Saturday, July 19, 2008

Partnerships

I was thinking about the last sentence of my previous post: And hopefully she finds other people or communities outside of camp that can continue that work of building her up year-long. Executive Director Anthony Briggs talked about the importance of these partnerships, too, when we talked the other day. He said, actually, that the key to effective youth ministry anywhere is cooperation and partnerships between all of the church programs that work with youth.

He said that not only do youth-oriented ministries need to realize they are all a part of the same body of Christ and work together, but they need to realize they’re all even more closely related than that. Lutheran Outdoor Ministries (camps), Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO), campus ministry, youth and family ministry, and Christian education are all fingers on the same hand working for the uplifting and betterment of young people. And only when all of these parts work together (and stop competing for time, numbers, and resources) to provide a more holistic approach to youth ministry can truly effective youth ministry happen, especially with at-risk youth.

Especially when it comes to camp ministry, he said, camp needs to work diligently to assure pastors and youth directors that if the camp isn't strengthening the church's everyday ministry, then they're not doing their job. Camps exist to assist in the [spiritual] development of young people along with the work of churches... not to take the place of it. I think Anthony's right on!

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