Student Ministry

by Caleb Blow

The student ministry has had a full and encouraging year with the hiring of Aynsley Vivian and Wyatt Denton as our full-time assistant directors. It is difficult to believe Wyatt has been here a year already, and Aynsley is entering her first full summer with our students. While they have only been here a short time, already they have built significant relationships with our covenant students and their friends. I have been so impressed by their work ethic and willingness to jump in feet first. What a blessing!

As we look forward to the summer, I am pleased to report we are taking a full slate of middle school students to The Edge middle school camp this coming June. Though sign-ups for Project Sweat are still open, we already have many high school students committed to this in-town mission trip. Both The Edge and Project Sweat are the best ways for new students to get involved and build relationships in the student ministry. I know it can be an intimidating thing for a student to go on a trip with folks they may not know, but our staff and student leadership team have worked hard to make both trips effective on-ramps for relational ministry opportunities with both fellow students and staff.

Speaking of staff, I am happy to share we have hired four outstanding summer interns who will work here full-time during the months of June and July. The role of the summer intern is to engage relationally with our middle school and high school students, to disciple our students, to point them to Christ, and to help us pull off a busy summer. Their names are Haley, Izzy, Houston, and Hayden, and we are so blessed to have them serving alongside us this summer. Our interns will be constant presences in the lives of our students, and we hope you have a chance to meet them. More information about each of our interns is coming later this month.

Please join me in praying for this summer. As you can imagine, there are many details to put in place. But our primary goal is for each student in Westminster Student Ministries to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Please pray for our interns, our year-round staff, our summer trips, our fellowship gatherings, and our students. Pray for safety, ministry effectiveness, and for Christ to be glorified in all we do. We could not do this without your help and prayers!

Young Professionals

by Katie Hughes

In the Young Professional ministry, we continue to be a group that changes as the twenty and thirty-somethings shift, but we have a significant core group that shows up. Over the course of this year, we (Jonathan Garrett, Katie Hughes, and our Young Adult Leadership Team) have seen some fruit from the last few years of work: we have a dynamic, unified, shouldn't-be-friends-but-they-are-anyway group of young professionals. We genuinely enjoy leaning on each other, laughing, growing, and being together. We've established some annual events, like our Friendsgiving, our Fall Retreat, and even an Oyster Roast. We have many Yo-Pros involved in men's and women's Bible studies during the school year, then we get to be together for a weekly summer Bible study which starts at the end of May. The summer Bible study is one of the best things we do and a great chance for new people to get connected.

We also have been serving together monthly at Pathways Community Center through House of Agape for two years now. We prepare the meal on the fourth Sunday of the month at Katie's house, then serve it together the next evening. Now that our group feels a bit more established, our next hope and goal for our ministry is to have a higher number of YoPros serving within our church (childcare, greeters, etc.). We are excited for the future and are so grateful for the Lord's faithfulness in providing such a sweet community.

College

by Katie Hughes

This last year, we had our second year of college lunches. We have an amazing group of volunteers who have faithfully provided meals and treats for the students attending our church. Although it's been tricky to discern what works and what does not for the lunches, our volunteers have worked hard to problem solve and tweak the process. We are breaking for the summer and looking forward to some new ideas for these lunches in the fall. We continue to partner with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) on Winthrop's campus and enjoy serving alongside them to minister to students in Rock Hill.

Women’s Ministry

by Courtney Denton

Women’s Discipleship wrapped up our year-long study in the book of Judges. It was a helpful and timely study that equipped women to consider the idols of their own heart and God's desire to restore His rightful position as Lord and Savior in their lives.

Studying the content of God’s Word in the context of community is a beautiful blessing. We are looking forward to our summer study on the topic of rest and continuing to grow together.

During our Stories & Sweets event this spring, we were blessed to hear the sweet testimony of Susan Atkinson and of God's pursuit, provision, and providence in her life. Hearing the story of God’s faithfulness gives us hope and encouragement for our own lives. In addition, we enjoyed the opportunity to connect with many of you on May 4th at our Connect in the Courtyard gathering where we provided a preview of our summer Bible studies and book chat curriculum. It’s heating up with summer happenings and we look forward to having you join us. Details of our summer studies and book chat curriculum are available at wpcgo.com/women.

Families & Children Ministry

by JT Hoover

With Easter, Spring Break, and the end of the school year, we are wrapping up another wonderful semester with our Children and Families ministry. We finished our Wednesday program, Kingdom Kids, on a high note with ice cream sandwiches, games, songs, and of course, another lesson from the New City Catechism.

In Sunday School, we have primarily been going through stories from the Gospels this semester. For our babies through 2K, we have been teaching the youngest members of our church family that “Jesus is the Son of God.”

We hosted two community-building events this spring. First, we had our Family Movie Night, during which we watched The Wild Robot. The film featured fun, kid-friendly themes of family, caring for one another, and adorable woodland critters. It also explored deeper themes such as: What does it mean to be human? What is the relationship between technology and nature?

In addition to Movie Night, we also held a Family Game Night, where parents and kids participated both alongside and against each other in games designed for the whole family. We shared lots of laughter and celebrated time together.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement throughout the year. We are looking forward to an excellent summer, with our VBS just a few weeks away!

Worship Ministry

by Ryan Thomas

After many months of work, our Session adopted a Philosophy of Worship document in January. We have established this Philosophy of Worship for our church body as a means of bringing clarity to who we are as a worshipping people. The New Testament offers believers great freedom in how they structure their gathered worship services, and, as a result, our confessional standards do as well. Because of this, each local church will naturally gravitate toward cultural distinctives. We want our members, and those considering becoming members, to know how we thrive in offering our worship to God. This document helps us prioritize what is best for our local body, and focuses us on that which supports our mission to help people find hope, freedom, and purpose in Jesus. Finally, it helps to paint the picture of how Westminster adds to the beauty of Jesus’ global Bride.” You can read the full document to learn more.

In March, our worship team had a one-day conference, bringing in a nationally renowned chorale and worship team director to help us think through the dynamics, blessings, and challenges of serving as one worship team while offering two distinct styles of worship music. The whole team (choir, orchestra, band, audio, video, and graphics) has adopted the motto of “One worship team serving in different capacities.” We are planning more events and opportunities to fellowship together, and to build supportive relationships.