Parent Letter

Hey guys, I’m assuming that if you’ve found the blog you’ve read the parent letter. If however you have not yet read it, or if you prefer reading things on a screen, I’m going to post it. Be sure to check out the other posts below as well. Here is the parent letter that went out to all High School age parents, reprinted in its full glory:

Dear Parents,

Although you have already received a lot of communication introducing me, I thought I would take a moment to give you my first direct communication. It has been a great first couple of weeks getting settled into the church. My wife, Meagan and I have been blessed as we have been meeting parents, teens, and staff. For all of you who I haven’t had the opportunity to connect with yet, I hope we’ll get the chance to meet soon. Feel free to call, email, or get ahold of me in whatever way works best for you.

It has been amazing getting to know your teens. I can honestly say that I have never met a more welcoming, gracious, intelligent, and joyful group of teens. They really are a blessing. I’m looking forward to where we are going to be moving as a group and it is going to be fun to watch them as they grow spiritually through the years.

I wanted to take this chance to give you some insight on my vision for the High School Ministry. On Sunday night I got the chance to share my heart with the teens. I gave them a couple of touch points of what I’m looking forward to and where I see the High School group going. The mission statement that I will be using for the High School Ministry accurately sums it up, “Guiding teens into a continually growing relationship with Christ”. I want to see lives growing and teens lives changed because of Christ. The core values that I always go back to are pulled from 1 Corinthians 13 – Faith, Hope, and Love. I like to phrase it as Faith playing itself out in Love to give others Hope. These are values that you’ll probably get tired of hearing about, but I am going to keep placing them in front of the teens and letting Christ change their hearts and minds.

Let me unpack this a bit, so that you understand how I view spiritual life. I believe that each spiritual life is a journey. Specifically, a journey toward knowing God more and becoming more like Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. There will be amazing mountain-top experiences and there will be dark, difficult valleys. Each person is continually moving, some forward, some back, and some just twisting in circles. We want our students to be moving forward. The easiest way to navigate the spiritual journey is with a guide who has been further down the path. This is why our youth staff are such a big deal to me. We have an amazing group of staffers right now, and hopefully we will be adding more in the near future. They are here to guide your teens forward on their individual spiritual paths. I believe that Faith is more than just intellectual knowledge. It is taking what we believe to be true about God and putting it into practical action. We want to move our teens from head knowledge to heart understanding. When this happens we will see our teens living lives that are known and defined by Love. They will begin living with Hope firmly fixed in their hearts and minds. Specifically, the Hope that Jesus laid out in the Gospel; that what we currently see is not as it could, or should be, but because of Christ life is and will be different. I firmly believe that when Faith, Hope, and Love converge in a student’s life we will see them doing things that we did not dream were possible. They will be the ones to change the world for Christ.

So as we move through the summer and enter into the next school year that is where we will be focusing. Hopefully you and your family will get excited as you see your teen’s life change. We are just in the planning stages for next year, so I don’t have much to give you yet in terms of dates, but be looking for a couple of amazing retreats and some other great activities that will be coming down the road. In the meantime I have set up a blog specifically for parents of teens as a communication point. Rather than always working through snail mail we can hopefully set it up as a place where we can dialogue about teens on a more regular basis. The address for it is: lakegroveparents.wordpress.com, or you will be able to find a link to it on our website. Take time to check it out, I think it will be a worthwhile tool for all of us.

I’m excited for the future of High School ministries here at Lake Grove Presbyterian. Hopefully you are sensing that and getting excited yourself. Join me in praying for our teens, that they would grow in Christ and grow in their love for one another. You can be praying that God will provide the right people for Youth Staff so that we can be even more effective in reaching teens. Thank you for all the love and hospitality you have shown my wife and I as we have been settling in, we appreciate it!

In Christ,

Jon Jones

Director of High School Ministries

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