I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Sally Rymer's The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Youth Ministry. Sally recently graduated from High School and in this book short, she shares some interesting things about youth ministry and youth workers.
Sally Rymer is one of the most amazing young people I’ve had the privilege of ministering to and with. That is saying a lot, since I’ve seen tens of thousands of young people involved in our ministry during my thirty-seven years as a youth worker.
Sally is bright and mature beyond her years. Sally was fourteen years old when her life was turned upside down by the ugly reality of human trafficking. Sally believed she could and must do something about the global injustice of human trafficking. She wanted to make a difference. Fortunately, Sally was surrounded by parents, youth workers, teachers, and other adults who believed in her calling and encouraged her efforts. Sally raised thousands of dollars along with her peers to rescue children enslaved by the sex trade industry.
Sally left the USA to finish her last two years of high school in the prestigious United World College system in India. She graduated from UWC Mahindra College and is now attending the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. Sally has some definite ideas about what kind of youth workers her generation needs. She makes a case for the importance of teaching young people classic Christian practices. Sally gives insight to youth workers about surrounding youth with space to think, question, and dream. I hope you will carefully read and consider her take on The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Youth Ministry.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
Steve Argue has been a part of the Immerse family from the beginning. His insights into youth ministry are always challenging and worth listening to. So we were excited to sit down with our friend and talk about some of the articles he has published with Immerse, what his youth staff at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI are up to and of course #RunningThoughts. Steve is the Life Development Director at Mars Hill, serving as a member of the Leadership Team; giving oversight to kids, adolescent, emerging adults, and adults teams, and directing Mars Hill’s Internship and Residency Program.
We are looking forward to connecting, encouraging, and serving you in the year 2012!
HERE IS WHAT'S COMMING UP:
YS Palooza
We are excited to invite you to join us in attending the 2012 Youth Specialties Palooza!
Created for your entire team, you’ll laugh, have fun, and get trained by the best of the best. Four inspiring Super Sessions, three Learning Labs, and tons of practical ideas you can use immediately. Gather your team and join us this spring, for the ultimate youth ministry palooza party
The Kansas City event will be hosted at College Church of the Nazarene on April 13-14, 2012.
The Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) has conducted the College Transition Project, a national longitudinal study following over 500 high school seniors during their first three years in college. The goals of this research are to understand the dynamics of youth group graduates’ transition to college and to identify the relationships and best practices in youth ministries, churches, and families that can help set students on a trajectory of lifelong faith and service.
FYI’s research confirms that it’s never too early or too late to start developing faith that continues to grow and lasts. Sticky Faith gives parents and leaders both a theological/philosophical framework and a host of practical relationship and programming ideas that develop long-term faith in teenagers.
This March 22, from 9am to 12pm, Youthfront is excited to partner with FYI to bring Sticky Faith to Kansas City. At this event Brad Griffin, from the Fuller Youth Institute - and one of the lead researchers on the Sticky Faith project, will help us think through practical ways to cultivate youth ministries intent on fostering vibrant faith.
We are excited to once again invite you and your families to the Youth Worker Retreat. This is an opportunity for you and your family to step out of all the business and demands of youth ministry and into the strong and loving arms of God. Our hope is that this holy rest will restore your soul and help prepare you for another season of fruitful ministry.
We have carved three days out of the schedule at Youthfront Camp South for vocational youth workers and their families. We set these days aside for you in hopes of providing a place and time for you and your family to get away, laugh and have fun together. While there will be things for you to do, there won't be a program to keep up with. You will have the space and time to do whatever it is you feel like doing.
Maybe you’ve wondered what it would be like to not have to be the saviors. To not assume that the answers to the pain and poverty of broken neighborhoods lie in your paintbrushes. Maybe you’ve become unsettled at the thought of what it would be like on the receiving end of your students’ charity or one-way presentations of the gospel. It doesn’t have to be this way.
On Youthfront Missional Journeys, your students encounter others from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds as both learners and teachers. We all have a story to tell. And we believe that it is through their telling, when privilege and poverty join hands as equals, our words and our mutual work and cooperation bear witness to a God that is putting the pieces back together in our world. Join us on this journey this summer in Croc, Mexico and the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.
We are only a few months out from the 2012 camping season, and spaces are filling up quickly. We love students to experience camp with their youth group and their youth worker, which is why all youth workers can join their group for free.
Group space is still available (in select sessions), so contact us today if you are interested in reserving space this summer!
Do you have students in your youth group looking for an opportunity to serve and grow more during the summer months? One opportunity is Teen Staff!
We have 30-35 high school age students serving at camp each month, where they experience Christian community, encouragement and are stretched in their faith each week.
A secondary benefit to the Teen Staff program is our Teen Staff discount, which can make camp more affordable for families interested in Youthfront Camp.
Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean is Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary and author of the recently released books, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church (Oxford University Press, 2010) and The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry (Intervarsity Press, 2011). Kenda serves as an Advisor for Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry. Recently, Youthfront staff member Erik Leafblad interviewed Kenda for the Immerse Journal Blog. Definitely worth a listen. Click here.
Immerse Journal is consistently probing, providing a place for dialogue, asking questions, raising issues and always encouraging the reader to sit in the complexity, tension and ambiguities of the realities of our lives as ministers. Start 2012 out right by subscribing to the Journal changing the landscape of North American Youth Ministry.
Going Deeper With The Complexities of Adolescents Spiritual Formation
By: Brock Morgan
When I first started in youth ministry, I really thought bigger was better. I thought true success was about big events, big growth, with a big movement. Granted, I did grow up in the '80s, when parachute pants were the norm. Walking into my high school youth group room as a 15-year-old was like going onto the set of the MTV show Remote Control (google it if you don't know what that is). Our youth group's name was Battle Zone, and it was all set up with smog machines running and Steve Taylor singing "Meltdown" in the background. This was what being a Christian teenager was all about for me. When I went into youth ministry as a leader, these were the images I had of youth ministry.
I remember being a youth pastor in L.A. in the mid '90s and drawing large amounts of students to our mid-week programs. I was still operating out of an old model of youth ministry. As a result, we were definitely light on substance. Honestly, you can only do attraction-based youth ministry for so long. Shallow ministry, as we all know, does attract students, but it does very little to nurture spiritual growth and development, and it doesn't effectively engage students in the faith journey.
Grant Wood's article in the July/August 2011 issue of Immerse, "The Complexities of Adolescent Spiritual Formation," resonated with me. The first thing that jumped out about the article is that Grant is no longer a youth worker.
I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Jamie Roach's Awake. In this book short, Jamie Roach invites the reader into an awareness that God is calling all of us into deeper dependence on the Holy Spirit and a richer relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jamie Roach is a rare youth worker who has spent a quarter of a century ministering to young people without succumbing to the gimmicks of youth ministry past or present. Jamie has engaged in youth ministry out of the depths of his deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. Jamie has increasingly embraced his growing role as a pastor and spiritual guide to youth workers.
Jamie is not only passionately committed to his own spiritual formation but also to the spiritual formation of hundreds of others who find themselves in his sphere of influence. Read this and you will be reminded of the importance of classic Christian practices that will awaken you to the significance of a rich and full life with God.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
My friend and conversation partner, Tim Suttle, has written another excellent piece for Huffington Post. He is describing the political place I find myself in - the 19% of Evangelicals, who've had it with the current political parties and desire to find new ways to be faithful Christians in the midst of the political process.
Here is a quote from Tim's article, "We need to embrace the reality that cultivating Christian identity over and against any party affiliation is the essential Christian political move. Though it may be seen as a betrayal by those who have confused conservatism for Christianity, the most distinctively Christian political act is to reject the state's claim to ultimate power, and to reserve that place for God alone. Full participation in either party means giving our proxy to leaders who would disingenuously use religion as a political tactic without batting an eye, and who would intentionally lie and mislead in order to win our votes. Until something changes, neither party deserves that kind of respect."
I served as Editor for the Youthfront Book Shorts Series published by Barefoot Publications. The title I'm featuring today is Ray Zuercher's Long After They're Gone: Being the Kind of Youth Worker Who Stays Connected. This is the time of the year when youth workers often have opportunities to re-connect with young people who were in their youth ministry.
Ray Zuercher, is the perfect youth worker to write about staying connected in meaningful ways to young people in your youth group long after they’re gone. I have witnessed Ray Zuercher as a youth worker for two decades. Ray amazes me with the quality of his life made rich by enduring relationships. He demonstrates that staying connected with young people after they move out of their teen years and beyond youth group requires intentionality and creativity. Ray, along with employing imagination to foster meaningful and long term interaction, is also a practical guy and therefore shares specific ideas for staying in relationship with former youth ministry kids. Read this and your imagination may be fueled to be the kind of youth worker who stays connected.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
What if every church and every ministry focused their mission on participating with God's mission through Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through these verses?
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
In the name of Jesus Christ who reigns with YOU and the Holy Spirit, ONE GOD, now and forever, we pray that we will participate with your mission of;
* Proclaiming Good News to the poor.
* Binding up the brokenhearted.
* Proclaiming freedom for the captives.
* Release of darkness for prisoners.
* Proclaiming the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God.
* Comforting those who mourn and provide for those who grieve.
* Bestowing a crown of beauty instead of ashes, oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
* Becomming oaks of righteousness displaying God's slendor.
* Rebuilding and restoring devastated and ruined cities.
God of the hopeless and the hopeful, hear these prayers that, we, as people filled with hope, may be your presence with those who are hopeless. Amen.
One of our Youthfront Staff that we celebrated last Tuesday at our Youthfront Christmas party is Amber Booth who has completed five full years serving at our Youthfront Mexico site in Croc outside of Monterray. Amber serves there with a wonderful staff of friends who are engaged in amazing ministry among young people in the village of Croc. This video shows some of the young people in our Club121 after school program showing their appreciation to Amber. I love this video.
Here is a video account of an amazing event last Saturday in San Francisco involving a partnership between Youthfront's Something to Eat Initiative and Jeremy Affeldt's Generation Alive with the Northern California Urban Development.
The Youthfront Book Shorts have been released by Barefoot Publications. I served as Editor for this series. The title I'm featuring today is The Art of Unknowing by Maureen "Moe" Lunn.
Moe had been involved in our ministry for a couple of years as a college student when she became a seeking doubter. As a result of her pursuit of truth accompanied by endless questions, Moe and I became good friends. I loved her honesty and openness to new ideas. I remember telling Moe that if you aren’t willing to change, then you love yourself more than you love the truth.
In The Art of Unknowing, Moe shares her journey through being involved in youth ministry to becoming a youth worker. Her journey took her from certainty about everything to embracing the art of not knowing. Moe’s story will be helpful to many young people who are currently in the same place Moe found herself as an older teenager. Moe’s story is also valuable for youth workers who have youth like her in their youth ministries.
Moe describes how important it was for her to be okay with saying, “I don’t know.” Her descriptions of the environment that kept her connected to faith and Christian community are important issues for youth workers to contemplate. There are so many young people like Moe in our churches. The question we must ask ourselves is, Are our churches safe and generous places for young people to ask hard questions, be honest about doubts, and find faithful spiritual guides who will journey with them toward sustainable and life-giving Christian formation?
Moe’ s story will be helpful to many young people who are currently in the same place she found herself in as an older teenager. Moe’ s story is also valuable for youth workers who have youth like her in their youth ministries.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
The Immerse Journal served as one of the sponsors for The Extended Adolescent Symposium on Monday following the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta. This event was hosted by the Youth Cartel (Mark Oestreicher and Adam McLane) and was moderated by Dr. Kara Powell. The two presenters were Dr. Jeffrey Arnett and Dr. Robert Epstein.
Dr. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and did three years of postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. From 1992-1998 he was Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and the University of Maryland.
Dr. Arnett's primary scholarly interest is in "emerging adulthood," the age period from the late teens to the mid-twenties (mainly ages 18-25). For over a decade he has conducted research on emerging adults concerning a wide variety of topics, involving several different ethnic groups in the United States. He also studied emerging adults in Denmark as a Fulbright Scholar in 2005.
Dr. Robert Epsteinis an author, editor, and longtime psychology researcher and professor—a distinguished scientist who is passionate about educating the public about advances in mental health and the behavioral sciences. The former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, Dr. Epstein is currently a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind and an occasional lecturer at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego. He is also the founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts.
Through 2003, he served as University Research Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. He received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1981 from Harvard University.
Dr. Epstein's positions is that categorizing 18 to 25to? year-olds as "emerging adults" is a socially constructed western concept that serves as a self-fulfilling expectation not to grow up and embrace adult competancies.
While both of these scholars argue passionately for their positions, I found much that I agreed with from both of them and much that I disagreed with. Overall, this was a great learning event. Concerning the practical theological application of the content discussed, I found myself resonnating more with Dr. Epstein (although I found Dr. Arnett to be more winsome and likeable, Dr. Epstein has an aura of arrogance that was off-putting).
The biggest take away for me was affirmation (from Dr. Epstein's position) that our (Youthfront's/Immerse) posture toward treating young people as emergingly capable adults is essential in youth ministry and the Christian formation of young people. We have heard this affirmed over and over again by young people who discover are exposed to a generous and hospitable Christian learning environment that allows them to dream and connect their story to God's mission and are encouraged to unleash their imagination to discover their vocation.
The following video is a TEDx teen talk by 18-year-old Natalie Warne. "Natalie was born in an underserved part of downtown Chicago, Natalie and her five siblings had to survive on her mother's humble teacher salary, moving from city to city to find work. No stranger to adversity, Natalie was determined to make something great out of her life.
At 17, Natalie saw the documentary Invisible Children: The Rough Cut, a film exposing Africa's longest running war. Compelled by this story, she applied to be a volunteer or "roadie" for Invisible Children, using her voice to help end this war.
She quickly stood out among the other interns, and was quickly given responsibility to help lead Invisible Children's largest project to date; an event in 100 cities worldwide called "The Rescue." Through her determination, tens of thousands of people came out to the event, sleeping in the streets for up to six days in order to raise the profile of this war.
Her efforts paid off when Oprah Winfrey invited Invisible Children, and Natalie, onto her show to add her voice to the numbers. The event was then highlighted on Larry King Live, CNN, and countless other news outlets. Natalie has natural charisma, astounding leadership qualities, and is now working in Los Angeles as a film editor, to continue to share stories of injustices."
If you are a youth worker - PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO. Below the video I added the twitter stream from the Symposium and a link to Gavin Richardson's notes from the day.
Press Release: Tim Keel, Mike King to teach Missional Leadership and Discipleship Spring 2012 at Nazarene Theological Seminary
Tim Keel, pastor of Jacobs Well Church and Mike King, President and CEO of YouthFront will teach CED 615 Missional Leadership and Discipleship Tuesdays 1:30-4:30 during the Spring Term. The two leaders in the Missional movement agreed to co-direct the course with Reverend Keel’s return to Kansas City. Reverend Mike King, an NTS graduate, has co-taught the class with Ron Benefiel and also with Dean Blevins in past sessions. Reverend Keel has co-taught coursework with Keith Schwanz. This will be the first time these two missional leaders will work together in an NTS class. For more information contact the Registrar or Dr. Dean Blevins - dgblevins@nts.edu.
The National Youth Workers Convention on the weekend before Thanksgiving is always something I really look forward to. It marks, for me, the finish line of a fall season of retreats, speaking, fund raising events, conferences, etc. and the beginning of the holiday season. For the last decade, we've had a rhythm that includes me setting up our Christmas Tree before the NYWC. While I'm gone Vicki transitions our home from fall decor to full on Christmas decorations. I am always giddy about getting home, enjoying Thanksgiving and counting down to the beginning of the Advent Season.
I have assumed an increasingly busy role at the NYWC and with Youth Specialties. In addition to representing Youthfront and the Immerse Journal, I oversee The Sanctuary and this year launched the Theology Track. Fortunately, I am accompanied by amazing friends, associates and soul sisters/brothers who help make all these things happen in order to serve youth workers. A big thanks to Micah Thomas and Lilly Lewin with The Sanctuary; to Erik Leafblad with the Theology Track, along with Bethany Stolle; to Archie Honrado with the Prayer Room; to Beth Slevcove with Soul Care, plus Jamie Roach, Mickey Cox and Maggie Robbins; and to Aaron Mitchum with Immerse.
We had strong participation of youth workers in the Sanctuary, full schedules for the Spiritual Directors and enthusiastic attendance and interest in the Theology Track. I don't think I can be more passionate about the importance of creating a place and space through the Sanctuary, Prayer Room and Soul Care for youth workers to breathe, worship, sit at the feet of Jesus, rest, reflect and be. I also cannot believe more strongly about the essential value of theological reflection in youth ministry. The Theology Track is both a response to and fuel for the theological turn in youth ministry. The energy for the Theological Forums and Cafe's was palpable and the interest of many to help make them better next year is overwhelming in a good way.
A real highlight of the time in Atlanta was a gathering of friends who stayed in Atlanta after the convention was over to honor Tic Long, who is leaving YS after three decades. This was such a beautiful time of remembering and story telling. I love Tic and I love being a part of the unfolding story of Youth Specialties. This video is a tribute to Tic.
The Youthfront Book Shorts have been released by Barefoot Publications. I served as Editor for this series. The title I'm featuring today is Missions as Pilgrimage by Kurt Rietema.
*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.
Kurt is a Christian thinker extraordinaire and a true author. A writer takes ideas and expresses them in articles, books, blogs, etc. An author is someone who originates ideas and concepts.
In Missions as Pilgrimage, Kurt helps us reorient the current thinking about short-term missions into something more biblical, sustainable, and transforma- tional. Kurt puts his heart and soul into all he does. His honesty reveals that he is not standing back, trying to enlighten all those who don’t get it. Kurt genuinely wrestles with what it means to be Christian in the deepest way, what it means to love God and truly love others. Rarely can I escape reading something Kurt has written without feeling genuinely convicted for the indifference that insidiously hides deep in my heart.
Missions as Pilgrimage challenges us to consider how we shape our young people in Christian formation through disorientation, spiritual practices, justice, and pilgrimage. Kurt helps us reshape our narratives to become enmeshed with God’s overarching narrative. I’ve seen the results of Kurt Rietema’s ministry. Kurt subverts the many narratives of the North American church that prevent our lives and the young people we minister to from being shaped in the cruciform life of Jesus Christ. Read this at the potential peril of your safe and comfortable life.
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