1. Apostles Creed Ministry Project
The goal of this project is to take each tenet of the Apostles’ Creed and create an active
learning/service opportunity for students. Over six weeks students will participate in
service activities that relate directly to a tenet of the Creed. Each week prior to going out,
the students and their leaders will consider one of the tenets. After processing through a
basic understanding of the tenet, students and their leaders will participate in a service
project or activity that relates to the tenet. After each service project the students and
leaders will take time to debrief their service and see if they can see the connect between
the tenet of the Creed and the way that they served
The kick off for this series of projects will start off with a lesson on Sunday in our normal
weekly ministry setting talking about what it means to believe.
The Launch lesson:
I Believe
1.What does it mean to believe?
a. At the lowest level we can say that we believe something, but at the same time
the statement contains some uncertainty.
b. Next level is where we can say that we believe but we are willing to be
convinced that we could be wrong. It is the same as saying, “I think”.
c. Next highest level when we say, “I believe,” we are stating that we are
convinced of something. This is the level that was placed on the certainty of
conviction.
d. Deepest level of belief you are stating that “I believe in….” The word “in”
makes the belief relational. We have more than putting our trust in an idea. Our
trust is in a person; our trust is in God. (Gonzalez kindle location 176)
2. If we really trust something it must cause movement in our lives.
a. The idea here is that my belief that something is true, of that someone is
trustworthy, now requires me to rely upon that thing or that person that I believe is true or
trustworthy. I have to believe into. I have to believe upon. I have already believed that it

2. is true, and now my belief moves out of the realm of the intellectual into the realm of
actual reliance. (Briscoe page 10)
b. Our beliefs should not only influence our service but also direct it. The creed a
profession of faith requires that we engage in personal commitment.
Over the next six weeks we as a group will look at a number of the “I believe ...”
statements of the Apostles’ Creed. We will look at these statements each week before we
engage in a related service project. We want to connect our beliefs with our actions.
After each service project we will debrief and ask the following four questions to see if
our service connects with our belief.
1. How do you think that the tenet or “I believe…” statement was related to our
service today?
2. What did you learn about God today?
3. Did you see a connection between what you learned about God and what you did?
4. How will your understanding of what you believe impact your actions this next
week?

3. Week One Service Project: I Believe in God, The Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven
and Earth.
Pre-service Preparation: Group leader will lead the students through an understanding of
this tenet highlighting the following points.
1) The Father Almighty,
a. Father is not a reference to the masculinity of God.
b. There is a mystery to all-powerful nature of God. We as humans must
respect the fact that we cannot completely understand the nature and depth
of God’s power.
c. God is analogous to a father. In some ways He is like a human father, and
in others He is not. (McGrath pg 27). The analogies all have similarities
with our earthly fathers but points of dissimilarity too.
i. Cares for us
ii. Source of existence
iii. Made in image
iv. Authority over us.
v. Knows our weakness and problems
d. The Roman understanding of God the Father was one of power and
authority. This understanding led right into the creative nature of God. If
God is "in charge" of everything, God must also be the source and ground
of everything (Van Harn Kindle Location 521).
2) Creator of heaven and earth.
a. The doctrine of creation is not about how God made the world; it is about
this world and its inescapable dependence on God. Such a doctrine can

4. never be proved or disproved by scientific research or analysis. (González
Kindle Locations 336-337).
b. To affirm God as Creator is to affirm that everything depends upon God's
sustaining love. But the Creator is still active and is now perfecting all
things. (Van Harn Kindle Locations 758-759).
i. The “everything that depends upon God” in the above statement is
both spiritual and physical.
Service project: The team will work at an orphanage doing two main activities. One will
be reading to the children and meeting relational needs that they have, which, in some
ways, will meet a spiritual need. Secondly, they will clean and repair the facilities, which
will meet a natural or physical need. As students are serving today we want them to
remember that God the Father’s almightiness in creation, providence, and grace is and
can be the basis for the trust, peace, and joy that they share as they serve (Briscoe pg 33).
After the service project is completed, the team will meet for debrief using the four
questions referenced above for processing the project and the tenet.

5. Week Two Service Project: I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
Pre-service Preparation: Group leader will lead the students through an understanding of
this tenet highlighting the following points.
1) Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary
a. He is God’s only son. It is not talking about Jesus being created, as
being inferior to God. It’s saying He is of the same kind, the same
genes, the same nature, the same essence of God. He is God. But
there’s only one of Him; He is unique. He is uniquely God
demonstrated in Human form. (Briscoe 61)
b. “Jesus is Lord,” means Jesus has been given the same status as God
Himself. It is an affirmation that Jesus has the right to lordship over us
just as God has. (McGrath 43)
c. The purpose of these words is not to explain Jesus' biological origin. It
is rather to make two central affirmations about him: first, that His
birth was something special: second, that His birth was real. (González
Kindle Locations 458-460).
2) Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended
to the dead.
d. The reference to Pontius Pilate is a way of dating Jesus by referencing
how was ruling at the time, this places the creed firmly in history.
e. It is Jesus’ suffering above all that demonstrates God’s embrace of our
human condition. (Johnson 168)
i. Jesus did not live safely above human suffering. He became
like his brothers in every respect… Hebrews 2:10-18.
ii. Jesus suffering demonstrates to us that suffering in itself is not
evil.

6. f. The important point to note here is that Jesus followed the human
condition even to death, the final enemy, and now we can follow his
lead on to victory over death. (Gonzales Kindle location 1802)
Service project: This relates to birth and human suffering, two things Jesus experienced.
Our students will visit both adults and children in the hospital. The team will be
spending time and pray with patients. Our hope is to relate to the fact that Jesus came
into the human experience and went through all of the same things we face. He came into
the mess of what we call human existence and provided salvation.

7. Week Three Service Project: On the third day he rose again; he ascended into
heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to
judge the living and the dead.
Pre-service Preparation: Group leader will lead the students through an
understanding of this tenet highlighting the following points.
1) In the resurrection Jesus was liberated from the bonds of death; now with the
ascension He is restored to the close presence, power, and majesty of His
Father.(McGrath 740)
a. This allows Him to be available to all now in the power of the Holy
Spirit
b. He has been seated in his unique place as our advocate, savior, and
intercedes for us at the Father’s ear.
c. The Resurrection changes everything; once death has been defeated it
means that anything is possible.
1) God's judgments aim to create and restore justice and peace among the people of
God and throughout the creation. Van Harn. (Kindle Locations 2570-2572).
a. God’s judgment is always to restore creation.
b. Since the judgment is coming from the one who saves us, judgment is not
to be feared.
c. When Jesus comes to judge He is sent from the place of the Father’s
love. We should rejoice in the judgment because it will be a time when
all things are restored.
Service project: The students will visit a place of judgment and be involved in
prison ministry this week. As they are visiting with those who have been judged
for their crimes by society we want them to share the place of judgment that
Christ is coming from, the place of Love. Our hope is that students can share

8. Christ’s Lordship, the place He is coming from to Judge, and how we are totally
freed up to love, even if those our society would consider most unlovely.

9. Week four Service project: I believe in the Holy Spirit,
Pre-service Preparation: Group leader will lead the students through an understanding of
this tenet highlighting the following points.
1) The Spirit brings life.
a. Breathed life into Adam at creation (Gen 2:7)
b. Made dry bones come to life. (Ezekiel 37)
2) The Spirit brings power. Some time the image of wind has been used to
describe the Spirit. This is to show the nature that the Spirit is God at work or
God in action.
a. The Spirit conviction or sin
b. The Spirit is a pledge of our salvation
c. The Spirit is our comforter (all points out of McGrath 79-81)
Service project: This week’s project will start with our students being given $20. They
will pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead them into ministry. After spending time
listening to the Spirit, we will have the students obey what they are hearing. As they
follow the Spirit’s leading they should see the Spirit working in the above ways: life,
power, conviction of sin, salvation, and comfort.
After the service project is completed, the team will meet for debrief using the four
questions referenced above for processing the project and the tenet.
Week five Service Project: the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the
forgiveness of sins,

10. Pre-service Preparation: Group leader will lead the students through and understanding
of this tenet Highlighting the following points.
1) The One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church (Johnson 255)
a. One: when in the Creed we refer to "the holy catholic church," we are
not referring to a particular denomination. Quite the contrary, we are
affirming the existence of the church even in the midst of our various
theologies, traditions, and polities, and affirming our membership in
that church. (González Kindle Locations 966-968).
b. Holy: The holiness of the church means as a corporate entity we must
be witness to the presence and power of the risen Lord Jesus in the
world. (Johnson 267)
c. Catholic: Refers to the fact that the church exists everywhere and is
not limited to location. The second way that the church is catholic is
the way that it embraces difference within the larger unity.
d. Apostolic
2) When we affirm "the communion of saints" we are affirming: (I) our
fellowship with believers of all times and places; (2) our readiness to share
with others who are in need, (3) that our sharing includes "holy things''-in
other words, that the "holy things" do not belong to some of us in particular,
but to all of us as it whole. (González. Kindle Locations 975-978).
3) Forgiveness is good news because we all desperately need it. It can’t be
overlooked that the forgiveness of sins is so closely linked with the
communion of saints.
a. To affirm the forgiveness of sin is to affirm also the forgiveness of the
sins of others (González Kindle Location 1015)
b. God has already given the forgiveness in Christ, my forgiveness of
others only effects my ability to step into the full freedom of
experiencing that forgiveness in Christ.

11. Service project: Our students will work at another local church body this week. We will
clean, paint, work on the grounds, and serve this local body any way that we can to bless
them. We want to remove the idea of completion or separation and demonstrate that we
are united under Christ.
After the service project is completed, the team will debrief using the four questions
referenced above for processing the project and the tenet.

12. Week Six service project: the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. AMEN.
Pre-service Preparation: Group leader will lead the students through an understanding of
this tenet highlighting the following points.
1) The resurrection of the body
a. Christian insistence that eternal life is a gift from God, and the conviction
that God's final purposes include the material as well as the spiritual
(González Kindle Locations 1070-1071).
b. Just as in creation material and spiritual are connected they are also
connected in resurrection.
c. When Paul writes in Romans 8, he does not say "redemption from our
bodies," but "redemption of our bodies." The difference is enormous and
crucial for Christian theology. God the creator will not abandon what he
has created. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body affirms that God
will finally redeem creation from its bondage to death and decay (Van
Harn Kindle Locations 3745-3746).
2) The life everlasting, eternity, is written on our hearts. There is within every
human being a longing for something wonderful and beautiful and glorious that
will never end (Briscoe 221).
a. Eternal doesn’t mean throughout all time; it mean outside time (McGrath
104).
i. This means that our everlasting life with God doesn’t start when
we die but it begins the moment we enter into relationship with
Him.
b. Life everlasting has come when "death will be no more" (Rev. 21:4).
Service project: This week our students will work in a homeless shelter. Students will
spend time with children of single parents, reading to them, preparing food, and serving a
meal to residents of the shelter as well as people off the street. Our hope is that students
will be able to speak of the hope they have in Christ because of the resurrection and

13. everlasting life. As students share of this hope, it is our prayer they will be able to offer
hope to people who seem to be in hopeless situations.
After the service project is completed, the team will debrief using the four questions
referenced above for processing the project and the tenant.
After the service projects are all completed as a reflection have them fill out the
following form.

14. What I learned
Take five minutes to think about the most significant experiences during your
service projects. Try to write down at least 8-10 things. (You might include the
following: meaningful conversations, something you saw, a relationship you built,
a difficult situation or conflict, a challenging or adventurous task you were given,
etc.).
1.
2.
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4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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10.
Now go back though your list and answer these questions,
 What did God reveal to you about himself in your experiences?
 How did they challenge or affirm you personally?
 How did they change the way you look at or relate to the world?