10
community
february21
2019
Vernonia Christian Church Expands Youth Ministry
New youth pastor Chad
Dillard has big plans to
provide programs and
activities for community youth
The Vernonia Christian Church
is excited to announce a new opportunity
for youth in the community.
Vernonia Christian has hired
Chad Dillard as their Youth Minister.
“Chad is someone our church
has brought in to work with students in
our town, and to plan and provide pro-
grams that will be good and
positive things for kids to do
in our community,” says Ver-
nonia Christian Church pastor
Sam Hough. “I’m really excited
about this. We have a lot of kids
in this town who are looking
for things to do, so I think this
will be a big deal. Chad has an
opportunity to build something
that just isn’t being built here.”
Dillard is originally
from Idaho, and says he graduated from
high school while living in a children’s
home there. He attended Boise Bible
College and then finished his Bachelors
Degree in Christian Ministries with an
emphasis on Pastoral Leadership at Trin-
ity International University in Deerfield,
Illinois. He has done some mission
work and also worked as a youth pastor
in Wisconsin, as well as with Youth for
Christ doing campus ministry. He has
played basketball and also coached foot-
ball and said he loves sports.
Dillard is married; he and his
wife Alison have a three year old daugh-
ter Kiara. He says both will be active
in the youth ministry.
Hough says Dillard will not
just be available to work with youth
in their own congregation. “Chad is
here to work with students up to 12 th
grade. They don’t have to be part of
our church, or any church for that mat-
ter. He will be planning trips and ac-
tivities that all kids in the community
are welcome to participate in. We’re
hoping to build some bridges with the
school and with home school students
and have that be Chad’s role.”
Hough says he sees this as a real
opportunity. Dillard will organize and
oversee all the youth programs and act
as support for the activities already be-
ing run by volunteers, while looking for
ways to improve and expand existing
programs and create new ones.
Currently Vernonia Christian
has a Wednesday night program at 6:30
for 4 th -6 th grade students, run by volun-
teer Jeremy Simmons. Dillard said the
group recently drew 61 kids for their ac-
tivities. He says the group is more of an
outreach to “...help young children ex-
perience and get comfortable with God’s
love,” that includes some free time for
games and activities.
On Sunday afternoons after
church at 12:30, Kim Pultz runs a Young
Disciples group for middle school stu-
dents. Dillard says that group works
more on exploring real life issues kids
experience and bring a scripture based
application to dealing with it. The group
has lunch together and a lesson.
Dillard will teach the high
school aged group which meets on Sun-
day evenings. “Right now we’re doing
something called “Back to the Basics”
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and looking at the Bible all the way back
to Genesis. The meeting also includes
free time for games and social activities.
Recent activities included a
Valentine meal where the young men
cooked dinner for the young ladies, fol-
lowed by a movie night. Hough says
plans include the organization of a youth
camp, field trips and retreats, a local pro-
gressive dinner, a photo scavenger hunt,
and a trip to a Christian rock concert.
“We’re going to find ways to get out of
the building and have fun,” says Dillard.
Dillard and Hough say another
idea is to get the youth out into the com-
munity to provide some helpful service
for those in need. “Last week we had a
group of boys go out and shovel snow
from someone’s driveway,” says Hough.
“Each week our goal is to reach
out and allow us to incorporate personal
time with them to give kids an opportu-
nity to tell us what’s going on in their
lives,” says Dillard. Dillard will also
spend time with some youth one-on-one
to provide opportunities for personal
counseling. He notes that any one-on-
one time with young woman will include
his wife.
“Our church congregation has
made some pretty big sacrifices to make
this happen,” says Hough. “But we’re
really excited about the opportunity this
provides. When we look at our commu-
nity, we don’t have a lot of paid staff in
our churches. A common thing we hear
is there is nothing for kids to do in town.
Our activities will be for all the kids in
our community.”
Hough notes that since he came
to Vernonia Christian Church as the pas-
tor 17 years ago, providing activi-
ties and events for the community
has always been a goal. He points
to the Sportsman’s Banquet the
church hosted for several years as an
example, which brought in nation-
ally known speakers. “We’ve tried
to bring things that our community
wouldn’t normally have access to,”
says Hough. “We decided to take
those resources we used to try to
do something we thought would be
more useful – outreach to our kids.
I think this will have a more lasting
impact and benefits for our commu-
nity.”
For more information on youth pro-
grams at Vernonia Christian Church
or upcoming events go to their
website at www.VernoniaChristian-
Church.org.
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