| Samantha Cawker |
Some believe that a successful youth ministry means hiring a dynamic young adult who will single-handedly build up the program, nurture the relationships that are built through the ministry, spend weekends away on retreats, and program a fantastic weekly group meeting that will keep youth coming back for more.
The congregation is ecstatic, the clergy are relieved, and the “youth issue” has been solved! but what happens when that person moves on ? What if the parish doesn’t have the resources to hire a youth worker in the first place?
Four parishes have embarked on a new way of doing youth ministry. Over the past few years, St. Andrew’s
This program is based on two main concepts: Manhood and Womanhood are free gifts from God, and Adulthood must be earned. The concepts of manhood and womanhood are not based on secular society’s construction of gender; rather it redefines the concept as energy that is given to both men and women for the strength and courage to work with God in the creation of a world which functions according to God’s principles.
Journey to Adulthood empowers the whole congregation to support young people as they become adults, acknowledging what is happening to them, and celebrating while modeling for them the power of adulthood and how to use it responsibly.
It is not a program that asserts that only adults will do the teaching, but calls on all of us–whatever our age–to think about the gifts we have been given and how we can use those gifts for the ongoing life of the church.