Games, social time, biblical teaching, discussion groups and mentorships for students in grades six to 12 can all be found in one place - the Twentyfourseven (TFS) youth group offered by Freedom Life Church in Christiana.

TFS meets at the church on Wednesdays. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., followed by the program from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The group meets year-round, but it held its summer kickoff celebration on June 19.

"(Youths) can come any Wednesday throughout the year," said Freedom Life youth pastor Caleb Stevenson. "The summer is a great time because students are out of school and not doing a whole lot."

Each session opens with social time and games, followed by a breakout of small groups based on age and gender. "(Beginning at 6:30 p.m.), it's a lot of 'hanging out' time with basketball, nine square and board games, and we have opportunities for students to connect with each other and the leaders," Stevenson explained. "Once our program begins at 7 p.m., we always have a fun game that we play, and we have a time of worship, and we always have a time with our small groups."

He said classes are offered to help students read and understand the Bible. "We teach the Bible to them on their level, but we don't 'dumb it down,'" Stevenson noted. "We believe that young people can read and comprehend the Bible and that encouraging words from the Bible can impact their lives and their worlds."

Each session closes with a prayer and a challenge. "We like to give students a call to action - to apply what they learned that night to their lives," said Stevenson.

The TFS session runs until 8:30 p.m., but the program often continues after that with additional activities. "We will have fun things throughout this summer for after the program," Stevenson stated. "We will make s'mores over a fire pit, or we will have a water slide or an ice cream bar. It gives more of an opportunity for students to connect with each other."

Youths may drop in a TFS meeting any Wednesday. No preregistration is required, although attendees are asked to check in upon arrival. "If someone comes for the first time, we have them check in and collect information," Stevenson noted. "We do encourage parents to come in and meet us. We love to meet parents and partner with parents. A parent is the most influential person in a student's life, and we want to build relationships with them."

Youth group staff members are also available to help parents with issues they may be encountering with their children. "We try to create better alternatives for (youths) and their families," said Stevenson. "Our specialty is teenagers and the teenage culture, so we try to help parents as much as we can with that."

Most of the students who attend the TFS youth group are from Freedom Life, but young people from Octorara and neighboring school districts also attend. "We have a lot of students who don't come from a church background and begin coming to youth group and throughout time they become Christian and they eventually come to our church as well," Stevenson shared. "We consistently have around 100 students from grades six to 12 on a weekly basis. We also have a consistent team of over 25 adult volunteers that are there every week as well."

He said that the trained group leaders are fully vetted to work with young people and are all members of Freedom Life. "We have a 1-to-4 or 1-to-6 ratio of adults to students," he noted. "All the adults are from our church and (are) trusted to be mentors for teenagers in the community."

He added that the Twentyfourseven group got its name because the church wants to see all youths become 24/7 followers of Jesus. "That's our hope. We mark our success when students continue to follow Jesus after high school and into the workplace," he said. "For example, we just graduated about eight senior guys, and they had the same two youth leaders with them from grade six to all the way to 12th grade. We saw these guys come in as young middle-schoolers and do well not only as students of the youth group but leaders as well. They stepped up as examples for the younger students."

In fact, Stevenson himself was a member of the youth group. "I have been youth pastor for almost nine years, and before that I was a volunteer with the group. I was a student (member of the youth group) for five years, so I have been a part of it almost 20 years," he added.

Freedom Life Church is located at 447 Noble Road, Christiana. For more information about the TFS youth group, parents may email youth@freedom.life or text TFSPARENT to 94000.