When Church Divinity School of the Pacific began looking for models of effective youth ministry, it found these examples.

A holy meal

A Sunday evening service at St. Gregory’s of Nyssa in San Francisco incorporates a meal. Photo/CDSP

The Rev. Sylvia Miller-Mutia applied for the job as youth and family minister at St. Gregory’s of Nyssa in San Francisco knowing that in this famed church she could live out her passion for working with young people. The job description was the clue. “They wanted someone who could help the congregation learn how to bring young people into the center of their church life.”

Working with this directive, Miller-Mutia has initiated a Sunday evening service in which the young people, ages 4 to 15, lead the worship, with an average attendance of 65 adults and children, sometimes including her husband, Donnell, and their three youngsters. One of the highlights of the evening is a potluck meal that is embedded in the service. “We finish Communion, eat, clean up and then complete the liturgy together.”

A youth group subject to debate

The Rev. Christoph Keller III, theologian-in-residence for St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church  in Little Rock, Arkansas, was concerned about complacency regarding the intellectual, moral and spiritual formation of young Christians. Drawn to the idea of debates, he developed the idea for Summa, a student theological debate society. (Summa is shorthand for summa cum laude, which means “with highest honors” in Latin, and for the “Summa Theologiae” of Thomas Aquinas.)

Annie Meek and Karnessia Georgetown, Summa debaters, with the Rev. Christoph Keller III. Photo/CDSP

“I wanted young people to learn that faithfulness can mean thoughtfulness,” he says. I want them to know how to think through claims, and to give them the opportunity to learn theology while touching base with Christian tradition.”

Young people began applying for placement. In August 2012, under Keller’s leadership, 50 high school students — from a mix of denominations and coming from public, independent and parochial schools — traveled to the University of the South School of Theology  in Sewanee, Tennessee, for a week of debate camp. They participated in classes and honed their research and debating skills before facing off in major debate. This winter, 31 of these students will reunite in Little Rock to further build on their skills.

The idea is catching on. People have contacted Keller wanting to start other chapters in Arkansas, and he hopes to also see Summa in other states. He concludes, “I want these young people to know in their bones that Christian faith is part of a great moral, intellectual and spiritual tradition. It’s a tradition in which questions are raised and opposing viewpoints can be voiced and heard in a spirit of love and reason.”

Reaching out to young adults

Although located in different states, the Rev. Andrew Hybl, curate at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Conway, Arkansas, and the Rev. Gary Commins, rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, California, both work with young adults 18 and older.

“St. Peter’s is sandwiched between two colleges, so a lot of my focus is on undergraduate ministries,” Hybl says. Tuesday nights, the church hosts a college dinner program, prepared by four student chefs employed by St. Peter’s.

“Our chefs do all the shopping, cooking, preparation,” he says. “Each week, our college dinner program serves meals for about 55 students – which would not be possible without financing through a diocesan grant.”

Hybl enlisted in the Navy at age 22 and served in San Diego and Iraq before enrolling in a seminary that he eventually left because he disagreed with the theology. He joined the Episcopal Church while studying in Berkeley and enjoys working with young adults.

“Many of the young adults I work with were raised in atmospheres of certitude and never allowed to ask questions or stray from orthodoxy,” he says. “We invite them to ask questions and help them to embrace mystery. As a result, they have discovered their faith in a deeper way and are looking to integrate their faith into their daily actions.”

In 1991, Commins spearheaded the Episcopal Urban Intern Program that continues to bring young adults together for a one-year experience of living together in intentional community, working in social-service agencies, exploring vocational discernment and receiving leadership development. More than a dozen of the interns in the decade he ran the program were later ordained as priests.

Today the program is part of the Episcopal Service Corps – a network of 25 such self-sustaining programs around the country. Commins continues to consult with the Episcopal Urban Intern Program in Los Angeles, which now has four houses and more than 20 interns each year. The Diocese of California also has an Episcopal Service Corps intern program, currently in its third year with six young adults living in intentional community, focused on spiritual formation and working in local nonprofits for a year at a time.

As a sign of ecumenical cooperation, Commins has been working with Lutheran and Episcopal leaders in Long Beach to create a young adult emergent ministry called Beach Progressives that will include young adults in the community and on local campuses.

“We can’t sit in our churches and wait for young adults to come to church and sing our hymns,” he says, “we have to go out to them and meet them where they are.”

Academic outreach in Georgia

When Deacon Arthur Villarreal accompanied his partner, the Rev. Ben Wells to the Diocese of Atlanta, where Wells is rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Macon, Villarreal began assisting at St. James in Macon. He was enjoying the congregation but missing times when he had mentored young adults in the Journey to Adulthood program.

A few months after he started at St. James, several young people knocked on the door, asking if they could come in. Villarreal and the Rev. Joseph Shippen didn’t know why the youngsters persisted in wanting to visit.

It turned out that a volunteer group had once rented a room at St. James for an after-school program. When crime increased in this inner-city neighborhood, the program lost funding and was shut down.

“They closed their door, but the kids kept coming because they were looking to escape gang activity,” Villarreal says. “They wanted a safe place to hang out.”

Following a period of discernment and with support from the congregation and leadership, when Villarreal and Shippen heard knocking again, “We looked at each other and shrugged, as if to say, ‘Why not?’ We had no idea of what we were getting into. But we agreed that we had to answer the call.”

The two opened the door, and Villarreal told the youngsters, “Come on in, y’all.”

Now serving about 30 young people, the Cherokee Heights program has become a community builder. Folks are pitching in with donations and help, as are church members and a local policeman. The owner of an after-school study program is offering academic instruction, along with college-age mentors from local Mercer University.

Brenda Lane Richardson, an author and clinical social worker, uses memoir writing as a therapeutic modality. Her most recent work, “You Should Really Write a Book,” was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2012. She is married to CDSP’s dean and president, the Rev. W. Mark Richardson, PhD. This article first appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of Crossings, an alumni publication of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.