Dear youth and parents,
I'm excited to share that UCC has been selected to participate in any exciting new opportunity this year. The Fuller Youth Institute (part of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA) has done some really amazing work over the last few years researching and quantifying what makes a young person choose to stick with the Christian faith and continue to be involved in church after they graduate. The result is an initiative they call "Sticky Church," and this fall they have been rolling out some incredible resources for churches and parents based on their findings. Last year Fuller pulled together a diverse group of churches to form a Sticky Faith Cohort, and over the course of 2011 the leadership of those churches attended conferences, logged on for webinars, and received phone coaching and consulting from Fuller's experts in order to produce and implement a plan to make their congregations more "sticky."
UCC has been selected for the 2012 Sticky Faith Cohort, and over the course of this year I'll be working with UCC's staff and lay leaders to develop a plan to make this church more sticky. Though this is something that will be very big for the youth ministry, it involves the entire congregation and requires a lot of big picture collaboration. Stay tuned for details as we start this journey, and hopefully as I share what's happening along the way you'll get excited about what this means for our church. To get a detailed preview,
click here for a video and more info.
Read on for info on reserving a Hanging of the Greens shirt (including kids sizes!), a canned food drive challenge between Chi Rho and CYF, a special Advent worship opportunity at
The Search, and a preview of our upcoming youth Christmas parties.
