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7427 Wellington County Road 30
Guelph, ON, N1H 6J2
Canada

We are a Guelph based youth group passionate about sharing the love of Jesus. We believe that youth have the power to change the world and equip them to change their schools, communities and city. 

Youth Nights

YOUTH NIGHTS

Youth Nights are our time as a youth community to hang out, eat snacks, compete for prizes, learn about Jesus, and more! Our Junior Youth program, for grades 7-8, happens Wednesdays from 7-9pm. Our Senior Youth night, for grades 9-12, happens Tuesdays from 7-9pm. Both take place at Grace Community Church on 7427 Wellington County Rd 30, Guelph.

For an updated list of events, please see our calendar page here.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Our youth night program is designed to help newcomers to youth feel comfortable and connected.

When you come through the church doors, you will be greeted by Kylee, our Director of Youth, who will welcome you and get you checked in. Then, you’ll walk down the hallway. The second door on the right is our youth room, where there will be games/crafts set up and leaders excited to say hi! A bit further down the hall is our gym where you can play with our sports equipment if that’s more your thing.

At 7:20, we’ll all gather in the youth room for group games, snacks, announcements, and a short lesson.

Afterwards, you’ll be split into small groups. Each small group runs a little differently depending on your specific group’s interests, but regardless of group, there will be an activity time (like basketball, baking, board games, etc.) and a spiritual growth opportunity (lesson discussion, prayer, Bible study, etc.). If you came with a friend, we will make sure you are in the same small group as them!

From games until the end of the small groups, we do ask students to park their phones in our designated “Phone Parking Lot”. We want to provide a space where students can get a break from technology and experience connections with each other outside of the digital space.

After small group, you will have a little more free time and then at 9PM, it’s time to go home! :)

OUR CURRENT SERIES

Our November series “Aligned” will be looking at what it means to live with integrity, a life that is whole and undivided. Students will be examining the question: What does it look to live a life where your actions are aligned with your beliefs? Through this, we hope that our students will get to experience the beauty of living a life that is aligned with the way of Jesus and that acknowledges and delights in God’s presence in every aspect of their day-to-day lives.

Main Theme of the Series: As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a life of alignment.

WEEK FOUR OUTLINE: TECHNOLOGY

  • Main Idea: You need to get serious about what role technology plays in your alignment.

  • Three things that technology is looking to take from you (because $$$):

    • Your Time 

      • It’s designed to addict you 

        • Dopamine working with the stress response to create a paradoxical addiction to scrolling

        • Pull quotes from this article

      • Psalm 90:12

        • Your time is a gift from God. Use it wisely 

          • You need to rest, that is a good, God-given thing- but is scrolling really a restful activity?

    • Your Attention 

      • Recent study about the human attention span. 

        • Person in 2000: 12 seconds

        • Gold fish: 9 seconds 

        • Person in 2015: 8 seconds 

      • So then we approach our time in prayer and in God’s word the same way 

        • We want that instant dopamine hit, and when it doesn’t happen, we get bored and give up

      • But God doesn’t operate like that 

        • Psalm 46:10

        • Psalm 19:14

          • What are we meditating on?

        • Luke 5:16

    • Your Contentment 

      • Algorithm

      • Fomo

        • Not just scrolling but looking at what your friends are up to 

      • 1 Timothy 6:6-10

        • Social media can make us restless and greedy, when we are called to be content and grateful

  • As Christians, an aligned life is one where…

    • Our time is viewed as a gift from God and used wisely 

    • Our attention is on acknowledging and delighting in God’s presence

    • We are content in what God has given us, not constantly looking for the next, better thing

  • If you are seeking to be someone whose life is aligned with the way of Jesus, you need to get serious about what role technology plays in that pursuit

WEEK THREE OUTLINE: FRIENDSHIP

  • Main Idea: The friendships you invest in can make or break your alignment as a follower of Jesus.

  • We are designed for God.

    • We talked last week about immersing ourselves in God’s presence, because that’s what you’re designed for. And that’s the number one thing you can do to bring alignment into your life.

  • We are designed for each other

    • We are designed for each other- for community, for friendship 

      • It is not good for man to be alone

        • Genesis 2:18

        • Ecclesiastes 4

      • But it’s not just having friends, but what friends you have that are important

        • Proverbs 13:20

        • Proverbs 27:17

    • In other words, we are actively being formed by the people we spend time with and the relationships we invest in 

      • Thus, if you’re hoping to becoming someone who is aligned and conformed to Jesus’ way of life, it is critical that you invest in relationships with people who are serious about God and also pursuing alignment 

        • This is not just a matter of “are they Christian”?

          • Are you being pulled towards or away from where you want to be going by the people you spend time with?

  • Critical nuance/clarification 

    • This is not to say you shouldn’t be friends with people who aren’t Christians 

      • Jesus hung out with lots of people who had messy, un-Jesus-y lives 

    • Friends vs. Heart friends

      • Heart friends: People you want to become more like 

        • These are people you can be vulnerable and open with, get advice from, share and trust freely, and be influenced by

        • Mutual, supportive, both ways kind of friendship 

    • I do think you need to be wise about whether you can be around the people you’re friends with who aren’t following the way of Jesus and not get pulled in their direction 

      • Ask yourself: Can I be around these friends and resist being pulled in the opposite direction of where I want to go? 

        • And if the answer is no, then you may need to take some distance from them 

        • If the answer is yes, then that’s wonderful and you definitely should maintain relationships with them (while being cautious about how much influence you are letting them have over you)

Application Questions

  • Proverbs 13:20 says, "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm." How do you see this verse playing out in real life?

  • Do you have any examples of “heart friends"—the people who inspire you to grow closer to Jesus- from your own life?

  • What are qualities that you would look for in a “heart friend”?

  • How can you be intentional about forming friendships with people who are serious about their faith?

  • If you feel a friendship is pulling you away from God, what steps could you take to address that?

  • How do you determine if a friendship is pulling you closer to or further away from Jesus?

  • Jesus spent time with people who didn’t follow Him. How can we balance being a light to others while staying aligned with Jesus?

    1. How can you maintain healthy boundaries in friendships with people who don’t share your faith?

  • What’s one thing you’ll do this week to strengthen your alignment with Jesus, either by immersing yourself in God’s presence or investing in the right friendships?

WEEK TWO OUTLINE: ALIGNMENT INTRODUCTION PT 2

  • Main Idea: Christians are called to be people who acknowledge and delight in God’s presence in ALL that they do.

    • Because one of my big goals for you guys this year is for those of you who consider yourselves Christians to start experiencing the beauty of what it means to acknowledge and delight in God in every aspect of your life

      • You’re missing the beauty of what it means to follow Jesus

      • Following Jesus is about so much more than a belief or a ticket to get into heaven

  • Introduction to small group activity

    • We are going to make our own pie chart that represents the various activities that make up our day to day lives and then brainstorm how we can acknowledge and delight in God’s presence in each of those activities.

  • Couple questions to consider for each part of your pie chart…

    • Is it misaligned with the way of Jesus?

      • Is this pulling you in the opposite direction of where you want to be going?

      • If yes, you’ve got to start actively fighting against these things. 

        • Don’t be neutral to your sin!

    • Has it become more important to me than following the way of Jesus? 

      • “It (idolatry) means turning a good thing into an ultimate thing.”

      • If yes, you’ve got to start setting boundaries around that thing.

    • How can I increase my awareness of God’s presence in this part of my life? 

      • Cause here’s the reality- God is already present in all parts of your life, even if you’re not aware of it. The key isn’t figuring out how to fit God into it, but how to acknowledge that He’s already there. 

      • This can look like SO MANY things, but a few potential themes to explore…

      • Gratitude to God for allowing you to have these experiences 

      • Honoring God by being diligent and working hard at what you do even when you don’t feel like it 

      • Speaking with positivity even when others are being negative 

      • Turning your inner monologue into continual prayer and conversation with God

  • To end off, I want to talk about what the root of this change is…

    • John 15:9-15

      • Our obedience to God- our choice to follow His way for human flourishing- is out of a deep understanding of His love for us

      • “You are my friends if you do what I command” 

        • Different from a friendship with another human being because…

          • God is all-knowing 

          • God’s love for us is perfect 

          • Therefore, all that he “commands” for us to do is going to be for our good and from a place of love 

        • So when we develop a friendship with Jesus, when we get to know His character- all knowing and all loving, it is only natural that we would respond by learning to follow His way of life because we know it’s what is going to be best for us 

    • In other words, we align our life with the way of Jesus not to earn God’s love, but because of it

Application Activity

  • Have each of the students draw a pie chart representing all the different areas of their life (eg. family time, school, dance, church, chores, friend time, technology, etc.) 

  • Then, for each section, have them list ideas for what it would look like to invite God into those activities. 

    1. Give some examples when you introduce this next step and encourage them to go deeper if they respond with surface level ideas 

      1. Some potential themes to explore:

        1. Gratitude to God for allowing you to have these experiences 

        2. Honoring God by being diligent and working hard at what you do even when you don’t feel like it 

        3. Speaking with positivity even when others are being negative 

        4. Acknowledging good things as a gift from God because He loves you and responding to those things with joy

        5. Turning your inner monologue into continual prayer and conversation with God

  • After they’ve made their pie chart, give them the opportunity to share their chart and some of the ideas they came up. 

  • Pray to close.

WEEK ONE OUTLINE: ALIGNMENT INTRODUCTION

  • Main Idea: The most freeing, peace-giving, life-giving thing you can do for yourself is to work towards aligning your beliefs with your actions consistently.

  • Integrity

    • Integrity: The state of being whole and undivided.

      • If you’re a person of integrity, or what I’m going to call “alignment”, it means you’re the same with your friends as with your parents as with your teachers as with your youth peeps as you are playing sports as you are on technology

      • This is freedom because you just are who you are

  • Hypocrisy

    • The opposite of integrity is hypocrisy

    • Hypocrisy: Pretending to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel

      • If you’re a person of hypocrisy, or what I’m going to call “misalignment”, it means you’re different with your friends than with your parents than with your teachers than with your youth peeps than you are playing sports than you are on technology

      • You are in a constant state of fearing getting caught

  • We are misaligned.

    • The Bible has some pretty scary things to say about this way of living. 

      • Luke 12:1-3

    • Misalignment is exhausting and stressful. 

      • That fear of getting “caught”

      • Best, most freeing thing you can do is align your life becaus then there’s just nothing to catch. You are who you are. 

  • Why are we misaligned?

    • Lack of clarity on what we actually believe.

      • A huge reason I think a lot of people lack alignment is because they don’t actually know what they believe, so they just conform to whatever the believes are of the people around them 

        This leads to a lot of lack of alignment and therefore stress and exhaustion

    • So before you do anything else to try and get yourself aligned, you’ve actually got to dedicate some time to figuring out what you believe 

      • If you have questions/doubts about following Jesus or Christianity, ask them! Deal with them! Don’t put it off. 

      • Cause that lack of clarity is leading to this stress in your life

    • But if you do know what you believe, if you’re confident in saying that you are a Christian, then I’ve got news for ya…

  • As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a life of alignment, of integrity. 

  • I think a lot of us in this group view being Christians as the pie chart on the left. 

    • We have our youth time, maybe church on Sunday, maybe we pray before bed, and then we have the rest of our lives. 

    • But that’s actually a form of misalignment. 

    • Being a Christian, following Jesus, in a biblical, actual way is the image on the right. 

    • To integrate God into each facet of our lives, not just the things we do that are explicitly “Christian”. 

    • THIS BRINGS WHOLENESS compared to just being your Christian self some of the time 

  • But to close off, I want to clarify something super super important.

    • One of my fears with doing a series like this is I don’t want to give you guys the impression that you have to “earn” your way to salvation or that you have to be these perfectly aligned people in order for Jesus to love you. 

    • Jesus loves you RIGHT NOW

      • Right in your lack of alignment. You don’t have to change anything to get Jesus’ love. He loves you already 

    • Because He loves you, He doesn’t want you to keep living in misalignment- because it sucks for you. Which is why we’re doing this series. But even in your misalignment, He loves you and wants to be in relationship with you. Nothing you could do would ever change that. 

      • So if you haven’t said yes to Jesus’ invitation to follow Him, let tonight be that night! Talk to one of the leaders, we’d love to pray with you.