Let's talk about service!
We have found there are three primary reasons many youth stay involved in a church; Relationships (young people go where there relationships are), Serving Others, and having Responsibilities. Hands-on Service Projects can incorporate all three.
In addition to the organizations officially promoted by the NALC (listed below), Gary & Laurie have had great success with the sites listed on the left. Most of our service ministries are "all church" ministries. Long ago we stopped using terms like, "the youth group is doing..." or "the youth of the church are..." Most everything has become intergenerational.
We've used...
Let's start with NALC Disaster Response. NALC Disaster Response has resources and capabilities to assist in early response and longer term recovery. They can open the gates to material resources, networking, counseling, training, and volunteers.
They also offer Disaster Response Funds, Disaster Care Kits, and "Stuff the Truck" events. Connect with Mary Bates. Contact information to the right. 
Samaritan's Purse. We love Samaritans Purse, but we especially love Operation Christmas Child. It has become an all church event. A High Schooler leads the project, all ages bring in boxes, little kids help sort through items, Middle Schoolers check and wrap boxes, and High Schoolers deliver them to the drop off center. Boxes are placed on the altar and prayed over. It is truly an all church experience.
The Souper Bowl is another intergenerational winner. For decades on SuperBowl Sunday we have collected dollars for local food pantries. Want to make it more super? Have the youth contact the food pantry for a shopping list. Put kids in groups. Give them a clipboard, calculator and shopping list and set them loose in the grocery store. Drop off the food on the way home and take a brief tour of the food pantry. Have the kids sign the looooong grocery receipt and hang it in a prominent place. Everybody wins and youth will flock to sign up again.
Water Missions International is a nonprofit Christian engineering
organization providing sustainable safe water and sanitation solutions
for people in developing countries and disaster areas.
Imagine walking miles and miles each day just to get a drink of water. This is a reality for millions of people each day. Involve your church in a water Walk A “Walk for Water” mimics the walk that those millions of people take each day to collect water. 
The Salvation Army is know for their bell ringing outside of shopping areas at Christmas time. However, they will pick up used items from congregations. For years we have found that a clothing drive is a great service project. Advertise it in May as "clean out your closet" month. Have members bring donated clothing items to the church. Have members of all ages sort through the clothes and schedule a pick up. Everybody wins! FYI, there are many other organizations that will do the same such as Good Will and clothingdonations.org.
Laurie and Gary have been sponsoring children through Compassion International since the 1980's. Our current sponsored daughter is Laura Evelyn from El Salvador. We give youth in our church the opportunity to donate some of their own money to help support Uwase. They also get a chance to write her and we read to them the replies. Over the years several families have since started sponsoring children on their own. We ask youth to bring in pictures of their family sponsored child to introduce him or her to the class. It has been a good ministry opportunity.
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NALC Service Ministry Partners include...NALC Disaster Response
NALC Disaster Warehouse 810 Main St. Caldwell, Ohio 43724 740-509-1132 Mary Bates NALC Disaster Response Awakening Lives to World Missions Rev. William Moberly 10508 Savoy Drive NW Albuquerque, NM 87114-4595 505-803-5271 [email protected] www.alwm.org China Service Ventures Rev. Paul Martinson 1407 Cleveland Ave N Saint Paul, MN 55108-1410 651-659-1396 [email protected] www.chinaserviceventures.org East European Missions Network Rev. David Breidenbach 2111 Golf Course Rd SE, Suite C Rio Rancho, NM 87124-1634 505-990-1639 [email protected] www.eemn.org Friends of Madagascar Mission Rev. David Lerseth PO Box 46381 Eden Prairie, MN 55344-6381 847-445-8177 [email protected] www.madagascarmission.org World Mission Prayer League Rev. Chuck Lindquist 232 Clifton Ave Minneapolis, MN 55403-3466 612-871-6843 [email protected] www.wmpl.org India Transformed/UEMI Ms. Gwynne Gonnerman PO Box 22420 Denver, CO 80222-0420 720-404-1631 www.indiatransformed.org Lutheran Bible Translators Dr. Mike Rodewald PO Box 789 Concordia, MO 64020-0789 800-532-4253 [email protected] www.lbt.org SMI Haiti Ms. Kit Brunson 8327 Haggard Ct Martinsville, IN 46151 317-496-4622 [email protected] www.smihaiti.org Lutheran World Relief Mr. Daniel V. Speckard PO Box 17061 Baltimore, MD 21298-9832 800-597-5972 www.lwr.org Malawi Orphan Care Project Mr. Kenneth Ekegren 53 Park Ave W Mansfield, OH 44902 419-512-9710 [email protected] www.malawiorphancareproject.org 
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