St. Andrew’s Youth Ministry

Welcome to our Youth Ministry page (for those age 12 and up). Wherever you are on your faith journey, we are glad you are here. Our youth ministry is here to support your spiritual journey, wherever it may take you. As an Episcopal youth minister, of course I believe deeply in the beauty of our faith tradition and the teachings given to us by Jesus of Nazareth, but we are not a community that believes our path is the “only true path” (we don’t believe our friends of other faiths are destined for eternal torment). Just as Jesus was in his ministry, we are more concerned with helping you, our youth, discover YOUR faith, and YOUR relationship with God, than we are with making you “believe the right things”.

So come explore with us. Keep scrolling (or use the “Jump To” links) see what we’re learning this week, learn about practices you can try at home, and learn about our Episcopal faith (with some funny videos and other materials – don’t worry, no textbooks!). And you can see our upcoming special events by hopping over to the Events page.

We invite you to come see where this incredible faith journey takes you. For however long you choose to walk this road with us, we will support you, engage in the hard questions with you, and honor the light of God in YOU. And we’ll have fun along the way. Amen.

This week in youth ministry

Note: Sunday Youth Group, or TSE, meets from 10:20 to 11(ish) each week. If you would like to join us virtually via Zoom, please contact Scott by clicking the “Contact” tab above, or by clicking HERE.

Sunday, April 2nd at 10am

We have arrived at Holy Week. It begins this Sunday with Palm Sunday, with a service starting at 10am. We begin with a procession, carrying Palm Fronds and ringing bells in celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. We will follow his footsteps and make our own procession into our church, where the service will continue. All ages are welcome to this joyous morning. And don’t forget, we will have coffee hour at 9am before the service, so please join us for that.

After the procession concludes, I will be leading a children and youth activity in the undercroft. This will be an all ages gathering, and we’ll be assembling Easter Eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt on April 9th. But we’ll be adding a little something extra. In addition to filling the eggs with treats like chocolate, we’ll be creating “mustard seeds”, small notes of love, compassion and justice. Like the Mustard Seeds of the parable, these are small, simple words to offer as gifts to those who find them – words that can uplift, offer hope, and someday grow into the great trees of the Kingdom of Heaven. They are small acts of kindness in a world that so desperately needs more of them. I would love to have some of our older youth join in for this – to help our young ones write notes, create pictures, and guide them through the activity.

Take Home Faith

Creating your Prayer Space

I thought I would take a moment to share with everyone what my prayer table looks like. Of course, this is a very personal thing. In church we have VERY specific ways that altars should be set up. But your home prayer space has a lot more freedom. So create a space that feels good to you, a space set aside for time with God, a space that can be, as Jesus said, “a well of living water” for your soul. And have fun creating your space – prayer doesn’t always need to be dreadfully serious all the time!

A Super-helpful app for daily home prayer

In the Episcopal Church, we use the Book of Common Prayer. For a little more about that, you can check out the “Episcopal 101” section. But if you would like a helpful app to start praying what we Episcopalians call the “Daily Office” (which is found IN our Book of Common Prayer, or “the BCP” if you want to sound extra “in-the-know”), click on the links below. This will even open the readings IN the app, so you can use just your phone if you’d like (I’m old school, so I still like getting the Psalm number from the app and then thumbing through the Book of Common Prayer).

Click HERE to check out the app for iOS.

Click HERE to check out the app on the Google Play Store.

Ways to Pray at Home

Here’s an extremely helpful video showing a variety of ways you might pray at home…. well, OK, not THAT helpful…. Maybe a little helpful?

Episcopal 101

So what IS this whole “Episcopal” thing? Well, we’re a pretty great place. But we can also be a confusing place, particularly for new people. We’ve got a LOT of ceremonies, and traditions, and particular ways of doing things. Episcopal 101 is here to help you understand what this whole “Episcopal” thing is all about.

Leading this guide through the Episcopal Church is the esteemed Professor Herbert Von Snootington. And this is TOTALLY not Scott using a British accent! I promise. Enjoy!

More Episodes:

Episode 3 – Other Faiths

Episode 4 – Lent