Christians In Action:

Christians In Action (CIA) Student Ministries is for teenagers in grades 6-12 in the greater Manchester area. We have teens coming from as far away as Laconia to the north and Merrimack to the south.

CIA youth group meetings are Wednesdays from 6:15 - 8:30 pm. A typical CIA meeting includes games, worship, small groups, and biblical teaching. We currently have 4 small groups: Sr. High Girls, Sr. High Guys, Jr. High Girls and Jr. High Guys. Each of these groups focuses on something slightly different and our adult volunteers lead them. We also have a periodic Art Worship nights where teens can express their faith through visual arts and writing. The style of art varies from writing to painting to sculture, but it gives the teens a way to express their faith in a more visual form.

Our Bible studies on Sunday mornings (at 9:45 am) are split into Jr. High and Sr. High classes in the youth area on the lower level of the church.

Youth Staff:
Our adult volunteers (Youth Staff) love working with teens and several of them do it for a living. Our diverse staff come from many different occupations and backgrounds, including some school teachers. They range in age from their late teens/early 20s to, well let's just say their own kids have graduated from the youth group already. All of the youth staff go through an extensive application process including background check and are required to have basic first aid and CPR certification.

As a staff, we have a goal of a 5-3-1 ministry where each leader has a small group of teens (ideally 5) that he/she is responsible to meet or talk with, on at least a monthly basis, outside of our normal meeting time. Of those 5, there are generally some that the staff member will get along with more than the others, with one or two of those being a deep, meaningful, discipleship-oriented relationship.The object is to invest in the lives of our youth and get to know them personally so we can more easily share our faith in Jesus Christ with them and model to them what Christ would do.

Our goal as a youth ministry is that every teen that comes would be known, loved and accepted for who they are as Christ does, and in the process, create an environment to have a personal, active encounter with the living God.

An overview of some of the activities the youth group participates in includes:

Worship:
The Youth Worship team is responsible for the Sunday services on a quarterly basis, as well as Wednesday nights and special church worship services.

Services Projects:
Service projects have included raking leaves in the fall, car washes, nursing home visits, college care packages (during the 30 Hour Famine), child care for church events, and summer work camp.

Retreats:
Each year we go to the Word of Life Superbowl in October or November. This all-night retreat includes a hockey game, bowling and all other kinds of activities, and there is a speaker who shares his faith at the hockey game. Several of our teens made decisions for Christ at this retreat.

This year we will also be attending two retreats put on by the Baptist Convention of New England. These include YEC (Youths Encountering Christ) in Sturbridge, MA and Crosswalk - an annual, week-long summer camp held at Gordon College in Wenham, MA in July. For more info please go to www.bcne.net and click on youth.

We will also host our own retreat in the spring. This retreat will be a time of reflection, team building and discipleship, and will be just for our own teens.

Special Events:
Past events include Summer Work Camp, 30-Hour Famine, Soulfest, Mt. Monadnock Hike, See You At the Pole, sporting events (Wolves, Fisher Cats and Monarchs games) and Teen Challenge Concert.

Fun Events:
Water Country trip in August, Soulfest, ice-skating party, sledding parties, pool parties, Christmas parties, summer kickoff BBQ, end-of-summer party, lock-ins, game nights, and scavenger hunts. We also plan to do laser tag, paintball, video game nights and more.

For Parents:
We don't want to forget parents because they are the keys to the teens we serve. We host periodic seminars for parents that focus on the lives of teens, like internet safety and awareness, how to talk to your kids about sex, dealing with addictions, etc. Parents also receive regular communication from Pastor Dana to update them on what is going on in the ministry.

Contact: Dana Towle