St. John’s welcomes a new member to our Youth Ministry Staff. We are very pleased to announce that Heather Lyall is our new Director of Youth Ministry.

For those of you who are sports fans, you will understand the analogy of building a team. The goal is to add players who have abilities and expertise in the areas where you have the greatest need. We believe our need is with our Youth. As we look at the world, we want to prepare our youth to know and trust the Lord, to be able to fall back onto Jesus when it seems like the world is crashing. The future of our church is found on our youth sharing the message of Jesus Christ.

In the last year, we have had an all male youth staff. It was our desire to bring in a woman so that our girls in youth would have a strong Christian female as a role model. We know we have found that person in Heather Lyall.

Heather was raised at St. John’s. She and her family have been long-time members. Her parents, Jeff and Robin, have been active in our ministry and have held several positions of leadership during their many years here. They were great role models for Heather, as they taught and nurtured her well in their faith in the Lord. She attended Villa Park High School and graduated from USC. She knew she had a passion to serve the Lord and that became a reality as she began to work with Campus Crusade in leading small group ministry. While working in that ministry, she began to notice a need to help the students grow a deeper faith; so she helped to bring alumni in to talk about their faith with them. This group grew until they overflowed her little apartment.

After graduation, Heather began working for a non-profit company, Best Buddies, which helped kids in high school connect with special needs kids. They worked on developing friendships between the kids. Heather still found something in her heart left un-met and prayed for an opportunity to serve Jesus. It was during this time that St. John’s connected with Heather and asked her to consider working in Youth Ministry. She was thrilled to put her two passions together, the passion for youth and teaching about the love of Christ.

It is with great excitement that we welcome Heather Lyall to our staff as a Director of Youth Ministry. St. John’s is thankful for Heather’s heart and passion. We know our youth will be blessed.