I believe that all baptized children are welcome to the Altar. The following is a guide that will hopefully help parents with bringing their children forward to receive communion. First, for all children, it’s important to see what’s going on at the altar. There is a drama unfolding at the the table during the liturgy and like any good drama it should be seen and heard first hand. Parents might sit in a pew closer Read More …
In his book Taking Theology to Youth Ministry, Andrew Root poses the question, “If youth ministry isn’t for keeping kids good, for making them into servants, or passing on tradition, what is youth ministry for?” What say you? -jpserrano
Part of the requirements for my pastoral internship is that I complete some sort of project. Here it is. The Project The Church’s context: I noticed that the church is near a high school and many youth walk by the church on a daily basis. For several days I stood outside the church during the half hour or so youth were walking home and counted how many young people passed our building. So I put a Read More …
Sometimes church annual meetings can get long, dare I say boring, especially when the discussion descends into worry about finances/declining attendance etc. As a youth minister I would often make videos for the annual meeting, in addition to a written report, in order to break up the stream of talking heads. It was usually a much needed intermission. I wanted SHOW the congregation what the Youth and Family Ministry did during the year, not just Read More …
Everyone & Everything This board is an art project I did with the youth group @ Lutheran Church in the Foothills in 2011. It took 3 months of planning/preparation and 4 youth group meetings to put it together. The title comes from a response to a question I asked while we we’re working on it, “For whom did Jesus die?” A youth responded with, “Everyone.” Another followed with, “Everything.” We used this as our central Read More …
A common problem I often hear from congregations regarding youth ministry is that it’s disjointed from the other ministries in the church. People generally feel disconnected from the youth ministry mainly because they don’t know what’s happening. Good communication from the youth ministry does several things. First, it let’s the congregation know what’s happening. Second, it let’s parents and grandparents prepare for upcoming events before they happen. Third, it reports on how the event Read More …
Worship, outreach, learning, and fellowship are core aspects of any healthy youth ministry; exclude any one of these and a youth ministry is found wanting. Though a youth ministry needs these four practices, it doesn’t mean that all four need to be done at every meeting. Each gathering should be purposeful in its planning and implementation. Even a plan to “just hang out,” is still a plan. Here is a regular youth group meeting Read More …
Often in churches the youth room is converted space. Meaning that it was a Sunday school room, office, parish hall, basement etc. that has been made into the youth room. But, just because the youth room is an afterthought does not mean that a youth minister can’t do some good things with it. So here are my tips for having a good youth room: 1. Keep the youth room clean. Youth can be a tornado of messiness Read More …
A friend asked me what I thought about this article- Youth Pastor Panel: The Joys & Pains of Spiritual Growth. Here is my response: I think that self-care is an extremely important issue for people in ministry. Our job in ministry is to walk with people in their spiritual journeys and guide them along God’s path. So, I appreciate that this article realizes that in order to do this, the minister must first care for their own walk with Read More …
Going on trips is a necessary part of any youth ministry. After my first couple years of taking youth to Christian Family Night at Magic Mountain, I learned that something freeing seems to happen on these trips–youth talk waiting in lines. At theme parks young people open up in ways that they just don’t do when sitting in an office. This applies to being in your office as well. I’ve found that if a youth Read More …