Student Ministries

William L. Pitts, Jr.

We will provide a place for students to BELONG;
teach them what we BELIEVE;
and see them BECOME Christ-followers.

Our challenge each year is to live out this mission statement. In 2002 we did that in the following ways...

Belong: The church made a huge sacrifice to turn a dark and dingy, little used gym into an incredible student center called "The Loft." By equipping it with the technology for multimedia presentations and a sound system that lets our youth-led worship band have a sound that speaks to the world and not just to church, Central provided a place in our building for students to know that they belong.

Between the new space and the "catching of the vision" for what this ministry can be, students began filling this place up with friends that they wanted to share Christ with. Between the spring of 2002 to the present, we have seen our high school numbers double from about 30 students to an average of 65 students each week. And we see about 75 different students during the month! Students are finding this church building and this church community a place where they feel like they can be themselves; a place where they can belong.

Believe: We took a team of 15 to student evangelism training in April. Our team saw things happening that we believe should be normal at Central. A wide variety of students: skaters, punks, athletes, brainiacs, smokers, and geeks all lost their labels and were allowed to be themselves in a place that showed them unconditional love. This experience helped our students to catch the vision for what God has called us to do as a ministry. Since then we have been sharing that belief consistently in our leadership group, our small groups, and our main teaching times.

How do we know that students are learning to believe what we believe? We have had 2 student-led ministries start up this past year. One is a ministry to the homeless in inner-city Baltimore and the other is a small group that focuses on Bible Study and acts of service. These ministries were born out of the vision of our students. They believe that they are the church of today. They aren't waiting until they get older to make a difference.

We've also seen the size of our satellite stations (small group Bible study and accountability groups) double from last year. They continue to grow, and are only limited at this point by our need for adult volunteers to help lead these groups!

Become: If they feel like they belong and they learn what we believe, we know that with God's grace they will become Christ-followers. We have seen 5 students this year make first-time decisions to accept Jesus as Savior. We continue to help all of our students understand that Jesus needs to be their Lord.

We also saw 40 students live out their faith through mission trips this year in Mexico, South Carolina, Peru and inner-city Baltimore.

Christ has us on a journey with Him. He is helping us become who He wants us to be. We won't be that finished creation until the day He takes us home. Students are becoming Christ-followers in this ministry and understanding that following Him is an up and down, sometimes easy, mostly hard, lifelong process. In this ministry, just as in this church, we are doing life together as we each become this new creation He calls us to be.