A YM Collective…?
Last week I spent a couple of days with Mark Riddle. Mark is the lead consultant of The Riddle Group, a youth ministry consulting and coaching firm. Mark is a great thinker and has an unmistakable passion for the church. He is also a great friend and ministry partner.
One of the things that Mark and I discussed was a growing need for a youth ministry collective. Wikipedia — “A collective is a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective.
I am not sure how you choose to articulate your passion to see students find and follow Jesus but I am quite certain that our common objectives in youth ministry are very similar. We have given our lives to youth ministry for a very similar reason — to help God restore his world through serving youth and their families.
Our common passions coming together in the form of a collective could 1) help “all of us” identify the preferred future of youth ministry, 2) become the voice of “all of us” that speaks into and implements the necessary fundamental changes in youth ministry that will lead us toward the preferred future and 3) ultimately allow “all of us” to inspire more students to find and follow Jesus (or however you articulate it).
Stay connected to the dialog surrounding a Youth Ministry Collective here and on Mark Riddle’s blog:
http://www.theriddlegroup.com/blog/2007/02/
vehicle-to-new-youth-ministry-reality.html