Reflection This week I've had the pleasure of talking with leaders in the UMC and some other denominations about strategic processes for youth ministry re-visioning and staffing. With a question posed by our Lutheran friend Bill Bixby, I went looking for some information on churches in the Chicago area who had participated in some kind of systematic procedure for making sure their redevelopment of local youth ministries was deeply rooted in the scriptural vision of that congregation. Interestingly, the initial silence on the other end of the phone calls that I made tended to be the poignant part of the story. For district and conference leaders in that area of our Connection, no names of churches immediately came to mind. Upon further reflection, we were able to unearth some cluster ministries and possible other leads to local congregations that seemed promising. In a changing world, I think it's interesting to reveal this tendency to leave ministries alone if they aren't necessarily troubled. As long as our hiring process for new youth staff and annual calendaring meetings can happen like they always do, it doesn't seem like many of us youthworkers are willing to really dig deeply into our systems and discern God's new call to behave differently as a community of faith. What about your church? Have you done some deep reflective work re-imagining your youth ministry? Tell us about it! @ncjyoungpeople on twitter or email me at cgladstone (at) gbod.org In Other News Also this week have had the opportunity to set up a consult with a local United Methodist College to learn more about their High School youth overnight to introduce upcoming students to the campus ministries life there. Also preparing for the Simply Youth ministry conference in Chicago next weekend and the upcoming Middle School gathering in the Dakotas. Lot's of time also spent developing plans for a new UMYOUTHMISSIONS.ORG site which will be designed to help increase participation in and covenantal partnership between United Methodist related mission destinations. Should be a great tool once up and running. Any suggestions for what you'd like to see on this site, please send them along.