STONE TO FLESH YOUTH

INTRODUCTION

A parish team pathway to reach every teen in your city, disciple past confirmation and prevent burnout.


SUMMARIZED INSIGHT

-Insight:

-Alternatives:


VALUE

-Perfect World: Create parish missionaries • Reshape youth and leadership culture • Prevent burnout

-Value


PROOF

OBJECTIONS

ASK

 


1. Key Insight

2. Alternatives:

  • Extraction Ministry (Invite teens to come to the church or go out to a restaurant/beach/movie, hope people show up)

  • Program Based Ministry (Purchase a program, relay information from said program)

  • Youth Minister Centered Ministry (is in the office all day, takes on many large tasks, creates events from scratch)

3. Perfect World: A core team of prayerful, capable, missional volunteers that are not burnt out. The team members have a healthy interpersonal dynamic they support each other in ministry. They have great relationships with the wider community of adults in the parish, including hands-on support from parents. This team builds a youth ministry centered on discipleship that fills the pastoral, spiritual, social, and equipping needs of every teen. The community culture is organic an organic environment that any teen finds welcoming and immediately accessible.

4. Differentiated Value:

  • A pathway space for any teen to belong to, churched or unchurched (organic, multi-space discipleship pathway descriptions, 5 Thresholds, Basic Pastoral Needs in groups of 2-4, Measuring by Fruits)

  • Polycentric Mission (image, description, leadership solutions to prevent burnout, parent involvement)

  • Team Discipleship (equipping for CORE team, gradual rhythm of life, UP IN OUT, Parish Missionaries, the YM new role = relationships, recruiting, rhythm)

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me: ABIDING LEADERSHIP CULTURE: Authority has been give to HIM not us. Only if we ABIDE in Him do we do HIS will, do we have authority. We ABIDE by fulfilling priestly (CHASTITY = sanctification/incarnational/embodiment), prophetic (OBEDIENCE = reliance, submission, mouthpiece), and kingly (POVERTY = servant, sacrifice, compassion, humility). This must be done with distributed leadership of many people, overseeing reasonably sized groups, organic culture, handing over of leadership. Catholic church examples of this: Priests rotating parishes. Missional organizations rotating people: Franciscans etc. There is constant movement because it leads to growth. Anything that doesn’t move is either inanimate or an immobilized animate. That which is immobilized for whatever reason, inevitably deteriorates over time.

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: CEO style leadership of one person who is expected to ABIDE in Christ, overseeing hundreds of people with no expectation for their own lives.

  • Go: POLYCENTRIC MISSION Do missional things in all spaces outside of the church (Need all 4 spaces, not just 1 or 2)

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: Doing missional things in Churches (parish mission, or church things in mission spaces (young adult groups at bars etc)

  • Make disciples: MULTI-SPACE PATHWAY ADORATION, SOTH, COMMUNITY GROUPS, PARISH MISSIONARIES - (Making a disciple means there is a person doing the discipling and that person is called to help someone with a lifestyle that is meant to be eternal. Disciplers must be ready to take on a lifetime relationship of discipleship)

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: Discipleship in 1 space or no discipleship at all

  • Of all nations: 5 THRESHOLDS This is an audience of all people. Churches try to follow business models and so they end up having one type of audience. We need a path for all people which is the 5-THRESHOLDS.

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: Focus on 1 audience with no provided path or no clear audiences at all

  • Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit MEASURING BY SAINTS (quality of a person aka fruits of the spirit), SERVICE (quality of ministry), STORIES (quality of a community) not BUTTS, BUCKS and BUILDINGS (Measuring say Sacraments are the center, and all things lead TO and FROM them. Of course no numbers would be alarming. A congregation can decide to measure success by how many people are baptized in a year. Of course if 0 people are baptized then that should be a cause for alarm so numbers do reveal something. What they don’t reveal is what happens in a person, which is how Jesus measures, testing by fruits. Fruits of the spirit are measured by what we observe in a person. Fruits of a community are revealed by the stories people speak of that community. Fruit is not receiving a Sacrament. If a Sacrament of initiation is the beginning of something, then we observe that the ending is a Saint. Particularly healthy religious orders are an example. Stories of orders in the past are and today still draw lay people to them. When 100s of teens leave the church after Confirmation, we see that the seed is falling up the rocks with no possibility of fruit to bear. Parishes are not religious orders, yet it helps to see an example of healthy community life to set as a goal.)

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: Sacraments are the end. Sometimes there is post-sacramental discipleship that is short-lived. Nothing is organic. Typically forced in a classroom.

  • Teaching them to observe (keep or prevent from escaping) FOCUS ON BASIC PASTORAL NEEDS in small groups of 2 to 4 Teaching to observe is passing on of thoughts, emotions, words and actions, not information. Observation of His commands happens in all spaces not just 1 or 2.

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: Not teaching them to OBSERVE God’s commands, just teaching them.

  • Behold, I am with you always: UP/IN/OUT PROGRESSIVE RHYTHM OF LIFE: We forget He is with us. A rhythm of life is THE way to Behold and be reminded that He is. The way we create a rhythm of life is to add 1 or 2 small steps to whatever rhythm currently exists. Too little and there is no change, too much and people quit. What we provide: Daily LOTH and Lectio. Daily intercession call. Weekly team Discipleship (SOTH) or Mission (Youth home mission, Alpha, PJC etc). Monthly moms and dads group. Monthly community group.)

COMMON ALTERNATIVE: No team rhythm of life except events.