LOGOS Returns For New Semester At New Location In Highland County

Highland County’s community-wide LOGOS program is about to begin a new semester in the new location of Monterey Presbyterian Church.  Rev. Rick Hill, pastor of Monterey and Beulah Presbyterian Churches, speaks about what the after-school program is all about.  He says, “LOGOS is a national program, and the idea was to find some way to try and get kids re-engaged in the church, and, so, one of the things that LOGOS tries to do is to educate kids about why we do what we do in the church, and, so, one of the aspects is worship arts, which is trying to teach kids about the different aspects of the worship service, and then along with that, LOGOS wants to try and get the kids involved in actually leading worship service, so the kids might be reading Scripture, or they might be leading a prayer, or they might be doing some sort of a skit, or they might be doing a song.  All of that then can be involved in the worship service and will help the children to get more engaged in what is going on, so that the service then has meaning for them.

“The LOGOS program is built on the Scripture in Acts 2:42 that says that the people of the Church were engaged in learning about the teachings of the apostles with fellowship, with sharing a meal, and with prayer, and, so, LOGOS takes those four aspects and then builds the program on those.”

There are a number of things the program is trying to accomplish for local youth.  Rev. Rick Hill continues by saying, “The number one thing that we’re trying to do is to help children understand more about their own faith, but we are also encouraging them to get engaged with a faith community.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be the Presbyterian Church.  We would like kids to be involved in a faith community of some sort.  We find that that is very, very important.  There’re any number of studies that have shown that children who are involved with a faith community are far less likely to get involved in dangerous, life-threatening behavior.  That includes drugs and violence and all kinds of things, and, so, we really want kids to get involved in a faith community.

“The other thing that we’re trying to do is we’re trying to build on what the schools are already doing.  We’re trying to encourage children to learn more about their world, to learn more about all of the people that are in their world and how to socialize with them and what it means to be friends and what it means to be supportive and encouraging and all of that.  One of my big things is to try and get children to read, and we have found that by having children read Scripture out loud that their reading skills improve immensely.  We want kids to feel more self-confident, and, so, we’re gonna be doing some leadership development kind of stuff and help them build their teamwork skills, so I think that there are a lot of good things that are gonna come out of this program.”

LOGOS begins Thursday, February 28, 2019 from 3:30 to 6:45 p.m. at Monterey Presbyterian Church and plans to continue every Thursday through May 30^th.  1^st through 12^th grade youth can participate.  There is a fee with registration, but scholarships are available for those who need them.  With parental approval, a school bus will deliver children from school to the church as needed.  LOGOS is also welcoming volunteers to help out in various ways.  To learn more, people can search on Facebook for “Highland LOGOS” or call Rev. Rick Hill at 540-480-8342.