Since January, we’ve experienced an Avalanche, a Blizzard, a Today’s Teens Conference, a compassion experience to the Dominican Republic, a Centre Court and an office move. You would think after all that, we’d take a break. But there’s still a lot more to come in the next three months.

Here’s a brief recap of what’s up next:

  • Our redesigned website is launched so we’ll be working to keep that up to date.
  • At the end of April, the Canadian Baptist Youth and Family team is hosting 52 youth/family pastors from across Canada to discuss over four days some key intersections of youth ministry and our churches.
  • We have two Slingshot students, led by Matt Wilkinson, heading to Springforth in Moncton, NB on May 12-14.
  • On May 28, along with InterVarsity, Power to Change and Ambassadors for Christ, we’re hosting a one-day grade 12 grad event called Transition 101 where soon-to-be-frosh can meet people who will be attending the same campus as them in the fall.
  • We’re re-releasing an expanded Transitions 2.0 book with more tips on how to support faith formation for children and youth.
  • Assembly, our annual CBOQ family gathering, will take place June 9-11. Matt will be leading a workshop and the Next Generation Team will be facilitating a panel discussing intergenerational ministries.
  • We’re encouraging all churches to join National Day of Prayer for youth on Sunday, June 12.
  • We’ve got Jonathan McKee (founder of The Source for Youth Ministry) leading his latest seminar called Connect for youth leaders on June 22 (location TBA).
  • We’re working with Camp Kwasind in organizing CBOQ Kids’ first Reel Family Time event at two Cineplex locations on June 25 (in Kitchener/Waterloo and Vaughan). This is a chance for families and their neighbours to screen a new-release movie (find out which movie by subscribing at cboqkids.ca/reelfamily) and resources on how to use movies for faith-based conversations.
  • At the end of June, we’ll be releasing our latest jr. high and high school curricula based on our theme, which will be announced at Assembly. New this year: one module of each curriculum will be video-based.
  • Look out for our Next Steps survey to be released in a couple of weeks that will give you an opportunity to share what your youth ministry’s next steps are this coming year, and how we can support you in that.
  • We’ll soon be releasing the latest application for our CBOQ Youth scholarship where we give $500 scholarships for undergraduate studies to 10 students who demonstrate how they’ll be living out their faith wherever they are in whatever they do. (That will be posted at cboqyouth.ca/postsecondary.)

As you can see, there’s still a lot left to do in the next 12 weeks. It’s our aim to continuously support you who faithfully engage the upcoming generation with the person and message of Jesus in the hopes that they will follow him well. We appreciate your prayers in these endeavours. If there are other ways we can support what God is doing in your midst, feel free to contact Alvin.