Two years ago, a group of people got together to put on a conference about children’s and youth ministry in this emerging church context. We called it Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity. We wanted to talk about how to cultivate the kinds of faith environments that wouldn’t lead us to the same deconstructing, rejecting, or apathetic place so many of our children and youth seem to end up. We thought maybe 100 people would come. What happened instead was that 350 people came, and they came from places as far as Canada and NEW ZEALAND, for the love of all things. Clearly, we had hit a nerve. We had always envisioned this as a one-time event, but after that overwhelming reaction, we took stock and decided we ought to consider doing this again. And we are: this May in Nashville. It’s called Faith Forward.
For three days, we are going to reimagine children and youth ministry through theology, story and rhythm. There will be some great people there: Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, Andy Root, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso (who writes those amazing children’s books) and more. I’m honored to be MC and I’ll be doing a session on story, too.
I hope you’ll help me spread the word. I think what we do with our kids and how we teach them faith by example is one of the most important conversations we can have.
Also, the book that contains all the great shared information and ideas from our first conference is now available, and you can get it here.
Add Your Voice!