A symposium held today at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Centerville, “Becoming a Congregation of Blessing,” will address nurturing children into worship. We asked local church leaders to answer the following question:

What are some ways churches can reach out to youth?

ALEY United Methodist Church, 4143 Kemp Road, Beavercreek

“Our goal is to provide a dynamic, exciting and fun atmosphere for youth that provides study of the scripture and activities. We also try to put them in a setting where they can really help people, such as working in a community garden in Jackson, Ohio, or rebuilding homes in Joplin, Mo.” — the Rev. Ken Kirk

Bellbrook Community Church, 15 W. Franklin St., Bellbrook

“We try to provide a quality place for them to come to church, such as a special service for the children during the regular Sunday service called Kid’s Church. There we try to make scripture focus fun (and) relevant to their world. It won’t just be something from the Bible that they won’t understand. We try to give them a focus that they can take out into the world. We also are in the process of writing devotions that they can take home and work on with their families. For teens, we offer a special service and youth group on Wednesday.” — Gina Strong, children’s director

First Church of the Nazarene, 1204 W. Second St., Xenia

“What we discovered is that there is really nothing for teens to do in Xenia. So, one of the programs that we have to fill that need is our Wednesday night outreach ... This program usually has around 60 to 80 participants each week.” — Kyle Lamb, youth pastor

Abiding Christ Lutheran Church, 326 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road, Fairborn

“We have a lot of at-risk children and try to provide them a safe place to be as well as providing them with some structure and mentoring on a case-by-case basis. Every Wednesday night we provide regular meals to families and serve around 15 to 30 children a week. Many times children will stay for extra programming such as music groups and worship. We help support our local schools by providing them with school supplies and work with other churches and organizations to provide meals to the local high school football and basketball teams after practice. We also do work in conjunction with the Miami Valley Technology Center to help people get their GED.” — Craig Fourman, lead pastor

Our Lady of Good Hope, 6 S. Third St., Miamisburg

“The way we reach out to youth in general is an invitation to participate in activities that can be a springboard into an active way of living in community with others. We try to build up a service lifestyle through volunteer activities such as working at St. Vincent De Paul and offer them things that are relevant to their culture but provide a spiritual thread.” — Chris Robinson, coordinator of youth ministry