Desktops and Updates

I've been spending some time organizing since my return from several weeks on the road meeting with amazing EpiscoPeeps and learning of vital ministries. You know the disoriented feeling when you get back from a conference with all kinds of ideas and new things you want to do. And then you look at the backlog of emails and voice mails, and the neglected To Do list. And then there's the dilemma of  responding to your new friends and colleagues with initiatives and connections that you made while you were away. . . .

I spent last week playing catch-up; recovering from the crud I caught in the Carolinas, and putting my workspace back together so that I can find everything. This week is mostly a "work on EYE week," but I am also trying to follow through on some commitments made when meeting with folks at the ECCC Annual Meeting, and the NAECED Tapestries conference (links to both at right). I came away from both events inspired and encouraged. We have so many talented, educated, energetic, faithful people working for Christ in this church.

My commitment to you is that I will endeavor to keep you connected so that you don't feel isolated, unsupported, or unappreciated. Youth and Young Adult ministry, which includes the need for many faithful and well-formed adults, is truly the best possible tool for evangelism. As I learn of new techniques, best practices, amazing ministries, outstanding curricula, I will do my best to push that information out to you. And please, share what you know with me, too, so that I can send it around this network that I fondly refer to as the EpiscoYouth network.

In light of this pledge, I have just added twothree new links to this blog that will soon be available on our ever-so-slowly-but-truly-changing-for-the-better website. I believe the new site will truly be helpful in many ways. The new branding makes sense, too. You can read about it in the latest Church Center Newsletter that also features an interview with me about EYE. Check out this new stuff. Use it. Share it. 

Blessings on your ministry!

Bronwyn

Act Out: Empowering Youth to Heal a Hurting World

Designed by Episcopal Relief and Development in collaboration with educators and youth ministers, these modules offer an intensive educational program for middle- and high-school students that brings the needs and hopes of the world together with the lives of youth, in a context framed by liturgy and filled with prophetic stories of Scripture. Adaptable to many settings.

Building Faith

An on-line Christian Ed Community brought to you by Sharon Ely Pearson, Christian Formation Specialist at Church Publishing Group. This is the place to share great ideas, learn of new curricula, and ask questions of all of your colleagues in ministry.

Newsletter of The Episcopal Church Center

A quarterly publication from Church Center staff - currently bookmarked to an interview with the Officer for Youth Ministry.

New Resource

The following news release crossed my email desktop today. As a Minnesota Episcopalian I have been blessed with Minnesota Public Radio and have listened to Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith® program from its infancy. This new resource may or may not be what is best for your congregation, but it looks like an opportunity to engage across some generational lines within the congregation with fresh perspectives and new material. If you choose to try it we would love to know what you think! Use the comments feature on the blog or send me an email bskov@episcoaplchurch.org.

From Church Publishing, Inc. New York, New York -

As part of a unique new partnership between a publisher and weekly radio broadcast, Church Publishing Incorporated (CPI) has developed and released a series of new, online church-group resources in conjunction with the popular radio program, Speaking of Faith® with Krista Tippett, produced by American Public Media.


Titled Speaking of Faith® for Small Groups™, the new program resources are designed for high school, young adult, and adult study groups and revolve around topical, interfaith conversations and interviews conducted by Krista Tippett on previously broadcast programs. Four modules of Speaking of Faith® for Small Groups™ are now available, including:


Sustainable Faith: God, the Environment and Human Responsibility
Einstein's God: Science, Faith and the Life of Wonder
Spiritual Heroes: Women and Men on the Frontiers of Faith
Living Islam: Beauty, Truth, Compassion

The modules can be previewed and purchased exclusively at www.churchpublishing.org/speakingoffaith

Parenting

I've had some interesting inquiries lately about parenting youth that I thought might be helpful to share, especially as most families shift into summer mode when there is a lot more freedom of time for the teens in the household.
Recently I was asked by a colleague, "What is the one thing you would want to say to parents of teens?" My short and simple reply was, "Don't stop parenting yet!" I did follow up with some other thoughts. I hope the following is helpful and welcome your thoughts and feedback.

It is demonstrated in our culture through mass media and our fascination with celebrities that Americans value freedom, personal wealth, independence, youthfulness, promiscuity and violence. We also espouse a high regard for privacy. In my opinion we often give our teenagers too much freedom and privacy too fast. It's more than they can handle and then we blame the young person for unwise choices that lead to trouble.

Transitioning from young teen to older teen to young adult in a culture that lets 16-year-olds drive, 18-year-olds vote and smoke, and 21-year-olds drink seems like a gradual transition. Although it's very interesting to consider that particular progression of secular privileges, rites of passage, in that particular chronology; it says a lot about our cultural value system.

Older teens want nothing more than the perceived freedom of adulthood and often run to the limit as soon as privileges are granted, not comprehending the responsibility that goes hand in hand with the newly acquired privilege. I will never forget my oldest's proclamation on his eighteenth birthday. "I no longer have curfew and I'm blocking you on FaceBook!" * * click * *

"I have other FaceBook friends," I replied, "and you may not have curfew, but if you intend to live in this house you will be home by 11 on weeknights and midnight on the weekends unless special arrangements have been made." We truly had no problems with this child through his graduation and the following summer. He honored the golden rule of the household: Mom needs to know where you are and who you're with at all times. Did he and his brother sneak one by me now and then? I'm sure they did. But I also held up my end of the bargain with random checks. We live in a small enough community that their chances of bumping into members of our extended family and Episcopal congregation members are petty high. They were not subjected to an adult-free vacuum, even during summer vacation.

Our teens and tweens need parents, godparents, mentors, and adult friends to help shepherd them through these growing stages as partners. That includes knowing how to text them, greeting them in helpful and non-shaming ways on FaceBook, as well as face to face interactions. Our communities of faith are ideally suited to provide this community safety-net, holding the tension with parents as our children gradually mature into adulthood. But we need to be intentional in accomplishing this task. We need to support parents in learning to text and FaceBook and lift this up not as an intrusion on the privacy of our children, but as an essential piece of participation in the fabric of the community that uses technology as a significant means of communication in this day and age. Word of mouth is FaceBook and texting with cell phones.

Teenagers did not invent cell phones, texting, FaceBook, or iPhones. We did. And we marketed them and purchased these technologies and gave them to our kids. It is our responsibility to join the virtual community we have created so that we can continue to be parents and friends to the young people in our lives who still need us. I am not yet an accomplished expert in this field of parenting; mine are 18 and 21 and still in the house and in college. But as a youth minister I have had the privilege of watching parenting at its best and worst and everywhere in between. What is evident is the importance of a supportive and faithful community surrounding parents and teens, especially in those tender and oh-so-fast moments of vulnerable transition as youth gain new freedoms before their skills to handle those privileges are complete.

I conclude with one of my favorite prayers from Guide My Feet by Marian Wright Edelman.

Lord help me not do for my children

what they can do for themselves.

Help me not to give them

what they can earn for themselves.

Help me not to tell them

what they can look up and find out for themselves.

Help me to help my children stand on

their own two feet and to grow into

responsible, disciplined adults.

Amen.

Sunday School . . . or not?

There's an interesting conversation taking place on Episcopal Cafe at the moment in response to an EpiscopalLife Online article that ran yesterday, June 1, about Sunday School models. I encourage you to check it out and weigh in if you have wisdom to add to the conversation.

The debate is a timeless one for many of us, and most of us could make arguments from a multitude of perspectives on the question; how, when, and where should Sunday School take place in the life of a congregation?

Since this blog is more specific to Youth Ministry, and often this particular ministry with this specific age group (primarily 6-12 grade) is no longer in the realm of "Sunday School," I'm curious to know what your thoughts are about the young people you "inherit" into your ministry from the programs for younger children.

As an example, I can tell you that in Minnesota, most of our school districts honor Wednesday night as a light night on the school calendar to yield to Catechism  and Confirmation classes in our Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations. Most of the main-liners and evangelicals have jumped on this bandwagon, too, and use it as an education night for middle schoolers and high schoolers. The model provides greater potential for musical and liturgical participation for this age group on Sunday mornings. It also makes older youth available to help teach in Sunday morning class rooms with younger children.

The interesting observation that I would make from my days in congregational youth ministry is that youth who have spent their early years in church with their parents know a lot more about Episcopal Liturgy and Prayer than those who have been in a concurrent Sunday School class. The greatest sadness for me is welcoming middle schoolers into the youth room who have never had a discussion about anything religious, spiritual, or faith-based with their parents. But if they've been in church we at least have common ground to begin the discussion. Often I have been blessed with watching spiritual transformation unfold as youth and their parents have learned more about their own faith and traditions together when participating in mentoring opportunities and multigenerational events focusing on Christian Formation.

What has your Youth Ministry experience been? How have programs for younger children influenced your ministry with teens and tweens? I encourage you to comment here and/or at Episcopal Cafe. I look forward to hearing and sharing the wisdom from each of you.

Blessings,
Bronwyn

To Blog or Facebook . . .

That seems to be a hot question in youth ministry these days. The NAECED (see link at right for more) listserve has been chatting about the pros and cons of various Facebook techniques this past week. The Province V Youth Ministry Network, which I will be visiting this week, is focusing on sharing technology and communication strategies. My own office is beginning a new networking strategy. Ewart Jones, the Diocesan Missioner for Youth and Young Adult Ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas uses both, Facebook and Blogger! I asked Ewart to share an introductory paragraph with us before you click over to their site.The link is at the bottom of this post. Here's what Ewart had to say about the their Blog.
THANKS FOR SHARING EWART!

Diocesan youth ministry in the Diocese of Texas has adopted a contemplative approach adopted from Mark Yaconelli’s work with the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project. There are seven steps in this approach: contemplation, community, companioning, clarity, action, reflection and a return to contemplation. The hope is to be more intentional and accountable in the ministry in which we are engaged. This approach guides our programs, retreats and conferences. We have steering committees that are composed of youth and adults that “govern” the decisions of our programs and we try to use every mode of communication (snail mail, email, diocesan paper and website, blog, social media) to spread the word about our particular “theology” of youth ministry.

Diocese of Texas Youth Ministry Blog Link Here

Do you blog? Post a comment with a link so we can all share!

Blessings,
Bronwyn

Liturgical Year Resource

In her Convocation address at Virginia Theological Seminary in fall 2009, Lisa Kimball asserts that today's global and consumer age "are presenting us, the Church, with a profound invitation: focus on the basics. Read the Bible, Challenge the skeptics. Learn our history. Claim our unique identity in Christ."

The liturgical year is a basic part of our common life in the Church. It takes us through Jesus' journey beginning with Advent and acknowledges our need for growing and telling the stories in the long season of Pentecost. The liturgical year is a part of every Godly Play classroom. But it is often forgotten in classrooms for middle and high schoolers, and this is just the time when youth, who are growingi in self-awareness, need the liturgical calendar even more. It marks not just Christian time, but it gives our souls the opportunity to practice the rhythms of life. Advent helps us practice waiting, Ephiphany--a time of noticing Christ among us, Lent--a time for self-examination and repentance, Easter---a time of celebration, and Pentecost--the long time of growing.

When a youth faces waiting (such as waiting for a college decision or a job decision) or faces times of needing repentance (when they have broken relationships), their souls know just what to do because they have practiced. They know the prayers, they know it might take a long time to go through that period.  Keep the liturgical calendar in the youth room, give it out for bedroom bulletin boards, and dress your worship table with cloths that signify the color of the season. Through this practice, youth will also be more articulate about their faith in our pluralistic society.
THANKS TO JENIFER GAMBER FOR SHARING THIS TOOL FOR MINISTRY!

A lifelong Episcopalian, Jenifer Gamber has served as a teacher and youth mentor for over 20 years and currently leads confirmation classes and baptism preparation at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, PA. She was recently elected Vice-President of NAECED (the National Association for Episcopal Christian Education Directors). Jenifer keynotes at conferences, leads workshops and retreats nationally, and maintains the website http://www.myfaithmylife.org/, a non-profit site offering free resources for adults who work with youth. She is a regular columnist for the Episcopal Teacher and author of several books for teens and adults about the Episcopal Church. Adults who work with youth might consider attending this popular retreat in September at Holy Cross Monastery: www.myfaithmylife.org./ohcretreat.html

Next Generation of Faithful

The Province VI Youth Ministry Coordinator, Lydia Kelsey, is from the Diocese of Iowa. She wears more than the Youth Ministry hat there and also serves as the diocesan Communications Officer. At our recent network gathering at Kanuga Linda Watt, Chief Operating Officer of The Episcopal Church, impressed with the stories she heard of the Provincial Youth Ministry Coordinators and the Episcopal Council for Christian Education members, offered the reflection that we are "Renaissance" people. She was very impressed with our multi-faceted approaches to ministry and our cross-disciplinary giftedness. We gave her great hope for our church that needs to focus on mission. Lydia has offered an interesting gift in the form of this YouTube reflection of what the Episcopal Church can be proud of and what we need to tend to so that we might welcome the strangers who would accept our invitation to join us in God's mission in the world. In case that hotlink doesn't work, here's the URL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLZzKrnu1oc It's currently on the front page of Iowa's website, too.
Enjoy!
And thank you Iowa and Lydia!

How Can Young People Change the World

Following is an article about a youth group from Cary, North Carolina. Great idea. Thanks, Fred, for sending your report and the invitation of this ambitious and compassionate youth group! You have our prayers of gratitude and hopefully will find some folks to join you in this effort. BCS

This summer, I had a question. What work can four high school interns do to promote the Millennium Development Goals, to advance the mission of the Episcopal Church, or in short, how can they change the world?

Last year, when I asked this question, Katie Magee, an intern, created our Kiva Carnival fundraiser. This started our Micro-finance fund. "Micro-finance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to the poor." (CGAP) So we had our Carnival, provided a fun activity for the children of our parish and raised $300. That money went into an account and was loaned out to six people in five countries to help them create or grow a business. We did this through Kiva.org. "Through Kiva.org, people around the would can become micro-bankers to developing world entrepreneurs, who have their own ideas, so we can give them a chance to raise their kids with dignity, send their kids to school, and in troubled places like Afghanistan we can marginally increase the chance that peace can prevail, because people will see there is a positive alternative to conflict." (BC)

Loans made through Kiva are repaid every 6-12 months, and they have a repayment rate of 98%. This means that by 2015, that $300 will have been loaned out at least six times, helping at least 36 people, and will really feel like $1800. The best part is those statistics are only good if we choose not to add any more money for the next six years. We already have another Carnival planned for the fall.

So this year when the question was asked, "How can you change the world?", the answer was simple. We need to get other youth groups, other churches, other Episcopalians involved. We need to create an upbeat and professional way to inform our fellow churches of this great opportunity. We need a website promoting micro-finance. And they were off. With a shoestring budget and all the creative energy in the world, they created http://www.smallloansbigideas.org/. The website promotes micro-finance, the MDG's, and has some fun ways to raise money for this cause or any other.

Check it out, get involved, and join our group. For as little as $25 , you can directly get involved with someone from one of over 100 countries around the world. Kiva lets you choose who gets your money, gives you the details on their business, and will give you updates on how things are going.

As I reflect on their summer, and try to answer the question, "Did they change the world?"
I realize the answer is no. They created a website and they promoted an idea; they did more than change the world. They helped give you the resources to change the world.

The question is, will you?

Fred Lowry
Youth Coordinator
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Cary, North Carolina


BC = Bill Clinton www.kiva.org/about/quotes/

CGAP = Consultative Group to Assist the Poor http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/home//