Purpose
The purpose of Veritas Student Ministry is to proclaim the gospel to students so that they might become radical followers of Jesus. As radical followers of Jesus, empowered and trusting in the Holy Spirit ourselves, we desire to teach and guide them to grow in love and obedience to Him so that they might become disciple-makers of all nations by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Here is a simplified statement:
Proclaiming the Gospel to students to become radical followers of Christ who love Him and serve Him.
Ministry Philosophy
Foremost, the Gospel must be and will preeminent in all we do. Everything we do should be focused around the glorious Savior Jesus Christ and what He has done through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. We constantly desire to lift up Jesus and make His saving work known among our students. We accomplish this by making the Scriptures, the Bible, our focus. We believe it to be the holy, inspired, and innerant Word of God, the means by which God has revealed Himself and His redemptive work to us.
We will pray diligently for the ministry. Believing that prayer is the way of communicating to our Lord, growing in our relationship to Him and bringing praise to Him, we pray foremost that the Holy Spirit will guide and empower our ministry to give glory to Jesus Christ. We pray that we are Gospel-focused at all times. We also pray constantly that Jesus will change the lives of these young people, that bring hope and new life to each student. We will bathe the ministry in prayer and ask God to mighty and powerful things in the lives our of our students.
We desire for our students to understand that they are not the “future church.” They are the church right now. The students that know Christ, that have a relationship with Him are part of the body of Christ now. Being a teenager doesn’t exempt them being part of the body and serving Christ. As true followers of Christ, we desire to see our students involved in the ministries of the church, during worship services, and engaging the whole body of Christ.
Finally, we do not desire a youth ministry that doesn't engage the world. We don’t want our students holed up in youth rooms and not the gospel and affecting the world. We want students who are dangerous for the gospel. We want bold followers of Christ engaging lost people and the world with the goodness and love of Jesus Christ, proclaiming that Jesus has come to seek and save the lost.