Youth Ministry Mission Statement:
Millwood Community Presbyterian Church is creating and providing an environment and avenues to stimulate, grow, develop, nurture, and lead the youth of our community to a life in Christ. (from the Compass II Report, Fall 2005)
W
elcome to the Millwood Presbyterian Church youth page. My name is Brandon Comella and I am the youth director here at the church. We are doing some great things with both Jr. High and Sr. High kids here at the church, and I hope this site can give you enough information so you can come see it for yourself!
We call our Jr. High program nights Wyldlife, which meets on Tuesday evenings from 6:45 – 8:15pm every week. Wyldlife averages about 35-50 Jr. High kids and makes for a wild, crazy, and great atmosphere in The Crossing Youth Center. We have eight committed leaders who show up every week.
The style may be a bit different from traditional youth groups because 
we have a great partnership with Young Life.
We emphasize relational youth ministry and realize that we are able to meet the needs of many youth by combining both evangelistic ministry alongside the needed discipleship part of ministry. We do this by having a week of Wyldlife, which consists of crazy and fun-filled games, alongside skits and music providing a safe place for these kids to come and break down their own walls they have put up. We end Wyldlife with more of an introductory talk about Jesus and the life we are called to live. We then invite those kids to come back the next week, which is where we change things up, and have Wyldlife Campaigner night. During Campaigner night, we aren’t quite as crazy with games. We leave more time at the end where we go a little bit deeper from the talk before, and then we split into grade and gender small group where the kids have the opportunity to ask the tough questions and go deeper if they would like. This has seemed to be a great combination for the youth as well as our leaders.
Our Sr. High Young Life club is similar to the Jr. High program in that we meet on a weekly basis in The Crossing Youth Center; but rather than Tuesday’s, we meet on Monday evenings from 6:45 – 8:15pm. We also do things a little more traditional Young Life style every week, which means we don’t have the campaigner night every other week. There are approximately 15-25 youth on a weekly basis with 5 committed youth leaders. Almost every leader has a small group that meets on a weekly basis with their girls/guys.
July 5-11 we are taking a crew of Sr. High kids to Wildhorse Canyon located in Central Oregon, and we are also taking a bunch of Jr. High kids to the same camp August 5-9. We are doing lots of fundraisers to help fund this trip for any youth who wants to go despite the price of camp. Please come by our program nights or call/email me to get a registration form.
It has worked out well that we do our leadership training and fall retreats with the other Presbyterian youth groups and leaders in our area. We then use Young Life’s training and summer camps in the spring and summer while also being involved with the 30-Hour Famine every spring and every couple years going on a larger mission trip.
Please just come check us out, email me (brandon@millwoodpc.org), or call me here at the church (924-2350) with any further questions you might have.
Brandon Comella