Innovation, Imagination, and Frustration: New Directions for Youth Ministry
Everyone knows that existing models for caring for teens (especially in ecclesial contexts) are pretty tired. The problem is that the church in North America often struggles to do excellent and compelling work. It also struggles to innovate. This webinar will stimulate your imagination about how to best engage the teens/young adults in your community. We will look at an innovative model of ministry that has been developed in the Pacific Northwest and it’s engagement in the world of social enterprise. We’ll also explore how to finance new forms of ministry to help reach and enrich the lives of your […]
A Journey with LGBTQ+ and Immigrant Youth
The journey of LGBTQ+ and immigrant youth are both beautiful and complex. In this presentation, Yadi Martinez-Reyna shares a glimpse into their various journeys and the worlds they navigate and negotiate with as they try to find a sense of belonging. Yadi will provide resources and ideas on how to create a safe space for all young people. Through lecture, dialogue, and open conversation, Yadi will invite you to reflect on the following questions: How do we create space for young people who are not already here? How do we partner with those who are here to evaluate, enhance, or […]
A New Vision of Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls of the Church as you Minister During the Pandemic
Clips from the webinar on “A New Vision of Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls of the Church: Mission Work and Outdoor Ministry” that pertain to ministering during the pandemic.
Andrew Wicks and the Rev. Ryan Gackenheimer will explore the ways in which outdoor ministry and mission work are evolving and engaging youth today. It will also provide tangible tools for youth ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic and more broadly in the 21st century.
A New Vision of Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls of the Church: Mission Work and Outdoor Ministry
Andrew Wicks and the Rev. Ryan Gackenheimer will explore the ways in which outdoor ministry and mission work are evolving and engaging youth today. It will also provide tangible tools for youth ministry during the COVID-19 pandemic and more broadly in the 21st century.
The Science of Well-Being
The most popular course in the more than three-century history of Yale, “The Science of Well-Being” highlights research that reveals misconceptions about what makes us happy — and the concrete steps we can take to live a more fulfilling life. Yale Professor Laurie Santos has taken this course and created a new version specifically for high school aged youth. Hear the conversation about how youth (and youth workers) can improve their mental and physical health.
Just Breathe: Resilience Strategies for Today’s Youth & Youth Workers
In the first six months of 2020, today’s children and youth have lived through so many soul-provoking experiences. With the advent of COVID-19 illness and death, quarantines, school closures, summers on hold, graphic depictions of violence, the prospect of not going back to school or going back in a socially distanced fashion, and difficult imagery and discussion around issues of race and justice, youth have a lot of questions—and some even have deep concerns and fears. Add this to the daily, already complex lives of many youth in this country and the resultant mixture cries out for a resilient response […]
Wrestling with Rest in a COVID-19 World
In all our time in life and ministry, have our calendars ever looked like they look amid pandemic? So much simply disappeared: coffee dates, graduations, youth group, and soccer. All gone. So much to grieve. Our rhythms of work and rest have been utterly discombobulated. Is this Sabbath? Who are we when our calendars turn upside down? We feel acutely the difficulty of this moment, but we also sense the gifts this moment brings. Will we learn what we need to learn? Join the conversation as we wrestle together with work, rest, ministry, and pandemic, and as we imagine together […]
Racial Resilience: Anti-Racism as Spiritual Praxis
Do you find yourself profoundly moved by protests against racial injustice? Are you unsure of what structural racism is, or what it means to be anti-racist, or what role religion can play in this movement? This lecture and collection of conversations with Drs. Carter and Schoen can help you begin your journey.
Slides from the event are here: Racial Resilience: Anti-racism as Spiritual Praxis.
Fear, Isolation, and Anxiety: Understanding the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth
With schools closed in efforts to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, the pandemic has psychologically displaced 1.54 billion students across the globe who are forced to navigate an unprecedented and uncertain reality. The acute impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak are felt by many, if not all, but for youth, the impacts may be felt in a heightened and concentrated way.
How exactly are youth being impacted, and what helps to support their healthy development, even through a pandemic? As youth pastors and youth workers, what should we keep in mind when supporting youth through times of crises? This session will […]
Seeking Sanctuary
Rev. Dr. Debora Jackson presents on Realizing Effectiveness and Well-being by Seeking Sanctuary. This is an important topic for all who serve within their context, especially youth workers. It has been said that youth ministry is “burned out ministry.” Youth workers are always eager to learn how to help young people cope with stress, depression, anxiety, etc. However, how are we as leaders and ministers coping and caring for ourselves?
The Youth Minister as Cultural Diagnostician
The Rev. Dr. David C. Mahan delivers a lecture entitled, “The Youth Minister as [Cultural] Diagnostician.” The difficulties of connecting young people with faith requires every minister to become an able diagnostician of contemporary culture. With the glut of generational profiles, however, we often strain to figure out how to make that connection with the individuals in our churches and ministries. This talk will offer a different model, called “Faultlines,” that will help us not only to make faith relevant, but resonant with young people today.
Parents, The REAL Pastors
Professor Christian Smith delivers Yale Divinity School’s Ensign Lecture, entitled, “Parents, the REAL Pastors: The Absolute Centrality of Parenting in Passing on Religious Faith and Practice to the Next Generation.”