All About the Heart and Soul of YouthWorkers
KEVIN ALTON :: the tall one @ the youthworker circuit
youthworker :: musician :: friend :: twitter:
www.kevinalton.com :: www.youthworkercircuit.com
twitter @elvisfreakshow
I hate May. It’s my most despondent month in ministry. It’s the month where all of my critical self-assessment of our ministry comes to a head. It’s the end of the school year, which stumble-starts (in our community) a downturn in participation through the summer. Worse, another group of seniors is headed for the door,…
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I stole an expensive breakfast two weeks ago while on vacation. I’ve become pretty accustomed to finding my opportunities to worship in unusual times & venues. It’s extremely rare in ministry that I find myself in an attitude of real worship within the confines of a sanctuary, so I’ve learned to seek communion with God…
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As I made my way through Lent this year I was increasingly reluctant to post even on my own blog (even more so over here where there’s actually an audience). It was a deeply moving experience for me and difficult to wrap words around–you’d really have to do it to understand. To sum up, if…
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Dear Current Youth Worker: We mean no insult by generalizing your name in this fashion. You are an individual of the highest order. But if you’re new to youth ministry, you might be curious to know why we address your incoming mail in this fashion. So here are a few reasons: 1. There was somebody…
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When is it OK to stop growing? We’ve had a “vitality team” form and hold several meetings to develop our church’s Vital Congregations growth goals for the coming few years. As they wrestled with numbers for worship attendance, professions of faith, and people in missions an amusing report emerged from that room; apparently, one enthusiastic…
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I’ve been asked to offer a mid-Lent reflection on my particular journey through this season. I’ve been blogging at www.kevinalton.com where I know I have a smaller audience, but that’s partly also why. In person I’ve been pretty good about not talking about it much and most of the “hey, Stinky” jokes have subsided in…
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I don’t remember where I first saw the KONY2012 video posted, but within a few minutes it had popped up a dozen places in my social media feeds so it doesn’t really matter which was first. I’ve been ignoring Invisible Children for years. Not intentionally; my only point of contact with them was the stack…
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I’ve been meaning to pass this along for a few weeks. You could have reminded me. DIG is a free session that came out of a final assignment from my UMYM Certification class. Well, it is the final assignment. I was halfway holding out for my grade; I didn’t want to give you anything that…
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Some of this is tongue-in-cheek, but even I’m at a loss to figure out which parts. Years and years of vibrant/relevant/fruitful/vital/+your buzzword youth ministry have only seemed to shine a spotlight on the growing “missing generation” of young adults that are for the most part simply not coming to church anymore. Healthy youth ministries are…
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Understand this from the beginning: I don’t mean to equate what I’m about to do for Lent with real poorness, nor do I think that being poor is something touristy to do. At a recent youth event I sat in a workshop on ministry with the poor as the youth were engaged in a discussion…
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Ask in the right circles away from the hubbub of the youth room and you’ll quickly learn a simple truth about the confirmation process in Methodist youth ministry: no single effort carries more weight in the spiritual life of a UM youth. It’s where they’re outfitted for life, carefully and painstakingly trained for the journey…
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I met Frank Schaeffer at a planning retreat for the Wild Goose Festival a few weeks ago. His story is a fascinating one–his family established the L’Abri community in Huemoz, Switzerland and became oddly influential in the rise of the Christian Right political movement. After the passing of his father Francis, Frank found himself heir-apparent…
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In Chattanooga, TN there is a support organization for youth ministry called the Chattanooga Youth Network (the name probably didn’t take most of the initial meeting). They sponsor training, retreats, and other events for youthworkers in the Tennessee Valley area. The executive director of that entity, Tony Souder, has become a friend over the years…
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A couple of things right off the top: The tone of this article is greatly subdued compared to the “live” version I was editing in my head over the weekend. “The Methodists” reference in the title does not refer to the institution of the United Methodist Church, but rather the members of the local congregations…
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I’m having a hellish month of scheduling, which means I’m not able to process life events in real time. For example, last Monday I got to spend breakfast explaining to my 4 & 6 year old boys how mommy was going to go to the doctor because some stuff was broken inside. They needed to…
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So it’s almost November and you are beginning to settle in to the … [Read More...]
Both Eric McFarland & I had the opportunity to do some photography … [Read More...]
Dr. Ed Trimmer Executive Director of the Cal Turner, Jr. Center for … [Read More...]
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