Network’s Children & Youth Initiative Sponsors Two Upcoming Events
The Children and Youth Initiative of the Anglican Communion Network (ACN) is working hard to lay a strong biblical and theological foundation for young Anglicans as they are discipled in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Rev. Jack Gabig, Director for this initiative, has already begun to gather together Anglican children and youth ministry leaders from around the country to discover what has and has not worked over the past fifty years, to discern God’s vision for the future and to determine what resources already exist that can be shared across the nation to equip children and youth leaders.
Two more leadership gatherings are already planned for this fall. A Children’s Ministry Summit will take place on Nov. 12–13 at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. It is a strategy session with leaders of organizations working with young people and authors of children’s Christian education curricula.
Another gathering called the Anglican Youth Leaders Tribal Gathering, Nov. 30–Dec. 1, in Charlotte, NC, grew out of collaborative efforts of the Diocese of Central Florida and the Diocese of South Carolina who have helped plan this national youth leaders training event held in conjunction with the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention, Dec. 1–4. Eric Moulton, Youth Coordinator for the Diocese of Central Florida, is excited about the event. “I want to see a passionate, rising generation equipped and inspired to serve Christ Jesus in His Church,” said Moulton. Go to www.scyouth.org for more information or to register.
Dave Wright, Youth Coordinator for the Diocese of South Carolina, speaking about youth, puts it this way: “What you win them with, you win them to.” Gabig explains, “We’ve been so taken in by consumer culture as a means of educating our young people in the Church. Our programs have been driven by entertainment at one extreme and dogmatic doctrine at the other.”
Gabig continued, “What we need in children and youth ministries is a Spirit-filled model, rooted in the Scripture, filled up with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, and driven by love - not just experiential, but renewing hearts, renewing minds.”
The Network’s mindset is that young people are not the church of the future; they are the church of right now. “If we tell young people that they are the church of the future, it promotes an entitlement mentality. We’re saying that they aren’t responsible to do anything now,” said Gabig. “It takes a whole community to be involved in the spiritual formation of a child. We need to take children and youth seriously, not just invite them into our world, but to step into theirs.”
The leaders who attend these gatherings hope to undertake the following projects in the next five years:
• Hosting a national symposium for Christian theologians and Christian educators to discuss the viability of the current catechism and the prospect of a new orthodox curriculum
• Coordinating gap-year opportunities with Anglican Global Mission Partner agencies affiliated with the Network for internship and apprenticeship experiences for university-aged young people
• Encoding into the DNA of new church plants the value of equipping the laity, including children and youth, to find a place to use their gifts in ministry
• Developing Vocation Days for dioceses and convocations to encourage teenage and university-age young adults to consider their callings in lay and ordained ministry
• Designing and launching a website that would be a hub for studies curricula, links, and position papers, as well as a vehicle for sharing resources
• Offering online theological training: Master-level diploma for professional children and youth workers in conjunction with orthodox seminaries, and online theological volunteer training for child and youth workers who serve in parishes that might not ever be able to afford a paid professional in this area of ministry.
In the month since Gabig started full-time in his position with the ACN, he has received a tremendous number of invitations to work with children and youth leaders in Network dioceses, convocations, and parishes. “One exciting thing in rethinking the nature of Church is viewing the Church as a true network,” said Gabig. “Rather than a top-down approach to programmatic children’s and youth ministries, we see our role as a clearinghouse for sharing resources that already exist, as one of bringing all the pieces together.”
For more information, contact Jack Gabig at jgabig@acn-us.org.