Creating space for students at JAFC’s convocation

Creating space for students at JAFC’s convocation

by | Mar 22, 2023

This summer, the Jurisdiction of Armed Forces and Chaplaincy hosted a retreat for middle and high school students during their annual convocation. Students spent time with the rest of the jurisdiction during morning prayer, worship, and meals in addition to having dedicated time on their own. Throughout the retreat, students’ time together was focused on learning about and practicing prayer. Discussion often included challenging questions and a sense that many of these young people wanted to make faith their own.

This was the first time the JAFC hosted a program specifically for students, and their commitment to the emerging generation was evident in the way they welcomed students and worked to support parents. There was dedicated family time which allowed children, students, and parents to connect and process the events of the convocation and retreat.

For students, this time together was an important reminder that they are not alone in many of the challenges they face. At lunch on their first day together, one student said, “raise your hand if your dad is in the military” to which all the students raised their hands. Then he said, “raise your hand if your dad is a chaplain” with the same response. In seeing the humor here, this student continued to ask such questions as friends around the table started to groan and raise their hands. Even with something as small as this, it was a clear picture of the community that these students found in simply being together.

One student shared, “Thank you so much for having this retreat. It’s really helped me grow in my relationship with God.”

Spaces away from regular routines and rhythms allow us to pay closer attention to the relationship God is inviting us into. The hope is that this focused time away will empower students to continue growing in their faith as they go back to their daily life. This retreat gave these young people a chance to form new friendships with other Christians their age and gave them practical ways to deepen their relationship with God.

How might you create space for students to grow in their friendship with Jesus? How could the Champion Grant support your ministry ideas?

Anna Burden

Anna Burden

Coordinator for Student Leadership Network

Anna Burden grew up in the church and has felt called to student ministry since she was in seventh grade. She studied Youth Ministry at Eastern University and has experience working with churches and student ministries of various sizes. Anna and her husband, Colin, now live in Quincy, MA with their two cats. She works for the Anglican Diocese in New England as their Family Ministry Assistant. Anna is passionate about helping young people discover their identity
in Christ, their belonging in the family of God, and their gifts for Kingdom purposes.

Blessing Bags for Homeless Neighbors

Blessing Bags for Homeless Neighbors

by | Dec 27, 2022

In Tempe, Arizona, a student recognized a need in her community and wanted to mobilize her church to do something about it. With 10,000 families homeless in their state and about 7,000 of them in their city, it became clear to the student ministry at Living Faith Anglican Church that they needed a practical way to help. Blake Plympton, the Director of Youth Ministry, shared, “We have been seeking ways to have a missional encounter with our community. After a student mentioned making blessing bags, God made it very clear us that this is something we needed to do.”

Students first spent time learning more about the felt needs within their community. With funding from the Champion Grant, these students then put together 36 bags to be handed out in their community. Not only did they put together the bags, students were instrumental in handing them out as a part of their daily lives. Blake noted, “I wanted to make sure that our students felt empowered to take on this task and ask their parents to be intentional with the way they drive and what exits they take off freeways and such.”

Throughout this project, students were challenged in their way of thinking about the needs around them. They were also invited to take on new initiative in serving their community. Parents were grateful, though some were surprised, that students were invited to take the initiative in seeking out people to whom they could give the bags. This was an eye-opening experience for young people at Living Faith and a practical way for them to serve and respond to the needs of their community. As we love and lead young people, how are we sending students out with the love of the Father?

Be a Champion

You can be a Champion by applying to our grant OR by supporting our grant through a financial gift. Join the community TODAY championing Anglican Student Ministry!

Anna Burden

Anna Burden

Coordinator for Student Leadership Network

Anna Burden grew up in the church and has felt called to student ministry since she was in seventh grade. She studied Youth Ministry at Eastern University and has experience working with churches and student ministries of various sizes. Anna and her husband, Colin, now live in Quincy, MA with their two cats. She works for the Anglican Diocese in New England as their Family Ministry Assistant. Anna is passionate about helping young people discover their identity
in Christ, their belonging in the family of God, and their gifts for Kingdom purposes.

What is the Next Generation Leadership Initiative?

What is the Next Generation Leadership Initiative?

by | Oct 16, 2021

When I was a new parent, I attended a seminar on parenting that presented an argument for vision casting for your family. The presenter encouraged us to craft a shortlist of things our family unit valued (or should value) and to adopt them as mantras in combination with your family name. My husband and I came up with a few; some were obvious for Christian families, and some were general leadership principles, such as “Joneses don’t quit,” and “Joneses love Jesus.” We wove them into our weekly conversations. The usage of your name mattered as the idea was that your children would grow up recognizing whose they were and wanting to represent those values. One day our daughter, about age four at the time, admitted she had thought about quitting during a particularly difficult swim lesson, but she remembered that Joneses don’t quit!

That day reminded us of how powerful spiritual formation is.

What we do over time forms us. What we say over time forms us. What we believe about who we are forms us.

This intentional formation begins with family ministry in our parishes, continues through student ministry and campus ministry, through lay leadership programs, and catechetical training. Our seminaries form future clergy, and our dioceses continue developing our clergy. Working together, the Next Generation Leadership Initiative (NGLI) is helping to spiritually form our family through coordinated, intentional leadership development at all stages of life and ministry for the next generation of the ACNA.

The family mantras NGLI has adopted include coming alongside dioceses and parishes to discover new leaders of all ages and diverse backgrounds, to develop these leaders practically and spiritually, and to deploy them into ministry.

This discovery is integral to the future of the ACNA and our mission to reach North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. Now into our second decade as a denomination, the ACNA is beginning to see a transition of leadership; the retirement of the generation that faithfully led us for the last decade is upon us and the demand for leadership development is high. NGLI is working to discover new leaders, to develop them and to deploy them in a rapidly changing ministry environment as a result of the cultural landscape we face at the close of 2020.

We are committed to strengthening our pipeline of leaders in order to strengthen our ACNA family. The leadership pipeline for the ACNA cannot be accomplished without your support. It is imperative that we work together to spiritually form the members of our family as well as to raise up leaders for the next generation of our province to meet these needs.

NGLI is raising up leaders of all generations, for the next generation of the ACNA. Join us.

To contribute to leadership development through NGLI, please visit our Give page. For more information about NGLI, please sign up for our emails or contact Jessica Jones.

Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones

Diocesan Canon Coordinator

Jessica currently serves as the Canon for Next Generation Discipleship in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese. Her areas of interest include education, leadership development, worship and liturgy, catechesis, family ministry, and ministry to women.