Zach Fallon

High School Pastor

It is my pleasure to give God glory for what he has done in and through the student ministries here at College Church this past year. As always, he has been faithful to reveal Christ from his Word, and we have seen many of our students responding in faith in various areas of their lives. We are taking seriously the task of partnering with the parents of College Church in seeing the gospel passed on to the next generation.

What a joy it has been to see the high school students of College Church challenged by God’s Word to follow Christ with their lives. It has been our continued hope and prayer that God would use this ministry to help our students pursue maturity in Christ. We want to see the students of College Church crossing into Christian adulthood ready to follow and serve Christ!

We’ve had various ways in which students could grow in their faith this year. We have gathered together as a high school community during the 9:30 a.m. hour on Sunday morning. This has been a great time for us to worship together and hear from God’s Word. Our students were also a part of eight different small groups (four guys and four girls) led by a wonderful team of adult leaders. Our adult leaders have loved our students well, teaching them God’s Word and sharing their lives with them.

We’ve also seen many of our students being trained for and serving in ministry. We had twenty-one upperclassmen participate in a discipleship and ministry training program called Bridge Fellowship. We also had students serving throughout the church community, tutoring at Outreach Community Center and sharing Christ at different outreaches at Wheaton North (through Illinois School Project and Falcons for Him). I thank God that he is raising up a new generation that loves Jesus and wants to share him with others.

Another highlight was Project Discipleship, a partnership with Pastor Ben Panner and College Group. Pastor Ben and his team trained many college students in one-to-one Bible reading who then in turn met with high school students in two-to-one or three-toone groups to study Philippians and pray with one another. Our hope was to see college students sharing God’s Word while also training our high school students in how to read God’s Word for themselves.

Keeping God’s Word central, we spent time this past year in studies from God’s Word. In the fall we did a “survey of the whole Christian life” from God’s Word and coupled that study with John Bunyan’s The Pilgrims Progress. The challenge for us was to understand what it takes to start and finish the journey of faith God’s people are on. This spring we are studying the Gospel According to Matthew and taking a focused look at Jesus, the long-awaited yet unexpected King.

The ministry staff has given many hours and energy to help make all these things take place. When Cheryce Berg transitioned to her new role as director of children’s ministries, Lois Krogh stepped up and provided wonderful leadership to the adult women serving in the high school ministry, training and encouraging many in discipleship ministry. Josh Maurer has been a wonderful ministry partner in leading our student worship ministry. Bethany Atchison, Katie Nussbaum and Addie Teevans have been a great team investing in many discipleship relationships among our girl students. Kolby Atchison and Lee Christoff have done the same for many of our guy students as well. And of course, many thanks to Audrey McEuen, who keeps all of us on schedule and works behind the scenes to make these things happen. What a wonderful team this has been!

One of the greatest blessings we have had this past year has been Michael Walker, one of our pastoral residents. Michael is a gifted Bible teacher with a caring, pastoral heart, who has been all-in from the moment he started. He has loved our students well, clearly and faithfully taught the Word and been a tremendous encouragement to me personally. We thank God for Michael and are so glad he is at College Church!

Please pray for us in this upcoming year. There are many ministry opportunities before us with our students, and we are praying that God would do a great work in and through us this coming year!