Go Deep

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List Price: $34.95

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Spiritual Practices for Youth Ministry

Doris Kizinna

256 PP | 7.25" x 9"
Paper
ISBN: 978-1-55145-575-4

So you're involved in youth ministry. How do you lead? How do you know yourself and keep yourself connected? What personal practices do you embrace? How do you optimize your time with youth so that they (and you) may come to know God more fully? What resources might you use for practical help? Where would you find these ideas?

Go Deep! Open Doris Kizinna's book and read about how to prepare and ground yourself, as youth leader, in your personal spiritual practice. Then, using practices drawn from many traditions and designed to open hearts and minds to an all-encompassing wonder of the Holy One, engage and mentor youth on the path of Christian spirituality.

Go Deep offers inspiration and practical tools to youth leaders who want to develop and deepen their youth ministry, both for themselves and for the youth they minister to.

The book is divided into two sections: Part 1 addresses the leader and Part 2 describes the various spiritual practices. Part 2 also includes prayer practices:

  • to engage the senses
  • of written and spoken word
  • of creativity
  • of movement and body
  • of compassion
  • of community
  • of worship and song

 

Doris Kizinna on How to Use This Resource

Doris Kizinna, Author

Doris Kizinna is currently the BC Conference Minister for Youth, Young Adults, and their leaders, and has been building community in a faith context in the United Church for over 20 years. She is a seeker, an artist, an extravagant cook, a lover of God, and now a writer who strives to create spaces of community, care, and beauty where all are welcomed.

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Media Reviews

Libraries Alive, Publication of the National Church Library Association

Amy R. Gamble

Divided into two sections, the first part of this book guides youth leaders to “go deep” into practicing God and living a life of faith  themselves. Part two contains suggestions for spiritual practices, within the youth group, designed to produce the same results. A  wide variety of worship practices are recommended using different methods in the community and worship services. They include engaging the senses, word practices, visual arts and crafts, body and movement, compassion. Since these practices are taken from a variety of traditions, some leaders and youth may not be comfortable with all of the activities, but there is enough variety that youth leaders of any denomination could get some new and fresh ideas from this book. The author is a member of the United Church of Canada. Her beliefs may not agree with yours. Some may be offended by the front cover because of the tattoos on the arm of the model.

Excerpt from Part 1
Leader Practices

As a beginning youth minister, I longed for someone to help me learn how to go deep into my own life in God. I wonder if that has also been a yearning for you? Knowing yourself more deeply as a person of faith can be full of risk, challenge, comfort, joy and purpose. The fruits of your discoveries will benefit you and in turn all whom you encounter and minister to.

The experience of discovering God’s expansive love and presence isn’t just for youth: It can happen at any stage of life. The first step for you as a leader is to come to know yourself more deeply, incorporate that into your life and then learn to express your experience to others in a spirit of shared learning. Guiding youth in faith begins with practicing and strengthening your own faith. The goal is to enable yourself and youth to go deep into practicing God and living a life of faith. Giving youth the gift of being able to speak authentically and articulately about faith is a great gift and perhaps it is a call in your life to be able to provide such openings. These next chapters will take you on an exploration of your own call, practice, and life of faith. Even if you feel like you’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand yourself in the context of your faith, I’d encourage you to go through the practices with your youth minister lens on.

If this is your first step on your path of going deep into your life in God, be welcome and know you do not go alone. Take seriously this work – it is the great work of your life.