Vision
Satellites is a summer event for young people, brought to you by the team at Youthscape. It’s a five-day gathering, designed to inspire teenagers to live with God at the centre of their lives for the other 360 days of the year.
We want to see young people living with God at the centre of their lives. Everything else is secondary.
We live in a world where faith is often seen as a lifestyle choice for young people; another social option to sit alongside sports practice and a regular squad battle in Call of Duty; another element of our compartmentalised lives. But that isn’t all that God is interested in. He doesn’t exist to revolve around us, to serve our needs when we ask him. It’s designed to be the other way around. We were always meant to be in His orbit. Like satellites.
We have seven key values which underpin our planning. These values help young people to see what it looks like to follow Jesus all year round, and all seven are rooted in the model of Christian discipleship that we find in the Bible.
Three of the values are focussed on us (how we meet with God alone and together and become changed as a result), three are outward-facing (helping us to see the role that God calls us to in building and extending his Kingdom on earth). The final one is kind of a big deal – as we prioritise the presence and power of God himself.
These seven values run through everything we do – they constitute a holistic, practical approach to following Jesus. You can read a bit more about each one in this blog post. Plus they’re also discussed in much more detail in Martin Saunders’ book We Are Satellites which you can get a copy of here.
Why
Satellites?
As youth workers we all know that having time away with our young people is invaluable, and there are so many different ways you can choose to do this!
So here are some things that we think make Satellites a great choice for you and your youth group:
All year round
Satellites is a five-day event in the Summer to catalyse and support year-round, life-long faith. Everything we do on site is designed to help young people live out their Christian life for the other 360 days of the year.
Prayer focused
We are passionately committed to teaching and inspiring young people to pray - together and alone. Our event centres a safe, replicable approach to prayer and ministry that youth groups can use at home, not just when they're with us at Satellites.
Working with youth leaders
As a Youthscape event, we have a unique focus on partnering with youth leaders. We're here to support you and your group. Plus we have a dedicated venue and programme for youth leaders, full of opportunities to learn, meet others and enjoy a well-earned break.
Innovative & Creative
We embrace creativity as one of the core values of the event, and of Christian discipleship. Young people get to explore how their God-given creativity can enrich and enliven their faith journey, while we commit to constantly developing and iterating our summer event and supporting resources.
A place of belonging for all
In a divided world, we prioritise unity, family and welcome. We believe that there's a seat at the table for every young person - and our aim is that no-one will leave Satellites in any doubt of God's love for them.
A place of belonging
Accessibility is important. Inclusion is even better. But at Satellites, we want to create a place of belonging for everyone.
One of the core values of Satellites is family. We believe that through Jesus, God invites all of us to be a part of his global, history spanning family, which is the church. We believe that this invitation is equally open to everyone, regardless of their race, nationality, gender, disabilities, sexuality, age, social class and political views.
We believe that this family is the best possible context to experience life in all its fullness (John 10 v 10); a place where can we both know God together as his people, and equip each other to know him individually. In this family we form our identity in, and allegiance to, Jesus. We place God at the centre of our lives, and at the centre of our community.
We also believe that Jesus calls us to actively invite all people to join and participate in this family. We acknowledge that we - the church - have not always been so good at this. So we want to make sure that our family dinner table is always big enough for another person to join it.
Access, not barriers. Inclusion, not exclusivity. Love, not judgement. Belonging, not superficiality. At Satellites, all are welcome to join the family
A Framework for Prayer & Ministry at Satellites
Satellites will be full of opportunities for us to pray with one another! Whether that's in our youth groups, with members of the pastoral team or with new people we've just met. We trust that God is going to do some great things in these 5 days and prayer is one of those points of encounter, where we meet and engage with God.
We all come from different contexts so we've put together three simple principles for prayer at Satellites so we’re all on the same page. These are: Active, Open and Encouraging.
Active: The person praying, the person being prayed for and God are all active participants in prayer. Whatever you’re praying about, give God all your focus.
Open: There's almost always something that has prompted us to pray, and it's totally right to bring that before God. Once you've expressed it, be open to wherever He may be drawing your attention. When we invite God into our situation we have two promises: He's always going to be present, (whether we feel or sense it or not) and He's always going to do something good. Be open to what He has for you but remember, He'll never force His way in. It's for you to choose to open the door.
Encouraging: Every person should leave a time of prayer feeling encouraged. If you're praying with someone, the goal is for them to leave that time of prayer encouraged and confident that God really loves them. If you are left unsettled after prayer, please do chat to someone, whether a friend, a leader or member of the Satellites team.
Committed to listening and developing
As an event run by the team at Youthscape, innovation, creativity and research is at the heart of what we do. Each year we seek feedback from young people, group leaders and team, it gets processed by our Youthscape Centre of Research team and then....we act on it! We really value your feedback and we are always looking to develop what we offer and refine how we do it.
If you have questions, feedback, testimonies or suggestions, please get in touch.