contemplative youth ministry

I've just finished reading "Contemplative Youth Ministry" by Mark Yaconelli (2006: Youth Specialties). It's a brilliant book for those who are struggling with what it means to be involved in youth ministry, or just starting out in youth ministry. While some of the comments in it are more geared towards the North American market, there are some pearls in this book that should make it recommended reading (even if you don't agree with it all, it's worth being challenged by some of Yaconelli's thoughts). Some key points that stood out for me:

"Contemplation means "being" with God within the reality of the present moment. Contemplation is about presence [Yaconelli discusses being "present" with students later]. It's about attentiveness - opening our eyes to God, ourselves, and others." [p 23]

"If love is a gift, then the first step in living into that love is to surrender. We need to stop trying to make kids love God (or make God love our kids) ... Once we admit that we are powerless to turn kids into Christians, we can recognize that ministry is a series of small acts of trust. It's more about yielding to what is already present and available than it is about creating or building." [p 72]

The table on pages 79-80 talking about the difference between anxiety and love displays in a very helpful way the two mentalities we can have about youth ministry (I know which one I'd rather be involved with!)

"The love of God is often more powerful and transformative in these small acts of love [talking about Jesus' acts of kindness] than in the lights, energy, and charisma of large outreach events. What if we became more aware of the small ways in which we engage young people? What if our ministry was about giving rides home, sharing snacks, opening doors, helping carry book bags, and giving compliments when a young person has taken great care in his appearance? ... We become aware, as Jesus suggests, that in these acts of love we're not just carrying a book bag for a young person, we're also making contact with Jesus. We begin to feel more and more that we're participating in God's mission of love, rather than serving some moral ideal." [p 115-116]

"Youth ministry is about holding a young person's deepest identity until he or she is able to see it too" [p 121]

The awareness examen [discovered by Ignaitus of Loyola] is a tool I intend to use with my leaders, my students, but also myself. It "asks you to review a particular encounter ... and prayerfully ask two questions: For what moment am I most grateful? For what moment am I least grateful?" [p 132]

"Our first task as youth ministers is to be with young people just as Jesus was with people" [p 180]

"One of the first ways we can help youth become more aware of their life in God is to point to the moments when Jesus seems near" [p 183]

"The purpose of integrating contemplative presence in youth ministry is not to turn kids into monks, nor is it to make us experts in contemplative prayer; it is to deepen our awareness of God, others, and self so that we might become fully alive ... Engaging kids solely in contemplative exercises is unnatural, because contemplative prayer does not lead to more contemplative prayer - it leads to authentic action" [pp 230-231]

Lots to ponder...

really letting go

We had our youth camp over the weekend, and God did some amazing things in the lives of our students. On Saturday, we had lots of issues - things that distracted us from what God wanted to do, things that were fracturing relationships, causing friction - and yet despite this (or maybe because of this) on Saturday night, God broke through in a powerful way. We had the students write down things they needed to give up to God, and then have them come forward and burn them. There was a sense that our students had often given up lots of things to God, but kept taking them back, so as a symbol of this, we wanted to let them have a way of knowing they'd let go and these things were now gone - unable to be read, picked up, looked at. It was a powerful time of restoration, as the students (many of them amidst great pain) processed what it meant to let these things go, and then did. We offered them the opportunity at the end of that time to come forward and allow the image of the ashes and fire burning to be captured in their minds, to help them this week when they are tempted to take those things back. Many of them took this opportunity (and we took some video footage of the same image), and I think it's going to become a useful tool to keep reminding them of the deep work God did in their lives.

updated picture of acts 2

I had coffee this arvo with an old friend - Matt Hawke - and as we revisted old times, one of the things I reminded him of was the best definition I've ever heard of young adult's ministry... that he wrote. As we talked some more, I realised it's actually a perfect contemporary picture of the acts 2 community I'd love to be a part of...

"I dream of finding a group of young people who share my passion, to which I can belong and in which I can feel safe. I dream of laughing, playing, crying, coffee-ing, movie-ing and worshipping with the group. I dream of finding a smaller set of people, maybe just a few or a couple, with whom I can be totally and plainly honest, open and real. I dream of finding people who love me for me - yes I mean it."

being God's kid

As someone learning to be a Dad (and trying to be as good a Dad as I can), there are so many times when I reflect on my relationship with my kids, and am blown away that God thinks of me like that. That he loves it when I just sit in his arms and relax. That he loves to hear about my day. That he loves to hear me talk about the things I'm worried about. That he loves to make me feel loved and safe. As I once heard, God is not a reflection of our earthly fathers (ie "if you look at your father, God is a better Dad than that"), it's the other way around - we who have the privilege of being called fathers are a reflection of the perfect Dad, and all the best things about our fatherhood come from his relationship with us.

what's important

Today, I had the privilege of sitting down for a couple of hours with one of our youth leaders (what an awesome group they are - I'm so blessed) to talk about some things that he was going through. It reminded me that this is what I live for - everything else is just about creating an opportunity to enter into someone else's life, journey with them for a while, seek God together, and (hopefully) grow and move deeper in our understanding of and love for God. It's so easy to get distracted by all the other things that we who are involved in youth ministry can be distracted by - running programs, organising studies, making creative multimedia, shaping bands to lead worship. There's nothing wrong with any of those things, but if they become the master, we're on a slippery path. They all exist to allow us to spend those magic minutes (or hours) engaging the heart and soul of the people God gives us.

making God happy

My beautiful wife, Ali, got me thinking the other day. We were talking about what we like, and she said she wanted to get better at doing at least one thing every day to make me happy (I told you she was awesome!) That got me thinking about how deliberately I am (or am not, more to the point) trying to do at least one thing every day to make God happy, and what I could do if I did (a point my friend Simon Giles raised earlier this year). I sensed God saying the thing I could do more to make Him happy the most would be to spend more time with him each day. What about you?

restoration

I've been blessed to connect with my friends with Sonlife USA, Chris Folmsbee and Michael Novelli, who work with a very helpful framework centred around the whole story of God. In short, it's about understanding that God's plan has always been a plan of restoration - God is all about restoring the world to himself and to each other. We then have a wonderful role to play as "agents of restoration" within this plan - people who help others to see they are restored to God and helping restore people to each other (including in our own relationships). I've been developing some training material around this with Youth Ministries Australia, but it's been as I've unpacked this in my own thoughts that it's impacted me the most. I preached at our am and pm services yesterday, and I continue to be amazed (don't know why!) that the language of restoration flows through everything, no matter the topic.

initial thoughts

So, a blog, eh? I hope to use this blog to document some of my journey with God, as I seek to become who I was born to be.