WF Lifestyle Quote
“God’s original purpose is not our salvation or the evangelization of others; it is that we glorify God by reflecting God’s image through expression of the spiritual, intelligent, creative, moral and relational capacities uniquely imprinted on humans. This creation mandate has never been rescinded.” –Dick Staub, The Culturally Savvy Christian
More WF Lifestyle thinking…
“Now I am in high school where many of my friends are atheist or agnostic. Though I never bring my Bible to school or attempt to convert my fellow “heathen” peers, many of my atheist friends cannot say the same. I nervously shift in my seat when they openly criticize my religion to my face, pondering whether I should ignore their comments or defend my beliefs. (I typically go with the ladder.) By being surrounded by these kinds of comments, I too began to question my own beliefs.”
WF 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.
An estimated 15% to 30% of a home’s total heating and cooling energy is lost through poorly sealed duct-work, costing consumers about $5 billion dollars annually. (GoingGreenToday.com, May 2010)
More Creation Care thinking…
WF YM: Using the Five Senses
Creating memories and experiences for your teens is one of our favorite practices for youth ministry. Experiencing just so happens to use our senses so we believe the more the senses used in youth ministry the better. Purposely incorporate as many of the five senses you can into your youth ministry experiences.
The sense creative teachers most often use is sight. We lean on our Powerpoints and video clips because they are simply effective. However, using the other senses have the possibility to be even more effective.
Do you know which sense is the most effective for learning retention? Smell. Not an easy one to incorporate into teachings but the fruit can be big. Move outside of normal and purposely incorporate as many of the senses you can.
Pair of Cleats: Mythbuster #5-7
I am no Adam Savage or Jamie Hyneman, real Mythbusters. No cast models or explosives were used in this Pair of Cleats. This is just some quotes and some of my thoughts to blow up these youth ministry myths. However it is up to you to declare each myth as “Busted”, “Plausible”, or “Confirmed” as you follow what God leads you to do in your own youth ministry.
Myth #5 – With proper planning, I can grow my youth group.
I am going to draw on my veteran-status (I’m not young and hip anymore either) for this one. From my years of involvement and networking, there is very little we can do to make a youth group grow. We can read the books, attend the seminars, change our programming (because we do program), and implement ideas we glean from other youth ministers which may make our youth ministries better. But better doesn’t mean growth. Growth just happens.
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
