Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus by Mark Yaconelli

The Sacred Way:Spiritual practices for everyday life by Tony Jones

Enjoy the Silence by Maggie and Duffy Robbins

These books would help me take my youth group through a time of thinking and reflecting on the word of God.

Do get a steady idea of the youth ministry, i would use

10 Rules of Youth Ministry and Why One Eighty Breaks Them All. by Blaine Bartel

Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields

these are just basic ideas of who we would try to get a handle on what is goin on with the youth minisrty...

implications of implementations

how would i go about reaching the teen-agers in hardford county?

well i would have something to offer to them, something that they can't get from anywhere else.
a time for them to relax. they are all over the place in the week soccer practice, lessons, varsity sports, family activities, everything. i would have a youth setting where they can take the time to relax and experience God for at least once that week.

relaxed lighting, and slow contempletive music will help them to get rid of all the things the that they have delt with all week and take time to hear from God.

we would have fun, but it is in a way where everyone is apart of the fun, not just certain people. we want to have an enviroment where everyone feels welcomed, and everyone feels like they are apart of the group. i think alot of teenagers are looking for acceptance, and this is the place where they should find it in the church.

i would also offer them, people who care, who they can talk to who are not their parents. they need to be able to see that we care about them, and believe in them, that they can do what they really feel like they want to do. it is interesting to see what people can do when they have someone who believes in them.

we would give them, God. when God gets a hold of people it is like nothing else. others are attracted to passion not matter what it is. passion for God will spread through his holy spirit.

philisophical/diabolical strategery...

these students will not be easily fooled...they might let on that they are fooled or play stupid, but they understand what is happening in the world.

they are all upper middle class, so they are connected with the computer, ipod, psp, nintendo ds, xbox, tv, internet, instant messenger, myspace. all of these things have a way of defining us as people. we are controlled by what we spend our time in. i think when it comes down to it what all of these things point to are...

image

and

community...

these are two things that are so important to a person in this life. what they look like, what defines them, what makes them who they are, what shapes them, the way they look at themselves, the way others look at them...it all comes down to image and community... ironically the only way anyone is truly going to find these things, is when they find their peace with GOD.

i woudl guess that my mission will be to help people find out that there image and community is not found in themselves but it is defined with their relationship with the image and the community. i don't even know if we will ever find out who we truly are or who are neighbors truly are, but as long as i get them to think of there life, and realize that no amount of effort released on their part will fulfill what they truly need. it is found in the one who was the original.

i guess that my strategy would have to be something that keeps their attention, yet something that they will not see everywhere else. There needs to be a reason for them to listen, something that says "i will learn something at youth group that i will not learn anytime else during the week"

i would do things that would help them to build their image...find what they are good at and let them roll with it until they accept it as their own, until they accept that it is a gift, until they accept that it was given to them from GOD.

i would do things to help build community, somewhere where everyone feels like they are welcome. i want everyone to be accepted at youth group. if they don't...we are failing. i want the lines of skin color to be blurred, i want the lines of social class to be blurred, i want the line of appearance/weight/image to be blurred to a point where everyone is forced to be honest with themselves....i am an idealest...

its alot easier to write it, then it is to act it out. I want people to experience the beauty of other people. not be confined in themselves, learn from other people, love other people, experience the maker through his creatures.

i desire for everyone to see themselves as they truly are...people just the same as everyone else just learning from each other and learning from GOD...

ill let you know how it turns out

demostratin my demografics

i youth pastor in the harford county maryland...

this is a suburb of baltimore, this county is just south of the pennsylvania border...

the total population of the county is 218,590...
86.8% of the population in harford county is White (215,378)
9.3% of th population is Black(20,260)
1.5% of the population is Asian(3,313)
1.9% of the population is Hispanic (4,169)

17,861 people range from the age 10-14 8.2% of the total population
14,706 people ranging from the ages of 15-19 6.7% of the total population

in harford county out of the 61,532 students enrolled in school...
21.7% are in high school ranging from grades 9-12

my job is to find out how to reach 13,347 students in the harford county for Jesus.

most of the families in harford county would range from middle to upper class economically...
out of the 60,722 families....

27.2% (16,526) of them make between $50,000-$74,999
19.0% (11,515) of them make between $75,000-$99,999
14.2% (8,630) of them make between $100,000-$149,999

59.4% of the families in harford counties make $50,000 or more

another interesting statistic i saw from the census website was...

that out of the 167,594 people that are over 15 years old....

2.5% are seperated from their spouse
8.3% are divorced...

this is not a huge number but is enough that it will effect the students I work with...