Mike King

Come Be Fully Alive - LaCygne

2016 Youthfront Camp Registration is OPEN. Act Now!

We're thrilled to announce that camp registration for next summer is now open for Camp West and for LaCygne. As you enter our Camp Management System to register, please, take note of some of its key features:

• You need just one account per family. Within that same account, you can choose different camp sessions for each of your children. Also, if you prefer, you can make one payment rather than multiple transactions.

• You can spread your payments out over time by logging into your account and making a payment amount of your choosing toward the total balance due.

• If you created an account last year, you can use it this year too. If your personal information has change, you will be able to make any necessary changes. If you forgot your username/password, use the "Forgot" feature on the Log-in page to reset your credentials.

• As you set-up your online account, you can stop at anytime and your information will be saved. Log into your account anytime to manage your children's accounts and/or complete forms. You will get a confirmation email within 24 hours.

• The majority of required forms will not be available until early Spring 2016.

• All campers associated with a group must use a specific "Group Hold ID" provided by your group leader. You must have this Group Hold ID to receive a group discount. This year, there is just one Group Hold ID for all members of your group (not a different ID by grades or gender).

Our system uses HTML5 technology, older computers or browsers might not work. If you have any problems registering, contact us by email or phone at 913.262.3900. You can also check our FAQ.

 

Don't wait any longer! Register now and get $15 Early Bird Camp Bucks!

 

 

Hey Pastors, Youth Pastors, Church Staff... Start off 2014 Right.

If you are a pastor or staff member of a church, we want to extend an invitation for you to join us at LaCygne any Monday or Tuesday night in February. You are welcome to stay both nights and leave sometime on Wednesday or just one of the nights. You can set your arrival and departure times.

This is a great way to start off 2014 with a time to replenish your life with Christ.

LaCygne is a community centered on 3 daily prayer gatherings, contemplation, and serving others. You are invited to study, rest, pray, walk the trails, or work. The community will take care of everything for you at LaCygne: a private room to stay in with a bed made up, meals, and space for work or study. There’s wifi available too.

The community prays at 8:30am, 12pm, and 5:30pm. On Monday nights prayer is at 8pm instead of 5:30. Prayer times last 15-20 minutes. You are invited to join the community for prayer if you would like, but you are certainly free to use the time however you wish. There are no requirements. You are free to join the community for meals or eat in solitude, or with others who have joined you for this time.

This special absolutely free of charge. It would be a gift to us to be able to serve and host you. LaCygne is about 1 hour south of downtown Kansas City on highway 69.

If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please visit https://youthfront.com/lacygne-february-special/

Justice-Centered Mission Experiences, in KC and Mexico

Everyone gives lip service to helping without hurting.  We all know about toxic charity.  But your mission trips and your service projects still don't look any different.  And every summer we bypass our own city's blighted neighborhoods on our way to help out another city with theirs.

 

This summer, do justice right.  Come alongside vulnerable neighborhoods and bear their burdens with them.  But go deeper.  Unearth the tragedies that have been inflicted upon them.  Learn how they got that way and what we can do to heal these wounds by more than good intentions.  This summer, join a Youthfront Missional Journey in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas or at our newly-reopened site in Croc, Mexico where we'll help your church move from charity and mercy to justice.   Talk to one of our staff today.

 

A Liturgical Transformation... A free download for the first 50

Several months ago I was asked by Dr. Fred Edie, Associate Professor of the Practice of Christian Education at Duke Divinity School to write an article for an edition of the Liturgy Journal in which he was serving as guest editor.  Here is how he approached me, "At the Dallas National Youth Worker Convention I snuck into several prayer times led by members of the Youthfront staff. I was impressed by their passion and, obviously, by their attentiveness to a rule of life rooted in liturgical prayer. Since this is not your mom and dad's evangelicalism (or youth ministry, for that matter), I was deeply curious about how this vision took root, how Youthfront, an organization with an historic Evangelical heritage, their staff and other young people are engaging with it, and why they imagined it is an important way of being in youth ministry in the present age. Can you write an article telling the story of how this came about?” 

I entitled the article, A Liturgical Transformation.  The first 50 people who click on this link can download a free copy.

WHO SAID THIS? I Can't Stop Thinking About This...

Several days ago, I got an Advent Daily Dig featuring a quote that I can't quit thinking of.  I've read it to a few people and asked them to guess who said this.  Most people think of Pope Francis, which makes sense because he has us talking about the kind of issues that this quote addresses.  We are talking about it because through his behavior he is pushing the conversation captured by the following quote to the forefront.  The Pope has been called a Marxist.  Jesus was called names also, it goes with the territory.  So now, for the quote. 

"Let everyone examine himself in the light of the Gospel and see hoLew far he is from Christ, and what is the character of his faith and love. There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, and when they hear of the poverty of Christ, they are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem. They denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more kindly service, and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow humans need their help, and which they ignore in their misery. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sick, erring ones around him? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him?"    Who said this?  (The answer below)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther, the Father of the Protestant Reformation

 

I'm Loving This Data. I Hope It Silences Some of Our Critics.

Over the last several years, I, and Youthfront have recieved criticism for challenging young people to cooperate with God's Mission in the world to bring restoration and redemption as a significant part of their Christian Formation.  Doing works of mercy and justice have been criticised as being a replacement for evangelism.  I can't begin to tell you how often we've heard a label of "social justice" attached to us as a criticism.  Most of the time, I've, we (Youthfront) absorb the criticism and continue to do what God has called us to do.  But, to be honest, it often stings because it comes sometimes from friends, or former staff of alumni who want things to stay how "they used to be."  For sure, I, we no longer train young people to engage in evangelism that starts the narrative with the fall of humanity into sin.  The story starts with God creating human beings in the image of God and that is good news.  Yes, the story includes the sinful fall of human beings.  We are all broken and in need of the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who brings redemptions and ultimately the restoration of all things.  We who know Christ are called to cooperate with God's movement to bring about the restoration of all things - our broken relationship with God, our own broken relationship with ourselves, our broken relationship with others and our broken relationship with the entire cosmos.  Fortunately, those who have been critical because they believe their culturally shaped understanding of Christianity is the "only truth" are being exposed more and more as having a theology that is more nationalistically and politically inspired.  Those who are embracing a more robust understanding of Gospel and the life of Jesus Christ who believe that Jesus didn't come just to get us into heaven when we die but to pick up our cross (not a democrat cross or a republican cross, and certainly not a rich cross or an American cross) and follow Jesus, bearing witness to the good news, to love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with our God. This gospel is one that young people are willing to give their lives to, and YES, they are engaged in evangelism.  Here is the just released data from the BARNA Group.  Take note, "Millennials are the only generation among whom evangelism is significantly on the rise."

All that follows in the rest of this post is from the Barna Group from their report on The Most Evangelistic Generation.

They've been called "the social justice generation," and for good reason—Millennials are actively taking up the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan and the widow. Yet the most common critique leveled at this surge in social compassion is that it comes at a great expense. Sure, skeptics argue, they might feed the hungry and free the captives in this life, but what about the next? According to this view, Millennials are elevating physical needs over spiritual needs and forgoing evangelism altogether. Yet the latest Barna research reveals this is not the case. In fact, in answer to the question of evangelism on the rise or in decline, Millennials are a rare case indeed. While the evangelistic practices of all other generations have either declined or remained static in the past few years, Millennials are the only generation among whom evangelism is significantly on the rise. Their faith-sharing practices have escalated from 56% in 2010 to 65% in 2013. Not only that, but born again Millennials share their faith more than any other generation today. Nearly two-thirds (65%) have presented the Gospel to another within the past year, in contrast to the national average of about half (52%) of born again Christians.

A Free Advent Resource for Youth Workers to Help Families of Young People

- Youthfront Presents To You -

 

Advent 2013: Journey To The Manger

 

The word advent means the coming or arrival of something important.  Advent is the season when the church celebrates the coming or arrival of Jesus.  The Advent Season is all about anticipating the arrival of "God with us" as a human being born in Bethlehem.  Traditionally, Advent is celebrated on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. Youthfront invites you to join us during this Advent season by participating in this Journey to the Manger, a guide available to you through download.

 

Suggestions for observing Advent together as a family:

1.  Create the right atmosphere.  On Sunday night, turn down the lights, light some candles and play some soft Christmas music.  Gather your family together in a comfortable room and sit close together.  

2.  Go through the appropriate week's lesson provided in this guide. 

a.  Set up the manger scene as described for that week

b.  Read the assigned Scripture with quiet enthusiasm.  Consider taking turns reading each time.  

c.  Select some questions that seem to be most appropriate for your family and discuss them together.  

d.  Engage in the activity together.  Be sure to read through the activity beforehand so that you are prepared.  (Note - week  2 the activity is before the Scripture reading and discussion).

e.  Read the closing prayer.

f.  Sing a Christmas song together.

 

3.  Enjoy a favorite family snack together.  Consider choosing a snack that is usually enjoyed only during the holidays.  Over the years it is fun to see how your family comes to associate that snack with Advent and Christmas.  

 

The most important thing to remember is that being together is the most important thing! Don't try or expect to create the perfect evening (especially if you have a two year old or an adolescent!)  It is not about perfection but being present to God and one another.  Expect that there will be fidgeting, bizarre questions, distractions and maybe even some fighting.  That is all OK.  Know that what you are doing matters deeply and will be remembered.  It will shape and form your family for years to come.   

 

Click here to download the Advent guide.

Spirituality and Mysticism

We come to know God by carefully and intentionally paying attention to God's action in our world.

Theologian Thomas Oden makes the following list in light of trying to understand the Presence of God.

* God is naturally present in every aspect of the natural order.

* God is actively present in a different way in every event in history.

* God is in a special way attentively present to those who call upon God's name.

* God is judicially present in moral awareness, through conscience.

* God is bodily present in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

* God is mystically present in the Eucharist.

* God is sacredly present and becomes known in special places where God chooses to meet us.

Joan Chittister on the Regularity of Prayer