A New Kind of Youth Ministry

I spent the last three days with some new friends from Nazarene Youth International.  Dave Curtiss heads up NYI and does a fantastic job creating a space where youth workers from around his denomination feel welcomed, encouraged and empowered.  I was deeply encouraged by the conversations and connections I had and made from within a group of over 300 youth workers from across the US and Canada.

I attended what the Nazarenes call their District Leadership Conference to help Barefoot promote a new product we are partnering with them to publish called, Immerse.  Immerse is a tool designed to help youth workers create environments of spiritual transformation through narrative theology and through a philosophy of applied learning.

I was also at the DLC to “certify” about 10 Nazarene trainers in our Enroute content.  Youthfront and NYI (Big Picture is what they call their training arm and it is led by Mike Kipp) have come together to partner in training youth workers throughout their denom.

It was a pleasure to walk their regional trainers team through the content and then dialogue how they might deliver the training across North America.  I am truly humbled by their feedback regarding the direction of the material.  I am also humbled by how God seems to be pulling denominations together (next week we are “certifying” trainers in Enroute from the Evangelical Free Church of America denom) to collaborate in a vision to equip, challenge and inspire youth workers with a transformational approach to youth ministry.

Mike King, was the keynote speaker at the DLC and he did a good job pushing the youth workers to think about new kinds of youth ministry for the days ahead.  Mike spoke mostly around thoughts from his book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry.  His passion and theological insights for a “more theologically robust youth ministry” came through clearly and as a result we were able to have many conversations about the need for change and how we are implementing change through Youthfront via our learning environements, training initiatives and resources.

All in all, a terrific three days in Orlando.  The conference was great.  What was even better, however, was the meal I shared with my dad and brother who I seldom get to see…