The Question is What’s New
The Answer would seem to be: mostly everything….

We have unveiled our new identity, our new ministry structure, & introduced the new youth leaders!

We have a new identity!!  We are no longer Gamma Chi Student Ministries.  In an effort to be better understood, we have changed the name of our ministry to “Reliant Student Ministries.”  We decided upon the name Reliant because we believe it communicates a couple of crucial things about our Christian walk in just one word.  Primarily, we are to rely (or be reliant) on God to succeed in our relationship with Him.  In a world that encourages life and success to be all about self, we want to challenge our students to remember that a dependence on God is what makes life and Christianity doable.  The Reliant names also keeps the truth in front of us that we need one another to navigate our journey with God.  Scripture repeatedly uses the phrase “one another” throughout its writings to encourage us to rely upon each other, “bear one another’s burdens”, “pray for one another”, “comfort one another”, and the list goes on.  Our student ministries team wanted to find a name that kept these two truths always in front of our teens.  “Reliant” seemed to fit the bill.

We have a new youth structure!!!  We have broken our ministry to students into 4 areas:

1. Sunday School, this ministry meets on Sunday mornings during the 1st service and is broken up into 3 sections- Jr. High Boys, Jr. High  Girls, and Sr. High Students.

2. Youth Group, this ministry meets on the first 3 Sunday nights of the month from 6pm – 8pm and is for all students 6 – 12 grade.

3. Small Groups, this ministry meets in the homes of some of our leaders on the 4th Sunday night of each month from 6pm – 8pm and is broken up in to 4 sections- Jr. High Boys, Jr. High  Girls, Sr. High Guys, and Sr. High Girls.

4. Events, this ministry is scheduled to happen one or two times per month.  They are designed to accomplish one of 3 things in our students lives: the first level is to make contact with students, these events are primarily fun & provide an opportunity to get to know teens already involved, and introduce new students to the ministry.  The second level is for growth in our students, these events combine fun with spiritual challenge to help our teens understand and navigate new spiritual truths in their lives.  The third level is to help our students with leadership, these events are to take those who are grasping new spiritual understandings and help them lead others to those understandings(aka make them disciple makers).

Finally, we have new leaders!!!!  To accomplish all that we want to in student’s lives, we realized we were going to need some more help.  We have an excellent leadership team who are committed to helping our students realize that nothing is more important in life than a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Our leadership team are the ones who are making ministry happen.  We are still looking to expand our leadership team in a couple areas.  If you are looking for a way to be involved, talk with me and we will see if God might have you partner with us.

In closing, I would ask that you pray for us.  We have some momentum going as we have implemented the new changes.  We want to take that into the new youth facility that the church has provided to grow the teens we have now and reach even more for the glory of God.  Pray that God would accomplish a great work in the lives of teens in Valparaiso, and that HE would allow Reliant Student ministries and the people of Calvary Church to be a part of that work.  We are looking forward to what He will do, and we will keep you posted on what happens.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Joe

If you have specific questions regarding our teen ministry or what more information, contact Pastor Joe Wittmer at Calvary (219.462.4026 or joe@calvaryweb.net). We hope to see you soon!