wfn.org | ELCA Youth Ministry Workers Gather for Extravaganza 2004

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 29, 2004

ELCA Youth Ministry Workers Gather for Extravaganza 2004
04-012-MR/JB*

     NEW ORLEANS (ELCA) - Youth workers of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) gathered here for the eighth
annual "Extravaganza" Jan. 22-25.  The conference, which drew
about 550 participants, provided training and continuing
education for youth ministry professionals from ELCA
congregations and ministries.
     Extravaganza 2004 was sponsored by the ELCA Youth Ministry
Network, an organization committed to strengthening and
empowering youth ministry leaders.
     "This was a really powerful event," said Todd Buegler,
president of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network and youth minister
at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Maple Grove, Minn.  "Workshop
topics were very relevant, so it was a good educational
experience.  We've heard nothing but praise for the keynote
speakers," he said, calling the event "a home run."
     The conference offered some 40 workshops dealing with a wide
range of subjects including youth and family ministry in rural
settings, developing youth leaders, Christian peacemaking, faith-
based organizing, and depression and suicide among youth.
"Intensive Care" continuing education courses were offered to
further the mission of youth and family ministry as a means of
Christian outreach, supporting a movement from church to home to
neighborhood.  An Urban Ministry mini-retreat was held on the
first full day of the conference.
     The Rev. Hal C. Weldin, director, Distributive Learning at
Youth Leadership, a youth ministry training organization based in
Minneapolis, led devotions and gave a keynote presentation.  He
engaged participants in the theme of the Extravaganza, "Breathe,"
by reflecting on Genesis 2:7, how God breathed life into
humanity, and by asking participants: "What does it mean to
breathe the breath of God?"
     In addition to the conference providing "breathing" time
away from the demands of youth ministry, participants also heard
from a number of speakers on how to be more focused on critical
areas of their ministry.
     "Now more than ever before it takes vision, a real ability
to 'see' youth, to get youth ministry done well," said keynote
speaker the Rev. Efrem Smith, pastor of Sanctuary Covenant
Church, Minneapolis, and a member of the CORE Seminar Training
Team of Youth Specialties.  Smith indicated that just keeping
youth momentarily occupied or entertained won't work anymore.
     "When you look at young people, what do you see?" Smith
asked conference participants.	"When was the last time you just
looked at the young people God has put before you?
     "God sees young people differently than we do," Smith
continued, saying that God sees what youth can become, whereas
youth workers sometimes do not see beyond the personas youth
adopt to defend themselves or to "fit in."
     "Could it be that lives can be transformed if we look at
young people with the eyes of God?" Smith asked.  "I'm trying to
get my eyes to be like God's.  That begins with an understanding
of how God sees me."
     Another keynoter, the Rev. Martin Brokenleg, an Episcopal
priest and professor of Native American studies at Augustana
College, Sioux Falls, S.D., and dean of the Black Hills Seminars
on youth at risk, said that in American society there is a
general disregard for kids.  "An average mom engages her child in
meaningful conversation only three minutes a day," he said, "and
for an average dad, it's 49 seconds."  Augustana is one of 28
college and universities of the ELCA.
     "The most universal human need is to belong, and adolescents
feel that need the most," said Brokenleg.  "And that's the point:
to connect. Nothing creates more strength than belonging."
     Other keynote speakers included Venice Williams, executive
director of the Kujichagulia Lutheran Center and SeedFolks Youth
Ministry in Milwaukee; Marva Dawn, author, educator, and
theologian with Christians Equipped for Ministry, Vancouver,
Wash., and a Teaching Fellow in Spiritual Theology; and, Mark
Yaconelli, author and workshop leader, who has spent the last 12
years working with youth in congregational, camp and conference
settings, and director for Youth Ministry and Spirituality
Project, San Francisco Theological Seminary.
     Mike Yaconelli, author and founder of Youth Specialties, was
honored posthumously with the Tom Hunstad Award for Distinguished
Achievement in Youth Ministry.	Yaconelli, father of Extravaganza
keynoter Mark Yaconelli, spent 43 years of his life dedicated to
youth ministry.  Mike Yaconelli died in October 2003 at age 61.
     The Hunstad award is presented in memory of the first
president of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network.  At the 2000
Extravaganza, Tom Hunstad started a network scholarship fund and
made the first financial contribution.	After Hunstad's death in
November 2000, the fund was renamed in his honor and the
presentation of an annual achievement award in Hunstad's name was
established.
     The Extravaganza featured music from Lost and Found, The
Pool Boys, Celia Whitler, Sarah Hart and Kelly Glow and dramatic
performances by Doug Berky.
     The ELCA Youth Ministry Network board of directors met
during Extravaganza 2004 and adopted a new structure for the way
the board will function, according to Buegler.	"We're shifting
from a management model to more of a governance model," he said.
"We've established teams to work in six specific areas of
ministry, two board members on each team." A primary focus of the
board's work will be on how to connect with underserved youth.
Buegler was re-elected president of the ELCA Youth Ministry
Network.
     The Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad, professor of preaching, Union
Theological Seminary, New York, preached at Extravaganza's
closing worship service.  "I hope this has been a time for you to
come to a Sabbath place, where you can breathe.  The breath of
God cannot stay inside us because it grows stale," Lundblad said.
"Don't wait to exhale."
-- -- --
     The home page of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network is at
http://www.elcaymnet.org/ on the Web.

*Jim Bailey, Gretna, La., is editor of the ELCA Texas-Louisiana
Gulf Coast Synod supplement to The Lutheran magazine.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news