a retreat experiment
this past weekend we embarked on a little experiment with our youth ministry here in middle tennessee. we took a vision into a youth retreat, that for what we knew, had never been tried before.
most retreat with youth or adults alike are done with a main speaker, house/praise band, and some other worship leaders who are gifted and know it. however, what if you stripped down a retreat from all that and gave the spiritual life over to the community? this is what we dreamed, visioned, planned, feared and did.
some months ago i met with the design teams for the retreats and gave them this as a possible vision. the logistics were not clearly layed out and it was going to take more work than a normal retreat they were used to putting together, but they decided to dream this vision as well.
as the retreat was designed, we would welcome the youth & adults that came to the community, have one simple time of worship, then break into groups of their choosing to participate & create the worship experience for the rest of the community. we provided mentors (jonathon, erin, jeff, mike, scott & more) and equipment for songwriting, video & powerpoint, design & order of worship, drama, choir, liturgy, worship arts, and storytelling. through friday & saturday the groups were charged with putting together elements for the worships saturday & sunday.
what was created was a community rich worship experience. everyone had a vested the worships of the weekend. it wasn't always slick (when is it when you give the microphone for a 13 yr old to give a sermon or a group) but it was great, it was relevant, and meaningful to the community.
ever more amazing, if you ever wondered if God is around when you give it over to the artist just try and see the wonders. amazing was how everything worked together. some of my pictures as i upload them & one of the test video loops we created. feel free to download a video loop series i created to help do a quick video teaching session (17mg : 54mg)
i wish there were more opportunities for youth like this to gain skills practice & participate as a full community in worship. too often we relegate our youth to just a "youth sunday" or small portions that are cute but never allowed to move us as adults. when we risk it though, we give ourselves over to a great gift to allow our youth to share in worship and for us to be moved by that experience.
don't get me started on "youth sunday". haha. what an awesome weekend that was.
Posted by: Jonathon Norman | November 14, 2006 at 08:20 AM
It was an awesome weekend and retreat. I hope we can begin, even if it is just sponsored by our individual churches, to give youth mentoring opportunities. Thanks for all of your work and vision that made this weekend possible.
Posted by: Scott Langford | November 14, 2006 at 08:53 AM
That's a fantastic idea... I might have to steal that one...
Posted by: Winston Baccus | November 26, 2006 at 03:15 PM
it certainly was a great time. winston feel free to take hold of the idea yourself. this isn't just our niche commodity, it is about community
Posted by: gavin | November 26, 2006 at 10:06 PM
it will forever be a treasured memory. thanks gav for planting the seed at the meeting. i was afraid they were going to balk at the idea and i believe underneath, they were not all sold on it. i absolutely agree that we need to give our youth a place to not only learn about faith but to act it out through their varied gifts applied to worship. we tend to jump on the mission wagon when we want to disciple youth. this worship weekend showed me that a lot of faith growth can happen when we nurture their gifts, stand aside and watch it bloom. warmth in winter will be another time to see how the spirit will move. i think we will need to challenge ourselves, our adult volunteers and the youth leaders to nurture those youth that are in the wings, waiting to be noticed and given a chance to test the soil, taste the water and feel the son.
Posted by: mhanza mike | November 27, 2006 at 09:33 AM