Club 323
Who We Are
Our family lives in Naples, Florida, which is in a unique part of the United States. Naples is a destination location, so most of the families that we meet are not from here. In fact, so few people that we meet are from here, one of the first questions we ask when meeting someone new is “Where are you from?”
When our kids (fraternal twins) were in elementary school, we noticed that so many of our parent friends from school and sports said the same thing: “Our church doesn’t have a great youth program” or “We haven’t found a church yet that has a good youth program.” Because this statement was so prevalent, we decided to start a youth group/club at our home. Throughout elementary school and seasonally, a core group of kids would come to our home for Bible study and to play.
As a Christian father, I loved the opportunity to teach our children and their friends. With very young people, it’s important to lay the foundation of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and the gospel message so that as they grow and begin to take on their own faith (vs. just inheriting their family’s), they have context. Unfortunately, it’s common for young people to grow up in Christian families and learn all the Bible stories, but still be unable to explain or understand the gospel. Indeed, there’s a trend now going on, especially with young adults, many of whom are famous Christian musicians or have grown up in the megachurch era: leaving the church altogether. “Deconstruction” is a trending word for this generation as these people step away from church, confused about what they believe, as they are unable to reconcile what they read in their Bibles with what the actions of their churches.
The purpose of this site is to teach and share the Bible in a way that paves a path for our faith to grow. We are for parents of young people. We are for young people. We are for people who, no matter their age, are young in their faith. And finally, we are for people who are seeking answers but just aren’t sure how to find them.
I am not a pastor. I’m a Christian dad who grew up in a legalistic church, which led me to seek the truth as an adult. The truth is in the Bible. To find the truth, we must study the Bible. While small groups, youth groups, church programming, cool worship services, and topical sermons are all nice, putting our young people’s faith into a life of ONLY these things is not the answer. The answer is in the Bible, and our prayer is that these few little blog posts will help those reading find clarity from the Bible.
Remember, with everything you read here, just like with everything you hear your pastors say...don’t take our word for it. Search the scriptures yourself! Thank you for stopping by, and I hope to see you coming back to visit as new content loads.
