I’m in the middle of creating a retreat for my middle and high school aged youth.  We do this retreat every year.  A retreat in January to start our prep work for Youth Sunday.  This will be my 7th January Retreat, none of the youth who were on that trip are still in our youth group, they’ve all graduated.  Even though I’ve led this retreat 7 times, I only started shaking things up two years ago.  I decided to do a completely new take on prayer stations that year.  And last year we didn’t even have prayer stations–I wanted my youth to think outside of the box.  And the exceeded my expectations with their creativity for their service.  I shed tears of joy for sure.

This year is going to be even different.  I see part of my role as their youth minister as one who continually challenges them, gives them space to think and question, and support them through their discernment through faith and through life.  And so new things are incorporated into traditions in order to keep them creative and fresh.

SPOILER ALERT:  Part of this change in an introduction to faith stories.  I am SUPER excited about this.  I’m not sure how it will be received by my youth, but it will cause them to think if nothing else.  To me, stories are important, and I think that starts with our young people.

Retreat is MLK weekend.  I’m sure I’ll have an update of how it goes.

–Peace be the Journey–