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GenOn Youth Summit 2022 Is On!

Posted by Liz Perraud at Nov 08, 2021

Kelly BurnettGenOn Youth Summit Coordinator Youth Summit 2022July 10-16, 2022 @ Johnson University in Knoxville, TN For students completing grades 8-12, college-aged young adults, and the adults who love and support them. Two years ago, we gathered in Colorado and West Virginia for GenOn Summit 2019. It was, as usual, a wonderful experience of living together in Christian Community. With a pandemic sweeping the globe, the leadership was forced to make the difficult decision to postpone the Summit until the summer of 2022. This forced hiatus has given rise to the creation of one...

Seminary Corner: Ritual Revolution

Posted by Liz Perraud at Nov 08, 2021

Andre Jordan “AJ” WallaceSecond-Year StudentPrinceton Seminary I sometimes wonder if the church has forgotten that bearing the image of God is a communal task (Genesis 1:26). I say this out of recognition of the cultural practice of not often including young people in our regular rhythms of worship. Yes, we have our Youth Sundays and children’s sermons that take up a few moments of a service, but many of our congregations probably don’t have consistent liturgies that are truly intergenerational. Why don’t we have children regularly lead us in our worship services? Why do we seem to embrace the idea that young children cannot testify and bear witness to the...

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Tags: children in worship, intergenerational worship, worship, worship arts, worship ideas, youth, Youth Ministry

A "LIFT" During the Pandemic: Ministry with Youth

Posted by Liz Perraud at Sep 28, 2020

Rev. Shanna KronkAssociate Pastor First United Methodist Church Burkburnett, TX We had our first LIFT meeting with youth (distanced and masked), and it was a HUGE hit! We met from 4:30pm-6:00pm, which was perfect. I started with snacks and a game (Pictionary related to the parable of the sower), then we had opening prayer and the scripture with a little time of “wonder questions.” I printed the discussion questions (modified a little for an older group and added a few others) and printed them out, one per table. Each table chose a scribe to record the group’s thoughts and inspirations....

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Tags: COVID ministry, COVID-19, Sunday LIFT, youth, Youth Ministry

Youth Gatherings Become Intergenerational with LIFT

Posted by Tracey Daniels at Jan 10, 2020

Rev. Sara Krhla Church of Christ, Congregational, UCC Goshen, Connecticut The Church of Christ Congregational in Goshen has been holding intergenerational activities for many years. After attending the InterGenerate Conference in Tennessee in May of 2019, I realized that, although we were offering intergenerational activities and providing experiences that were accessible to all ages, most of it was not intentional. Sunday LIFT helped me bring some intentionality to our experiences together and made a lot of the planning less intense. LIFT encouraged a change in format to our Confirmation Class gatherings. One of the biggest questions I left the...

Planning for Fall Faith Formation? 5 Great Reasons to Look at GenOn's Faith for Life Bible Study Curriculum

Posted by Suzie Lane at Jun 03, 2019

GenOn Ministries’ believes that Bible study curriculum for young people is most effective in growing Christ-centered disciples when it… …is rooted in one or more Biblical passages. Faith for Life is. …provides opportunities for young people to express their faith through decision-making, relationships, service to others, worship, and personal devotional time. Faith for Life provides these opportunities. …reflects a keen awareness of varied faith formation settings. Faith for Life is written by Christian education leaders from various Christian denominations in a wide variety of settings. …is flexible, working in single or multi-graded groups, in a variety of timeframes and calendars,...