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All 6-12th graders are invited to the home of Mia and Warren Jerrems (1407 Soundview Trail, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561) for this collaborative event with Pensacola area Episcopal youth groups. We will share a meal at 5pm followed by paddle boarding, worship, games and living into community through fellowship! This is a great time to bring a friend! We will gather on J une 13, July 11 and July 18.

(If your youth group plans to host any collaborative events like the one above, please let us know so we can help spread the word! Email [email protected] .)

Bring your paddle board and worship with us on the water at Camp Beckwith on Sunday, August 26, from 2 -5 pm.

Held at Christ Church Cathedral in Mobile. Save the date! More information coming soon.

During the first week of May, Leslie Manning and Stephen Ingram of Ministry Architects - the consultant group hired by Bishop Russell to focus and revitalize our diocesan youth ministry - held three visioning sessions with youth and youth ministry leaders. The intent of the gatherings was to generate words, phrases, and objectives to help guide our Youth Ministry Team in creating a mission statement and set high reaching goals for the next several years. In total, there were about 50 participants in the sessions. Thanks to all who attended!

The brainstorming exercise was fast-paced, creative, challenging and fun! All the results have been compiled and are currently undergoing word-smithing by the Youth Ministry Team. The next step will be submitting our work to Bishop Russell for approval.

Very soon we will have a powerful mission statement and venturesome goals to share with you all!

“Don’t wait until you have youth to begin building for youth ministry,” said trainer Melissa Rau at our first Youth Ministry Smaller Church Cohort gathering. St. Andrew’s (Panama City) parishioner Sally Brewer agreed saying that at last year’s Youth Ministry Visioning workshops she learned the value of having a ready-on-the-shelf Sunday School lesson in case kids ever showed up – and two years later, her Sunday School routinely has 8 elementary school kids in it.  

The five churches who kicked off the Cohort in April had a great experience and their individualized coaching sessions are going well! For the next couple of months, Ministry Architects (who organized the Cohort) is willing to continue enrolling churches and bringing their teams up to speed in time to attend the remaining three workshops. Whether you have two 5th graders in Panama City or a cluster of middle schoolers in Foley – the Youth Ministry Smaller Church Cohort is where your parish can learn to build sustainable, successful family and youth ministry.

Smaller Church Cohort FAQ >>

Smaller Church Cohort webpage >>

NEWSLETTERS - Sarah Bolt, youth minister at Christ Church Cathedral, said when asked about good Youth Ministry practices that work, "We have found that focusing on the upcoming event at the top of the email/newsletter and include pictures of the youth throughout the email/newsletter [works best]. I would include the calendar for the current semester at the bottom of the email/newsletter, but focus the email/newsletter on the event that is coming up next. In our experience, youth do not read the email/newsletters, but parents seem to like seeing what’s coming up and the visuals from the pictures help."

The purpose of this newsletter is to help keep Youth Ministry leaders and all those who support their ministry up-to-date with the latest information on events and news about Youth Ministry in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast.

We would love - and be so grateful - for you to share this newsletter or any portion of it in your church communications.