Pair of Cleats: Using Your Church Kitchen as a Youth Ministry Tool
I randomly found this article in the Christian Science Monitor that peaked some brainstorming.
To quote from the article: “At Jill Prescott's ecole de Cuisine (a cooking school), it can be as easy as making the perfect omelet or sautéing vegetables. Students learn that when they follow the rules, master the techniques of cooking, and understand some of the chemistry of food, they experience success. When that happens, the kitchen erupts with expressions of joy: The students have taken a glob of dough, kneaded and shaped it, and turned it into a beautiful and delicious pastry.
“Learning to use piping bags, balancing the flavors of a stew, and filling the room with the seductive aromas of baking bread all bring about instant gratification. To highlight the moment, there are lots of smiles and clapping and look-what-I've-just-done remarks.
WF YM: Purposely Celebrate Rites of Passage
Without purposely doing it, we have turned over rites of passages to the peer culture. Prom has turned into all kinds of other “adult” behaviors away from the presence of adults such as drinking, reckless use of vehicles and sex. While graduation still involves the family, right after the actual ceremony the new graduate takes off with his/her fellow new graduates to celebrate minus the adults again in the same reckless “adult” ways. Then they take off for beach week or whatever week is in your area to live like what they see on MTV’s Spring Break.
Creation Care Stat
Before it was cool to be green, we at Wild Frontier have been encouraging youth workers to at least put a Creation Care stat on their websites or newsletters to help connect faith to this important issue with teens.
For the college term beginning September, 2008, some 13.6 million college students have $237 billion in spending power. When asked about that spending power, 41 percent say they are looking to spend their money on socially responsible brands. (Alloy’s College Explorer survey, Advertising Age, August 4, 2008)
For more Creation Care thinking…
WF Lifestyle Quote
“Fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.” –Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
More WF Lifestyle Thinking…
The Key to Church Growth: Allow the Youth to Lead the Church
"My graduated teens would comment: 'the faster I got to lead something in the church, the more comfortable and confident I felt putting my faith in God. I actually got to practice and test my faith.' I strongly agree that there is a correlation between church growth and youth involvement in the church."
WF News: Faith Shaping
Have you read the widely-touted book, You Lost Me, by Gabe Lyons? One quote: “The dropout problem (of teens in churches) is, at its core, a faith-development problem; to use religious language, it’s a disciple-making problem.” (p. 21) One of our online resources is a simplified yet practical download on adolescent faith development called Faith Shaping. We hope this will be a helpful start to educate you on faith development--and we know you will enjoy identifying your own faith journey as you read this. Download
