Network Blog

One of the highlights was at lunch today when we had 8-10 youth ministers from the Southeast Pennsylvania Synod join us for lunch.  It was casual, but the conversation was rich.  We just spent time talking about their congregational ministry, hearing their stories, enjoying their company, laughing and connecting.  Much of the thinking with these good people, as it is with many youth ministers around the country, I'm sure, is around the financial crisis and its impact on congregational finances.  Extra pressure is going to be added to congregations (and their youth and family ministry leaders) to figure out ways of raising funds.  This is going to be a significant challenge.

This is a good group of people, gathered here for this meeting.  The Network's board is really committed to the health and vitality of the Network, and of the ecology of youth and family ministry as a whole.  

More to come on their work...

We're launching the first promotion in the history of the Extravaganza.  We want to encourage folks to bring new-comers, and to thank those that do.  So those who bring a first-timer, who talk someone into coming...they get a jacket.  They're pretty nice.  It should be a very cool thing.  

We're also entering into a partnership with LACE that will allow their members to participate in the Extravaganza at the Network membership rates.  We're able to do that this year...we'll see how it goes after that.

Otherwise, news about other stuff will be surfacing soon!  

Thanks for doing that Ed.  It is face to face, relational/viral conversation that the Network is going to grow.  Are you interested in bringing the display to an event?  Let me know!

Peace,

Todd. 

It's a pretty good issue, I think.  As with almost anything, there are more questions than answers.  But there are good thoughts.

Anyway, the registration for the 2009 Gathering was quite respectable.  The event will fill, I'm confident.  And I find joy in this. 

The event is in New Orleans, and in the last year, I have heard a lot of buzz and concern about the event being in New Orleans.  Concerns about safety and security...concerns about health and welfare...concerns about the new model...concerns about whether the city would be ready after Katrina...

Here's what I've decided:

Those things are important...to a point.  But beyond that, not only do those concerns diminish, the need and the necessity for us to be in New Orleans grows.

I was in New Orleans about a year ago as a part of a 'think team' about the Gathering.  We were approaching the 2nd anniversary of the storm.  The number of FEMA trailers I saw that were still being used...the piles of rubble still waiting to be taken away...the church in which we met that still didn't have postal service...2 years later.  And the would to the spirit was unbelievable.  People walked around as if they were bearing a weight that you could almost see.

When it was first announced that the 2009 Gathering was going to be in New Orleans, I took it in stride.  But I have to admit that my first reaction was "<sigh>, ok, here we go again."  I was at the 95 Gathering and  my group, housed in a hotel right ON Bourbon Street had...shall we say, some "ineresting" experiences.  I didn't share concerns related to the storm, but rather just an overall sense of resignation as to what was coming.

But now, after being there a year ago, I am completely resolute:  We need to be in New Orleans.  That city needs the hope of the Gospel, and we need to be there with them in the midst of it.  There needs to be a witness to the serving heart of God for the people in New Orleans, and there needs to be some serious work done.  And our community needs to experience the lives of the city and the people.  Our community needs to see how people have lived in the midst of a grace of God that has often felt hidden after the storm.  

I am glad to be in New Orleans in February for the Exravaganza, and I am even more glad to be there with the Gathering and with the young people of my congregation next summer.  I hope you'll be there alongside us.

Pax,

Todd. 

Dr. Smith does a great job putting into words, an argument about paying close attention to how we refer to young people.  I wanted to share that with you.  To see the complete article, please see the September 8, 2008 copy of Group.

In 2001, when I began to ramp-up my work on the National Study of Youth and Religion(NSYR, youthandreligion.org) by immersing myself in the world of U.S. ministryto teenagers, I was shocked to learn that the terms youth, youth ministry, andyouth minister had been replaced by student, student ministry, and studentminister. I don’t know how or why the terminology changed—I suspect it hassomething to do with an undercurrent desire to increase youth ministry’srespectability in comparison to other church ministries.

In any case,calling teenagers students is a travesty that must stop. Please, please changethe language back to youth and teenagers. Here’s why:

1. A lot of teenagers are, in fact, not students. Many are school dropouts. Are they not worthy of Christian youth ministry? Do we want to systematically exclude them through our labels? Also, some teenagers are home-educated. Do they not belong in the youth group because they’re not students like their peers who attend traditional schools? Jesus is for all teenagers. Why adopt the constrictive student ministry when not all youth are students?
2. Student ministry subtly (and oddly) singles out teenagers from the whole people of God. No church has an Employed Adult Ministry or a Home-maker Minister or Retired Seniors Minister. So why should the church define its ministry to youth around the institutional social status of student? I think this label subtly isolates youth as a subculture to be treated differently. The church needs to be moving in the exact opposite direction when it comes to teenagers.
3. Student lingo passively allows the culture’s dominant institutions to define for the church who youth are and how the church thinks about them. Young people, especially in view of the gospel, are fundamentally persons, not students. Their status as students is only one aspect of some teenagers’ lives, and often a very unhappy one at that!

Why should the church embrace the categoriesand vocabulary of our schooling society, with all its performance-basedstructures and practices? We should, instead, push back on society’s labels byinsisting that teenagers are referenced by the full depth, richness, andcomplexity of their personhood. They should be hearing from us: “Unlike most ofthe rest of society, we understand and value you in the fullness of who you are.Here among God’s people we know you as real human persons—you don’t have toperform to be accepted here. Please be your real selves.”

When I talk toyouth ministers about this, most tell me they’ve never reflected on theimplications of tagging teenagers with a student label. Well, I think it’s timeto think about it. There’s no good reason to define youth through the lens of asingle social role. Our terms shape what we assume and how we think. I’m askingChristian youth workers all over the country (you!) to change your “shaping”language—to use language that honors teenagers as whole human persons in God’skingdom. Please stop calling teenagers students, and ask everyone around you todo the same.
______________________________________

Chris is the director of the National Study of Youthand Religion, co-author of the resulting book Soul Searching, William R. Kenan,Jr. professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, and director of theCenter for the Study of Religion and Society. He lives in Indiana. 

Waiting.

Still waiting.

Register please.  And then e-mail me at Todd@elcaymnet and let me know...

The link to online housing is also not up yet.  The Sheraton in New Orleans is just moving back from the last evacuation, and it appears that there will be a city-wide evacuation again later this week.  I figure we're not going to get that link until late next week at the earliest.  Check back to the housing page.

I heard from a new youth director who was a college roommate of one of the youth who was in my group.  That's pretty fun...and makes me feel pretty old.

Peace,

Todd.

Good buzz about the online training project.  The e-news put the word out this wee and we got great feedback, good questions and lots of enthusiasm.  Also thankful for that!

I have a friend who works in a neighboring congregation.  On Tuesday, his sr pastor called him at home in the evening and asked him to come in for a meeting.  At that meeting, he was told that his position was being eliminated because of budget problems.  My friend wasn't completely surprised; there had been signs of financial trouble.  He is a good man, and he was a gifted youth minister.

And I understand that this happens to people every single day.  Lots of people get laid off.  But this is somewhat different.  In the 21 years that I have served in this community, there has been significant turnover.  Probably 7-8 youth ministers, and another 8-10 pastors.  

There are root causes for everything, and I can't pretend to know what is going on internally in that place.  But I do know that there is a level of toxicity there.  There is conflict.  There is a breakdown in communication between the members and the leadership.  What happens in congregations that allows a spirit of divisiveness to become dominant?  

• So now, in a community with a very young demographic, there is a congregation with no staff person assigned to youth ministry.  
• So now, there is a good man who is job hunting.  I fear that the scorch marks that surround his psyche might keep him away from the congregation.  While he would serve well wherever he goes, I grieve for the congregation that he doesn't serve in if he chooses to leave congregational youth and family ministry.
• So now there are young people in a congregation and the primary leadership has been let go.  Not that it's dependent on one staff person.  It's not.  Volunteers can probably pick up some of the slack.  However, what kind of a message does this send to the congregation...to the community.

I don't have answers.  Books have been written on the subject. 

I ask you to pray for this congregation.  Pray for this man.  Pray for their young people.  And please pray for all congregations who are in conflict.  Pray for a Spirit of grace to be unleashed.  Pray for a Spirit of forgiveness and tolerance to become dominant.  Pray for peace in communities.

Thank you!