---

by Ian Forest-Jones, Associate Pastor

What Are We Doing

For reasons too complicated to go into, there are no youth presently associated with our church who are interested in participating in a traditional youth group program at St. John’s.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does have implications for any strategy that St John’s adopts towards connecting young people with Christ.  I have therefore proposed and proceeded to establish an outreach-model for our youth ministry.

With young people aged 13-18/years 7-12 in mind, the John’s Place Drop-In Centre enables our volunteer Youth Mission Team to make contact with neighbourhood young people and establish mentoring relationships in a safe social setting.  Over time those relationships will allow for the sharing of faith naturally between the team and those young people attending regularly.  At that point we will invite those interested to attend a Christianity Explained small-group, then a YASDUN small-group, and then our 7pm Sunday church service.

John’s Place is entirely appropriate for youth already associated with the church, although they could certainly engage our ministry directly through YASDUN or 7pm Sunday following their progression through and graduation from Promiseland.

To promote the drop-in centre locally, and to support neighbourhood youth in a common interest, we have established a partnership with The Harbour Agency towards organizing Band Nights at the St. John’s Hall.  The agency promoter hires the bands, promotes the event, handles the security and other logistics, while St. John’s provides the venue and the Youth Mission Team the supervision and a snack bar.  These events raise funds for John’s Place, but, more importantly, provides a safe venue for young people to enjoy live music in the Sutherland Shire.

Our major fundraiser for the year will be a family picnic and outdoor cinema event in November or January.  This style of event is easy to organize and very popular.  Between the Band Nights and the Outdoor Cinema we will raise more than enough funds over the year to develop the facilities and program of the John’s Place drop-in centre.

Beyond being merely a drop-in centre, John’s Place provides a platform for further supporting neighbourhood youth through the provision of workshops and seminars.  We have received a grant of $1200 from the NSW government, through the ArtStart small grants program, to provide a Street Art workshop to be facillitated by renowned Sydney musician and artist Matt Mistery.  The workshop is scheduled for 19 November.

Why Are We Doing It

While it can be expressed in many ways, essentially St John’s is in the business of introducing and developing Christian faith and lifestyle in individuals towards encouraging and training in mission, ministry and leadership.  This purpose is reflected in our Vision and is accomplished through our various occasional activities and regular programs.  An important factor for our activities and programs is that they be culturally and age-appropriate.

In my 20 years of youth ministry and church leadership experience, I have developed a strategy that expresses this purpose and its various concerns.  It is represented graphically as follows:

The Outreach category of regular programmes and occasional activities seeks to increase local awareness of, and positive regard for, our community by promoting spirituality and religion in our local neighbourhood.  Our support for Special Religious Education, our Facebook and website pages, the Band Nights, Street Art workshop and Outdoor Cinema are examples of activities in this category.

The Relational category seeks to bring non-Christian persons within our sphere of influence as we serve felt needs.  This is accomplished through relevant and genuine interaction, whereby the Youth Mission Team, and any other Christian youth associated with St John’s, model the Christian faith and lifestyle.  The John’s Place drop-in and excursions to the Blackstump Festival are examples.

The Spiritual Formation category seeks to initiate and perpetuate a disciplined and maturing Christian faith.  This is accomplished through diverse means and styles appropriate to individual, small and large-group settings, both pre and post-conversion.  The Christianity Explained and YASDUN small-groups, and the 7pm Sunday service of worship are examples.

The Practical category seeks to encourage and facilitate Christian ethos and lifestyle.  This is accomplished through practical and helpful service to our community and the neighbourhood.  Short-term mission trips, activities in support of our partnership with TASK, welcoming during the 7pm Sunday service, working bees and One Day Wonders, and the Worldvision 40-hour Famine are examples.

The Mission-Orientation category seeks to encourage and equip a mission-oriented lifestyle by providing relevant education and training.  We presently do not have any activities or programs that serve this category.

The Leadership Development category targets specific persons in our community having an identifiable call from God to leadership, and provides education and training in relevant issues and ministries.  Leaders thus identified, trained and supported will feed back into the activities and programs, thus perpetuating the cycle.  The Leader Development Team is currently establishing a strategy for this category.

I have always operated accorded to the assumptions and principles of this strategy.  Its significant contribution is that it encourages a faith-development and a life-span perspective, with an emphasis on the people within the sphere of influence of any given faith community rather than on any specific programs.  A person can move through this process by any relevant occasional activities and regular programs.  This strategy also encourages flexibility and sensitivity in that, whatever the make-up and needs of the people being served, appropriate activities and programs can be introduced and/or set aside as required.

In the case of St John’s, we do not have any youth presently within our sphere of influence who want to be served by us, as they identify with other local churches, for quite legitimate reasons already in place before I arrived.  Thus I have encouraged St John’s to adopt an outreach-model, as per this strategy, and we have begun building our ministry accordingly.  We do not yet have any youth ready for the Spiritual Formation category; but, when we do, we will be ready to accommodate those needs at a moment’s notice.

Should you have any questions about the events and activities described above, and the rationale for their implementation, please do not hesitate to contact me at your earliest convenience.

Appendix A: the Purposes of John’s Place

Towards building resilience in youth, we want the John’s Place youth drop-in centre and volunteer team to:

1. Provide a “safe” place for social interaction for youth aged 13-18 years;
2. Provide an info bank of local community services;
3. Provide support, encouragement and advice (e.g. mentoring);
4. Develop other helpful services as needs become evident; and,
5. Promote social justice (e.g. 40hr Famine).