Video Discussion Starter: Youth Voice and Engagement in the Church

Two interviews from a recent General Convention are great tools to start a dialogue within your church--among your young people and between youth and adults--about the extent to which young people and their full involvement may be encouraged and discouraged in your parish.

Megan Lightcap (St. Paul's, Natick) and Michelle St. Francis (Trinity Church, Concord) attended General Convention as observers thanks to support from the Mass. chapter of Episcopal Church Women (ECW).  While there, they maintained a video blog, and two of their entries included interviews with the two youngest deputies from the Massachuetts delegation:  Sarah Neumann (20, from Church of the Redeemer, Lexington) and Sam Gould (26, from St. Paul's, Brookline).

In the interviews, Sarah and Sam talk from their experience as young leaders seeking and finding their voice in the church today.

The interviews are included in a video available free online>> 

After viewing the two videos with your youth group, have a discussion:

• To what extent are Sarah's and Sam's experiences in wanting to be involved in the church governing bodies similar and dissimilar from your own?

• To what extent are their experiences with being taken seriously by others in the church similar and dissimilar from your own?

• What lessons have Sarah and Sam learned about what it takes to be heard as a young person in the church?

• In what ways does our parish encourage young people to "step up" and share the work and responsibility of our life together?

• In what ways does our parish discourage young people's voice?

• What advice might Sarah and Sam have for our young people? For our vestry?

• What suggestions do you have for how we can do better as a youth group and as a parish to encourage more youth voice and engagement in the church?

This could be a great discussion at your youth group meeting.  Could also be a great start to having a broader conversation between young people and your vestry, or perhaps as a format for a Sunday forum open to the entire congregation.

Thinking About Youth on Vestry

Being a vestry member means leading in a community of faith. It means committing yourself to stewardship. It means speaking and acting from your own experience for the benefit of others.

The Office of Youth Ministry recently surveyed diocesan youthworkers about the experience of young people serving on local parish vestry boards. We heard stories about churches who make a concerted effort to identify, train, and mentor young leaders to be full vestry members—their actions are creating broad-reaching and powerful outcomes.

Giving young people an equal voice in church management is an empowering life-moment for a young person, and can be a transformative event for the congregation. The Vestry Resource Guide points out that “each generation sees the world differently because it was formed by different major world events and cultural changes.” Having that variety of perspectives at the table can help a church respond to changes in your wider community and around the world.

But what we learned from diocesan youthworkers that youth-on-vestry success begins with identifying strong candidates and giving them the ongoing support and mentorship. All of these ingredients are necessary in order for a young person (with no board experience) to contribute in this new environment.

Certainly, this process looks different in each church community. In any event, it might be in your vestry’s interest to start thinking about which high school students are attending worship regularly, who among them is involved in community events, and who has the availability to attend regular vestry meetings. Also think about who are the adults in the community who have a gift for coaching and mentorship.

The perspective of young people is important to the faith-life of any community. All people benefit when young people have a role in shaping our guiding principles.

What are your suggestions for how to involve young people with church vestries? Best practices for making youth participation a positive experience for the entire vestry membership?