In this blog series, Christian and I will try to unpack some of the issues around short-term mission trips. We’ll be using my experience as a trip organizer and leader as backdrop, and if he’s worth his salt, Christian will poke some significant holes in my own motivations as a leader.
After several months in my job as Missioner for Youth Formation and Vocation in the Diocese of Ottawa, I noticed something. I noticed a clear lack of ministry amongst young adults. It was happening in an ad-hoc way, but there appeared to be few opportunities for young adults to gather, to explore their faith and its connection to the common good.
A number of thoughts went through my mind about how to respond to this challenge. Top of the list was to journey with a group of young adults to visit friends in the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. My friend, the Rev. Rich Clark – a priest in that diocese – had invited me to bring a group of young people. With an open invitation, a knowledge that there would be friendly faces on the other end, and that it could be a great opportunity to learn and grow, we began planning the trip. Read more…
We have rules about these kinds of things. We have rules, and we attach age limits to them. Depending on your province, it might look something like this: 14, 16, 18.
Now then. At what age does a person become a full member of the body of Christ? At what age is a young person given a voice in the church? At what age do we hand them the keys? At what age do we release them into their God-given vocations?
I’ll understand if you want to take a moment to grab a pen and paper for the theological mathematics. Or, if you’d prefer, pull out a mat and a trampoline for some further mental gymnastics. I know we all explore these questions in different ways. Read more…
Have you noticed how passionate and articulate teenagers can be about anything except their faith?
Eavesdrop on a conversation amongst teenagers and you’ll hear them talking passionately about many things: Friends. Video Games. Relationships. Celebrities. The Environment. School (well, scratch that).
But try to engage many young people in a conversation about faith, and you may as well prepare yourself for blank stares. Read more…
In February 2009, and again in February 2010, I co-led two successive trips to New Orleans.
Both times, we travelled during University reading week. Both times the trip closely coincided with Mardi Gras.
I wonder why the students came.
Was it pure altruism? Was it a process of self-discovery? Was it the story of a city neglected by its own mayor, state politicians and federal government?
Was it the plea from our friends and partners in the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana? What was it, exactly that brought two separate groups together to travel to New Orleans? Read more…
It’s sad, but for many churches, the most referred-to youth ministry book is entitled “Single-Digit Youth Groups.” Perhaps it’s because all too often we can see ourselves in its title. It has clear and broad applicability for small churches like ours.
This is a book that’s been recklessly promoted throughout the Anglican Church. You’ll find it at conferences, featured on the shelves of well-meaning booksellers, and recommended on many youth ministry blogs. As for me, I wish it would just go away.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s something about this situation that doesn’t sit well with me. It’s a bit too bleak for my taste. When I spend too much time thinking about the future of a church that celebrates Single Digit Youth Ministry, I get depressed.
Is this all we’re shooting for? Is this all the imagination we can muster? Are we really that defeatist? Why do we set our mental barrier at 9 young people? Have we forgotten how to dream? Have we forgotten why we’re doing this in the first place? Read more…
“Hospitality, therefore, means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.” – Henri Nouwen
They came wanting to participate. To share their gifts. To contribute to the life of the community.
They came wanting to give what they had. Quite naturally, we turned them away. Read more…
On the last Saturday of August, I had the opportunity to visit with a group of young people in the Parish of March in Kanata, Ontario, along with their mentors. The group had just returned from Nicaragua where they had partnered with Almonte, Ontario-based SchoolBox in helping build a school.
It was the first time the group had assembled since returning home, and it was an opportunity to begin to unpack the experience and to continue to frame it within the context of our Christian faith and our participation in God’s mission here on earth.
What’s more, our time together provided the opportunity to ask deeper questions about how the experience might change their lives now that they’d returned home.
How will their parish community support them as they apply what they learned? How will this group challenge their parish to find new ways to serve closer to home? Read more…
Growing up, my family and I would spend every Christmas Eve at my Aunt’s house. We’d pack up the car in the early evening and make the hour-or-so drive from Milton, Ontario to St. Catharines. St. Catharines was where my folks grew up, and is still, to this day, the hometown of much of my extended family – cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
On the drive, we’d always tune in to the CBC to hear Alan Maitland reading The Shepherd. Year, after year, we would be sure to leave at just the right time in order to hear this story on the drive to our Christmas Eve gathering. Sometimes, if the drive had taken less time than we had thought, we would wait silently in the parking lot for the final cadences of Frederick Forsyth’s classic short story.
We would walk around to the buzzer and call to be let up to Aunt Tena’s apartment. Inside we would find a feast of untold quantity, with classic Mennonite dishes alongside family favourites. Over the course of the coming hour, our extended family would also buzz up and more and more people would crowd into the living room. And there we ate together. Plates on laps, old amongst the younger, we would mix and mingle, we would talk about what was important to us, and we would share all that had happened in the preceding months. Read more…
In this blog series, Christian and I will try to unpack some of the issues around short-term mission trips. We’ll be using my experience as a trip organizer and leader as backdrop, and if he’s worth his salt, Christian will poke some significant holes in my own motivations as a leader.
Working. Driving. Voting.
Have you noticed how passionate and articulate teenagers can be about anything except their faith?
It’s sad, but for many churches, the most referred-to youth ministry book is entitled “Single-Digit Youth Groups.” Perhaps it’s because all too often we can see ourselves in its title. It has clear and broad applicability for small churches like ours.
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