Back in March of 2023, we announced that Dan McPherson would be moving to a new role of Pastor of Group Life and that we would begin a search for a new High School Pastor. Our hope was having someone in place by the beginning of last school year. Little did we know that this would prove much more challenging than expected.
Over the last year, Dan has continued to give leadership to the high school ministry while Daniel Moye served as our youth intern doing much of the Sunday morning teaching and Wednesday night leadership. Daniel has now finished seminary and relocated. We are grateful to Daniel for his time with us and impact on our youth!
At this point, we are still looking for a High School Pastor. We have engaged Slingshot, a company that specializes in finding qualified candidates for church staff, and they did a site visit with us this week. We are prayerful that they will help us find the youth pastor we have been waiting for. We will keep you posted!
You are probably wondering, though, what will happen this summer, and so we wanted to give you clear information in that regard. We are actually stepping things up! Dan is going to share the plan in more detail below. I encourage you to read it over and then reach out if you have any questions.
One last thing: Dan is due for a sabbatical for 12 weeks this summer after his 7 years on staff at FAC. He has put in a lot of extra work this year straddling two roles, and we are glad he can get away for this time to rest and reset. I am grateful for those stepping up to lead our high school ministry so this can be a reality.
As a fellow parent of a high school student I understand that this has been a long process and I am thankful for your continued prayers, patience and support. Let’s continue to believe God together!
Paul Smith
Lead Pastor
Dear Parents,
I have been so grateful for both your prayer support and the amazing team of youth leaders that have stepped up this past year. As we have continued to wait for the next youth pastor, we have seen our ministries on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights continue to impact our youth all year long.
As Paul shared above, I am taking a sabbatical this summer. I will be gone beginning June 1 and will return September 3. I wanted to take a moment to communicate the plan essentials for FAC Youth and assure you that this ministry will be in great hands!
We are implementing a multi-pronged system to lead FAC Youth this summer. Kendall McKee, our Greenhouse Coordinator and College Pastor, will be overseeing a team of people who will run programming for FAC Youth. That team will consist of Greenhouse resident Delorges Lavra and interns Seth Huggard, Morgan Miller, and Wes Elliott, all of whom are students at Asbury University. Doug Matthews, our Executive Pastor of Ministry Development, is even stepping in to host some fun activities for our students this summer. We love being an intergenerational church!
Interns can have a tremendous positive impact on the spiritual lives of high school students. We believe that these interns will provide social and spiritual depth to our students that will be highly impactful. In turn, we are excited to pour into some college students and residents as they clarify their ministry and life callings. Please pray for these interns and Kendall as he leads this team in addition to his role with College and Greenhouse.
Historically our youth volunteer leadership team has taken a well-deserved break from regular Wednesday night Life Groups in the summer and instead I have provided other one-off events and activities on Wednesday nights to facilitate opportunities to gather and connect socially throughout the summer months. We’ve also continued Sunday morning youth services and offered a weekly Bible study at my home for students to go deeper in the Word.
This summer will look the same, but even better! We will continue our Sunday morning youth service at 9:30. We will have Wednesday night activities. We will host various social gatherings as there will be more opportunity for fun and discipleship connections with Seth, Morgan, Wes and Delorges. Those plans are in motion and the team is working to provide both a fun and spiritually rich summer for your kids. The last night of regular Life Groups is next Wednesday, May 15. We will then take a 1-week break (May 22) and begin intern-led activities on Wednesday, May 29! Please be sure you are signed up for the emails and follow us on Instagram @firstallianceyouth.
If you have any questions before May 31, feel free to contact me. Beginning June 1 if you have any questions you may contact Kendall.
Do know that we want to stay connected with your students throughout the summer and want them to have opportunities to connect with other FAC Youth as well! Thanks so much and I hope you have a great rest of May!
Blessings,