It
is hard to believe that 10 years ago three veteran youth workers were brought
together with a shared vision that translated into a ministry to youth workers
across Canada. In May of 2002 God began
speaking to three young youth workers regarding a national ministry connecting
and resourcing youth workers across Canada.
However we did not know of each other’s passion for this type of
ministry.
Things
began to come together in 2005 when Tim Houck and I collaborated on a one day
seminar hosted by Youth Specialties.
Realizing the need for further connection with other youth workers and
resourcing, we began the process of meeting and discussing the possible
ministry they could have together. The
realization was that we needed to include more people to round out the
ministry. Enter Garth Friesen, Youth
Ministry Professor at Steinbach Bible College and Karl Enns of the Winkler
Bergthaler Church. Having representation
from the Church, Para-Church and Academic arenas, the team was formed and
Canadian Youth Worker was birthed.
So
there we were with an idea and a passion, both of which were larger than
anything we would be able to accomplish.
We pressed forward distinguishing who we were through our core values:
Core
Values:
1.
By Canadians… For Canadians
2.
Equal & Personable Care
3.
Grass Roots (Community oriented)
4.
Accessible & Affordable
5.
Holistic (Spiritual, Mental, Emotional &
Physical)
6.
Ecumenical (inter-denominational…
non-denominational)
7.
Excellence (in service, product &
relationships)
These
values governed everything we participated in, partnered with and developed
ourselves and our goals were four-fold:
Goals:
Connect: All youth workers enjoy being with others who
understand them and many work in remote areas.
We want to offer opportunities for youth workers to connect so they can
share their joys, passions, struggles and encourage each other.
Equip: Youth ministry is constantly evolving and
every region has its own issues.
Training needs to be affordable and accessible to all youth workers, but
also needs to address the training needs of specific regions. We want to not only offer training
opportunities but to partner with and inform youth workers about other opportunities
in their region.
Resource: Most of the resources that Canadians are
using are from the USA. It’s excellent
material, but unfortunately doesn’t deal with Canadian issues and often has an
American flavor that just doesn’t fit into our ministries. We would like to be able to offer resources
that are for Canadians… by Canadians.
Refresh: One of the biggest reasons for youth workers
leaving their ministry is burn-out. They
spend so much time caring for others they forget to care for themselves. We would like to be an organization that
encourages self-care and offers ideas, opportunities and means for youth
workers to refresh themselves.
Over
time we began to realize that Canadian Youth Worker had a place in Canadian
youth ministry but needed to be developed further than our capacity would
allow. As a result of this realization
we began to seek God on who needed to take this small but effective ministry to
a level where it could be used for the kingdom in a grander way. When we met Matt Wilks we were immediately
drawn to his leadership and wisdom and found that when we prayed for new leadership
Matt was willing and able to rise up to the challenge. Since Matt has taken over Canadian Youth
Worker we have seen some of our original vision come to life with online
resources, a newspaper and a larger national presence.
Canadian
Youth Worker now has a fantastic and truly gifted leadership team that will be
able to navigate the waters of this animal we call Canadian Youth
Ministry. I see the future of Canadian
Youth Worker in godly leaders who truly understand the vision and ethos of this
ministry by Canadians for Canadians.
Canadian Youth Worker truly is simply a group that provides provocative insights,
relevant ideas, current trends and reviews of resources for Youth Workers
across Canada.
Rob Haslam
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