thinking outloud : re-imagining youth council

in the methodist church we are committee heavy, so it is no surprise that we have gone along with the practice of making a youth council. the council has traditional roots in having a president, vice prez, secretary, etc. i have gone away from using a youth council for reasons of 1. assigning or voting status positions with these labels generally fall into popularity contests 2. there was never a connection that faithfully brought together a hierarchical system within a system that is supposed to be about the whole community, not one person 3. the older kid who was inevitably voted president got a job and stopped being regularly involved in the youth community 4. it perpetuated this sense that being christian was all about being a moral and good citizen.

since these early days, i have dabbled with an open team model, youth who are active at that time can show their involvement by making decisions at the particular team meetings during that part of the year. when they get into their seasonal sports they fade away and come back.. problem with this, consistency in building leadership, decision making. you just never know who will show.

so i have been stuck.. what could work for our context?

this may be the whisper, or the bang on the head. in our youth community we began a process of re-imagining our space. taking what was (and kinda still is) a pretty lifeless & non-inspiring, yet very capable area, and shaping it into a sacred space that will help to shape the spiritual formation of the community. what was born out of all this discernment was what we are calling "the corner." as part of the corner we adopted a fledgling vision of the church; worship, connect, grow, serve, & share. we developed a logo and everything. so i am thinking, why not create a team environment that all aspects of the community life have youth & adults plugged in with that specific focus.

• worship, is charged with the experiential worship of the group. this could be the gatherings on sunday/wednesday evenings, programming (setting themes, picking curriculum), and putting together the worship times for retreat events.
• connect, is charged with the hospitality of the group, the welcome, or as we call it, extending the shalom. knowing who is there & who is not. this group would also be in charge of the bridge building to other youth communities, our own congregation, and other faith communities.
• grow, is charged with the spiritual formation of the community. taking on some knowledge of what that means, they move forward to plan & implement, or make sure that current formation efforts are meeting the needs of the group. they would also be charged with seeing the health of the small groups within the community being fruitful.
• serve, is charged with our mission focus. from picking & organizing our missions experiences local, national, international. they would also be charged with education on social justice issues & ways to become active in living out the mission of the church & bringing it to the community.
• share, is our movement through the community. this team would be charged with helping us find ways and better understand how we share the gospel message within us to others. this might be through outreach events. programming for the youth community to do things for the greater community. urban renewal projects, random acts of inspiration, who knows what a teen would come up with.

from here, we would require a youth participant in the community to commit to serving on only one team. those teams would meet as regularly as they needed (maybe more frequently during the fall to decide on mission experience options, dates, & training). within their team they would vote for a designated youth & adult head. those two would attend to the community meeting to share with the other teams, plus attend to one single issue within the community. this as an effort to bring everyone up to speed, then workout one issue instead of talking about a myriad of issues.

is it possible? i am sure it is not new by any means, no idea of mine is original. still, as i ponder the shaping of our community, this seems real to me. could it be asking a lot? sure is, but why is the church asking things of its members a bad thing? when did that happen? if parents want their kids to be impacted by God within the church & youth say they want the same thing (and they do) then why not ask them to commit to the levels that the other civic/educational organizations ask? wouldn't/shouldn't this youth community experience impact them far past their days of playing high school football? don't many adults reference their most influential days of spiritual formation as happening in some time frame within their youth. many within a youth community...

hmm.. this is just me thinking out loud

Comments

[Jack Hinnen]

Howdy! It was nice meeting you at emergingumc, I hope your youth event on Saturday was fun.

Two responses:

1) Is youth group not supposed to help these kids become moral and good citizens? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its the point of youth group and it isn't the point of having a youth council, but it is a nice side effect, don't you think? I could see those who are elected tho, making it their top priority (above, say, spritual formation or relationships). One of the coolest things (should kids grasp it) about a "governmental" body of youth is they get to be involved in important decisions with a generous amount of overhead support. I'll be the first to agree that a democracy is not "Christian" any more/less than Communism. But until the Kingdom of God comes in its entirety, you might as well help kids learn to participate in our own form of government. Sounds like the corner will do that without officially calling it a council :)

2) Some of our parents here at our church don't want their kids to grow closer to God or others, they really just want to drop them off when they don't have anything else to do. And you know what? I think thats okay. Sure, its not as good as someone who is bright enough to realize grounding your kids from youth group because they enjoy it is NOT SUITABLE PUNISHMENT! sorry... got sidetracked. What I meant was I like how you are offering something to get kids more involved but not at the expense of the ones who want to just hang around or can't be as involved.

blessings,
Jack

[Art]

Some good thoughts, Gavin. I'm thankful for folks like you who put so much time and effort into working with young people.

[Jay]

Gav,

This is really good! I know many youth groups are moving away from the youth council model and going to something similar that you have spelled out with those ministry areas OR "task forces" to complete a task and then they are finished- which really helps when older youth are really active in the fall and then drop off after Christmas.

I inherited a youth council. It seems it was a "whoever wants to be on it is on it" type of thing. We are going to reimagine how we are set up and move in a different direction next year.

I hope you are doing well!

[Emily Mastin]

i like this whole idea! we tried something sorta like this and it slowly drifted apart.... but we did get some things done. our problem was making sure everybody met regularly or as needed. good idea though!

-em

[Andy]

Sounds great! I love that you are willing to try new things with the youth instead of doing things the way they were "always" done.