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…

andrew For Leaders, News, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Christian Harvey, Missions

By Christian Harvey

Last week Andrew posted a great reflection on the trouble with short term missions.  This is something with which I have struggled with a lot and would like to come at it from a different angle.

Most youth and young adults head out on short term missions because they want to make a difference, they want to help, they want to battle injustice.  It would most likely be devastating for them to know that their short term endeavors may actually make things worse for the people they are meant to serve!  Read more…

christian For Leaders, Life Issues, Ministry, News, Resources, Social Issues, Stories and Articles, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Christian Harvey, Faith Formation, Justice, Missions, Youth Ministry

There’s no shortage of books on youth ministry out there.

For most youth ministry practitioners, if we’ve been around for more than a year or two, we are looking for a book that doesn’t tell us things we already know. Nor do we need toread about the latest great program ideas or about trends in youth culture.

What we so badly need is a new way to think about and re-vision youth ministry.  Consuming Youth: Leading Teens Through Consumer Culture, a new release from Zondervan/Youth Specialties by John Berard, James Penner and Rick Bartlett, offers just that in a solid, inspiring and very readable way.

Well researched, and peppered with references, quotes, stories and case studies, the book includes excellent questions for reflection at the end of each chapter.  The authors take us through an enlightening challenge to our cultural view of youth asconsumers and how that affects identity and vocational formation.

Read more…

judy Books, Stories and Articles, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas

It’s Lent!

What are you doing to keep that in your mind in your daily life?

A lot of people take up the Christian spiritual practice of self-denial in some way, that is, giving something up for Lent.

Here’s an informal survery of various people I know, and what they have each decided to abstain from during Lent: Read more…

staff Stories and Articles, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas Shake Me Up, Youth Ministry 'How To'

This is the audio version of the interview I had with Christian Harvey in the fall of 2008.  I hope you have as much fun listening to it as we had in recording it.

Youth Ministry Interview 1

Youth Ministry Interview 2

matthew For Leaders, Media, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas audio, Christian Harvey, Interview, Justice, Youth Ministry

Listen to an interview with Andrew Root,  assistant professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary and the author of Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation.

Andrew was one of the keynote speakers at the CanLead Forum in January 2009. CanLead is a new Youth Ministry training forum held annually in London, Ontario.  CanLead is an ecumenical gathering (Anglican, United, Presbyterian, Lutheran) of youth ministers for networking, skill-building and professional development.  The next CanLead will be in January 2010 at the Lamplighter Inn and Conference Centre in London.  Watch generation.anglican.ca for news and registration information.

Also, have a look at the index and listen to a number of podcasts available on the Princeton Seminary Institute for Youth Ministry website.  Subscribe (it’s free!) download to your ipod and get some new insights on your ministry.

judy Media, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas

first step - lessons in making pastry

On Sunday, February 15th, members of St David and St Patrick’s Youthful Group met to make dozens of apple pies to serve at an upcoming outreach dinner in their city.

The Youthful Group is a new approach to youth ministry in our parish.  The group is for young people in grade 6 and above.  Each young person invites an adult companion (parent, grandparent, friend) to the group with them.  ”One of the purposes of church-based youth ministry” says one of the group leaders, “is to form members of a prophetic and active community, rather than to create a segregated sub-culture that is age-specific within that community.  If young people are never introduced to the mission and relationships in the faith community, why will they suddenly feel connected to that community once they become young adults?”

Youthful group offers the opportunity to build relationships with both peers and elders in the community. Read more…

judy Stories and Articles, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas

Is “Getting Results” the Agenda?  Changing the Agenda with Contemplative Youth Ministries.

One of the things that constantly amazes me in youth ministry is how adults and some clergy in congregations seem afraid of youth’s spiritual experiences.  Spiritual encounters are either orchestrated (“this is what we’re going to do and this is what you will experience”) or they are mediated (“this is what you are supposed to think about/respond to this particular scripture passage”).

Or, we wonder how to find the perfect ‘program’ which will solve all adults’ anxieties about youth ministry and ‘getting youth into church’.

In this linked article, a youth minister in the Diocese of Melbourne talks about his encounter with the practice of Contemplative youth ministry – which is about letting the Holy Spirit move, without trying to give her a script to follow.

I really liked these words in particular in the article, and was amazed how much they resonate with our experience in the church in Canada…

“Youth Ministry is wrought with anxieties – from the Church, the parents and the youth. Here are some generalizations from my observations:

The Church wants results. They want to see the ‘future of the Church is assured’ because the young people are seen. They want the ‘bang for their buck’ from their Stipendiary Youth Ministers. They want ‘good young people’ who will do church the way the older people do it, without expectation of change. They want themselves replicated in a world that simply isn’t there anymore.

The parents (in the Church) want results. They want their children protected from bad people, bad things and bad media. They want their children to be ‘good’, without making decisions that will harm themselves or others. They don’t want their children to drink or smoke. They want their children to have good friends. They want their children to do the ‘right thing’.

The youth can smell these anxieties. They hear them explicitly or implicitly. They sense why they are pushed into youth programs and paraded to the church. They are anxious about the burdens they haven’t asked for. They have choices to make, and they can do so without the baggage from the Church.

But when a young person enters an environment that is open to them (without judgment from people), allows them to spend time in silence (unheard of in today’s world), asking them to deeply ponder God’s Word and His love for them without being told what they should hear (considered risky) and experiences the overwhelming grace and love of Christ, how can we argue?”

Read the full article here

judy Liturgy and Worship, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas Prayer, Youth Ministry 'How To'

The rain has stopped, but the evidence of the fall downpour is still obvious as we look out the ministry office at St. John’s Anglican Church in Peterborough, Ontario.  I’m sitting down to talk with Christian Harvey, the Youth Worker at St. John’s and the Youth Coordinator for the Episcopal Area of Trent-Durham.  Christian has been the Youth Worker at St. John’s for almost 6 years and has a Bachelor degree in Religious Education.  He’s involved in social justice in Peterborough and we’re here this morning to talk about my one of my favourite topics: Youth Ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada.

(M. R.) So, Christian, Good morning!  To start off, tell me about what you do here at St. John’s and in Peterborough.

(C. H.) I’m the youth worker here at St. John’s Anglican Church in Peterborough.  By being a youth worker, I spend a lot of my time outside of the church.  I work in the schools, so I go and I hang out.  I run a drum program here at the church for anybody from five…well, actually I have no age limits, we have people that range in age from five to seventy-five.  I run a cooking program for youth who are in the community and who want to make a difference.  I am starting a housing program for youth, where they can get involved in issues regarding housing.  And, I work quite a bit ecumenically with other youth ministers.

(M. R.) How did you get started in Youth Ministry?

(C. H.) I was playing in a rock and roll band and, while I was doing that, I decided I wanted to volunteer.  So, I volunteered at the junior-high group at the church I was going to at the time; I was in the senior high group and I volunteered there for quite a long time.  Then, at one point, they gave me part-time work doing some stuff with the junior-high and eventually the youth pastor left and they hired me on full-time for a little bit.  My job was then terminated there (he says laughing), but I was then hired here at St. John’s and that was six years ago.  But I started youth ministry just through following other youth workers.

(M. R.) What brought you to the Anglican Church? Read more…

matthew News, Youth Ministry - Hot Ideas Christian Harvey, Interview, Justice, Peterborough, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry 'How To'