Students

Reaching the Next Generation

Crossroads student ministries is all about teaching students to Love God, Love People, and Love Serving. By loving God and loving students, we are seeking out the next generation to come alive to their unique purpose and potential in Christ Jesus.

Once students discover Jesus, our goal is to help them understand what it means to follow him fully. Through our programs on Thursday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, various Growth Group meeting times, special events, camps, and service projects, hopefully our students will see Christ at work within us and all around us.

What is this page? As you dive deeper into your relationship with Jesus, or just have questions about who He is and why that is important for your life, this page is for you! Here, you can find different resources to help answer your questions and different ways to continue to pursue a relationship with Jesus.

Bible App Plans: The YouVersion Bible app has amazing resources for all of your big and small questions for both life and faith. We have provided some below that we feel helps answer some “most asked” questions or help you understand deeper who Jesus is and what a relationship with Him looks like.

Spiritual Habits – In this devotional, we’ll explore a few key spiritual habits that allow us to get to know Jesus better, grow spiritually, build deeper relationships, and get the most out of this life.

Mental Health – If you feel overwhelmed by your mental health, you’re not alone. Mental health challenges can feel chaotic. One day you may feel fine, but then you wake up the next day feeling anxious, depressed, or burned out. This Bible Reading Plan can help you find hope, healing, and peace through wisdom from Scripture.

Just Jesus – Getting to know Jesus better is a lifelong adventure, and one of the most important things you’ll do. Check out these five stories about Jesus from the gospel of Luke, and get ready to know Him more and more.

READING THE BIBLE

Reading the Bible is important because it helps us build a deeper relationship with Jesus. The Bible is also known as Scripture. It was written by many people who were inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. When we read the Bible and build a habit of reading it, not only do we learn more about who God is, but we also learn more about who we are, what story we are a part of, and who Jesus is and how He wants us to live. This practice holds so much truth for us when we experience the good, the bad and the confusing things in our life. Reading the Bible does not have to be something boring and mystical. It is something you should enjoy, so make it fun and ask questions as you read!

Practical Steps:

READ:

Start in the book Luke or John of the Bible & set time aside to read a little each day.

HIGHLIGHT:

What stands out? What questions do you have? What is God saying to you?

REFLECT:

What did this passage say about God? What did it say about me? What is God trying to say to me?

PRAY:

Thank God for His word and what He revealed to you. Ask Him to continue to open your eyes to His Truth!

PRAYER

Prayer is communicating with God to praise Him, to thank Him, to voice needs for others and ourselves and so much more! Through prayer, we can build a deeper relationship with Jesus, making it more personal, and learn more about who He is and who we are through Him!

INTENTIONAL:

Pick a time each day where you just pray for two minutes: talking to God about your day, asking questions, giving thanks or voicing needs. You can journal, talk out loud, or pray internally.FLEXIBLE:
As you drive or walk somewhere, instead of listening to music or scrolling on your phone, you keep your eyes up and talk to God as you go. Tell Him what’s going on inside of your heart and mind because He cares!DEEPER:

Going deeper, either ask a leader or find a piece of scripture you want to pray and meditate on. Two minutes you can pray and talk with God; two minutes to read the scripture; two minutes to pray and ask God what He wants to show you through the scripture; two minutes to journal and reflect what happened during this time.GRACE:
Give yourself grace as you build this practice! It will look different for everyone and every day will not look the same. God just wants to talk to you!

SOAP

A personal devotion and Bible study method designed to help you go from reading the Bible to meditating on it. Biblical meditation can be defined as contemplating or thinking about Scripture over and over again.

Scripture: Read a portion of scripture and pay attention to any phrase or verses that grabs your attention or leave an impression on you. Maybe it is a phrase or verse that provokes a question, triggers a thought, or stirs an emotion in you. Pick that one specific phrase or verse for the remainder of your study.
Observation: What do you see in this passage? Who are the people involved? What are the keywords or ideas? Are there any truths to believe or examples to follow? What is the message or lesson of this passage? Write down a few sentences of observation and consider summarizing the passage.
Application: How does this phrase or verse impact your life today? How might God want you to personally respond? What are you going to do? How can you personally apply this Scripture to your circumstances? How would your life look differently if you took an action step and put this into practice? Why might God be bringing this to your attention? What is God saying to you? Write down a few sentences of how this scripture applies to your life.

Prayer: Turn this passage into a prayer. Ask God to give you greater understanding., wisdom or the strength to follow through and take this action step. Maybe pray a prayer of thanks or talk about an area in your life you’re not so proud of (confession). Write down a few sentences of prayer.

Heather Mahoney

Next Gen Director