Did you miss the annual meeting this past Sunday, wondering what's going on with our Children & Youth Ministry? Read our Children, Youth, & Family Minister's address to the congregation below!

               On any given Sunday morning at St. Columba’s you can expect to walk in and find that 25-30% of the congregation attending our 10 am service is children and youth, ages 0-18. That percentage is astounding, and something that is not often seen in the Episcopal Church. We as a community have done a lot of work to get to this point, creating both physical and emotional space for children, youth and families, stepping up as supporters for programming through volunteering and donation, and continually responding to the needs of our families whether it’s a scholarship for a kindergartner to go to camp, or an adult server guiding a youth acolyte through the worship routine.
               In 2019, we achieved a lot of growth and shoring up of our Godly Play Program. This time last year, we were about 3 months into our Godly Play classroom split, where we graduated from a one room school house model serving ages 5-10, to two classrooms, one for ages 2-7, and another for ages 7-10. When that split happened, it put some stresses on our church system, demanding fabrication of a whole classroom’s worth of Godly Play materials (an on-going effort), a redoubled effort on part of our parents and volunteers to serve in and support children in two different classrooms, and re-calibration of our expectations for children in our church community, where older children now had the opportunity to dive deeper into the stories, and much younger children were finally being invited into the circle as the curious and capable people they are.
               In the new year, I am proud to say we now have volunteers to run our Godly Play programs for 2-3 Sundays a month, with our children joining us in the service on days there are not enough adults for Godly Play. The presence of our children in our Sanctuary on Sunday mornings is a blessing, and in Advent of 2019, we were able to double our Children’s Carpet, which has created even more room for our growing number of children and families. In the year ahead, I hope to begin Year 1 of a 3 Year Cycle of the Godly Play Spiral Curriculum, running our children through the vital Christian stories of the Old & New Testament, introducing them to our faith traditions, and helping them study the lives of Saints and other extraordinary people throughout history. It is amazing now to be able to look into the future, intentionally forming our children year to year, preparing them for each new life-stage, and strengthening their sense of belonging in God with steadfast support from their church community.
               Our youth program, while it has potential, is sorely missing adults-on-the-ground, ordinary members of our congregation to interact with our youth week to week, facilitate time for their formation, chaperone them on retreats and special events, and attend their games and performances. Currently I am the primary facilitator of youth programming and events, that is Sunday Morning Formation, monthly Pizza with the Priest, Diocesan Retreats, special events and fieldtrips, service projects and more. With limited adult support, a growing Children & Family Program, and a busy family of my own at home, the youth themselves, let alone our youth programming, are not getting adequate attention to support their spiritual formation. I am worried that if this trend is not intentionally disrupted, our growing family section will be for naught, as our children age into a youth program that is virtually non-existent. I, as one person, am not a sustainable long-term plan for our youth program, as even now, one missing volunteer at church, one sick kid (or youth minister!) at home, derails our one-woman youth program, leaving our kids in grades 6-12 under served.
               My hopes for our Youth in 2020 are that they are able to come into their own as Christian people within a faith community that is present for them ready to support them in robust new ways. In 2020, I am calling for an assembly of 8-10 adults of our congregation to come together as on-the-ground support for our Youth Programming, helping create quarterly/annual goals, choosing/developing lesson plans, facilitating Youth Programming on Sunday Mornings and for special events,  and being present to our youth in all the ways they deserve as loved members of our church community. I am confident that God will provide all that we need, and with a prayerful heart, I ask that each and every person in this congregation consider how you will become more present to our Youth this year.