Evangelizing Youth

The teen-age period is the period when the largest numbers of people who become Christians make their decisions to do so. Youth evangelism thus needs to be a top priority in any parish or diocese.

The Diocese of South Carolina (+Ed Salmon, bishop) is the diocese (that the ENE knows of) that has been placing the greatest emphasis on evangelizing youth. They have been using the program "Journey to Adulthood" (nicknamed J2A) as one of their major resources in this. J2A comes from the LeaderResources organization in New Hampshire, founded by and headed by the Rev. Linda Grenz, an episcopal priest who was formerly on the Episcopal Church Center staff in NYC. The LeaderResources approach is an interesting one: they supply materials on floppy disk, allowing you to customize the m aterials-- in return for which they get the right to use any changes that you've made that they like. (They call this approach "evolutionary documentation" and have trademarked the term.)

For more information, contact both the staff at Diocese of SC and the staff at LeaderResources. Their web sites can be found respectively via the ENE website section on Diocese-by-Diocese Evangelism Activity, and the ENE resources page.

The Diocesan Cathedral in Kansas has modifed the Alpha program for teenagers. For more info, click here.

To our readers: If you would like to contribute something to the ENE's website re youth evangelism, we would be more than delighted! We are particularly intersted in materials which teach teens to be evangelists. Click here to email.

The following was written for another email list and is quoted here by permission:

3/29/00

Re the discussion about youth participation and leadership in churches, dioceses, and at General Convention, youth need to be certain that their views are being taken seriously and that they are really heard. That's hard for adults to do. And we have to adapt, and even become vulnerable, to let youth lead as they are able.

For example, no 16 or 17 year old can make a 3 year commitment to serve on a vestry or bishop's committee. In one mission, we enabled youth members to serve for one year, renewable by annual meeting. Even that was a stretch, but we had the participation we sought because we adapted to them rather than forcing them to adapt to us.

We opened the way for high schoolers to be commissioned LEMs who could take communion to the housebound elderly. We developed youth leadership to lead youth, and to offer youth the complete design and execution of the Sunday morning Eucharist on a quarterly basis, including advising me as priest about my role in the service (beyond basic requirements, such as the Eucharistic Prayer, absolution and blessing).

The music was strange (sometimes) and loud (often) and the mood more casual than longtime church members liked. People had strange dress and unusual hair. But those were Sundays when more than half of the congregation was between 14 and 21 and the worship was exuberant. And reverent. We worshiped their way.

I think we adult church leaders believe that we "let" younger people have some of the leadership rather than let the Holy Spirit work through younger people to lead us. The youth know the difference. They want to trust us, but find us matronizing and patronizing instead. They want mentors, not directors. It's hard to have true mutuality between the generations, but it's worth the risk. Only, we adults really have to be willing to let go. I know that, when I have, I have been richly blessed, and I discover that I have no trouble finding willing leaders under age 25.

John Throop+
jthroop@concentric.net

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