The Altar is a contemplative Christian retreat designed for middle school, high school, and college aged students.

This year, Youthfront is partnering with Clapham Sect: Phase II, a community of student abolitionists. We anticipate God drawing us closer to Himself and into a lifelong journey of pursuing His justice.

We will join together as one body to seek after God and work towards the restoration of our broken world through learning about modern day slavery and engaging in the fight to end oppression.

For more about The Altar contact Jamie Roach at jroach@youthfront.com.

Be encouraged and challenged. Leave equipped for your journey with students!

Saturday, August 23, 2008
Youthfront Auditorium
4715 Rainbow Blvd., Shawnee Mission, KS 66205
8:30am-2:00pm

Break out sessions to include (but not limited to):

• Counseling Teens
• Re-culturing Evangelism
• Abiding for yourself and your ministry
• Middle School 101
• Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry
• Doing Justice
• Re-culturing Student Leadership

Schedule:
8:30am Registration
9:00-10:00 General Session
10:15-11:00 Break Out Session #1
11:00-11:45 Lunch Provided
12:00-12:45 Break Out Session #2
1:00-2:00 General Session

Registration: $15 per person
Contact Jamie Roach at 913.647.2410 for more information (email Jamie)

The last two weeks have been exhilarating! They have also been very exhausting — all of us who work with youth this time of year (or any other time of year really) find ourselves quickly consumed by the work and we are left tired hoping to recover sometime before the fall.

Two weeks ago we hosted Merge at our South camp and this past week we hosted about 250 high school students from Lee’s Summit, MO, a suburb of Kansas City. In an effort to accomplish their vision to bring restoration to their community, about half a dozen youth pastors from Lee’s Summit bought out a week at our camp to strategically inspire, equip and challenge their students to live deeper and lean further into God’s story. It was amazing…

At Youthfront we are longing for more of these types of relationships with youth pastors. We love to see students gathering at our camps from the same community, brought by a network of concerned and committed youth workers. We love knowing that students are coming from the same geographical area to experience God together and that they’ll go ‘home’ with one another as well.

There is no scientific data to prove that this is a stronger use of our camp and a more effective outcome of the environments of spiritual transformation we yield to the spirit to create and sustain — but I believe it is. It just has to be.

As a result of that belief, at Youthfront we are becoming more intentional about linking up with youth workers in our region first — and ultimately throughout North America. We do this through our training initiatives, our camps and other events — all of which are most effective when connected to a youth worker and their faith community.

We are passionately positioning ourselves as an organization that’s using it’s camp(s) as a gathering place for thousands of youth workers and students from the same area and faith community to come together to experience God is new and amazing ways — a place of expedition and experience where communities come from and go back to the place where they can be most effective extending God’s love and restoration to their worlds.

While marketing our camps directly to students might prove to be better financially, we don’t believe it is necessarily better for the Kingdom. In the coming months and years, we’ll continue to be intentional about serving and working directly with youth workers to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Were hosting Merge this week at Youthfront South. So far — it has been a great week. We are three days into it and it has been fantastic to participate with the youth workers and students in the challenge of throwing ourselves into God’s Story. I have enjoyed very much listening to students share what God is teaching them through their interaction with The Story.

I have been moving this week also so it has been a hectic week to say the least. I have, in between unloading moving trucks with some of our staff, had the privilege to lead the morning gatherings as well as one night of the evening response times. I am always blown away by the creativity, candidness and the humility of the students as they articulate how they are merging with God’s mission and way of life.

Today we are deep into Episode 4 — God-With-Us — and it has been powerful to observe the students as they work their way through a “Kingdom” excersice designed to converse about the mystery of the Kingdom through six different interactive and experiential stations such as, The Upside-Down Kingdom, The Kingdom of the Forgotten, The Emerging Kingdom, The Agents of the Kingdom, etc.

Tonight we’ll be exploring Luke 4 as we reflect on the mission and message of Jesus!

Similarly to allowing students to doubt (part 2 of this series), we ought also to allow students to discover truth on their own. I am not saying that we allow them to discover their own truth. Rather, I am saying that we allow them to come into truth via their own understanding and practice. I contend we are far better off in the shepherding of our students if we allow them to believe that something is true in their own time and through their own unearthing and articulation of the particular truth.

Truth is not something that can be understood and practiced simply by passing on what we have come to know through words alone. I mean, how have we ‘come to know’ what we do? Was it simply because someone told us that a particular thought or concept IS true and so we believed them? C’mon. There is no way have you come to the place you are with God right now in this present moment because someone convinced you that something was true simply by using words. Language (words that give meaning) is very important in the process of discovering truth but it is not THE process. The process of practice, reflection, observation making, abstract correlating and tested experience all come together to help students ‘come to know’ what is true. (i.e. Kolb, Experiential Learning).

Therefore, the environments that we create and sustain become essential. Without an effective environment or a collection of various environments we are simply left to assume that just words that define ideas and concepts about God help students ‘come to know’ what is true. So, as youth workers, we are not solely the passer on of truths as we are environmentalists that help create a culture where truths can be unearthed and applied. We, as youth workers (parents, coaches, teachers, etc), are key to the entire unearthing truth process but our role ought not to be the carrier of what is “right” as much as it ought to be the designer in which the truth that we have come to know might also come to be known by others.

The inevitable question I get asked when I talk about this is always something like… “So… then… what constitutes an effective environment?” My answer is usually something like this… “I think there are three critical elements of an effective environment. The three elements are time, space and content.”

Time — moments to discover God and instances to punctuate the time.
Space — freedom and breathing room to discover God in the time the individual feels is exact.
Content – the substance or the material used to help the individual do the things I have already stated are important. Things like practice, reflection observation making, abstract correlating and testing by experience.

(BTW- I am not sure where I got those three elements. I can’t remember if it was one particular author or seminar speaker or who but they are something I have been using as a template for a while now.)

My premise (for those of you who are confused by these ramblings on) is quite simple. Here it is… Don’t tell students what is true and expect them to just live it (truth) out. On the contrary, guide or shepherd your students into environments comprised of time, space and content that allow them to ‘come to know’ what is true through their own understanding and practice. Be and environmentalist as much as you are an evangelist.

I am a fan of Gever Tulley. Gever is a brilliant guy. He is a computer scientist by trade but is the founder of The Tinkering School, a summer program that helps kids build the things that they think about and dream up.

I first learned about Gever Tulley through TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. If you are not familiar with TED you should go HERE and intake as much as you possibly can.

Gever has a about a 10 minute presentation called, 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do. You can watch it HERE.

The 5 dangerous things that Gever puts forward (he is actually writing a book of 50) are to let our kids:

1. Play with fire
2. Own a pocket knife
3. Throw a spear
4. Deconstruct appliances
5. Break the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
5.5 Drive a car

Despite the provocative title, the talk is really about safety. Essentially, Gever is saying that if we eliminate everything “dangerous” from the life of our kids then the first time they come into contact with dangerous things they will undoubtedly hurt themselves.

If we are walking with our kids, however, through the experience of such dangerous things then we can help them be creative, confident and aware of and adapt to the environment around them.

I contend that the same is true for those of us helping students grow into a deeper relationship with Jesus. I think we can take Gever’s assertions and draw principles to the spiritual formation of adolescents. That being, if we don’t ever let our students (and our own children) do “dangerous” things within the realm(s) of faith, we aren’t helping them with a real sense of “know-a-bility” — what they come to know through shared experience.
So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand…

1. Dance with doubt
2. Discover truth for themselves
3. Disengage from reality every now and then
4. Dispatch their story, not someone elses
4.5 Determine their own future
5. Deconstruct what they are told, see and come to “know”

Over the next few days I will be breaking down each of these 5 ‘dangerous’ things we should let our kids do. In the meantime, I would encourage you to join TED and, at the least, watch the presentation by Gever Tulley. You can view it HERE.

Yesterday I spent the morning over at Youthfront South (our HS camp) training our college staff (some of them pictured below) in the art of storytelling and facilitating conversations. Much of what I have come to understand about the art of storytelling has come from Mike and Caesar over at Echo The Story.

Originally we had Mike Novelli coming in to do the training but schedules got complicated as they tend to do and so we weren’t able to have him. I enjoyed doing the training but it would have been great to have Mike with us.

At Youthfront we are experimenting with and implementing the concepts that I am writing about in my upcoming book, Story, Signs and Sacred Rhythms at camp this year (and for years to come we hope). Actually, we are bringing the concepts into all that we are doing in our training of youth workers, at our ministry site in Mexico and in all of our other local ministry expressions here in Kansas City.

The book has been extremely fun to work on. I am nearly finished with it. The manuscript is due later in the summer so I am thinking about it and writing a bit almost every hour of the day.

The basic idea of the book is to resource those of us (paid youth workers, volunteers, teachers, coaches, parents, etc.) who are consistently creating environments of spiritual transformation with 1) an understanding of what constitutes healthy, valuable environments, 2) a framework or approach to spiritually guiding students within the environments that we create (using a process that begins with helping students engage with God’s story and ultimately ends with helping students develop behaviors and expressions that live out God’s intended ways) and 3) practical tools to help us “environmentalists” implement the proposed approach.

I look forward to interacting with you on the ideas and concepts in the book. I will be doing a seminar at each of the YS conventions this coming fall around many of the ideas in the book so maybe we can connect there to chat about it too…

For over 9 months I have been commuting from Chicago, where I currently live, to Kansas City where I work at Youthfront. With each passing trip I have gotten more and more eager for today – the first day of camp.

We have about 230 middle school students with us from mostly the greater Kansas City area, nearly 100 high school and college staff and of course a dozen or so of our Youthfront staff. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be in the middle of all this!

Since I left my role as a youth pastor in a church near Minneapolis about 4 years ago I have been missing the direct interaction with students. Yeah, I have spoken at a ton of retreats and conferences over the past 4 years and interacted with students via that privilege. However, to be a part of a team that is joining in the work of God by creating environments for spiritual transformation is something that I have greatly missed.

I have also always had a bit of a pit in my stomach as it relates to the fact that while at Sonlife we really haven’t had a local ministry expression to speak of. We did week-long and weekend events for students (Led by Mike Novelli, and a team of amazing people –and they were stellar) but we really haven’t had the resources to administrate and lead an intense and direct ministry with and to students like we do at Youthfront. I am not solely refferring to the campers but the high school students and college students we will be with all summer who are serving on our staff team. It is in those summer long relationships (and many of them work at our camp for 3 or 4 years in a row and we connect with them throughout the year) that the opportunity to experiment with philosophies and methods of spiritual formation exists.

In the end, I guess you could say that it feels “right” to be training youth workers in a framework for missional youth ministry through Enroute and our other training methods and at the same time have a place to practice what we are teaching and training youth workers…

I love what my majority role is at Youthfront –-training youth workers and overseeing the day to day of our all of our ministry initiatives. I wouldn’t trade it for any other job. However, to have a job in which I get to interact with youth workers around North America and students from a local ministry expression such as Youthfront is truly a sweet thing.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Calgary hanging out with Matt Wilks and Wayne Smele. Matt works with me at Youthfront and Wayne is the Pastor of Student Ministries at Centre Street Church. Wayne also teaches Youth Ministry at Rocky Mountain College.

I was a guest in one of Wayne’s classes. It was very cool to sit and visit with a great group of emerging leaders. I was deeply inpspired by the questions I was asked and the passion that each of the students has for new kinds of youth ministry. I left the campus of Rocky Mountain College feeling very encouraged…

As I was leaving the building a bulletin board caught my eye. The ad below (crappy pic — I took it with my phone) made me chuckle. It also made me deeply concerned. An intern that can lead, develop and supervise an entire youth ministry — wow — I’d like to meet that person. I am not saying that intern doesn’t exist but I sure haven’t run into someone who can do all that effectively especially as an intern. [I’d love to hear what Mark Riddle would say about those expectations. Mark works as a consultant with churches around the US and he sees first hand these kinds of expectations being unfairly placed on emerging leaders all the time.]

When I wore a younger man’s clothes I couldn’t even lead, develop or supervise myself let alone a number of students and their families. Makes me think that among the many challenges we face in the world of youth ministry today, this might be one of the biggest. I mean, asking an intern to lead, develop and supervise an entire youth ministry? I just hope whoever takes that role, assuming someone does, has a mentor who can help them. I am all for young leaders having positions of influence but with this mindset how can we possibly be setting up emerging leaders for success?

It also pushed me to think about who I am mentoring and who I am investing in. I need to do more than I am… I couldn’t help but be grateful to people like Dave Michener, Dan Webster, Doug Jones, Stan Key, Mark Patrick and a slew of others who took seriously the role of a mentor and invested (and still invest) in me. So fellow veterans of youth ministry … is there someone in your area you ought to be mentoring?

** Words from Piano Man, Billy Joel

I was invited to speak to a small group of youth workers today in the Chicago area. It was very cool — great conversation, great food and great people. The combination of those three things always provides me with a time well spent.

I’ve been attending youth worker luncheons for about 14 years or so now and in the last couple of months I have probably been to half a dozen of them — either as a guest or as the host.

Over the years I have come to realize that at each of the gatherings you can inevitably run into at least 5 types of people (of which I confess I have at one time or another been myself).

1- Ms. or Mr. Resume — this person just has to share their latest accomplishments. It might be a degree, a former place of employment, the number of churches recruiting them, etc.

2- Ms. or Mr. Event — this persons primary objective at the gathering is to get fellow youth workers to bring their students to their upcoming event usually for two reasons. A) They screwed up the budget and need more money to keep the event in the black or b) They think their events are utterly superior.

3- Ms. or Mr. Frustrated — this person is consistently sharing a different (or more of the same) frustration that is most definitely always someone else’s fault.

4- Ms. or Mr. Job Search — this person seems to be looking for a new job. They usually want a new job with better pay, larger amounts of students and paid staff to work for them.

5- Ms. or Mr. Name Dropper — this person can’t resist telling you who they talked to on the phone, who they got an email from or who is coming to speak at their next retreat.

I am sure you can probably think of more… what other types of people do you find at your gatherings? Next time you attend a youth worker luncheon/gathering do your best to avoid being connected to any of the above classifications and see what if anything changes about the gathering.

I am certainly not trying to be mean. I have been and could probably be categorized as one of the above too. I just find it incredibly predictable, progressively funny and moderately troubling that right now you are putting a face or name to each of the above.

I’ve been spending the bulk of today with some new friends from the Diocese of South Carolina. We are staying at a really cool retreat center outside of the Charleston, SC area called St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center.

I was invited down to share some of our training in hopes that we might be able to establish a partnership for years to come. I look forward to investing into the youth workers as I have found them to be particularly engaging and unbelievably open to new ideas and practices.

Dave Wright is the Youth Ministry Coordinator for the Diocese. He is from the Chicago area so we have that going for us. He formerly worked in the UK and over time there has been a few of his friends that have crossed the pond from London and the surrounding areas to contribute to the movement here. Some fascinating stuff. Over the past few years I have spoken to or trained a lot of youth worker networks. I confess, this one might just be the most closely knitted one I have bumped into yet. They seem to have the partnering/collaborative thing down. Of course I am in town only for a day and obviously don’t get much more than a snapshot. I have, however, been moved by their hospitality and generosity toward me and toward one another. Dave has built something very special here.

Today I spent the day training the youth workers out of our Enroute content and also some bits and pieces from some other stuff I have developed out of our Shaping a Missional Community and Shepherding in a Culture of Change modules.

It has been a great day. The weather has been great. The conversation in the training has been very enriching and the highlight of the day was sitting under some of Bishop Lawrence’s teaching and storytelling. I was also blessed as the group prayed over me requesting safety and deeper levels of holiness in my travels and training. They also prayed for my son Luke who is soon to get his hearing aids. It was very encouraging.

Bishop Lawrence has just begun here in South Carolina as the new Bishop. I am not sure all of what it means to be a Bishop as I am not tremendously familiar with the Episcopal Church. The Bishop is a fantastic storyteller and a very well read and insightful communicator. I am looking forward to sitting under him again tonight in our final session.