Dear youth ministry friends,

In this month, where colorful leaves dot our lawns and handprint turkeys adorn our walls, I have a very November-ish question: How does your organization show gratitude?

The concept of gratitude-sharing is not new, and we are trained at a young age to think in such a way. (“What do you say?” “Thank you!”) But how often do we model gratitude specifically in the way we spend our time? And then, of course, a second question is quick to follow: how often do we model this for our young people?

Service projects are one avenue for modeling gratitude, and they offer an opportunity for youth to get outside of their own contexts and (perhaps) more normative time commitments. Such opportunities include but are hardly limited to:

-gathering collections for local food pantries

-cooking a meal at a local shelter

-creation of blankets, toiletry kits, or other such goods for local clinics or distribution centers

There are two elements that these aforementioned ideas have in common, beyond simply addressing a need:

First, they accompany the ongoing work of another organization. Sometimes, the newest idea isn’t always the best. Innovation is a worthy endeavor, but innovation without partners can devolve into hubris. Many service-oriented organizations already have a very good read of what is precisely needed in the community in a given season. The work of partnership is critical in the work of missions and gratitude, because in partnering with what a community actually needs, what we serve up doesn’t just become a dish of self-congratulatory egoism with a side dose of a white savior complex. It becomes what all mission should be: an expression of gratitude for, and honoring of, the other’s presence.

Secondly, they are communally lived out. Individual acts of gratitude, or individual expressions thereof, are lovely. But acts of gratitude within a group setting can create a group touchpoint experience, from which the entire group can draw for years hence. Gathering together to accomplish work is a formative experience, and can shift the tenor of the whole group towards communal honoring, rather than top-down sentiments.

As you discern how you will spend your time this month, and as you look ahead to your youth programming, perhaps there is space for gratitude. And perhaps it is a space where gratitude can not only be a sidenote, but the primary focus of our doings and our outward-facing work. If it is authentic gratitude in missional endeavors, it will always center the other person, and will allow them to be not just recipients, but partners in the ministry. May it be so.

With you on the journey (and grateful for your presence!),

Rev. Dr. Jill