by Jordan Marcum

 

Clink… Clink… Clink… You can hear the echoing sound of hammers shaping and molding, reverberating off of the hallowed walls.  Stifling heat climbs upward and washes over you as you descend the rustic staircase. You reach the precipice, look right and know that this is where faith, lives, and will are being shaped and tested for impurities.  As the doors open and the smiling faces emerge you hear, “Welcome to The Refinery!”

 

If you haven’t heard the new exciting name to our youth space, now you have.  Why have we given it the moniker of The Refinery?  I am so glad you asked.  The leaders in TSM believe that we work with parents to help our students grow in relationship with Christ.  We as leaders will never have as much time with students as a parent does, but we will take the little time we do have with students and help refine them in the image of God.  

 

Continuing that imagery, our new large meeting space is known as The Forge.  Psalm 127 talks about how children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior.  If you want to turn metal into a weapon, first you must apply purifying, strength testing fire. Once it is moldable and ready for a new life, it is forged into a new Godly creation.  We know students will go out from TSM and face trials and uncertainty daily but we want them to be equipped and formed to fly straight and true, and cut to the marrow with a heart for God.