Youth Formation
Youth Sunday School – 10:30 -11:00am
Current events and lectionary based discussions on being a Jesus Follower.
Wednesday Night Youth -6pm-7:30pm
We have a vibrant and active group of young people at Good Shepherd. All 6th through 12th grade are invited to participate in our youth programs.
Click below to Join Us!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Youth Sunday School meets at 10:30am in the Youth Building. We always enjoy some yummy snacks, and a quick liturgical Gospel lesson before watching the Church Service on YouTube. After the peace, we walk over to the Nave to join our parents in Communion.
YOUTH EVENTS
Baseball games, seasonal parties, and lock-ins, the Youth Group meets monthly for a special event. To sign up for our Youth Newsletter, click here. Each week, the Youth meet on Wednesdays and Sundays to discuss current events and form community. Parents are invited and welcome to attend and help out!
During the school year, we also faciliate activities for students to get involved with other community ministries. From Summer Service Projects to special projects, students learn to give back to the community.
This past summer, our Pilgrimage Group traveled to Gulf Shores, Alabama to discuss the grief of loss suffered during the pandemic. Many things changed and as such, it became important to discuss and faciliate an understanding of the loss. The Youth Pilgrimage occurs every two years along with our Confirmation Program.
ACOLYTES & CHALICE BEARERS
The youth are active in the liturgical life of the parish, serving as acolytes and chalice bearers. We have also have youth serve as ushers and lectors from time to time. In addition, we celebrate Youth Sunday twice a year where our youth not only serve in these roles, but also as our preachers for the day.
A schedule is currently being created and remember that your Acolyte Masters want YOU to find a sub if you are not able to be here on the Sunday that you are scheduled.
CONFIRMATION
We are all welcomed in to the Body of Christ, the family of the Church, at baptism. For those of us baptized as infants, our parents and godparents assumed the responsibilities and promise of baptism for us. Confirmation is the sacramental rite in which candidates are invited to “express a mature commitment to Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and laying on of hands by a bishop (Book of Common Prayer, p. 860).” It is the time to proclaim for yourself what your parents and godparents proclaimed for you at baptism-a big decision and a big responsibility.
PILGRIMAGE
As a form of prayer, the pilgrimage is an incarnational prayer, a prayer of the body. The pilgrim is a person who prays with his/her feet.
~Edward Hayes
Along with the opportunity offered our older High School youth to make a mature and public affirmation of their faith in the sacramental rite of Confirmation, an intentional time of travel and journey is offered this same group of youth in the shape of our bi-annual youth pilgrimage. Confirmation and Pilgrimage provide opportunities for self-reflection, growth, and group bonding; both are informative and transformative experiences.
The youth pilgrimage experience grew out of the Journey to Adulthood model. Groups from Good Shepherd have journeyed to Ireland; Greece; Alaska; Astoria, Oregon; San Diego, California; and, this year, to Alabama.
Our model of pilgrimage invites the parents of the current group to set parameters in the way of cost and travel. The youth are then invited to dream of those thin places they might travel to encounter the “Other,” the places where the saints (big “S” and little “s”) have walked before, and then discern within the parameters offered by the parents where ultimately they will journey.
The youth along with adult leaders have the responsibility of preparing and fundraising for the pilgrimage and walking the way together in prayer.
DIOCESAN YOUTH ACTIVITIES
Diocesan Youth Ministry in East Tennessee seeks to connect parishes across the diocese, facilitate stronger ministries with young people, and connect youth and youth leaders in the diocese with the greater Church. In addition to the DioET Youth activities, the Chattanooga Episcopal Youth (ChattEY) also get together for monthly activities.
