youth ministry 2.0

i wrote this article for our cumberland district edition of the review. it's pretty basic for many of you, but i felt like putting it online for general reading plus archiving. chances are there are more who would read this article (and visit the site it was intended to help promote) here than on our little paper. this is my submitted article, i can't vouch for how it might have been edited. the only print copy i had was taken by my mom (i gave permission thinking i would see more copies, not the case). many of you all might be surprised to see the Capital letters.. don't worry, it's not a normal thing.

Youth Ministry 2.0, by Gavin Richardson

Something is happening in our youth culture today. That something is that youth are finding their community in a place that cannot hug them. Community in a place that cannot pat them on the back. They are finding their place within a new community, an internet community.

The days of static web sites with set content that a visitor can only read is quickly becoming a way of the past. With the growth of web sites like wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), flickr (www.flickr.com), xanga (www.xanga.com), myspace (www.myspace.com), friendster (www.friendster.com), facebook (www.facebook.com), social bookmarking (www.technoranti.com), and blogs or web journals (www.blogs4god.com) the internet has moved into what many are calling “Web 2.0.”

Web 2.0, simply put, this is a reference to the changing culture of the internet from a one way perspective to promoting an organic community based on participation, conversation and collaboration. It is here that young people are finding themselves in a binary environment that has given them, as.Dr. Ron Taffel’s book is aptly named “The Second Family.”

Web 2.0 is not a new concept, but it might be a new name for you. As a youth minister for the past 12 years and a semiprofessional web designer I have wanted to find a way to extend the community and conversation over the internet. The problem, for me, was only if you were highly skilled in programming and could devote hours of time equal to a full time job could this become a possibility. I had neither, so I did what I could with what resources were available. If you had quite a bit of money then you could pay a programer or web designer to do this for us, however, not an option for any of my churches or their youth ministry budgets. Till now. Software is present to many of these elements without cost or at a minimal cost now. You can and should be using them too.

So the questions comes how do we take this tool and use it to promote the Kingdom of God? We are not talking Jesus 2.0, as the Gospels say, “I am the same yesterday, today, and forever” regardless of your internet/technology milestones. But we can talk about an extension of the church and youth ministry especially to share that message. For examples, Bishop Wills will launch his Nashville Area Journal. A web site of his daily journaling reflections where people can keep their own personal journals on the site. A youth group in Franklin has used Blogger (www.blogger.com), a free web blog software, to post pictures, news, and devotionals from their youth group that the youth are able to make comments on. Youth groups are using the myspace ‘groups’ software to bring together the group with topical conversations, highlighted bulletins, and posting of pictures.

In my own experience working with youth got started when I was listening to a conversation where I asked “Do you all blog?” To this the girls said, “What’s a blog? we myspace. Oh would you comment on my myspace?” As a good youth minister, I said sure and it’s been downhill ever since. I’ve become quite the ‘myspacer’ with almost 300 friends (primarily youth from the Tennessee Conference), some 5,000 visits to myspace, and over 500 comments. I’ve seen youth come to church because I’ve left a comment saying “catch you at church” or something similar, I know, they’ve told me. Some youth have checked me out before coming to church, seeing my profile, pictures, and e-mailing me through the site before they step through the doors of the church.

We are stepping up our use of the web 2.0 environment with the WebEmpoweredChurch software developed by the Foundation for Evangelism (www.webempoweredchurch.com). This, we hope, will blend the stability of a content management system putting out needed content while having plug-ins to extend the community and conversation experience. We won’t replace what is already out there, so we will continue to use and be a presence it is just our hope this new venture will become a new and continual place for a unique community bonded through Christ.

A number youth ministers and myself are trying to bring together a community voice of youth ministry for our district by using some of the software available to us. We have established a blog at www.cumberlanddistrictym.org that allows multiple authors to contribute content and freely accepts comments from those interested in promoting youth ministry in the Cumberland District.

Gavin Richardson is Director of Youth Ministries at Hendersonville First United Methodist Church. Email him at gavin(dot)richardson(at)hfumc(dot)org if you’d like to ask further questions. Gavin also blogs at www.gavoweb.com.