Youth

a safe place to grow in faith

R.I.S.C. Youth Group (Reaching Individuals Seeking Christ)

RISC is all about growing together. We are a bunch of friends, from 6th grade through High School, who meet together (sometimes separately as MS or HS students, sometimes as one big group) to share life, have fun, learn about ourselves and learn about God. We laugh a lot, even though we get down to business!

We attend church together on Sundays, we meet during the week, we go to weekend retreats and plan special events. We have Bible studies, sing worship songs, play games, and host activities for little kids. You can always bring a friend- lots of people do that, so we’ve always got new people around!

If you want to be a part of our group, you don’t have to know anything about God or church - we’re all learning together! Some of us have parents who come to church, some of us don’t. Some of us have been going to church for years, some for just a little while. We are committed to being open to each other, to listening without judgment, and we are willing to challenge each other to be the best we can be. We’re about helping each other, which sometimes means saying hard things, but always with love.

Mid-Week Programming

Our mid-week programs meet on Sundays for High School students (6:30-8:30pm including dinner, $2.50) and Sundays afternoons from 4-5:30pm for Middle School. On these nights, we usually play games, sing some worship songs, talk about how our own week went, and then we talk about the Bible. This time is for building our friendships with each other and getting to know God better - we want to be able to connect our faith to our regular lives and it's easier to do this when you have friends to talk it over with!

We’d love to have you join us!

Going Away for Fun
Through the school year, we go to 2 weekend retreats each - one in the Fall and one in the Spring. These are separate weekends for MS and HS and they happen all over the state!

Weekend retreats are about meeting other students from our Presbytery (the regional group of churches) and having a chance to get away from our regular lives so we can focus on God. We usually have a fun speaker, we play late night games, sleep in cabins, and sing loud songs. The MS retreats usually involve zip lines and wild fun like that, the HS retreats often have opportunities for students to lead things for each other. We like to stay up late and play cards, talk, and eat candy!

Retreats involve around 100 students and their leaders, and give us all a chance to learn and have fun in a new setting.

Contact Angela for info about this year’s retreats!

Summer Opportunities
Summertime gives us the chance to do different things because we don’t have school! Next summer, 2012, we are hoping to have two opportunities for students involved in our RISC group for the year: a week of service projects in Oregon (Salem area) for MS students, and a mission trip that involves a little bit of traveling for the HS students- either a chance to help people by doing labor (like building a house) or serving the homeless with a group like Bridgetown Ministries (but not here in Portland).

We’ll set the trips in December and the spend the year fundraising and preparing ourselves to do the work that God has set out for us to do! Serving others is a great way to grow closer to each other and also to God. Serving someone else also helps us to put our own lives into perspective, understanding more of the world around us. If you think you want to go on a trip with us, start coming to our youth group and get ready!

Worship Time & Location

Time: Sundays at 10:00AM
Location: 21901 SW Sherwood Blvd, Sherwood. For directions, click here.

Sunday Sermons

The message for Sunday, Feb. 5 is “The Cure for Being Out of Sorts” based on Luke 11:1-9. To listen to previous messages, click here.

Jan 22 Message

Join us this Sunday for a message called "Deploy, Debrief, Distribute" based on Luke 9:1-6, 10-16.