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What basic understanding must be in place in order to provide good groundwork for the youth in that ministry? Throughout scripture we see examples of God calling young people to do his work. If God can use, and in fact, wants to use people of all ages, then we as the adult member of the body of Christ must take on as our solemn responsibility the discipling and equipping of our children, teenagers and young adults.

When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, he was still young enough to consider himself a child and doubted that he could do the task at hand. God’s response to him was this: “…do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ …Now I have put my words in your mouth.’” (Jeremiah 1:9 NIV). In the same spirit, Paul instructs Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). This God hasn’t changed. He’s still putting his words in the mouths of young people, and they still have the capacity to set an example for us all. Most of the time, all they need is for someone to get them started in training for godliness.

Just prior to the verse in 1 Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to “train yourself to be godly,” painting an image of rigorous, daily practice. We all know that physical exercise does no good if only done haphazardly, and the same is true of striving to be godly. We must train every day, and train our young people to train every day, for only when a daily practice of godliness is made is it possible to “Set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

Paul’s next instructions are to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid hands on you” (vv. 13-14). Here he not only outlines habits that are part of striving every day for godliness, but recognizes Timothy’s gift. This highlights two elements that are often lacking in our ministries to youth.

The first element is the gift. All the youth in our sphere of influence have spiritual gifts, but often no one helps them to realize this. A college girl once came to me after having taking a spiritual gifts inventory, and said, “Wow, I have gifts?” And I asked her, “What, did you think God left you out?” Her eyes widened and she said, “I guess I never thought of it that way.” All of our youth have gifts, but many of them perhaps think that God somehow left them out. This must be addressed in our ministries so that the kids can realize that God has equipped them to do His work.

To call out the gifts in our young people takes the body of elders. This is the second element. Too often, the church as a whole is not as committed to the youth of today being equipped for ministry as they are committed to the youth minister equipping the youth for ministry—when they are older of course and have learned how to dress like grown-ups do. This cannot be. Our youth need the recognition from the adults that they are gifted. It’s not enough to merely have the youth minister or the adult volunteers recognize this, but the church as whole, the body, must take part of recognizing the gifts of young people to empower them to step forward in the calling God has placed upon them. Granted, most youth don’t have a well-defined idea of what calling is. However, as they mentored by adults in the church, who continually affirm the gifts that God has given them, then they will be able to start actively walking the path that God has for them.

Check this out.  Thanks to Gavin.

… We talk about being “missional” and how attractional just isn’t cutting it anymore. Yet traditional youth ministry is nothing but attractional. We have events and tell kids to bring their friends to us. We feel like youth ministry has to have some sense of “attractiveness”. At the same time, across of much of my county youth ministries are in a lull and are bogging down. I hear it from youth pastors all the time. We think maybe we need to teach better. Or maybe we need to get some games in there to make it more exciting. Maybe we need a catchy name with words like XTREME or FIRE or XTREME FIRE! I mean it’s got to be better than Hartville Mennonite Church MYF (Mennonite Youth Fellowship) right? How can we make one event more exciting than the next. I am so tired of it.

I am tired of doing the same old stuff. Why? IT ISN’T WORKING!!…

Read it all here.

I recently listened to a session from InterVarsity’s Urbana student missions conference (Dec. 2006) by Oscar Muriu. It hit me on a lot of levels as an Episcopalian and an Anglican, so I thought I’d share it with you all to see what you thought. This link (http://www.urbana.org/u2006.mediaplayer.pop.cfm?gotosession=3&clip=132) has a video, but it also has a link just to the audio file. Either way, it’s well worth the 32 minutes, and is a great video to use with youth to get them talking about these important issues.

From the blog at Journal of Student Ministries:

Brian is about to become a new youth pastor and he asks this on his post…

The questions I have for you seasoned and experienced (or fresh out of the box) church workers are:

1. what am I getting myself into?
2. what makes ministry worth it?
3. should I EXPECT junk or take it as it comes?

Read it all.

 -by Dick Tubbs.  Click here for the whole article.
Lessons from almost half a century of youth ministry

God Called You – Be Content.
If you’re leading young people because it’s an easy first call after seminary, the first step to your own Crystal Cathedral, then quit. Now.

If you need “professional standards” as a badge of respect, quit. Now.

If you long for the day you’ll get adult or collegial respect, quit. Now.

If you spend your time looking ahead, plotting your career, envying the other person’s numbers, you’re cheating the kids God puts right in front of your face. When we seek career, respect, fulfillment from others, we have to realize that those things come with a price. We pay for them by surrendering our freedom to define our ministry in response to the needs of our kids, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. That price is too high.

We are called to service in the least-respected, least-understood, least-appreciated, least-paid spot on God’s staff. Live with it. Rejoice in it!

In most of our congregations, our flocks are “the least of these”, no matter how many people say they’re “the future of our church.” Abba never looms larger than in the shadows of the Pharisees, right where we’re called to be.

Far more than our colleagues, we get to know what it really felt like to be Peter, Paul, John, or James. We get to find the consolations of Francis and Ignatius. Can you picture your pastor sitting on the lawn, preaching a Ragamuffin Gospel to an eager congregation? No way!

Working in the shadows, in the basement, gives us the freedom to be truly creative, truly passionate, truly exuberant. I have learned to cherish that freedom. As I age, I really enjoy those little sighs and headshakes from the older folks. I have been called to the most authentic, Spirit-driven ministry possible. Forty-six years later, I still love this job!

Read it all.

I’ve been thinking recently about how to listen to sermons, and I imagine that both we and our young people struggle with this, too. I grew up in a tradition that valued expositional, verse-by-verse, 45-minute long preaching. These sermons were long but pretty easy to follow. There was information being handed out, so it was best to take notes.

When I went to seminary, I got introduced to the tight, well-written, 20-minute sermon. These were short-too short to take notes, really. I found it best to sit back and experience the sermon, and they usually packed a punch.

Since becoming an Episcopalian, I’ve had to struggle to come to terms with the loose, extemporized 10-15-minute homily. In comparison to my previous experiences, trying to follow an Episcopal sermon is like being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind” in the priest’s head (cf. Eph. 4:14). What’s a parishioner to do other than suffer? The sermon is too short to take notes for content. The sermon is often too diffuse to experience in any kind of meaningful way.

Well, I decided to try to split the difference between note-taking and experience. I take notes now, but I only look for three things: One Gift, One Hindrance, One Task.

One Gift: As diffuse as any sermon might be, the priest is probably speaking about or around something great God has done for us in Jesus Christ. This last week, the gift was “Jesus, the Lamb of God, comes to us.” When I’m looking for the gift of the sermon, I’m looking for a sentence that stars God the Trinity or a Person of the Trinity doing something on our behalf.

One Hindrance: Or, “one sin.” Look for something in the sermon that specifically addresses your need for God. This might be brought into focus by reflection on the Gift. What keeps you from accepting that Gift? What problem in your life does that Gift specifically address? It’s important to be specific here, because that will aid us later in the service.

One Task: It’s a recurrent theme in Scripture that God blesses God’s people so that they, in turn, might be a blessing to others. Most sermons have an ethical edge, but that edge is usually diffuse and abstract. Take one of those ideas and wrestle it down to the ground so that, by the end of the sermon, you have something tangible to do in response to God’s gift. Mine last week was “Listen for opportunities to minister in other people’s lives.” It’s been an interesting week!

Now, the really neat thing is that these tie directly into and are reinforced by the liturgy. First up is the General Confession of Sin. In the silence between the bidding and the communal prayer, confess that Hindrance you identified and then receive the absolution with joy. Next, when you receive Eucharist, take it as an opportunity to receive with thanks the Gift of God given you in the sermon. Finally, have your Task in mind at the Benediction and the Dismissal and accept those words as God’s blessing and empowerment for the task.

Then, go in peace to love and serve the Lord!

When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, Jeremiah thought he was far too young to do what God had asked him to do. God’s response to him was this: “…do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ …Now I have put my words in your mouth.’” (Jeremiah 1:9 NIV). Several hundred years later, we find Paul encouraging Timothy, not to let “anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).  Our God hasn’t changed.  He’s still putting his words in the mouths of young people, and they still have the capacity to set an example for us all

Young people have great gifts, but too often no one helps them realize this. A college girl once came to me after taking one of those spiritual gift inventories, and said, “Wow, I have gifts?”  And I said, “What, did you think God left you out?”  Her eyes sort of got really big and she said, “I guess I never thought of it that way.”

To call out the gifts in our young people takes the body of elders.  Our youth need recognition from adults that they are gifted. The church as whole, not just the youth minister or the adult volunteers, must take part in recognizing the gifts of young people to empower them to step forward in the calling God has placed upon them.  Granted, most youth don’t have a well-defined idea of what calling is. However, as they are mentored by adults in the church, who continually affirm the gifts that God has given them, then they will be able to start actively walking the path that God has for them.

Teenagers and young adults are looking for something to die for. See, if something not worth dying for, then it’s not worth living for. They are looking for a revolution, and what better revolution to offer them than the revolutionary love of Jesus Christ, who came preaching a kingdom that turned the world as we know it upside down, and made the most radical sacrifice of all in his death on the cross. This is the sort of passion young people long to find. They long to live a life with that sort of commitment and that sort of passion. As we get this message to them, disciple them, mentor them in what it means to live out the gospel—to live out the kingdom of God—on a day-to-day basis, they will pick up the torch and start to spread it themselves. And the next thing you know, we’ll have groups of young revolutionaries in our churches, working side-by-side with people of all generations, living out the call of God to us, the body of Christ, to do the work of the ministry.

The call is then to us, will we take up the mission of actively discipling young people? Intentionally include them in the corporate life of our church? Walk with them through the messy parts of the road to adulthood? For when we do this, we will see changes beyond our imagination in a generation of young people, we will see more variety in the generations that make up our own parishes, and we will all benefit from the life and passion that teenagers and young adults bring to anything that they have decided is worth living for.

Read this article.

“I heard an interview with Peter O’Toole. He had a new movie last year. In the film he quotes a Shakespearian sonnet. The interviewer asked him if he knew that sonnet by heart and he said “I know all of them my dear.” Apparently he keeps a book of the sonnets by his bed. It’s the last thing he reads at night and the first thing he does in the morning. He travels with the sonnets everywhere he goes. She picked a number at random and began to recite… “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day…”

It’s a level of fine-tuning. I appreciate coffee. I appreciate music from my BOSE system. I don’t think I fully appreciate the Superbowl the way fans do. My aunt has followed Tony Dunge’s career for a long time. She can watch a play on the filed and say, “Oh, they didn’t do what Tony said to do.” She appreciates the game on a level that I can’t. The wine taster appreciates wine on a level that I never will. I hope some day to be able to tell the difference between gas fired maple syrup and syrup cooked over burning maple planks. I want to be that good at something.”

Check out the whole thing here.