Tag Archives: youth

From nude selfie sharing to hard drugs, there’s an abundance of dangerous temptations for today’s youth. Rev Tom Kerr grapples with sin and guiding our young people with a Christ-like love. You’ve seen the news headlines about violence at out of control house parties, teen nude photo sites and the Ice epidemic. Youth, sin and theology. I think we’d better ...

Active planning for safety can help us meet our mission goals and reach out to the community. It’s absolutely critical that every church is a child safe church. Here’s five tips that will help make that happen. Share guardianship Every person engaged in the life of the church needs to grow a culture of shared guardianship of children. The Child ...

Build the Future managing director Melanie Minichiello talks to Dianne Jensen about her passion for helping young people re-connect with society. Gratitude. It’s as old-fashioned as a hand-written thank-you note, but youth advocate Melanie Minichiello says being grateful is a key ingredient in happiness and wellbeing. “Gratitude allows us to look beyond ourselves and to gain perspective and balance,” says ...

Remember looking up at the stars at midnight, talking about God and faith and wishing that you could always hold worship in a bush chapel or on the beach at dawn? Dianne Jensen finds out why youth camps still play a pivotal role in faith development. Youth camps are a tradition in the Uniting Church, drawing on the legacy of ...

It’s much easier to be a young person in a church full of other young people, and it’s no secret that some Uniting Church members are gravitating to younger, cooler denominations—or leaving church altogether. Rohan Salmond talks to some young people who have made the choice to stick around. It’s a statistical oddity that one of Australia’s youngest denominations—the Uniting ...

Ashley Thompson speaks with newly appointed Queensland Synod General Secretary Gary Doyle about his passion for young people and the church. Last December Gary Doyle and his wife Helen uprooted themselves from their home in Townsville and moved to Brisbane—enabling him to become general secretary of the Uniting Church in Queensland. “I don’t really see this job as a promotion; ...

This is the first Journey of the New Year, so I want to outline for you again the discernment of the 31st Synod regarding the broad priorities for the church’s life going forward. Synod discerned the following: making our worship accessible and attractive growing our members in their passion and ability to share their faith planting new communities of faith ...

NCYC 2014 was a vibrant celebration of the life and diversity found among Uniting Church young people. Tilly South reports. “Faith is a practical thing,” preached Rev Julian Hamilton, chaplain at Trinity College, Dublin and guest speaker at the 2014 National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC), a biennial event held by a presbytery or synod of the Uniting Church. “We must ...

Emerging Indigenous leaders and elders from across Australia are forging new partnerships through the Grasstree Gathering. Dianne Jensen reports. “Preaching in your own skin” is a catchphrase that sums up the cultural and spiritual empowerment of a people, and it resounded at the National Grasstree Gathering Emerging Indigenous Christian Leaders Conference in Brisbane. The Grasstree event in early October followed the inaugural ...

Kerry Marnane examines what discipleship means for an emerging generation in the church. As a member of Generation Y, I have heard the labels so often attributed to us. True, we are as a whole reluctant to commit—be it to events, careers or relationships; and we so often display a sense of entitlement—to a better future, better opportunities and higher standard ...