Our Responsibilities to Youth:

Listen, Dialogue, Minister

By Beth Dana
Youth Ministry Associate
Lifespan Faith Development, UUA

Ministry with youth is about listening, empowerment, and spiritual guidance and is instrumental to the vitality and growth of Unitarian Universalist communities. To ensure that ministry with youth is integrated throughout the Association, we are embarking on a two-year process to revitalize youth ministry—and your engagement in the process is essential to its success. The Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth is designed to be a grassroots process—beginning with individuals and congregations and progressing to the larger institutions and organizations that provide services and support to the grassroots. It is a broad and transformative process.

The Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth asks youth and adults to reflect on their responsibilities to youth and their role in youth ministry, and also to vision for what youth ministry could be in their community and what support or actions are needed to achieve that vision.

Listen

The first step of this two-year process is a survey, which will be administered to youth during January and February 2006. This is an opportunity to listen to the voices of Unitarian Universalist youth and find out what their experience has been with youth ministry, what draws them in, and what fulfills them.

There are three different categories of youth that we are trying to reach with this survey. The first is youth involved in YRUU at the local, district, and continental levels. These will likely be the easiest to reach. The second group is youth who either are involved in a youth group that does not consider themselves YRUU or are involved in congregations in other ways, whether that's singing in the choir, serving on a church committee, or teaching children's RE. The third group, and the hardest to reach, is youth who left the church after RE, Coming of Age, or Junior High. Something didn't engage them or they found their fulfillment elsewhere, and we would like to listen to these youth and find out what that “something” is.

Religious educators and other congregational leaders will play a key role in making this survey available and accessible to youth. I ask that religious educators either commit to distributing the survey to youth they know who come from the three different groups I just mentioned, or send a roster of youth who are and have been involved in their congregation to me so that I can encourage them individually. The importance of this survey lies in both the empowering experience of youth feeling listened to and heard and in the valuable information we will gather. Survey results will help youth and adults in the Association reflect and act. The survey process can be a collaborative effort between religious educators, youth, ministers, parents, and the taskforce, who will make the survey available beginning the first week of January.

Dialogue

The part of the process following the survey is rooted in intergenerational dialogue. Dialogue, whether it is one-on-one or in a community setting, has the power to bring about spiritual growth and leadership development. Taking time to have a conversation about their youth ministry can also be a transformative process for the key players in a congregation. We are asking that congregations commit to holding a youth ministry conversation during April or May. This gathering, facilitated by a youth and adult team, will be a time to look at what is going well and what are areas for growth, and to strategize about how to get there and what you will need to get there. Please contact me if your congregation is committed to engaging in this process, and I will ensure that you receive a process guide on how to organize this gathering.

Minister

The foundation of the Consultation on Ministry to and with Youth process is the expansion of what is viewed as “youth ministry.” There is more than one model of ministry to and with youth—it can be youth-to-youth, and it can be adult-to-youth. The congregational, district, and organizational conversations ask participants to think outside the box—beyond the paradigm of current youth programs and structures—to what youth ministry can be.

At a recent workshop about the Consultation, I led participants in a brainstorming exercise, asking them first “What is ministry?” and then “What is youth ministry?” Their answers were varied and showed the diversity that exists. Youth ministry is caring, mentorship, connection, encouraging spiritual growth, listening, empowering, chauffeuring, integration, advocacy, and coaching youths' journeys through life. Youth ministry involves awareness of different identities that youth hold and understanding how oppressions based on race, gender, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc., play out in congregations and how these affect youth developmentally. Both adults and youth can do youth ministry. There is a difference between programs and ministry. Ideally, congregations should offer both to their youth.

The outcome of this two-year process is not clear at this point, because it will be directed and determined by the visions and needs of youth and adults at the congregational, district, and organizational levels. My role is to listen to you, to dialogue, and to minister in this process. My hope is that there will be channels through which any Unitarian Universalist youth can get involved in their congregation, which will meet them where they're at, attend to their spiritual needs, and empower them on their journey. I invite you, too, to listen to youths' needs and visions and to collaborate with youth and adults in your community to develop your shared vision and strategies for change.