Delaware Church of Christ in Christian Union

The RIGHT way for YOUth exists to Reach out to students with our belief in Jesus Christ by Involving them, Glorifying Him, Helping others, and Training for life.

R	Reach Out
I	Involve them
G	Glorify Him
H	Helping others
T	Training for life

In our denomination, the Church of Christ in Christian Union (D3CU), all of the youth groups are lumped together and collectively called Evangelical Christian Youth (ECY). Within our local church at Delaware, the leadership team wanted to come up with a name for our group to help give us an identity. So, we held a few brainstorming sessions. It's true we could have named the group something like 'The Barracuas' or 'Jesus Kids', but instead we chose 'The RIGHT Way for YOUth'.

There is a significance to the way the name is spelled. RIGHT is capitalized because it represents our purpose for the ministry. Typically, the purposes of a church and for any group within the church are: evangelism, fellowship, worship, ministry, and discipleship. What we did was to take these 5 purposes and come up with synonyms for each one. We selected the ones we though best suited our group --- what they would remember and understand. Let me show you the comparisons:

Evangelism	- - - - -	Reach
Fellowship	- - - - -	Involve
Worship	- - - - -	Glorify
Ministry	- - - - -	Help
Discipleship	- - - - -	Train

If you take the first letter of each of the new names for the purposes, it spells RIGHT !! Next, if you really stop to think about these 5 purposes, it is the right WAY for the youth. The reason for the capitalizing of YOU in YOUth, is that we want to remind the students that YOU are the important part. So, form all of our logical thinking, you get: The RIGHT Way for YOUth.

Now, we wanted to write a purpose statement. This is simply a way to remind everyone why the youth ministry exists. Again, this time we came up with:

"The RIGHT Way for YOUth exists to Reach out to students with our belief in Jesus Christ by Involving them, Glorifying Him, Helping others, and Training for life."

After further brainstorming on the best ways we could do all of this, our talks led us to a service for teens, young people, and anyone else that wanted to attend services on Saturday nights. We could utilize the sanctuary, the sound system, put together a live praise and worship band, and then have a time of fellowship afterwards. In other words, we began putting together a full-blown contemporary worship service called Abba's House and a time of fellowship called The RIGHT Way Cafe. These are our two main ministries which will help us in fulfilling our 5 purposes.

Abba's House and The RIGHT Way Cafe - Vision and Mission

The vision for these ministries is:

That each person should intimately experience God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in order to know Him and to make Him known.

How we plan to accomplish this is shown in our mission:

Abba's House and The RIGHT Way Cafe exist to help students and young adults:

*Link*	*- - - - -*	*Fellowship*
*Learn*	*- - - - -*	*Discipleship*
*Love*	*- - - - -*	*Worship*
*Lead*	*- - - - -*	*Ministry*
*Live*	*- - - - -*	*Evangelism*

Abba's House and The RIGHT Way Cafe are lay driven ministries. In other words, they are ministries that are being formed and operated with lay people from our congregation. A layperson is one who does not hold a degree in religion, theology, or related fields. It is someone who is not a professional pastor. In this ministry, we as lay people are accepting the challenge of new ministry opportunities. In Ephesians 4:11-12, we are told:

"It was he (meaning Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people (the congregation) for works of service, so that the body of Christ (the church) may be built up."

What is the Great Commission?

"He said to them, 'Go onto all the world and preach the good news to all creation.'" (Mark 16:15 NIV)

Abba's House is a contemporary service consisting of:

A Contemporary Christian Worship Band

Relevant Communication of the Gospel

Guided Response Time

Small Group Connections

The RIGHT Way Cafe will be a time for:

Refreshments

Relaxation

Recreation

Both of these ministries take place on Saturday nights at D3CU. Abba's House begins at 6:30 p.m. with The RIGHT Way Cafe afterwards.

In addition to the meetings on Saturday evenings, several events are held throughout the year in order to teach the Word of God at a deeper level for the youth and for them to grow in their understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also a time for them to make new friends.

Delaware Church of Christ in Christian Union (DCCCU)
162 Belle Avenue
Delaware, Ohio 43015
(740) 369-4943 Church Office