The journey

The Seven-Year Journey

Most youth ministries are a place to pass through. We're building something different: a seven-year path that walks with your student from their first year of middle school to the day they graduate — and hands them off ready for what comes next.

The path moves through three seasons. Each one is designed for who a student actually is at that age, not a one-size-fits-all program.

Three seasons

Grades 6–8

Foundations

Learning the story. Students get grounded in the big narrative of the Bible and the core of what Christians believe, and build the habits — worship, prayer, reading — that carry a faith for life.

Grades 9–10

Questions

Learning to think. This is the season for asking "why?" out loud. Students learn to examine what they believe, wrestle honestly with a skeptical culture, and hold their faith with understanding instead of just inheritance.

Grades 11–12

Voice

Learning to live it and say it. Older students learn to articulate their faith, defend it winsomely, and carry it into college and career — and to help the students coming up behind them.

Grade by grade

Woven through the Foundations years, the New City Catechism (52 questions and answers) runs as a weekly memory thread — the shared confession students carry in their own words.

6th Grade · Foundations
The Story: what has God done? Students learn the whole arc of the Bible. Reading: The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses (Barnett) and Life with Jesus.
7th Grade · Foundations
The Gospel: what does it mean? Reading: God's Big Picture (Roberts) and What Is the Gospel? (Gilbert).
8th Grade · Foundations Confirmation prep
The Faith: will we own it? A lighter reading load protects space for confirmation preparation. Reading: Understanding the Faith workbook (Smallman) and The Gospel for Real Life (Bridges).
9th Grade · Questions
Confirmation interviews open the fall, then the first Logic book. Reading: Confronting Christianity (McLaughlin) and Core Christianity (Horton).
10th Grade · Questions
Learning to answer a skeptical world. Reading: How to Talk about Jesus (Chan), Sex, Dating & Relationships (Hiestand & Thomas), and the capstone The Reason for God (Keller).
11th Grade · Voice
Learning to carry and communicate the faith. Reading: The Master Plan of Evangelism (Coleman), Habits of Grace (Mathis), and Every Good Endeavor (Keller) on vocation.
12th Grade · Voice Charis Membership
The journey closes with reception into Charis Membership at the end of the year. Reading: Strange New World (Trueman), Life Together (Bonhoeffer), and the capstone Self-Forgetfulness (Keller).

Two milestones along the way

Early 9th-grade fall · prep across 8th

Confirmation

After a year of preparation in 8th grade, students sit for confirmation interviews in the fall of 9th — their own public step of claiming the faith they've been formed in.

End of 12th grade

Charis Membership

The journey closes with reception into Charis Membership — moving from student to full participant in the life of the church.

7년의 여정

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