The book "My Faith, My Life" is available at churchpublishing.org or your favorite bookseller. Also available on Kindle and as an audio book for the blind or dislexic at www.rfb&d.org.
"This is the fourth group of young people I am preparing
for Confirmation and I've never seen a group this engaged in the class
material. " ~Kris Forsyth, Director
of Children & Youth Ministries at St Christopher's in Grand Blanc
Michigan.
Sept 28- Oct 1, 2010: Retreat for Adults Who Work with Youth at Holy Cross Monastery with Br. Randy Greve and singer/songwriter Fran McKendree. Location: West Park, NY. February 3-5, 2011:NAECED Annual Conference. Location: Charlotte, NC. June 12-17, 2011: Coordinator, for Kanuga's Conference for Life-long Christian Formation. Co-coordinator, Jenny Beaumont. Location: Hendersonville, NC.
Past Engagements (keynotes, workshops, retreats)
Diocese of Wyoming
Diocese of New York Diocese of Southern VA Diocese of Chicago St. Paul's in Norfolk, VA Wyoming Wilderness Camp Kanuga Conference Center NAECED Annual Tapestry Conference VTS Youth Ministry Conference Episcopal Church Women, Diocese of Wyoming
episcorific :a web zine for and by young adults in the Episcopal Church peer ministry: a ministry of the national youth and family institute. plse: a place to explore your call to ministry in the church way to live: explore topics and faith practices important to teens franmckendree.com: singer/songwriter who performs at many Episcopal events. d365.org: daily prayers Pray-as-you-go: download daily meditations to your iPod.
E4GR: learn about how to work toward the MDGs Holy Cross Monastery: a monastery in the Hudson Valley, NY with a commitment to supporting the spiritual lives of youth. Kanuga: Episcopal conference center with summer programs for youth and WinterLight for young adults.
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Lenten Calendar 2010
The Story of the Cross by Mary Joslin
Youth and the Way of St. Benedict
Men
and women who commit themselves to the Rule of Benedict make three vows:
obedience, stability, and conversion. These vows are intended to guide them in
practices that honor one another in community and draw individuals and the
community closer in Christ. These values in the Rule can guide the
values that inform how to gather a youth group and how a youth group might
spend their time together. In this second segment of a four-part
series we explore the vow of obedience.
The
value of obedience, at first glance, seems to be at odds with the core American
value of self-determination.The
word obedience conjures up images of authority, control, and following
blindly.Dogs are obedient to
their owners; soldiers to their superiors. Wikipedia refers readers to these
entries: authority, conformity, depersonalization, dominance, and
subordination.
The
vow of obedience in the Rule of St. Benedict has a very different meaning:
the first word of the Rule gives this away. "Listen." This word of
invitation, which Benedict penned with the Latin word obsculata, means "incline the ear of your heart." When
God asked King Solomon what he needed, he answered "a listening
heart" (Kings 3).Solomon,
who is known for his ability to discern good from evil, wanted the ability to
know God's words in his gut. Benedict counsels us, to have the heart that
Solomon desired: Listen with compassion. Listen with humility. Listen with your
whole self.What a different
sensibility than following blindly!
Now,
given the charge to listen, to whom or what shall we listen? Teens are the
targets of many voices claiming authority: peers, culture, and media are the
loudest. During school months teenagers spend an average of 21 hours a week
watching television or playing on the computer and 15 hours hanging out or
shopping.[1]
Teenagers spen an average of 3.5 hours a day alone, without peers
or parents.[2]
One-third of all teens eat meals with their families three or fewer days a
week.[3] The voice of culture dominates a teen's time.
Benedict
was very specific about where to direct our listening hearts: "Listen
carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the
ear of your heart. This is advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and
faithfully put it into practice." We are invited to incline our hearts to
a loving God, to welcome the voice of the One who made us in God's image.
The word obedience means to listen. And
its Latin root is the word obedire,
meaning "to listen" or "to hear." Who is offering teens
opportunities to listen to a voice of authority who loves them and invites them
to consider that they were made whole and good? A youth group can.
What
does it mean in practicefor a youth group to embrace the value of
obedience?Grounded in a value of
obedience, the youth minister ceases to be someone who delivers a
product--activities that keep youth busy or moral lessons that replace God's
authority with our own. Instead, a youth minister is a person who offers him or herself as an icon that
points toward God's presence in the lives of youth. To be that icon, we must be
grounded in spiritual disciplines of listening and rooted in knowing ourselves
as beloved children of God. Choose a spiritual practice and remain with it. By
knowing who and whose we are we can show youth the way to freedom from
following false voices of authority through hearing who God has made them to
be.
How
can a youth group cultivate a spirit of listening to the presence of God?It doesn't mean giving up fun,
high-energy events. It does, however, mean changing how events are
framed--taking time for prayer, sharing, and noticing God's work within the
life of the group. In Growing Souls:
Experiments in Contemplative Youth Ministry, Mark Yaconelli identifies
seven practices to guide a group in designing a program that honors young
people's desire to hear an authentic voice, the voice of God:
1. Sabbath
2. Prayer
3. Covenant community
4. Accompaniment
5. Discernment
6. Hospitality
7. Authentic action
A practice of Sabbath seeks to find balance in work,
rest and play. So often our time is crammed with doing. Time for rest allows
the group to stop and hear quietly; to play, which can be refreshing and
healing and to provide openings for new insights. Prayer practices such as lectio divina, centering prayer, and
walking the labyrinth give us time to talk with God so that we might know God
and be known. Gathering youth as a covenant community invites youth to
support and affirm one another in what is certainly a counter-cultural
endeavor.Be intentional about
inviting the youth to create a covenant for themselves.A principle of accompaniment
invites youth to be friends, listening partners, and guides to one
another.
Practices
of accompaniment include having prayer partners, spending time to share
struggles without the need to give advice or the expectation of resolution, and celebrating joys together.The
principle of discernment
means listening actively for God's call to
ministry for each youth. Compliment one another on a job well done and name one another's
gifts and talents.A youth group
that values obedience practices hospitality by welcoming the voices of
all people and offering hospitality through active service in the whole church.
The
final principle, authentic action, is essential to the word obedience.If we have truly listened, we will act
on what we have heard. Benedict says this: "[W]elcome it [what you have
heard] and faithfully put it into practice.” The fruit of true listening is
action--what Mark Yaconelli calls authentic action.Authentic action reflects the gospel
imperatives: feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, clothe the
naked, proclaim the good news, love your neighbor, make disciples.Youth yearn to participate with God in
building the kingdom of God.
The
vow of obedience means practicing listening to God's desires for us and acting
on what we have heard. While not an act of self-determination, obedience is the
determination of self that recognizes ultimately who and whose we are.
Note: This article was first published in the Episcopal Teacher (Winter 2010) edited by Dorothy Linithicum and published by Virginia Theological Seminary . You can subscribe free of charge to this helpful resource by calling 703-461-1885
[1] "Teen
Time Use and Parental Education: Evidence from CPS, MTF and ATUS," Bureau
of Labor Statistics, 2007.
[2]Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for
a Passionate Church, by Kenda Creasy Dean. Grand Rapids: MI, 2004.
The scallop is a traditional symbol for pilgrim. Medieval pilgrims wore a scallop on their clothing to identify themselves as people on a journey. They would show their scallop to churches, monasteries and Christian homes and be given lodging and food for the night. We are all on a journey-- a journey inward to know the person God made us to be and an outward journey to use our gifts to fulfill God's dreams for creation.
