Youth

In their evocative book, The Godbearing Life*, Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster write, "The risks facing contemporary teenagers bear solemn testimony to the church's ineffectiveness at addressing adolescence. Youth look to the church to show them something, Someone, capable of turning their lives inside out and the world upside down. Most of the time we have offered them pizza. We are painfully aware that we have sold them short. We have tended to their situations more effectively than their souls, and we have the statistics to prove it."

This is exactly the jumping-off place for youth ministry at Crossroads United Church. Though the youth ministries of both our founding congregations have been vibrant in the past, we have the dim awareness that what we have been doing most recently is both "not quite enough" and also "not quite right." Aware that the core of all ministry is authentic relationship, we seek to accept youth as called and gifted people within the life of the congregation, providing the same opportunities for youth that we do for adults to explore their Spirit-given gifts, offer their ministries, and find a "spiritual home" at Crossroads.

As the fall of 2010 unfolds, a monthly social gathering of high-school aged youth is being planned by Maddy Harned and Jane Victor. Many youth are also involved in the musical life of the congregation, playing in the worship band, and their gifts are gratefully received by the congregation. The brand new Crossroads Cafe (see related story) is another opportunity for youth to share their musical gifts and create new relationships at Crossroads. Our Minister for Children, Youth and Families, Jennifer Purych, has also started a "Just About Ministry" (JAM) session one Sunday morning each month at Crossroads United Church, offering youth the opportunity to learn, this year, about worship, and participate in leading its various components. Please contact Jennifer for more information and to participate in any of these events.

* Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster, The Godbearing Life: The art of soul tending for youth ministry, Nashville: The Upper Room Books, 1998, page 9. Permission pending.