A New Kind of Youth Ministry

I spent the weekend outside of the greater Baltimore/DC area at Summit Lake Camp speaking to a few hundred high school students and youth workers. The camp was in the Catoctin Mountains. Beautiful place… more aptly named Summit Pond Camp though.

A team of youth workers from the NorthStar Church Network put the retreat together. I was thrilled to be a part of the event. The team did a fantastic job leading the retreat and they were great hosts. I very much appreciated the chance to share some thoughts and engage in some conversations on what it means to have been created in the image of God.

I especially enjoyed getting to spend some time with Josh Hayden (pictured below). Josh is a very sharp, good thinking, emerging youth worker who is passionate about helping students and youth workers engage in a new kind of youth ministry. You can read some of Josh’s thoughts on his blog here: http://momentsofrecognition.blogspot.com/

While I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Summit Lake, I am still bummed I missed the Postmodern Youth Ministry Conference (Tony Jones and others) in Kansas City. I had also been invited to present there but had committed to the NorthStar Network first. It is all good. My time at Summit with Josh, Shea, Stephen, Andy, Chris, Darren and others was totally worth it. I was impressed with this teams ability to work together, blending various theological traditions, to inspire students and adult volunteers to go deeper with God.

In spirit of tonights game — go Bears!