Our Life Together: Christian Education & Formation - Youth Ministries
Youth in grades 6 through 12 are a valued part of our faith community, and they are invited to be active participants in the
full life of our congregation—perhaps the best faith formation available: after all, as the old saying goes, "faith
is caught, not taught."
In addition, though, we do offer a number of education and formation activities and programs specifically for youth, offering
them age-appropriate ways to engage more deeply with their own faith, with the Bible, and with the history, traditions, and
practices of Christianity.
Philosophy and Approach to Youth Ministry
We here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ know that there are a lot of different approaches out there to doing
ministry with youth. We don't claim to have all the answers about how to do everything, but we do have a couple convictions
about ministry with our youth:
- Youth ministry cannot be separated from the overall life of the congregation. Our youth are just as much a part of the
baptized Body of Christ as anyone else, and so need to be part of the same community, activities, and ministries as the
rest of the church. The days of the "one-eared Mickey Mouse"—the "real" church making up Mickey's
head and the youth ministry being tacked on at the outside like one of Mickey's ears—are over.
- Youth ministry must be substantive. Our youth are wonderful, faithful, questioning, doubting, concerned, intelligent,
seeking, searching, gifted people. Their faith—whatever form it make take, whatever questions it may have—
is real, and so we must deliver the goods of a real welcoming community and real exploration of faith, and not simply
feed and entertain the youth. In today's society, youth can go many other places to be entertained. We have to be church to and with them.
Want to read more about the thoughts and beliefs behind our approach to youth ministry? Check out A Theological Framework for Youth Ministry.
Sunday School
 For youth in grades 6 through
12, we offer a combined Sunday School class in the hour before Sunday worship, from 9:00 - 10:00 am, so that the youth may
attend worship as well. (We look forward to breaking this class into yet more-age-specific groups as attendance continues to
grow).
Our curriculum for this class, called "Seasons of the Spirit", takes the youth each week through an exploration of the scripture reading(s) that will be used as part of Sunday worship
(known as the "lectionary readings"—for more information, see Bible Readings over in the worship section of this site). Each session includes a gathering ritual, an exploration of the reading or story,
activities that engage the youth in responding to the reading or story, and a closing ritual. The curriculum often makes use
of art and music and other varied means of expression and exploration.
The Seasons of the Spirit curriculum is not only a well-crafted exploration of the Bible and Christian faith, but it
is a great way to build connections between age groups and between worship and education—as noted above, the bible
readings explored are the same ones used in worship and, in addition, we are using the adult level of Seasons of the
Spirit for one of our adult Sunday School classes.
Our junior - senior high Sunday School class is usually taught by Janet Jacobs. For more information, speak with her or
contact our Director of Christian Education Becky Erbe.
(back to top)
Wednesday Youth Night
For over 12 years, we have been offering an ever-expanding menu of activities and programming for a variety of ages as part
of our "Wendesday Youth Night". We bring together children and youth from our congregation, children and youth from
the Boys & Girls Club chapter housed at our church, and adults for an evening each week of educational activities, music
ensemble rehearsal, recreation, and dinner.
Check out the Wednesday Youth Night section for more information, or feel free to
contact our Director of Christian Education Becky Erbe.
(back to top)
Confirmation
Each year, we offer our youth who are in 8th grade the opportunity to participate in a year-long, intensive experience that
helps them to learn about the core of Christian faith and to explore their own faith journeys. This year-long experience
culminates with the opportunity for the youth to affirm their baptisms (or to be baptized if a youth has not been) in Sunday
morning worship—a rite known as "Confirmation". In some times past, there has been pressure on youth to just
go through the ritual and to "get confirmed"; however, we emphasize that confirmation is about the whole
year-long process of faith exploration and that they do not "get confirmed" but, in fact, they confirm themselves
as they publicly re-affirm the faith and vows made on their behalf at their baptisms.
For the 2007-08 program year, we are introducing an exciting new curriculum for our confirmation classes, titled "Crossings: God's Journey with Us". The Crossings confirmation program concentrates on
three areas:
- Identify the eight parts of the core biblical story. Crossings explores five events from the Hebrew
Scripture and three events from the New testament in order to discover how God speaks to us and leads us in our
journeys.
- Relate the core biblical story to our individual stories. Each of the 30 sessions helps youth explore the
intersection between the Bible and their own questions of identity, doubts, and hope, as they discover the questions
the story asks of them.
- Participate in the real life practices of the Christian church through worship, community, devotional life, and service.
- Worship: Faithful participation in the Lord’s Supper and experiences of God’s grace.
- Community: Connections with others who encourage and nurture us in faith.
- Devotional life: Individual prayer and study that brings depth, growth, and new hope.
- Service: Extending ourselves for others brings justice and renewal to every part of God’s creation.
The Crossings: God's Journey with Us curriculum is designed to provoke thinking about the Bible and Christian life
in a way that is very much in-line with our progressive Christian faith perspective here at Second Congregational United
Church of Christ. (It is published by Logos Productions, who is also one of the publishing partners on the Seasons of the
Spirit Sunday School curriculum).
Confirmation classes meet each Wednesday night at 6:30 pm, as part of the Wednesday
Youth Night program (and, in addition, will meet a few Wednesdays when Wednesday Youth Night is taking a week off). In
addition to weekly sessions, our confirmation experience will includes 3 retreats, which for the 2007-08 year will be:
- January 25th - 27th: Mid-Year Retreat (as part of Snow Camp) -
Focus: "Jesus' Family Tree - How is Jesus' family tree like mine?"
- May 9th & 10th: End-of-year Retreat -
Focus: "Run the Race - Now that I've looked at the Bible, covery to cover, what next?"
The Rite of Confirmation will be celebrated on Pentecost Sunday, May 11th, 2008. Part of the end-of-year retreat,
which takes place on the Friday and Saturday of that weekend, will be to help those going through the Rite to see their
confirmations not as the end of the journey, but the beginning of it.
For more information about our Confirmation program, contact our Associate Pastor Matt Emery.
(back to top)
Junior High / Middle School Youth Group
Our Junior High Youth Group, for grades 6 and 7, meets as part of Wednesday Youth Night from 6:30 - 7:30 pm during the
program year. For 2007-08, we will be using the "Great Bible Race" curriculum, an innovative program to
help get our youth more familiar with the Bible and get them discussing what they find.
For more information about the junior high youth group, contact our Director of Christian Education Becky Erbe.
(back to top)
High School Youth Group: The Journey Zone
Youth in high school (grades 9 - 12) are invited to participate in our Second Congregational High School Youth Group—
also known as "The Journey Zone". The Journey Zone is a safe place for all youth to explore their questions, their
faith, and their lives. The Journey Zone is also youth coming together to do ministry in our church and in the world.
Regular meetings are Sundays during the program year, from 4:30 - 6:30 pm. Meetings vary from week to week, but usually
include an exploration or discussion of a faith-and-life issue and some recreational time. Unless otherwise announced, they
always include dinner!
For the 2007-08 program year, The Journey Zone will be making a new emphasis on youth engaging in ministry themselves.
Approximately once each month, youth will go "outside the church walls" to engage in an activity that provides
service to others or that advocates and works toward social justice.
Youth are welcome to join The Journey Zone at any time! Come with your questions, your doubts, your faith, your life—you!
For more information about high school youth group, contact our Associate Pastor Matt Emery.
(back to top)
Mission Trips and Other Trips
  The 2007 High School Mission Trip was a great success! Seven high-schoolers, along with Pastor Matt and Glennis Stratemeyer
chaperoning, spent July 21st - 28th all around Washington, D.C., engaging in great mission work and enjoying all that D.C. had
to offer. One of our work teams spent 2 days at the Community for Creative Non-Violence homeless shelter and 2 days at the
United Cerebral Palsey day center; the other team spent 2 days at the Capital Area Food Bank and the Capitol Hill Pregnancy
Center and 2 days at Parks And People, an organization that cleans up blighted urban parks and green spaces.
We're already thinking about our travel plans for the summer of 2008! If our youth think they can pull the fundraising weight,
we'll do both another week-long mission trip in June and the United Church
of Christ National Youth Event in July.
For more information about past or upcoming mission trips, contact our Associate Pastor Matt Emery.
Social/Fellowship Activities
Snow Camp
 Each January (usually the last
weekend), all youth grades 6 through 12 are invited to take part in our annual Second Congregational Snow Camp at Silver Birch Ranch in White Lake, Wisconsin. The group travels by bus up to Silver Birch on Friday evening and returns on
Sunday. The weekend includes much play time in the snow for the youth, as Silver Birch offers facilities for snow tubing,
broomball, horseback riding, and more. The weekend also includes a theme topic around a faith matter and a number of
activities, talks, and sharing time to explore the topic. Past themes have included "Faith in Motion" (with excerpts
from the movie Cars) and "C.S.I. Silver Birch" (Changing Self Images). Saturday night closes with an
intimate worship service featuring Holy Communion.
Snow Camp 2008 is scheduled for January 25, 26, and 27, 2008. Look for more information in late fall/early winter. (All
students in confirmation will be required to attend, as we will incorporate the mid-year confirmation retreat into this
trip.)
For more information about Snow Camp, contact our Director of Christian Education Becky Erbe.
Other Activities
Pastor Matt and Becky Erbe typically schedule other joint junior-senior high recreational activities about once a quarter.
Offerings have included LaserQuest, a trip to Volcano Falls, bowling, a pool party, a trip to an athletic event, and more.
(back to top)
Youth Ministry Staff & Leaders
Working with 6th & 7th Grades
- Becky Erbe, Director of Christian Education
- Volunteers include: Kim Craft, Janet Jacobs
Working with 8th Grade / Confirmation
Working with High School (9th - 12th Grades)
- The Rev. Matthew Emery, Associate Pastor
- Volunteers include: Mike Ferrero, Janet Jacobs, Amy Pickens, Glennis Stratemeyer
(back to top)
(back to Christian Education & Formation) |
