Youth Ministry Forum

Hip-hop and the church, perfect together? Not quite. Given that our churches are losing more people every year, it’s more important than ever to stay connected, and Kendrick Lamar, J-Cole and Lil Wayne might be able to help. See church and Bible study from their perspectives and learn how hip-hop is influencing our culture, politics, clothing and social media…globally! As the most popular genre of music in the United States, hip-hop is here to stay, and this seminar will explore how it is speaking to young people and how the Church can learn from its cultural imagination.

This workshop will share the best practices coming out of educational theory on how to become responsive to the cultural identities of youth. We will work together to develop skills for talking about ethnicity, gender, age, ability and disability grounded in a robust theological framework.

Disability in an unsurprising aspect of human existence. How can we shift from thinking of disability in terms of deficits and pathologies and embrace the people who are disabled in ways that honors their gifts and contributions to the body of Christ? In this session, we will consider together the theology and practices that help youth ministry move toward inclusive ministry where everybody belongs and everybody serves.

This workshop will deal with serving and bringing the Gospel to primarily minority youth in places usually forgotten and looked on negatively. We’ll explore how to minister to kids and families who society would consider the LEAST, due to their social or economic status and often thought of LAST when it comes to resources. We will discuss some often overlooked realities and explore practical methodologies and tools that are helpful in our outreach to this community.

The beautiful and challenging work of youth ministry requires leaders to live their lives with the watchful gaze of young people who observe it all—the good, the bad, and the occasional wrecking ball of grief. In this workshop, participants will reflect on different experiences of grief and will engage in conversation about the risky work of youth-ministry-while-grieving, exploring how to be authentic with young people, while carefully attending to our own emotional and spiritual labor.

Somehow your love of God has led you to teenagers…God bless you! In this workshop we will spend our time going over some foundational aspects of youth ministry like building relationships with young people, letting our faith shape our ministries, and looking for meaningful ways to invite young people into this life of faith. We will share experiences, tell stories, and encourage one another in this incredibly important work!

Practical theologian Megan DeWald asserts that the church’s problem is that it wants immortality rather than resurrection. In other words, the church would rather be fruitless on life support than to undergo death on the journey to new life. This workshop explores the reality of loss and death on the journey of discipleship and ministry while insisting that the core message of the Gospel always includes resurrection hope.