YRUU A Five-Year Review of Programs for Youth 1989 - Conclusion

YRUU Five Year Review

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YRUU 5 Year Review V- Conclusion

V. Conclusion
Effective ministry to youth richly repays the effort and the dollars spent. At no other time of life do human beings look for models, for community, for inspiration, with quite such energy. Young people, when served well and included fully, enrich the life of any congregation.

The current "boom" of babies will soon swell the ranks of youth. We are convinced that if the UUA maintains the momentum born at Common Ground, in the 1990s we can have the most varied and abundant ministry to youth that we have ever had.

Our attitude about youth ministry is not good. We habitually give it only token effort. Youth advising is too often delegated hastily to the first volunteer. Our professional religious leaders too rarely think of youth as full members of the community. Advisors continue to be hard to find. The UUA, in failing to fund the vision born at Common Ground, reflects a widespread preference not to spend time or money on youth ministry.

Is our wariness about youth ministry a legacy of hippie days, the 1960s? Or does it date back even further, to the days of Stephen Fritchman and the Red Scare? No matter. Now the time has come to shake off our aloofness and move forward. Today's youth are ready to collaborate with adults who care about them and respect them.

The grass roots are already sprouting: Youth ministry in many of our congregations is transformed since 1980. What remains is for the UUA - its youth and adults - to offer leadership, support, and vision.


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Translated from the original text document to htm by Lorne Tyndale, YRUU Programmes Specialist September 1993 - August 1994. The document was on lryer.org. I have placed the document on this site as I've been notified that lryer.org appears to be down.

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