Pastor’s eNote: Weekly Update

Serving as a youth ministry worker has been one of the great joys of ministry. I started working with teenagers as a volunteer back in 1986 and was hired as a youth director in 1987 as a 19-year-old, barely older than the youth in our group. While lacking maturity and certainly much wisdom at that age, the youth in that group are now thriving with their own faith and families. (I’m looking at you, Ryan, Chad, & Brianna!) I give thanks that they have matured into lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.

Ministry with youth was the central focus of my ministry from those early days in 1986 up to 1998 when our church hired its first youth director as I assumed different pastoral work. It is only in the last year that I have ventured back into youth ministry at FFMC. During that time, we have sent two of our key youth off to college and have welcomed more and more youth from outside our church. Most of our youth group at FFMC do not attend with their families. They come alone and with their friends. You have likely seen them around Sunday worship each week.

Our youth ministry is alive in ways that few of us would have expected. Our Youth Ministry Coordinator, Jayde McCarrell, is largely responsible for much of what we are seeing the Lord do with our youth. While Bettina and I are there most Wednesday evenings along with Chuck and Sylvia Zittel, it is Jayde who has cast a vision for a youth ministry where students feel safe every Wednesday for youth group and every Sunday for worship and study hall afterwards.

Please join me in…
1. Praying for our youth to find faith and hope in Jesus Christ.
2. Praying for and supporting our youth with Wednesday dinners and more.
3. Praying for more young people to find a safe harbor at FFMC.

In all my years of youth ministry, I have not seen something like what the Lord is doing right now. I am humbled to have a front-row seat to some of the Spirit’s powerful work at FFMC. May it continue by the grace of God.

Grace to You All,

Pastor Craig Brown
(12/10/2024)