Ron DeVries

This is a wonderful opportunity for students pondering next steps in life and faith. 

Here is a resource from Fuller that ties into this topic. https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/blog/better-conversations

Thanks for your questions Joshua. You are correct that YALT had existed to elevate the voice of young adults in the CRCNA and to encourage space for their leadership within our churches. They were very present through a variety of social media platforms which helped to set this conversation in front of us. I am thankful for the many who were tasked with that role over the years and all the work they put into this.

Since then, many other ways of mentoring the generations into leadership roles have taken root within the denomination. 

Through Faith Formation ministries (and other partners like the RCA and Thereforego Ministries), we have been offering support for people like yourself and other ministry leaders ways to engage and encourage our younger leaders. 

Lesli Van Milligan (FFM) has been involved in something called the "leadership studio" which helps our younger members enter a journey of leadership experiments within there local congregations

Rick Zomer (Thereforego), Lesli (FFM) and myself are involved in both virtual and in person Mentoring Networks (cohorts) to help local congregations better understand what mentoring is and why it is so important in our discipleship practices.

The CRCNA and the RCA also entered into a partnership for something called Generation Spark. Here we hope to work with congregational teams to roll out very succinct mentoring initiatives with an emphasis on Emerging Adult leadership.

Joshua, if you have any questions about any of these, please feel free to reach out to me.

Hello Gary, thanks for your post and question. Would you be able to expand on what you mean when you say "Spiritual Growth". Are you looking for something age specific or something more general?

I am very excited for you Melissa. Along with what Anna has suggested, might I also suggest "A Biblical Theology of Youth Ministry" written by Micheal McGarry. This is a 2019 publication. A second recommendation would be "Sustainable Youth Ministry" by Mark deVries (no relation).

 

Thanks for the question Angela. A very important topic to address and a timely one. In 2018, a research paper coming out of Canada called "Renegotiating Faith" spoke very directly to this topic. Below are some highlights from that paper.

"The consensus in the literature and among ministry experts and among young adults is that mentoring is a good thing. There is agreement that mentoring involves a lot of conversation, that it should be focused on the mentee’s life, and that it will succeed as a ministry form where programmatic ministry fails. There is also agreement that with mentors, mentees grow up more quickly, and are more likely to embrace faith. Although mentoring is talked about as the solution to youth and young adult ministry problems, there is less agreement about what it is, or why it works.

Perhaps because of the hopes vested in mentoring, many adults, the would-be mentors, find the prospect of mentoring to be intimidating. In the literature many authors reframed mentoring in the more comfortable language of “intergenerational friendships,” “sharing life,” or “non-parental adult investment in children and youth.” Even with this more comfortable language it remains unclear why “sharing life” should work, and if it does, how would mentors know if they were doing it well.

An interviewed young adult shared, about the way her mentors walked alongside her supporting her in her interpersonal struggles and while offering guidance:

They know where your struggles are. They know where your joys are. They know what you are good at. They know what you are terrible at, but they can still walk alongside you, encourage you in things you are good at, rebuke you for the things that you are not doing too great at, and just keep pushing you towards righteousness and following Christ more fully. And just generally being a friend in that process.

The research pointed to these important findings for us.

The mentor’s role is to assist the young adult in negotiating a new relationship with the church that is different from the one they had as a child. It is not, however, limited to questions of faith and religious participation, because religious identity is not neatly separated from other aspects of identity. Moreover, young adults are renegotiating all their childhood relationships with the different communities in which they interact. Once the major identity planks are set in place the rest tend to follow close behind. This means that a Christian identity, an identity with the church, needs to be at an advanced stage of negotiation at the same time, or before, the young adult is finalizing other large roles like career and family.

There are three key spiritual characteristics, BIG life questions to keep in mind when we think about the faith formation of our teens and young adults. Those are;

Who am I?

Where do I fit?

What difference do I make?

The first is about "Identity", the next about "Belonging" and the final one about "Purpose".

When we consider mentorship in our churches, helping a mentee wrestle with these huge questions is a great start. Consider who already has a relationship with the young adult and how can that relationship can be strengthened using these questions as a building block. Perhaps there are activities like canoeing, sailing, small engine repair, choir, sports etc where those intergenerational connections can be built upon. And for those who are away, a care package from someone who loves them unconditionally is life giving. And lastly, just pray. Pray for all of your young adults. Pray, pray, pray.

 

For those of you who after reading this blog, wonder about some soul care best practices, linked here is a new podcast from Fuller Youth Institute that highlights some ideas in their inaugural episode. https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/blog/the-fyi-in-youth-ministry-podcast-episode-1