Youth Ministry
Gethsemane’s youth ministries are open to all teens interested in deepening their Christian faith and forming a supportive community with their peers. The heart of our ministry’s success is caring volunteers and eager support from the rest of the congregation.
Our mission is to show young people that they are cared for and loved by Jesus, and to give them opportunities to experience Jesus in a way that will allow their faith to grow throughout their lifetime.
Through activities, learning, serving, and leading, we provide opportunities for youth to experience and share Christ in their lives. Students do not need to belong to Gethsemane to participate in any of our programming or events.
Confirmation
The confirmation ministry is a 3 year program which starts in 6th grade. Gethsemane partners with parents to provide students an opportunity to learn, grow in faith, serve others, form Christian relationships, and prepare them to affirm their baptismal promises in October of their 9th grade year.
6TH-8TH GRADE CONFIRMATION
Students meet in-person each Wednesday for large group learning time, followed by small group meeting time.
Confirmation meets following the Wednesday evening meal and begins at 6:30 PM. They meet during the school year from September to mid-May.
Sunday mornings students take turns assisting in worship.
Each year includes retreats, lock-ins, fellowship opportunities, and service events.
Each summer, students are invited to attend a Lutheran camp together:
7th grade: a week at Green Lake Bible Camp
8th grade: BWCA Canoe trip with Wilderness Canoe Base
9th grade: trip to Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp to participate in their Glacier Wilderness Adventure program
High School Youth (9th-12th Grade)
Our senior high youth are invited to be part of youth group, Journey, and explore how they would like to deepen their faith. Youth are encouraged to be active participants and leaders throughout the church in various roles, from teaching Sunday School to serving on church council. We’ve been annually sending a teen as a voting delegate to our ELCA Synod Assembly. Each spring our teens team up to lead an entire Sunday worship service. We offer retreats and summer trips for high school students as well!
SUMMER 2024 HIGH SCHOOL MISSION TRIP
This year our high school students (and age equivalent youth) as well as adults can join us for the Gethsemane Mission Trip to Duluth, MN this summer. The trip is from June 23-28, and we are partnering with an Serve Boldly.
Duluth is a city on Lake Superior, known for outdoor adventures. However, it also has the highest share of extreme poverty in Minnesota. Our ministry works with local congregations to serve those in need. Explore Duluth's beauty, from the Aerial Lift bridge to Gooseberry Falls and the Portland Malt Shop.
MORE ABOUT SERVE BOLDLY
Serve Boldly began in 2012 as three ELCA congregations with a passion to serve others. In an effort to provide youth with a meaningful opportunity to serve, grounded in a Lutheran understanding of loving your neighbor, those three youth groups gathered in Nashville, TN. That first trip sparked the beginning of many relationships: friendships between youth; partnerships with congregations, connections with community organizations, and deep bonds with those they served. Serve Boldly quickly became a 501(c)(3) organization with a board of directors and a staff. Like many organizations, Serve Boldly experienced a pause due to Covid-19 from 2020 to 2022
Now in 2024 and beyond, the ministry of Serve Boldly continues under the leadership of Green Lake Lutheran Ministries (GLLM)! At GLLM’s October 2022 meeting of its board of directors the following motion was passed unanimously:
We are thrilled that teenagers will continue to have the opportunity to accompany and serve our neighbors while deepening an understanding of God’s presence in their lives. This work MATTERS and this move will ensure that this life-changing ministry continues for years to come.
Green Lake Lutheran Ministries is a premier organization in the camp, conference, and retreat ministry world, where people of all ages experience the life-changing love of Jesus through vibrant settings in community and creation. With three sites in Minnesota (Spicer, New London, and Brimson), GLLM has over 80 years of experience providing dynamic summer camp experiences and year-round programs that welcome all people.
At the heart of Serve Boldly is the relationships that God has placed in our path with one another. We see this ministry as a journey, and that this journey, taken with many companions, shows us the unexpected and sometimes unrecognized Christ who walks with us. In this journey, we will break bread together, we will teach and move towards accompaniment.