volleyball court outside where we play games. We also have a time in God’s Word after dinner and before the games begin. Sometimes we are combined with middle school youth group, and sometimes separate!
Mission Trips
Our high schoolers have gone on TWO amazing mission trips to the Dominican Republic in July 2017 and June 2018. We worked with a local church and put on a Vacation Bible School camp for kids in a low-income area. August 2019 the youth went to Baja, Mexico to serve with an organization called Foundation for His Ministry. Let us know if you are interested in helping or have a youth that would like to go on a future trip. It is our goal to use the mission trip to teach youth to serve and interact on a global scale. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus tells the disciples they must go and make disciples of all nations.
Choir
Note: The Kids & Youth choir is not currently meeting or practicing at this time.
Around Christmas and Easter time we have choir. Choir practices take place on Sunday mornings. Christmas choir goes from the end of October through December. And Easter choir takes place around a month or two before Easter. Our choir is a children’s and youth choir from Kindergarten through high school. We have speaking parts and solos available to those who would like them! No try outs or experience necessary. The practices lead up to a performance a few weeks before Christmas and a week or two before Easter.
Girls & Guys Nights
Quarterly we have girl’s nights for the middle and high school girls of Community of Hope! In the past we have painted pottery in Wilsonville. We have had a tea party with another church before, and we have had a sleepover movie night. These evenings are a great time to come together as the girls of the church (and their friends!). These evenings normally involve yummy food, fun activities and lots of laughter. There are also middle and high school guys nights including video game nights.
Confirmation Classes
We offer confirmation classes for middle and high schoolers. Confirmation is a time where kids are given an opportunity and a place where they can ask questions and take a deeper look at their Lutheran beliefs and faith. When the classes are over they stand before their church family and confirm their faith and their responsibility in continuing to grow in their faith. This is a rite of passage for older children taking steps into adulthood.
“I have sworn and I have confirmed it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances.” Psalm 119:106
Service Projects
The youth participate in several service projects throughout the year. One project is called Blessing Bags. The youth make bags full of soap, toothpaste, comb, band aids, safety pins, wipes, and more including a special prayer and note. The congregation purchases these bags at cost and can hand them out to homeless people. Another project the youth do throughout the year are called Flower Bombs. They make bouquets of flowers and put them in mason jars. Then put them in random locations around the city like outside Subway, Costco, Target, Wood Middle School, banks, etc., for people to find. Each bouquet has a card that says: Yes I’m free! Take me! We also put John 3:16 on the back. Our last service project is a weekend event called 30 Hour Famine. The youth go without food for 30 hours and get donations for the organization, World Vision. Throughout the weekend the youth participate in service projects, and learn about the poverty and hunger crisis in the world.
Health and Release Form
Youth attending events are required to fill out both sides of this health and release form below. If they have friends attending events, the friends also need to fill out the form. If youth will get dropped off or picked up by someone other than a parent or guardian, they need a note explaining this. These rules are in correlation with our child and youth safety policy.
Download the form below:
YOUTH GROUP PARTICIPANT HEALTH AND RELEASE FORM 2021 and forward