About Youth Ministry


Youth Ministry: Questions and Answers

There is much interest in Youth Ministry in our Church. I have been involved with our Church's Youth Ministry for the past five years and have traveled across North America, meeting hundreds of Orthodox youth and youth ministers. Everywhere I go people have questions about…

The Youth Friendly Parish

Everyone wants to see youth involved in the Church and there are many reasons for this. Clergy see them as a sign of parish vitality and growth. The elderly see them as a guarantee for the Church's future. Parents hope and pray that their children will find an example in the…

Is Your Area Meeting the Needs of Your Youth?

In a recent letter to the editor of the Orthodox Christian Journal, Kimberly Metz from Pennsylvania wrote, As a fourteen-year-old Orthodox Christian who lives in an area where there are very few other Orthodox kids, I feel like I am the only one of my kind . . . I would like to…

A Vision on Youth Ministry

As a manifestation of the Church’s mission youth ministry has many characteristics in common with other ministries of the Church. However, youth ministry has its own particular history and process, its own “story’’ which guides those who exercise this ministry. A Gospel…

Unless You Be Like Children

Magic Answers. It seems to you that some of the young people in your parish are becoming disinterested in the Church; you see them going off to college and very few returning to "active" participation in parish life. Perhaps you see this even in your own children. You've…

Our Youth Need You

“What do our youth need?” It’s a question we hear everywhere. Over the past number of years literally hundreds of books, magazines, and tv talk shows have discussed the needs of young people, who are taking more drugs, becoming sexually active at increasingly younger ages, and…

A New Era of Evangelistic Fervor

I’m not an expert on matters of evangelism, yet the Scriptures are clear on calling us all to be instrumental in baptizing all nations in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In my 33 years of pastoral ministry, I had concluded, as I am sure many cradle…

A Ministry of Listening

A brother asked a certain old man, saying, "There be two brothers, and one of them is quiet in his cell, and prolongs his fast for six days, and lays much burden on himself; but the other tends the sick. Whose work is the more acceptable to God?" And the old man…

Ten Basic Tips for Family Communication

"You never ever understand me" and "there's no use trying to talk with you" are the most familiar expressions heard by parents. Usually, there is some truth to it because parents are adults of one generation, and the children of another. . . and because our fast-paced…