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Please Contemplate This
by T.A. McMahon of
The Berean Call
For more Related Articles, click here
 
 

YS Conventions

Youth Specialties

National Pastors Convention

For more Related Articles, click here. 
Mark Yaconelli and
the Youth Ministry Spirituality Project
 

Contemplative Youth Ministry by Mark YaconelliMark Yaconelli's book, Contemplative Youth Ministry

Taking Kids Down the Contemplative Road Published by Zondervan

See Emerging Sideways Blog


Where Is Mark Yaconelli Taking
Our Christian Kids?


"It's Sunday just after 5 p.m. in the youth room at Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo, California. Seven adults are sitting around a "Christ-candle" in the youth room. There's no talking, no laughter. For 10 minutes, the only noise is the sound of their breathing." ... more Ancient Future Youth Ministry by Mark Yaconelli



The Practices of the Youth Ministry Spirituality Project
Also see their link to SDI
(Spiritual Directors International)



What Kinds of Books Does Mark Yaconelli Recommend?

 

Taken from
Please Contemplate This
by T.A. McMahon of
The Berean Call

 

"Mark Yaconelli is co-director of the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project (YMSP), an Eli Lilly (makers of Prozac) endowed program which is introducing contemplative spirituality to young people throughout the country. He is also an adjunct professor of youth ministries at San Francisco Theological Seminary. His father is [was] Mike Yaconelli [now deceased], head of Youth Specialties, a major evangelical organization serving "more than 80,000 youth workers worldwide through training seminars, conventions, videos, magazines, and resource products." One Youth Specialties seminar is "Sabbath: A [Contemplative] Spiritual Retreat for Youth Workers," which Mark Yaconelli leads. In an article for the popular, youth-oriented Group magazine, Mark states, "The YMSP approach to youth ministry pushes for a return to God-awareness...[noting] that middle school and senior high kids are hungry to encounter God directly and eager to learn contemplative spiritual practices." In another article subtitled "How Spiritual Exercises Can Change Your Kids," he tells of implementing contemplative methods he first learned at "a weeklong retreat at a nearby [Roman Catholic] convent": Our [YMSP] project churches were introduced to a number of classical exercises from the Christian tradition: Biblical meditation forms like Lectio Divina and Ignatian contemplation; icon prayers and other visualization prayers; chanting; guided imagery; biblical imagination ... centering prayer; and prayers of discernment."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness (the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common terms used for this movement are "spiritual formation," "the silence," "the stillness," "ancient-wisdom," "spiritual disciplines," and many others.

Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.