The Youth Ministry & Spirituality Project started with a number of questions: How do we keep youth ministers from burning out? How do we move youth discipleship beyond fun & entertainment? How do we keep youth ministry from being isolated from the adult congregation? How do we address the constant anxiety that seems to infect most youth ministries? Can youth programs have spiritual depth? And most importantly, how do we keep the companionship of Jesus at the center of the ministry? We wish we could tell you that we answered all of these questions. Instead we struggled upon some life-giving possibilities. Here you'll find all of the principles, practices and processes that we've developed in our exploration of youth ministry and Christian spirituality. This is our attempt to articulate a way of ministry that seeks a growing attentiveness and presence to both God and young people. There are two ways in which we try and communicate this contemplative approach. The first is through our Charter, which lays out the seven principles of contemplative ministry. Each of these principles embodies a variety of practices and processes that can be integrated within your ministry. Secondly, we have a tool we call the "Contemplative Action Cycle" which is just another way of understanding how ministry with youth can be grounded in prayer and community. We've also gathered some articles from a various people within the project that might help you in your exploration of contemplative youth ministry. Again, we caution you to take your time. Those of us seeking to practice contemplative youth ministry still feel like beginners-even those of us who have been at it for almost a decade. No one is able to incorporate these principles and practices perfectly-they really are a set of practices or questions that we never master, but as we encounter them again and again we notice a growing awareness of God and availability to young people. Stop when you discover something that is helpful to your own ministry. Feel free to leave the site if you start to feel overloaded.
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