The Five Principles for Youth and Family Ministry, identified by Dr. David Anderson of The Youth & Family Institute.
Faith is always passed on relationally and incarnationally, as God demonstrated in Jesus Christ, God’s ultimate gift to humankind, with the Word made flesh.
Faith is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships. Virtually all of us can point to adults who were the first voice and hands and face of Jesus in our lives. We can equip all of our adults to become this God-bearer in the lives of children and youth.
The church is a living partnership between the ministry of the congregation and the ministry of the home. The body of Christ is not limited to the building where we worship on Sunday, but is loose in the world, especially evident as we partner congregations and homes to make Christ known.
Where Christ is present in faith, the home is church, too. Home is often the first church for children, where they learn to pray and hear the stories of faith from the people they love most in the world. For those who are not engaged in congregational life, the front door of your congregation may very well be the front doors of the homes of your members. Faith is caught more than it is taught.
Who were the saints who made faith contagious and utterly irresistible to you? How did they do that? Often, it was not by preaching a sermon or having you memorize the Small Catechism, but by loving you, by being the person you wanted to become, by gently sharing that you, too, are beloved of God. If we want Christian children and youth, we need Christian adults and parents. So, we have come full circle. We need to equip adults to be able to have those personal, trusted relationships that the Holy Spirit will use to help children and youth to see Jesus. How will we begin? A friend recently quipped, “Jesus blessed the children and taught the adults. We, in the church, have reversed it.” We need to make sure that we have robust Christian education for all ages and that we connect the generations, so that they will hear one another’s faith stories.
Then, we need to teach all of our adults and youth and children to do the Four Keys for Nurturing Faith, at home, in the congregation, on a walk, in the school cafeteria, in our workplace. These are simple faith practices that can be woven into our everyday life together.
They are:
1. Caring Conversations We need to be available to talk and, especially, to listen to one another. This is the floor under relationships, that allow us to talk about all of the important things in life.
2. Devotions Turn up the faith talk under caring conversations and you have devotions. Help children find themselves in God’s story and
God in their=2 0story. Let Scripture be God’s fresh and living Word for them each day.
3. Rituals and Traditions We all have them; now, just fine tune them to be God-bearing. Light a candle to remind family and friends that we gather around the Light of the World. Make the sign of the cross on each forehead each night, remembering their baptism and God’s love that has claimed them and will not let them go.
4. Service Filled with caring conversation, devotions, rituals and traditions, we are free to pour ourselves out in service, sharing the love of Christ that fills us to overflowing. Make it a part of every day, a natural way of loving God back, not a “got to,” but a “get to.”
God’s in the midst of this shift to Youth and Family Ministry, calling all of us to be about passing on faith in Jesus Christ to all the generations. A friend calls this, “the reformation of our time!”
Monday, June 15, 2009
Picnic in the Park
Picnic in the Park
Tuesday, August 18th, 6 PM until?
Tuesday, August 18th, 6 PM until?
A YOUTH AND FAMILY EVENT
Join us at the Canalside Shelter in Genesee Valley Park for a fun get-together. We'll have a potluck picnic, games, biking/walking on the canal path, fellowship and evening devotions.
Watch for more details here and in the GFL Conference Calendar
Drive-In Movie Night
Youth Drive-In Movie Night
Thursday, July 23, 2009 at the Vintage Drive-In
It wouldn
Join us for one or both movies (double-feature, one price). We'll meet up and park near each other and share fellowship and devotions before the movie starts.
Contact office@atonementrochester for more details.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Rochester Red Wings!
Rochester RedWings vs Lehigh Valley IronPigs
5th Annual Thrivent Lutheran Night at the RedWings.
Picnic 5-6 PM, Gametime 6:05 PM
Adults $13.00 Youth 4-12 $5.00
Game only, no picnic is $2.50 Reservations by July 5th.
This is a fundraiser for the Thrivent Habitat House.
for more info call Frank Dutt 671-2250 or fd516md@rochester.rr.com
Time:5:00PM Saturday, July 11th
Location:Frontier Field
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Open to all
If you work with youth (as a volunteer, advisor or pastor) and would like to post messages, photos or events on this blog, just let me know and I'll add you as a blog administrator.
I'd like to be able to use this site as well as facebook to help churches, youth and their youth groups keep in touch.
I'd like to be able to use this site as well as facebook to help churches, youth and their youth groups keep in touch.
Teach Your Kids to Share Event
THRIVENT "Teach Your Kids to Share Day"
Thrivent* is sponsoring a nationwide "Teach Your Kids to Share Day" on Friday, April 24th, from 5:30-9:00 PM.
The Rochester Chapter is hosting the event at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. The workshops will focus on teaching kids (ages 6-10) a value-based approach to money management.
Families (for a cost of $10.00) can look forward to dinner, activities, educational materials and prizes as well as partaking of the full museum experience. You do NOT have to be a member of Thrivent to join in the fun and no products or services will be sold.
To register, visit http://tinyurl.com/thriventregistration or call 800-236-3736. A $10 per family registration fee includes dinner, activities and educational materials.
Volunteers are needed to assist in this event. If you would like to help; please contact Joel Slesak at 314-1535 (cell) or 1-888-207-5413 (office) by April 1st.
(This would be a great way to serve the church - maybe get some volunteer community service hours for church or school - maybe a great Youth Group project)
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a Fortune 500 financial services membership organization helping approximately 2.6 million members achieve their financial goals and give back to their communities.
Thrivent Financial and its affiliates offer a broad range of financial products and services including life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, disability income insurance, bank products and more.
As a not-for-profit organization, Thrivent Financial sponsors national outreach programs and activities that support congregations, schools, charitable organizations and individuals in need. For more information, visit www.thrivent.com.
https://www.thrivent.com/shareday/events.html
Monday, March 9, 2009
Winter Weekend!
Wow! What a great time!
Despite the rain, we all had a wonderful experience at Rotary Sunshine camp for the 2009 Winter Weekend!
if you've got pics you'd like to share, please send them to office @atonementrochester.org and I'll make sure they're included.
What were some of your highlights?
Large group messages?
family small group discussions?
devotions?
food?
the dance?
the limbo contest?
Thank you to Pastor Justin and the planning team for all your hard work!
Despite the rain, we all had a wonderful experience at Rotary Sunshine camp for the 2009 Winter Weekend!
if you've got pics you'd like to share, please send them to office @atonementrochester.org and I'll make sure they're included.
What were some of your highlights?
Large group messages?
family small group discussions?
devotions?
food?
the dance?
the limbo contest?
Thank you to Pastor Justin and the planning team for all your hard work!
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