Did you know that for the past 6 years we have had a group of passionate, creative and “dramatic” young adults ministering to our community?  We have! They are better known around campus as the Junior High Ministry Team and are the realization of a vision by Mr. Travis Towne back in 2001.  The vision was that young adults could be used to encourage students to use their talents for acting and music in a fun environment.  “The idea was to take students from our school, teach them a little bit of drama and music, and then allow them to minister to other schools, not for recruitment, but for ministry opportunities,” Travis explains.  In fact, many of the students that you recognize in the Jr. High and High School Art department in Band or Drama got their start in the PCJHS Ministry Team.  They learned the basics of acting, playing an instrument, or being in front of a crowd and more importantly, how to serve God in the gifts and talents that He had given them.

Each fall hopeful Ministry team members audition and are selected based in equal parts on the performance talent, academic consistency and spiritual passion for ministry.

During the school year, the team goes out into the community approximately eight to ten times.  Typical performances consist of a 35 minute program including praise and worship with a full band, short skits (many students will remember the “Prayer Skit”), and human videos. Human videos are a non-verbal contemporary message reenactment. The students make modern messages come alive—creating new parables for their contemporaries. Some human videos include “I’m Not Cool”, “Sadie Hawkins Dance”, and “On An American Spiritual.”

Since the formation of the Ministry Team, students have been able to minister to over 15 different schools and social groups with many of the schools setting up a yearly visit from the team. In fact, a lot of the Jr. High’s current students still remember the time when the Ministry Team came to their school and performed. Some have even joined the team themselves. The ministry team was even asked to be one of the performing groups during the Arizona National Day of Prayer in the spring of 2004 held in downtown

Phoenix. The group has gone to various Senior Citizens luncheons, performed at Grandfriend’s Day, Alumni Chapel, local Christian School chapels, and even been to Mexico to minister to orphans at the Arms of Love Orphanage in Agua Prieta, Mexico.