Student ministry
our vision
Students guiding students into a lifestyle centered on Jesus.
Our values
At Lakewood’s Student Ministries, we value students finding life giving identity as a child of God with the given purpose to be a disciple and make disciples of Jesus Christ. We strive to connect students to a broader community by providing peer groups in which students follow Jesus together (core groups and bands), engaging students in the life of the greater church and offering service opportunities locally and abroad. We desire for each student to know and exemplify the transformational compassion of God and the uncommon peace that comes from walking in step with His Holy Spirit. We serve a diverse community of students that participate in a broad spectrum of extracurricular activities from sports to music to creative arts. We hope that every student we meet will come to know Jesus and grow in their faith as a fully formed disciple of Christ.
Sunday Mornings @ The Oasis
Oasis is our Sunday morning offering which meets every Sunday at 10:00 – 11:00AM in the Student Café. We have donuts, a game, Bible Study and then break off into high school and middle school discussion groups.
This year we are studying the overarching story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation looking at key stories in chronological order. In each story, we are asking the question “Where do we see Jesus?” as we emphasize the presence of the Triune God across the entirety of the Bible.
wednesday nights @ the well
Our weekly youth group gathering for students in 6th – 12thgrade is called “The Well.” We meet every Wednesday starting at 4PM for open gym and time to hang out with friends! At 5:30PM we serve a free dinner, and at 6:15PM we move into the Student Loft for worship. Worship time usually consists of a group game, sharing of testimonies from the week, contemporary worship led by our student worship band and then a 15-20 minute Scripture based sermon. At 7:15PM we break into Core Groups until 8PM. The whole night takes place on campus and students are always encouraged to bring their friends!
student ministry core groups
Core Groups is how we are inviting students to follow Jesus together and connecting them to a broader community. These groups meet every Wednesday night as part of The Well and our grade and gender specific. They average between about 6-10 students in a group, and are led by two amazing adult leaders who have gone through small group facilitation and Safe Sanctuary training. Core Group discussion questions are currently sermon aligned with the Sunday morning services and all core groups that meet across the Lakewood Methodist campus. This means if you are in an adult core group, you and your student will be studying the same thing!
We also have a Parent Core Group that meets on Sunday mornings at 10AM that is led by other Student Ministry parents. We do this to encourage spiritually rich conversations within the home that lead to whole family faith formation.
weekly off-campus bands
Bands are student groups that meet weekly off campus, where students can go deeper in their relationship with the Lord. All of our bands participate in daily reading of Scripture where we teach students to practice spiritual disciplines and make them a part of their daily rhythms. Each band has two adult mentors that are trained in both Safe Sanctuary and small group leading procedures. When bands meet, they not only go over the Scripture they have been reading but they ask weekly the Seedbed Discipleship Band questions: 1.) How is your relationship with Jesus? 2.) How is your daily time in Scripture and prayer? 3.) Do you have any struggles or successes you would like to share? 4.) Is there any sin that you would like to confess? 5.) How can we pray for you?
At Lakewood Methodist we call our volunteers “adult leaders” because our adults that serve are leaders in our ministry and we couldn’t do this without them! No matter what their assigned tasks, all of our leaders contribute to creating a culture of service, compassion, kindness and discipleship of Jesus Christ. There is an abundance of opportunities to lead such as helping with A/V tech needs, facilitating small group discussion, organizing student games, helping with event décor, serving on a mission trip team, and countless other ways (some of which we may not have even thought of yet). God has given each of us unique gifts and we want to know what yours is! So if you are interested in serving but not sure how to help, please reach out and we will find a spot for you!