Rooted / Kairos

When
Youth Group will continue to be held on Fridays from 7:30pm to 10:00pm. Our first outdoor youth group will take place on Friday, April 9 at 7:30pm.

Where
Youth group will take place in the parking lot underneath the tent where we meet for Sunday worship. We do not currently have plans to meet inside the church building, but we will keep you informed regarding the transition toward meeting indoors. 

How
The youth ministry consists of two groups, junior high (Rooted) and high school (Kairos)—but there is only one place designated for outdoor gatherings. Thus, only one group will meet in-person at a time; while one group meets in person, the other group will meet exclusively online. 

For example, if junior high meets in-person on one Friday, high school will meet online on that same Friday. The following week, high school will meet in-person, while junior high will meet online.  

For students and families who choose not to attend youth group in person, we will be streaming musical worship and teaching. We will continue to use the current Zoom links that we include in our weekly newsletter for both junior high and high school. 

Small Groups
We will be having both in-person small groups and online small groups.  In-person small groups will consist only of in-person leaders and students, and will be spaced out under the tent in order to ensure safe distancing. Online small groups will consist only of online leaders and students. We will still have small groups for our online-only students if they choose not to attend the week that their respective group is meeting in person.

Important Dates
April 9 – Junior high will meet in-person, while high school will meet online
April 16 – No youth group (we will use this Friday off to evaluate April 9th’s in-person meeting and adjust for the following week)
April 23 – High school will meet in-person, while junior high will meet online

Pre-Registration
Because each ministry is smaller than the tent’s maximum household capacity limit, we will not be asking for weekly registration. Instead, there will be a one-time form that will ask if you are comfortable allowing your student to participate in all future in-person youth groups. This allows us to, more or less, expect your student to be at most of our in-person youth groups. 

This does not mean that your student cannot ever miss a youth group. In the event that your student does plan on missing youth group, we simply ask that they notify their small group leader that they will not be attending in order to have the right amount of leaders in-person.

What to Expect
Here are some things to expect when we have our in-person youth groups:

1. Arrival: Please arrive promptly at 7:30pm.

2. Check In: Before taking a seat, a youth servant will check your student in and perform a brief health screening. Checking in allows us to appropriately contact trace if it becomes necessary.

3. Masks: Masks are required for adults and youth for the duration of their time during youth group. Our desire is both to protect the vulnerable as we come back together and to be respectful of local ordinances.

4. Distancing: Our seating will facilitate physical distancing between households. We request that your student take care to maintain appropriate distance from those outside their household.

A Note on COVID-19
If your student or anyone in your household displays symptoms of COVID-19, or if you believe they may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, we ask that they refrain from gathering with us in person for 14 days.