Youth Ministry Spirituality

youth ministry is ...

... first and foremost, ever and always about relationship, about being good company and good companions. Oh, there is always the latest cool thing that comes and goes.... frog-kissing workshops and clown ministry, bell choir tours and ski trips, simulation games and ropes courses, Bible study videos and mission trips, and, of course, games-games-games. But no matter what else we are doing, the one thing that really makes a difference is relationship.

Walter Brueggeman made a most profound youth ministry observation in Living Toward A Vision when he noted: "If you ask almost any adult about the impact of church school on his or her growth, he or she will not tell you about books or curriculum or Bible stories or anything like that. The central memory is of the teacher." 1 It is always the relationship that matters.

Spirituality, too, is ultimately about relationship, about practicing ways of living that help us pay attention, notice the connections and remember that we are made for company – for God and for each other – so we can love each other.2

The links to the left offer tools and practices and reflections to help us stay connected . . . so we who are leaders remain fed and healthy in our relationship to God, to each other, to the youth in our care, and to our hearts . . . and ways for youth to pay attention, to see the connections, to be company for each other and for God, to live well as loving companions with each other and with God . . . .

- Randy Kuss, youth minister

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1 – Brueggeman, Walter, Living Toward A Vision, United Church Press, 1976, p. 167

2 – And God Created Squash: How the World Began, Martha Whitmore Hickman. Albert Whitman & Company, 1993.

KYAD ;-)