Let me tell you something I have noticed about high schoolers.

They are busy. They are pulled in seventeen directions at once — sports, academics, jobs, social lives, family obligations, and the very serious business of figuring out their next steps in life. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, the question of where they belong in a faith community can quietly get lost.

Which is exactly why I want to say something clearly today. Clearly enough that it lands. And if you happen to be a parent of a teenager, I hope it might be clear enough to remember the next time you are having the "what are you doing Sunday night?" conversation with your teenager.

We have Youth Group for high schoolers. (We also have Youth Group for Middle Schoolers from 4-6 pm every week, but this post is about high schoolers).

Sunday evenings. 6 to 8 pm. Dinner included. And it is for your student.

Let me clear something up.

For a while now, there has been a persistent and very understandable misunderstanding in our congregation: that the Xperience is our only high school ministry. And I want to start by saying, we love the Xperience. Genuinely and wholeheartedly. Our Xperience worship band and ministry is a Spirit-filled, beautiful expression of what God is doing among our young people, and the students who lead and participate in it are extraordinary.

But the Xperience is not the whole picture.

And I realized we have not done a great job of telling the whole story. So consider this my attempt to do that.

This is Youth Group.

We are putting a name on it, and that name is simple: This is Youth Group. Whenever you see those four words — in our bulletins, on social media, in your inbox — they are pointing to one thing. Middle School Youth Group meets every Sunday from 4-6 pm. High School Youth Group meets every Sunday evening from 6 to 8 pm. Dinner is served. All are welcome.

But "This is Youth Group" is our weekly meetings AND more. At the Ninth Grade Retreat, we listed all of the ways our new confirmands can be involved in high school. Here is our list:

• Weekly Meetings: Most Sunday evenings, 6–8 pm, dinner included
• Confirmation 2.0 Sunday School: Sunday mornings at 10 am
• Monday Night Bible Study: Mondays at 6 pm in the Pit
• The Xperience: Our high school worship band and ministry
• Stepping Stones: Faith formation and milestones for high schoolers (This year we have equipping sessions on Vocation, Driving, Dating and Relationships, Drugs and Alcohol, World Religions and Evangelism, AI and Technology)
• Peer Ministry: Students trained to minister to one another
• Teens Encounter Christ (TEC): A transformative retreat experience
• National Youth Gathering:  A once in a lifetime Lutheran experience
• Steering Wheel Youth Leadership: Student leaders shaping the ministry
• Faith Ablaze Retreats at Lutheridge:  Summer camp that sets faith on fire
• Service Opportunities: Ongoing ways to serve right here at Christ Lutheran

This is a full list. And it is reflective of a full, rich, vibrant ministry. There is something in it for every student — the worship leader, the questioner, the servant, the leader, and the one who just needs a safe place to land on a Sunday night.

High school is one of the most important and most complicated seasons in a young person's life. The friendships formed, the questions wrestled with, the communities chosen — all of it shapes who your student becomes. I believe deeply that a faith community can be one of the most stabilizing, identity-forming, life-giving things a teenager has access to during these years.

But they often won't find it on their own. They need us to point them there. They need you to say, on a Sunday afternoon when the couch is comfortable and the week has been long — "Come on. Let's go."

We have built a community that will show up for your student. Sunday evenings from 6 to 8 pm. Dinner is on us. And there are opportunities for parents to stay connected along the way too, because we know faith formation is never just about the student — it is always a family journey.

This is Youth Group.

And we cannot wait to see your student there.