I had the opportunity to chat with Truman Capote at length one night thirty years ago when I was running a writers conference. I asked the strange little man, "How do you become a writer?"
I'll never forget his answer. He said, "You write."
How will our young people become leaders in the church? They must lead. They must be given opportunities and responsibilities and multiple chances to slip into leadership roles in the church. Handing out bulletins once a year at a youth service isn't going to cut it.
At FINK we've suggested churches find ways to redefine youth ministry as youth DOING ministry rather than youth doing programs. One aspect of this redefinition we have suggested over the last five years is a monthly worship that youth create, lead, and own.
We've suggested the event, but until today have never told churches how to do it, or what materials and orders of service to use. We wanted them to experiment, try different models for this worship and then teach us what worked, didn't work, etc. Well, the five years is up and jury is finally in on how the experiment is going. With the FINK network's feedback, we're finally ready to tell you our best suggestion for how to do the new senior high model. The suggestion below will attempt to integrate the senior high ministry directly into a leadership role in the confirmation ministries of your church. Here's how it looks:
1. WHAT IS IT? An evening candle light worship service owned and operated by the youth of the church. The kids need to be in charge of the whole deal.
Adults are welcome to help them set things up, organize speakers and leaders, etc., but once the worship starts, adults are not presiding or leading. They slip into the background and let the youth run the whole thing.
2. THEMES: We suggest you use the EXACT same themes, theme songs, and key verses that their younger brothers and sisters will be using in confirmation the next month. If you wish, cut slides from the Head to the Heart PowerPoints to form the core of this worship.
3. AMBIANCE: Enter the sanctuary in the semi-darkness, with a wreath of candles lit around the front of the church and soft music playing.
4. SETTING: Invite youth to sit on the floor inside the altar railing - NOT IN THE PEWS!
5. ORDER OF SERVICE
A. OPENING MUSIC: Start with generic campy music – stuff they can easily sing without music sheets
- for 10 to 15 minutes
B. OPENING PRAYER: A youth leads a free prayer, or the litany which goes with the FINK theme. Hold hands for Safe Touch!
C. THEME VERSE & SONG: Teach and sing one or both of the confirmation theme songs for the next month. Since the FINK Themes are all built around Bible verses put to music, have youth open their Bibles and mark the verse. The Bible is now their hymnal, and their hymnal is the Bible. FINK is moving toward sign language for every verse. If you have a signer in your congregation, have them teach a youth to lead the verse by signing key words.
D. MESSAGE: Have two or three youth give short talks on the theme and how it relates to their lives. In the confirmation model, we call this a "Life Line." This could be a good dry run for what they will be asked to share on the theme with their younger brothers and sisters in confirmation. (Always open off Broadway!)
If it's any good, why not drag them into the regular worship to share their faith story, too!
E. PASTORAL CARE: Break into pairs for highs and lows, then have pairs join into groups of four to share their partner's highs and lows. Join hands with your quad and pray a short prayer for the person on your right.
F. TEXT to CONTEXT: Father in the large group and have one person from each group share the highest high and the lowest low in their group. Designate a recorder to write these comments on a piece of newsprint, then ask another leader youth to think on their feet and relate the theme scripture for the night to the highs and lows of the group. How might God - through the Scripture - be saying to them? How might God's Word relate to the real issues of their lives?
G. PASTORAL PRAYER: Have another youth pray for the highest highs and lowest lows of the group. Turn their praise and prayer into the prayers of the people. End by joining hands and praying the Lord's Prayer.
H. HOLY COMMUNION: Break the bread, pour the wine, do the Words of Institution, and celebrate the Lord's Supper. In this model, you want the youth to be in charge of everything from start to finish. If, in your tradition, a pastor must preside over Holy Communion, this would be the only time an adult is leading a part of this event. If you wish to explore having youth lead this, and you have a presidence for lay distribution of Holy Communion at nursing homes and among the home bound, you may wish to discuss the possibility of commissioning specific youth to take the meal to their friends for this monthly worship. The elements could be consecrated by the pastor in a regular worship service, then given to the commissioned youth leader for that week's worship.
I. CLOSING PRAYER: Have a youth lead a post-communion prayer from your tradition, or a free prayer for their friends, their church, and the world.
J. CLOSING SONG: Sing the theme song again, but make it mellow, mellow, mellow.
K. BLESSING: Use the thematic blessing from our confirmation theme. Have youth repeat the blessing with a leader, then bless at least six other youth before leaving. Add Safe Touch by tracing a cross on the forehead or hand of each friend, then reciting the blessing.
L. POSTLUDE: Keep the mellow theme music playing until the last youth has left.
That's our new model. Use it. Test it. Change it. Tell us how it works!
Rich
(By the way, if you haven't seen "Capote" yet, do it. The actor does a rather amazing job of portraying the strange little man.)
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