VOICES
“Youth ministry matters to me because it offers a connection and a pathway between God and me. My youth group has helped me discover new ways others integrate God into their lives and understand how I can reconnect with God in ways that better fit my lifestyle and schedule as a student.”
-New Hampshire Youth
“Youth Ministry experiences transform young people, expanding their hearts, minds, and spirits to engage the world around them in service. In my own child I have seen a growing empathy and compassion when relating the stories of Jesus feeding the hungry, reaching out to those different from them after visiting the soup kitchen with their youth group or treating everyone with dignity regardless of their socio-economic status or race.”
~ The Rev. Alanna M. Van Antwerpen, SpiritBound Faith
“The core of my youthful spiritual transformation came from the attention a small group of adults gave to my personal spiritual journey with God. It was on a mission trip to West Virginia when friends in Christ, my peers, first named the leadership gifts I had never seen in myself. It was at St. George’s, Durham, leading a youth group, that I figured out my call to full-time ministry. It was at St. James’, Keene during my full-time campus ministry that I heard the call to the priesthood. It took an ecosystem of youth and young adult ministry to raise me up. Now it’s our turn to ensure that my kids are surrounded by joyful, gifted, celebrated and commissioned adults who care especially for their spirits, and to give them camp spaces to “go away with God” (like the Family Camp we’ve helped create at Barbara C. Harris Camp). Our kids were born with passionate spirits. The church of the risen Christ is called to be equal to their passion. In our care for them, we will meet Christ.”
~ The Rev. Reed Loy, Rector, St. Andrew’s Church, Hopkinton
“Youth ministry matters because all of God’s people matter, at every age. Each of us is essential to God and to the Church. In my own experience, I’ve seen youth ministry nourish young peoples’ spirituality, enrich and, in some cases, save lives. I’ve seen young people who have been supported in their church communities return blessings and care exponentially...which feels a lot like the Beloved Community God intends for us. In places where youth ministry is an articulated priority, communities learn to think and be together in more inclusive ways, celebrating and navigating the diversity that different ages and stages create. These communities are transformed by reaching toward young people as much as young people are transformed by being reached.”
~ Partner & Collaborator, The Rev. Emily Keniston, Director of Faith Formation, Diocese of Maine
“[My youth group leader] provided a courageous space for me and my peers to explore big questions, sing songs, play up, and act out all the whole modeling a life centered on Jesus. His calm, non-anxious presence modeled God in our lives and left us all forever changed. My parish in NH is smaller than my childhood city parish, and our current youth have fewer peers to connect to. I notice that youth ministry now must cross parish boundaries to form lively, challenging communities for our youth to form community together, explore their identities and to encounter Christ in each other and in trained, supported, vocational leaders to love them and model God in their growing lives.”
~ Fr. Edward Frost, Rector, Church of our Saviour, Milford
“Watching our young people grow ever more deeply into love, faith and kindness is one of the greatest privileges of ministry. Our young people care for each other and lift one another up. They are funny, intelligent, joyful and loving. I love watching the way younger children look up to their peers. And I love seeing how with the passing of the years those same young children have become revered leaders in the parish… They are giving us all hope not just for the future, but for now.”
~ The Rev. Dr. Guy Collins, Rector, St. Thomas Church, Hanover