Talking about Sex, Tech, and Faith with Teens
Digital innovation has rapidly changed the landscape of sexual experience in the twenty-first century. Moral mandates, uncomfortable avoidance, or simple silence by faith communities on these issues leave teens ill equipped to bring their faith values to sexual and digital decision-making. This event will provide a nuanced approach that prioritizes honesty and discernment over fear and judgment. In addition to raising participants digital and sexual literacy, faith leaders/youth ministers will be resourced with curricular practices that draw on core values of the Christian tradition to help teens develop a just and flourishing sexuality in the digital age.
The Storm Isn’t Over: Ways to Support the Social Emotional Needs of Youth
While everyone is eager to get “back to normal”, the social emotional needs of our youth tells us we must recalibrate our expectations. In this presentation, we will discuss the key social emotional impacts of the public health pandemic and social cultural epidemic we’ve all been experiencing and witnessing. Concrete strategies to foster resilience and help our youth thrive in the current climate will be presented. Following the presentation, participants will engage in an interactive learning opportunity to put skills into immediate practice in their work with youth.
Why Ministries Innovate and How to Start: Knee Deep in Flotsam
We’re all innovators now. Only a year ago, “sustainability” and “innovation” described extracurricular activities for churches – mostly niche projects that had minimal impact on the daily work of ministry. As of 2020, innovation is what we all do–ready or not.
We’re exhausted and disoriented by this newness, not just because innovation is unfamiliar to us, but because the shackles of normalcy are off, allowing us to hear God in new ways. As our institutions, practices, and assumptions about ministry (and ourselves) shed unnecessary weight in order to stay afloat, we’re suddenly a much more nimble church than we were a […]
Empowering Young People Toward Beloved Community
This presentation will build upon the ethnographic and theological research in Church in Color to highlight practical steps congregations and other organizations can take to resist racism and embrace Beloved Community in the work of youth and young adult ministry. The practical theological framework is grounded in Kingian ethics that makes room for the particular stories, questions, and experiences of young people in distinct congregations or organizations.
Empowering Parents to Practice Faith at Home: A Ministry Leader Workshop
Faith formation can’t happen if children and youth are spending just one hour a week at church – or much less these days, so what are the barriers families encounter when trying to establish faith practices at home?
The Rev. Traci Smith, author of Faithful Families presents four videos that talk about practices for mindfulness, serving others, dinner time, and bedtime.
Talking about Race with Young People
Talking about race with the young people you serve can be challenging. This workshop is for leaders, parents, and church members who want to have conversations about racism and prejudice. Also, for those who want to help young people faithfully explore issues that are important to God and relevant for one of our most racially and ethnically diverse generations yet. At times it can feel easier to shy away from complex topics and avoid highly charged conversations. In this workshop we will cover vocabulary to know, history to be mindful of and will end with practical next steps so that […]
Connecting and Integrating Children’s and Youth Ministry Across the Church
So often our churches segment children’s ministry and youth ministry as if they were unrelated efforts. This presentation aims to equip lay and clergy leaders to take a wholistic view and approach to ministry with young people. We will discuss ways to join the programming we do with children to those programs offered to older youth, locate ways to integrate both into the life of the church, and discern where God is moving our ministries as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.
I Hear You: Creating Listening Spaces with Youth with Mark Yaconelli
How well do you listen to youth’s stories?
No, really.
And how well do your young people listen… really listen to one another, and to God’s work in their midst?
Long-time youth ministry worker Mark Yaconelli has spent his career engaging in the quieter nature of youth ministry. Through the use of contemplation and compassionate exercises, Mark has fine-tuned the art of listening. By modeling this for youth, youth workers impart a valuable skill set to their young people: how to listen to one another, and how to be attentive for God’s work in their lives.
Belonging
As youth leaders, we strive to be welcoming towards everyone. We want every young person to feel like they belong.
But what does “belonging” actually look like? What might it mean to prioritize actual belonging in your youth group?
We all want to belong to a community and that sense of belonging is elemental to our well-being. Join Dr. Margaret Clark for a conversation about just how much young people want to belong, how they strive to belong and what really makes people feel that they belong.
Grief, we all feel it, but do you know what to do with it?
Grief is a complicated emotion and losing someone we love is hard no matter the circumstance. This is especially true when you are faced with a loss and the grief associated with the loss at a young age. This presentation is designed to explore the impacts of grief and loss on adolescents. We will bust common myths about grief and loss, including the classic “time will heal” as well as concrete ways to process one’s grief and how to continue to connect with our loved ones will be presented. Come learn ways to healthily manage this inevitable part of our […]
Anxiety and Decision Making
The Emotional Intelligence Factor: How to Apply EI to Youth Ministry with David R. Caruso, Ph.D., September 8, 2021. This clip is about anxiety and decision making.
The Emotional Intelligence Factor: How to Apply EI to Youth Ministry
How are you? It’s a question you ask or are asked dozens of times each day and yet how often do we stop, pause, reflect and answer the question in an honest and open manner? Doing so is important as the question and answer help us connect with others and to get things done.
Once you have a good answer to “how are you?”, it is important to match those feelings to connect and achieve goals, to understand the meaning of these feelings and then to actively manage these feelings. These four skills are described by the theory of emotional intelligence […]