Reflective Youth Work

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Let's slow down. Take a moment. How are you feeling? What are you seeing? What is happening in your life right now? It’s easy to get busy in youth work, desperately trying to keep up with the treadmill of high-energy activity. But burnout isn’t worth it – you were made for the long haul. Take the time to rest and listen to what God is saying to you. This bundle brings together three resources designed to help you do just that. Reflect on what’s happening with Listen In, plan for what’s coming with The Gameplan, and enjoy it all with a contemplative cup of tea in The Youthscape Examug.

Listen In
This journal contains 40 exercises of various techniques and methods to help you reflect on your life and your faith, and listen in to what God is saying and notice how He is moving. Listen In exists to encourage you as a youth leader, and to help you cultivate rhythms of theological reflection in your life. The journal activities include:

• Diverse types of prayer
• Explorations of simplicity, lament, gratitude, and community
• Engaging with the Bible in new ways
• Spaces for creativity and self-reflection
• Exploring hopes and dreams for young people
• Questions for God

The Gameplan
This easy-to-use journal gives you space to record your week-by-week activities, and think about the broader vision of your work. It’s the only youth-ministry-focused, undated year planner and strategic workbook you’ll ever need. We hope you’ll love it. Includes:

• Open letters: From a wide range of people who love youth leaders. We asked them what they’d most like you to hear.
• Vision Exercises: Helping you to think through why you do what you do, and getting you to reflect on this as it evolves through the year.
• Culture focus: Opportunities for ‘thinking about' how you’re addressing the subjects that young people actually want to talk about.
• Character exercises: Giving you a chance to think and pray through your own spiritual formation.
• Prayer reminders: For young people, your fellow leaders and your church community.
• Social media ideas: Presenting a range of ways to engage with young people and their world online.

The Youthscape Examug
The Ignatian practice of the Examen is a way of prayerfully reviewing the day. It creates space for you to pause and reflect on your emotions and help you become more aware of God’s presence. We’ve used this tradition as the inspiration for the Youthscape Examug. Every time you stop for a cup of tea or coffee, or just take a break from the day, you can look at the mug and notice the Examen questions on the side which prompt you to reflect on the day and reconnect with God.

The four questions are:

• Where has God felt most present today?
• Where have I felt most distant from God?
• Who or what should I be praying for?
• How do I feel about the day ahead?