A couple of weeks ago I joined the Youth 2011 Design Team at Purdue as we began putting in place the details for an amazing ministry for youth and youth leaders next summer.  I left genuinely excited, and I want to offer a personal invitation to all of our Indiana youth ministry leaders and youth to join us for five fantastic days of worship, learning, service, and fellowship with thousands of United Methodist youth.

I know you have a lot of choices for your Summer 2011 ministries, and I know that committing to an event like YOUTH 2011 may require a move away from a traditional mission trip or camp experience.  I truly understand the challenges in those decisions!   With that in mind, let me just share why I am so excited and why I believe the commitment to bringing youth to this ministry is worth the investment.

1.  From the very inception of the idea of the format for YOUTH 2011, youth have been involved in every facet of planning.  This isn’t an event put on by youth leaders for youth, it is a ministry of youth and youth leaders together, with a huge commitment to youth leadership.  As two examples, the youth praise band from Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City (Rezlife) will be the house band, and youth will be featured as speakers on stage.

2.  With the input of the youth, this ministry event is focused on “more than” a singular experience. Everything in the event is being designed with intentionality about giving young people and their leaders the tools they need to grow in their faith and in leadership once they return to their home churches.

3.  Does anyone remember the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, where you could choose which direction to take the story?  I’m really excited that YOUTH 2011 includes a sense of that choose your own path for groups attending.  Need time with your youth group everyday, there is room for that.  Desire workshops for those youth who really want to dive into discipleship and leadership.  They are available.  Looking for mission knowing that this is taking the place of a mission trip for some of the youth, you’ll find several offerings.

Add to this list the opportunity for youth to experience Christian fellowship with thousands of other youth; artists and speakers that include Kristian Stanfill (touring this fall with Chris Tomlin), Jared Hall, Fred Lynch, Olu Brown, and Scott Erickson (to name a few); a commitment from Tic Long and Youth Specialties to help create a great Youth Worker Oasis experience; and a chance to offer our best in Hoosier hospitality to all who attend.  I truly believe that this will be a transformational event for young people, and I hope you can join us.

If you have questions, check out the website or give me a call at the conference office.

Peace and blessings,

Brian

I was listening this morning to a lecture by Reggie Joiner at the NYWC where he talked about “leaning into parents”.  I really like the term “leaning in”.  As Fall starts and lots of us are kicking off our school year ministry offerings for youth, “leaning in” may be a great place to start as we think about our ministries with families.  Notice it isn’t pressing or pushing, for while we’d like parents to be more involved in the faith life of their teens, pressing or pushing for it to happen often isn’t fruitful.  And it isn’t standing back and waiting for parents to get involved or ignoring the influence they have and doing our ministry without them.

So I’ve been thinking all morning, how does one “lean in”?  It boils down to 3 principles:  communication, intentionality, and support.   I’ll explore these in more detail in my next 3 posts, but in the meantime, how do you experience “leaning-in” to parents and families in your ministry?

What would happen if we turned over leadership of our ministries entirely to our youth?  Really, the whole shebang – weekly planning, retreat planning, mission and service and outreach projects.  Sure, there would probably be more games of dodgeball, more trips to amusement parks and laser tag, more ice cream sundaes.  But if you’ve involved student leadership at any level of ministry, you also know that there would be tremendous potential for creativity and initiative, room for the Holy Spirit to do amazing things in the lives of young people, and through them our communities.

I came across this article from a Youth Worker Journal last year that talks about the imagination and creativity of youth, which made me think of all the amazing things that happened in our ministry when students took the lead.  For just one example, a young woman in our congregation saw a homeless man at a grocery store looking at a blanket on display, and with the support of a pastor in our church created an outreach project that raised 1000′s of blankets and financial support for homeless ministries in downtown Indianapolis.  A fifth or sixth grader at the time, all she needed to create a fruitful and impacting ministry was the support and encouragement of a mentor.

I love the idea in the article of Launch, a ministry that provides mentoring and funding for youth with innovative and creative ideas for mission in the world.  The articles states, “What difference could it make in the lives or our youth if we re-invented youth ministries to invite them to imagine and launch new ways to have a kingdom impact in their communities, congregations and God’s troubled world?”

As you plan ministries for this coming Fall, how are students involved?  How could you empower them to respond to God’s call in their lives through the passion and gifts they are given? What would happen if you unleashed their imagination and creativity?