Elevate

Elevate – The Student Ministries of Shoal Creek

“Buya” (6th-8th grade)    “Crash” (9th-12th grade)

Elevate’s One Mission – To empower students in their personal faith in Jesus Christ, enabling them to be agents of change in their world.

Elevate’s Two Core Values – Shoal Creek’s student ministries’ core values guide the decisions we make about everything we do with our students. Our core values guide our actions.

1. Relationship-Centered

Personal relationships pave the way towards a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, and we want to build personal relationships in every environment we create. We want to build relationships between leaders and students, students and students, leaders and parents, and everything in between. We believe that being relational was a founding value in the ministry of Jesus, and we want to live out that value in every event, Sunday morning program, or missional experience we ever create.

2. Meaningful Experiences

Students are shaped through the experiences in their lives. They are experienced-based learners and people. We want to honor that truth by creating meaningful experiences that engage their heart, mind, body and soul. We don’t believe it’s enough to sit around and talk about the teaching of Jesus, we want to go out together and create experiences centered on the teachings of Jesus. Students need the opporutnities to test and try on their faith to see how it fits. We strive to create varied and valuable experiences that will bring healthy transformation into their lives.

Elevate’s Three Practices - From out of our core values come three practices, three actions, that we want all of our students to participate in on their spiritual journeys. Each of these practices has a consistent expression, but these practices can never be boxed in to only one type of environment.

1. Sharing – Sharing about our lives means expressing our thoughts, feelings and beliefs with other students and leaders. Through sharing we are able to discover what God is doing inside of us. Sharing is mainly expressed in our small group structure, and we would like for every student to be an active member of a small group appropriate for their age.

Buya small groups meet on Sunday mornings at 11:00am in the Underground.

Crash small groups meet weekly on Wednesday nights from 6:30-8:30 in the Attic. The Attic is an environment that our Crash students can call theirs. It is also open on Sunday mornings during both services. The Attic is located up a staircase attached to the lobby where we stream the service live to the students on those Sunday mornings, broadcasting it on several TV’s. The Attic will also always have free pancakes and serve coffee and for the Crash students.

2. Serving – Serving with our lives allows us to follow the path of Jesus with our actions. We want our students to experience the joy in giving away their lives for a greater purpose. Serving others helps us find a calling in a story bigger than our own–God’s Story. There are people locally, across Kansas City, and throughout the world that our students can really impact in a positive way. Special serving opportunities are scheduled throughout the year for both Buya and Crash students.

3. Celebrating – Celebrating in our lives means givng God the praise for the works he is accomplishing. Once a month, and at other special times during the year, our students are invited to join the whole of Shoal Creek in shared, community celebration events. These events include muscial worship nights, baptism, communion, or even special celebrations about South Africa, and the partnership God has blessed us with in leaders across the ocean.

Contact Info:

Student Director – Justin Talley

Email – justin.talley@shoalcreek.org

Phone – Office 816-792-2992 x27

Shoal Creek Calendar Link – This is the best way to see what’s happening regularly in our student ministries, times, locations, etc., unless you would like to contact Justin Talley more personally.