Mike King

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Youth Ministry

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.

ORDER HERE

An interview with Steve Argue

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.

LISTEN HERE

A Lot is Going on in 2012

            

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. 

Click Here to Sign Up

 

Sticky Faith Youth Worker training Day

Have you heard about Sticky Faith?  

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.

Click Here for More Info

Youth Worker Retreat

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.

Click Here to Sign Up

Missional Journeys

All mission trips are not created equal. 

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.

Click Here for More Info

Youthfront Camp Reservations

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!

Click Here to Sign Up 

Teen Staff

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.

Click Here for More Info

Interview with Kenda Creasy Dean

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.

The Complexities of Adolescents Spiritual Formation

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.

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O Star-flinging God

O Star-flinging God,

whose light dances across eternity,

     dazzle us into your presence

     this new year.

 

Open our hearts to the mystery of your love.

 

Awaken us to your presence,

     knit to the ordinary.

Reveal to us what is possible, but not yet present.

Heal us, that we might be healers.

 

Reconcile us to you and to ourselves,

     that our living might be reconciling.

 

Stop us often, we pray

     with news that is good

     with hope that holds

     with truth that transforms with a Word

          tailored to this trail we're on.

 

May the word of your grace guide our steps

     like the sun by day

     and the north star by night,

     as we travel into the gift of a new year. Amen.

                                                     Glenn Mitchell

(from MINemergent 12-30-2011)