Implementing Youth Development

I think it was in 1985 or ‘86 at a work party that Dennis McBride asked me to take up the headship of a newly formed Youth Development program. When I asked him what its mission was, he said something about "Christianizing and socializing our kids." When I talked it over with Dian, we had very differing views on our future in this new program. Dian was cautious because she said our lives would never be the same again. I wanted to jump into it because I thought it would be "a piece of cake." Now, 17 or 18 years later, all I can say is I am married to a prophet and I’ve gotten pretty good at ordering pizza.

It has been a wild ride for us. Lots of young people (many of whom are not so young anymore), lots of trips, conferences, retreats, and meetings. We’ve experienced gym-floor sleep- overs, good talks, bad talks and wild talks; working with people (at least one of whom is a real saint) from everywhere in every situation—from a desert in Mexico to the Bronx in New York.

And through it all, an endless stream of your children as they lived this life and tried to make sense of it all. There have been good times and a goodly portion of bad times. We (Dian and I) have many treasured memories and relationships, and some we mourn. We’ve seen many seasons of teenage life in our body from outright rebellion to our present wonderful on fire group of kids.

Currently we are in a season that I feel will help us all a lot. I’m referring to the wisdom the Elders brought back from their retreat to create a Youth Development Team to help Dian and me.

The intended function of the team is to be a deliberative, consultative and an action group. The team will deliberate all aspects of the current program to help find the right program that will serve our kids. We will consult with each other to craft, organize, and implement the program. We will also consider problems in the program as they arise. Finally, the team will be active in implementing and running the program.

I really want to thank God for putting the team together at this time. I’ve been aware that one of our weaknesses is a certain lack of organization, which was brought about by having only Dian and me at the leadership level. I have a lot of optimism that now we can get organized and face some of the problems that have plagued us in the past and continue to cause us concern.

But we’ll need your help for this. It is painfully obvious that a program of this nature, that has been around for this long can’t exist without causing hurt, as well as helping. More than ever I am personally aware that through misjudgment and pride and my own woundedness, there are hurts that could have been avoided. Before I go any further I want to ask forgiveness of the Body for creating, or at least not helping those situations. And as you read this article, if you are one of those (I pray few) people who have been wounded by our program, our implementation of it, or by me personally, I ask your forgiveness and pledge that this new team will strive to work to correct that in the future. If you feel the need to talk to me personally, please seek me out as soon as possible.

And if any of you have any input for our team, please seek out any of us. Rest assured that we will address it. See the box on the previous page for our new team members.