Then the speaker then began to talk about what is unfair in the life of an African child who has to walk 10 miles a day to get drinking water and who is not allowed to go to school because he is needed to work in the fields. The fifth graders became quiet and focused.

That’s why teaching about the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be an important part of my work with youth in the coming school year. I will begin with handing out “One” bracelets from the The One Campaign to make poverty history, and including games with an earth ball. I hope these two concrete objects will serve as reminders throughout the year that we are all connected as part of one planet and we can all be part of the solution to the world’s problems. See ^www.e4gr.org  for more ideas about including MDGs in the life of your congregation.

Many churches all over the country are marking the start of a new school year by blessing back packs. I have found this to be a meaningful way to tangibly connect church with something important in the lives of the youth in our congregation. We publicize the event well in advance, send reminder post cards, and have a brief service in church on the first Sunday back in Sunday school. This is the important part -- people of all ages are invited to bring forward briefcases, messenger bags, PDAs, back packs, and other symbols of returning to work after summer vacation. The youth will happily participate along side the little kids if adults are participating too. (Otherwise, it can become an occasion for cynical eye-rolling among the teen set.) . After the blessing, key chains are distributed to everyone as a reminder of the congregation that supports them. See the US Toy Company  for a large selection of inexpensive key chains. One idea is to give each person a photo frame key chain with a picture of your church. Other possibilities ripe with symbolism are fish, butterflies, footprints, and light bulbs. See the Youth Files and Forms part of this site for promotional paragraphs to advertise the service in your Sunday bulletin or newsletter. Suggested texts for the service are also in the Youth Files and Forms part of this site.

A trip or gathering at the end of the summer is a good way to build relationships in your youth groups. Whitewater rafting may not be the best idea for young youth groups, but you could go canoeing or maybe boating if someone in your congregation has a watercraft available.

Since this is the first summer in my church job, I plan to start really small -- with a swimming party at someone's home.  The young people will have a chance to reconnect after a year of summer vacation.Parents will also be invited to attend so they can learn about youth group plans for the coming year.

For a copy of the invitation I will send out in early August, see the Youth Files and Forms section of this site.

Persuading Parents to bring their youth to church:

● Start now, in late July and early August to plant the seeds.

● Give parents a copy of Eugene Peterson’s book, Like Dew Your Youth. His chapter “I don’t

Want to Go to Church!” lists good arguments for young people who are resisting this.

(This book makes an excellent gift for parents of children who have a “Rite 13.”)

● Use Gospel Light for generic posters, brochures and fliers that list compelling reasons for

parents to make time for regular church/Sunday school attendance. (Or make your own.)

On the Gospel Light web site, Type in Sunday School Promo Pages in the search area.

(ISBN number 0830715894) There is a special internet price when you order the book.

● Send a post card, brochure, letter, or flier to parents. Summarize some of Peterson’s ideas.

● Make an attractive bulletin board in a hallway or meeting area of your church, inviting folks

to Sunday school/youth group-- and list reasons why they should come. Use photos of happy

young people as part of your display. I see people at our church linger over photos of youth

on our bulletin boards.

● Mix church and play. Encourage parents to have their child’s youth group friends come to their home after church or after school on a weekday. Building relationships outside of church makes it more likely that youth will want to come to Sunday school to see their friends.

Saturday overnights work well, too. (Maybe one friend at a time!) After a night of staying up late, youth group friends will be there in the morning -- and they can go to church together.

I think those of us who feel called to a ministry of Christian/Spiritual formation need to take the competition seriously. I concentrate my efforts on two fronts: Today I suggest some ways to entice young people to give youth group a try. The next entry will be about persuading parents to bring their youth to church.

Persuading youth to give church a try:

● Send a graphically snappy post card or letter to each young person in mid August. Make it  a bit mysterious, hinting at enticing things happening

    in your youth group in September. See Church Marketing Sucks for ideas and critiques of brochures and fliers.

● Send young people, by internet or snail-mail, a survey form asking about their preferences.

● If it is in  your budget, send the young people a small package a couple of weeks before Sunday school/youth groups begin to meet in the fall.  Tell them to bring the item to church to discover how it will be used in your group. It almost doesn’t matter what you send. Receiving and opening a package that arrived by mail is a rare pleasure for us all.

   Possible items to send youth by mail:

● a smooth stone or glass bead that will be used in a meditation exercise

● a CD of a song that you will play and discuss in your group

● a compass that might signify your groups search for something (ex: “Finding Peace.”)

● a map of your city or town on which you can later indicate a field trip/s your group  will take

● a dragon’s eye lens to show that your group will learn new ways of looking at the world

Other ways to create excitement about your youth group:

● Have a picnic or pool party the last week in August to kick off the new year. Build in some ice breaker activities to help the youth begin to “bond” with each other.

● Put extra effort into making the first couple of meetings especially fun or interesting. Scavenger hunts are a hit. So are field trips of any kind.

A few young people did learn on the job from observing some of  my  behaviors -- such as saying "thanks for your support," and  holding open doors for people entering the restaurant with strollers. But obviously I should have taken the youth into a huddle before the event, presented them with a brief, courteous script, and role- played the handing out of fliers.  This was an excellent opportunity to review some skills of adulthood, like politeness, humility, and kindness. We will be writing a thank-you note to the restaurant manager, to be sure! And next time I will remind the adults who organize our fund raisers how important it is to be coaches and models for our youth.

In the past five years, I have been joyfully using PowerPoint in worship services. I designed the images and words used on the screen for the first EU2charist. I worked with a team to use PowerPoint slides in a weekly Sunday evening worship service in a church where I worked. Later, I gained some experience working with middle school students using PowerPoint both for worship and for Sunday school class discussion.

At the 5:03 service at All Saints Church in Sunderland, MD, each of the songs used for worship uses a series of twenty or more PowerPoint slides. Each slide contains a phrase of the song and an image which illuminates that phrase. At other churches, I have seen projections of several verses of a hymn on a single PowerPoint slide with a colorful background. But the approach I am accustomed to using is more labor intensive. At All Saints, I sometimes set up the slides with the words already typed in. (It’s easy enough to cut and past the lyrics from sources on the Internet.) I maintained a “library” of images on the “My Picture” part of my computer files. The middle school and high school students would then think about what the song or hymn meant to them -- and choose an image from the files to cut and paste into each PowerPoint slide. Since most of these students had been preparing PowerPoint presentations in school, it took them about 30 minutes or so to get a song or hymn ready to be projected in worship.

At my current church job, we will be experimenting with the use of a PowerPoint Prayers of the People in the main service once a month. The youth will use photos of members of the congregation as well as images illustrating the people of the world, the environment, government leaders -- and whatever else we may be praying for-- to project on a screen during that part of the service. The screen will be removed for later parts of the worship. I expect a range of reactions, but I will be most closely watching the young people and their parents.

Below are several ideas  to get a group cooperating together in the kitchen. To make any cooking venture more successful, have enough tasks to keep everyone in the group occupied. (NOT like in the photo above!) Set up cooking stations for 2-3 young people to work at together. Each station should have a set of measuring cups and spoons, all the necessary ingredients for that part of the recipe, mixing bowls, pots, or pans as needed, and  a sponge and paper towels for quick clean ups. I also have alternative activities ready in case the cooking goes faster than I anticipated. For example, we use rubber stamps and markers to make labels for the food or gift cards if it is being sold or given away. Or we set the table and make place mats if we are eating the food together after it is cooked.

Things to cook

• Make pizzas together - make yeast dough ahead of time in a bread machine or buy frozen pizza dough. Do not use ready made crusts; half the fun comes from learning how to stretch out the dough. Use a variety of toppings. Put the names of each young person in your group in a fishbowl or hat. Have the young people make an individual  pizza for the person whose name they have drawn.
• Make Christmas cookies. There are lots of no-bake recipes. Bar cookies are another good choice. After the youth sample a few cookies, take the rest to members of the congregation who are sick or in retirement communities. Or take them to be served at a community soup kitchen.
• Make "mixes" in jars. There are recipes for brownie mixes, soup mixes, taco seasoning mixes, and hot chocolate mixes -- as well as many others on justpeace.org. Our young people decorate the tops of glass Ball jars with fabric circles and sell the mixes to make money to give to charity.

From time to time I'll be sharing some of our most successful recipes.

William J. Kreidler is an educator who has written extensively on conflict resolution in middle school classrooms. He suggests five techniques for “putting a lid on name-calling, insults, and sarcasm.” These should be tried when your group first forms. Kreidler suggest reading the Greek myth of Pandora to the group, then presenting them with a “Pandora’s box of put downs.” Each put-down or insult is written on a separate card. The cards are withdrawn from the box and each put down is discussed in terms of “how would Pandora feel if she heard that.” Alternatives to the put downs are discussed. Kreidler has four other suggestions for ridding your group of put-downs. To read the full article, go to find articles and type in William J. Kreidler.

Some of our group’s successful field trips

●Taking public transportation to a city restaurant

●ESPN Zone

● Bowling

● A Movie Theater

● Laser Tag

● Picnic at a state park

● Progressive dinner