In September of 1996, San Francisco Theological Seminary, in partnership with Youth Specialties Inc. and Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian church created the Youth Ministry & Spirituality Project to begin exploring the relationship between youth ministry and the growing field of Christian spirituality. Mark Yaconelli, M.A. in Christian spirituality, a veteran youth minister and graduate of SFTS's Spiritual Direction program, was hired to begin this work. In the spring of 1997, the Project held the first national, ecumenical, spiritual formation retreat for youth ministers entitled Sabbath. The retreat exposed youth ministers to the contemplative dimension of the Christian faith through a variety of contemplative prayer exercises, silence, solitude and regular spiritual direction (This retreat continues to be held in multiple locations across North America). In July of 1997, the Project received a grant from the Lilly Endowment to test a "spiritual formation model" of youth ministry. Andrew Dreitcer, Ph.D. was instrumental in procuring this grant and was brought on as Co-Director of the Project. Sixteen diverse congregations were gathered from across the United States to investigate a ministry structure in which adults engaged in youth ministry as part of their own spiritual formation. Youth ministry leaders were trained to meet regularly for faith sharing, contemplative prayer, and communal discernment, all on behalf of the young people in their community. These ministry communities were then encouraged to begin forming young people in contemplative understanding through silence, solitude, and a variety of contemplative exercises. Through the teaching and research of this first phase, 1997-2000, the Project began to develop a new language and understanding of the creative power of contemplative practice within congregational ministry and adolescent faith formation. The language and experience developed within the Project began to attract the attention of the mainstream Christian community as well as the wider North American culture. By 2000, the project staff had been invited to either lead or consult at every major youth ministry gathering in North America. Spiritual formation tracks, based on the experience of the Project, were implemented at youth ministry conventions and conferences. Youth ministry journals and magazines featured articles on Project discoveries. National news services such as the Wall Street Journal, Knight Rider News Service, CBS radio and ABC World News Tonight all ran stories on various aspects of the Project. In 2001, the Project received a second grant from the Lilly Endowment. At the suggestion of the Endowment, this second phase was understood to be the beginning of a ten-year plan designed to deepen and disseminate the Project's discoveries to mainline Christian congregations. In this phase of the Project, Michael Hryniuk, Ph.D. replaced Andy Dreitcer as Co-Director of Research and Documentation. Dr. Hryniuk's role was to deepen the theological and historical understanding of the Project as well as to document the development of Project activities and discoveries. Representatives from thirteen "teaching" congregations, ten denominational youth ministry offices, and five youth ministry organizations were gathered and formed in what was now called a "contemplative approach to youth ministry." Initially it was understood by the Project staff, SFTS and the Lilly Endowment that a "third phase" of the Project would take place in which the participants and organizations engaged in the Project would then be trained and empowered to teach others the principles, processes and practices of contemplative youth ministry. However, due to an economic shortfall, San Francisco Theological Seminary was unable to continue it's financial support of the Project. Subsequently, the Lilly Endowment provided a third and final dissemination grant. This grant runs from 2004-2007 and is primarily focused on writing up the discoveries of the Project, archiving the documents of the project, and maintaining this website.
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