Christian Community Fellowship Youth Discover New Depth In Prayer
By Carolyn Gibbs
May 2009
Praying, sharing, being real, has Christian Community Fellowship Church’s youth on the move.
Pastor Baird Nye said it has been amazing how God has spoken to his youth group. “God has spoken to them, but He is also using young people to speak into other young people’s lives,” Nye said.
Ceci Hall from North Bend is a member of the Church and part of the youth group that meets on Tuesday nights at the Church at 1640 W. Military Ave. in Fremont. “I love just hanging out and we pray and actually communicate with the Holy Spirit. It’s really cool,” she said. Hall is a junior in high school and often encourages her friends to come to the group on Tuesday. “I got my younger sister to come,” Hall said.
Rowan Mitchell, an eighth grade student from Fremont, also is part of the group. The best part of the group for him is the prayer time. “We do this thing where we all pray for one person. We communicate with the Holy Spirit about that person and it all fits together,” he said. He has gotten several friends to join the group. He said sometimes the youth get together for a fun night, where they hang out and play games.
Rissa Hall said her sister Ceci was always talking about what a positive experience it was. “I wanted to try it out,” she said. Rissa is a freshman in high school. For her the prayer time for another person is really positive. “The realness we have here is great,” she said. “We make sure everyone gets prayed for at one time or another.”
Sean Nelson from Fremont said he likes the fact that no matter who it is, they are made welcome. “The beginning time, even if there are people who come and have no interest in religion, is a place they can come and let it out,” Nelson said.
The group has other activities that draw other youth to their group. For those activities, they put up fliers of the event and Nelson said a good share of those youth then come to the Tuesday evening group. He said the Gospel is not shared in so many words, but rather through the groups’ relationship with each other and God. Those actions speak for the group’s purpose.
Nye attributes the group’s popularity to the ownership of the group. “It’s not about me coming up with activities, it’s about them coming up with topics,” Nye said. “We go from there, being able to let them either do a lesson or releasing them to act on it.” He said just as they shared about praying for each other and sharing about hearing God’s voice, they can look at it and discover what it means. “That leads into how we can practice it. It’s amazing how they have been open to that,” he said.
One of the activities that has been a success for the group is Band Night. Nye said it is one of those spontaneous things. “Again, it’s something they put together and we provide the place. We let them do their thing,” he said. The first year they had one band night, last year they had six. Some bands are local groups and some have come from Iowa and South Dakota.
“It amazes me how bands hear about it,” Nye said. He said they put up fliers around the neighborhoods to advertise and also to let people know the church is there. “In a survey we found that people right across the street didn’t realize we were open,” he said. “If they don’t know, we’re here, how will others know.”
He said the church is trying to come up with creative ways to let people know they are there. They want people to come to the church by choice, because they aren’t trying to steal people from other churches. “We want people to know who we are and to come check us out.”
According to Nye, the youth group will definitely go where God leads, but at the same time, the heart and purpose of the group is to see young people stand up for their faith when it’s so hard to do that. “We want to provide a place where they can feel they can be honest… a place where they don’t have to tell me what I want to hear,” Nye said. “If they are upset with God and feel God is distant, I want them to be able to say that.”
Nye’s heart is seeing young people seek God. “Jesus is definitely the heart beat of the Church and sometimes that’s symbolized by our young people. It’s from toddlers to teens and it’s what I see as the essence of the Church,” he said.
Nye believes the youth can influence the adults in the Church. “We need to learn from them about enthusiasm, because we get bogged down with life. On the other side the youth need to learn from the older people, and the wiser people,” Nye said. “It’s a balance. People need wisdom, but people need enthusiasm. It’s a learning give and take.”
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