Part of what we are doing to start making youth ministry happen in the Anglican church in Tasmania is to set out all our wildest dreams for what we would like to see happen. This was what i came up with the other day. What do you think??

A vision for youth ministry in the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania

Culture changes:

  1. A culture that supports youth ministry both in principle and practice.
  2. Rectors/Ministers who are fully supportive of Youth Ministry.
  3. Focus on ministry not Sunday services

No financial limitations

· A paid youth worker on staff in every parish!

· A paid youth worker on diocesan staff, to champion and support youth ministry.

· Having chaplains in every state high school and Anglican private school that are intimately linked with a local parish based youth ministry; eg. The Hutchins School chaplain runs the BayWest Youth Ministry, or the Kingston High Chaplain runs the St Clements Youth Ministry.*

· A number of fully paid youth internship positions in suburban parishes; who can learn from the youth pastor, not be the youth pastor*

· A training college for youth ministry; with high quality staff

· A youth equipping organisation, that produces and recommends resources for all parishes, both suburban and rural; eg. Doing youth ministry in small towns, or How to reach out to unchurched youth

· Sending some key young people to be trained in youth ministry by other dioceses (Sydney) to come back and do youth ministry in Tasmania*

· An organisation that speaks out for disadvantaged youth

· An organisation that seeks to support disadvantaged and rejected youth with love and the hope of the Gospel (eg. supports pregnant teens to get them through school)

· Youth Gatherings (regional i.e. southern, north-west coast, northern, east coast, west coast) *

· Youth Evangelistic camps*

· Youth Discipleship camps*

· A larger camp site (i.e. Camp Clayton sized)

· Youth advertising (TV, radio, etc.)

· A well designed, youth orientated, website that acted as an online community.*

What we can do

Those marked with an asterisk I believe are things which we ought to be able to start seeing happen.