All About the Heart and Soul of YouthWorkers
Spiritual formation begins in the home. Well, that’s at least according to the way Susannah Wesley raised her children. I believe that many of our U.M. Churches have relinquished this responsibility in equipping, encouraging and preparing parents to intentionally pass on spirituality and the language of the Christian faith to their children. That’s not to…
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The Bishop was calling me in the middle of the Conference Sr. High Youth Event and I was shocked. She said, “Amy, I received a phone call from a pastor attending the event and he was concerned about the message the young people were hearing.” WHAT!??!! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, especially since…
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“You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2 Once upon a time the church’s responsibility was to raise moral beacons in communities throughout the world. In…
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What does “Spiritual Generativity” mean? In the simplest terms, it’s the passing on of our faith tradition from one generation to the next. If youth are always separated from the rest of the life of the church – how will they learn what it means to be the church as adults? How do we in…
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Sociologist of Youth Ministry – Melinda Denton Last month I asked one of the lead researchers from the National Study on Youth and Religion if theology mattered when it came to differentiating between ‘highly-religious’ teens and ‘not-as-religious’ teens. Melinda Lundquist Denton’s response was: “Theological particularity is somewhat lost at least on this generation (we don’t have data…
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Our own Amy Valdez Barker had the opportunity to sit down with sociologists of youth ministry, Lisa Pearce and Melinda Denton, to discuss their recent youth ministry findings. You might recognize Denton and Pearce’s names from the books “Soul Searching”,”Souls in Transition”, and now “A Faith of Their Own.” During the interview, Pearce…
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ARTICULATING FAITH: Thoughts on “What do you believe? American Teenagers, Spirituality, and Freedom of Religion,” a video by Sarah Feinbloom Written by Amy Valdez Barker “A compelling educational peacemaking film without being didactic, sectarian, or doctrinaire. Every public school, congregation and youth program in the country should have a copy of it.” Rev.…
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The Life Of A Disciple In The World The Virtues & Fruits of the … [Read More...]
I Blew It. (sky-punch.) Owning your mistakes is a hard, hard … [Read More...]
Sociologist of Youth Ministry - Melinda Denton Last month I asked one … [Read More...]
YouthWorker Movement
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