One of the greatest joys attached to my eclectic work life is the life-giving relationships forged with hundreds of dedicated youth workers throughout the metro New York area. Today, I rejoice with Daniel Sanabria and Jack Redmond, two local champions whose book God Belongs in My City releases today.

Full disclosure: I have been privileged to be Danny’s friend for a decade or so, and we’re practically related by marriage as one of my former youth leaders is now his sister-in-law. Jack and I have been friends for years as well, and shared a transformational cohort experience with DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative. But personal affection aside, God Belongs in My City is one of the most exciting student-led prayer movements that I’ve experienced in my lifetime, which is why I blog about it so often and agreed to write the book’s Foreword (republished with permission below).

——————–

Goliaths fall when adults like Saul get out of David’s way.

The biblical figure, David, was an untested teenager, a shepherd boy with no military training. Yet he simultaneously proved to be the only man among soldiers courageous enough to confront the giant, Goliath. For forty days, Goliath’s taunts had paralyzed Israel’s king and army with fear. Then David overheard the mockery, witnessed the cowardice of the adults around him, and was moved to action. King Saul reluctantly agreed, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I first became gripped by the idea that youth can and must be empowered to lead as a thirteen-year-old on a weekend retreat. My youth pastor challenged one hundred or so teens to find a solitary place for Bible reading and prayer for an hour. Struggling to decide where to start, I remembered hearing that Timothy was a young guy when his mentor, Paul, wrote him a letter. So I read the letter start to finish, and what I found awakened something in me that changed me forever.

“Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

I was blown away. Whitney Houston was still relevant at the time, and her latest, greatest hit said I was the future, not the present! The idea that “youth are the future”—and, therefore, not particularly useful now—was echoed everywhere around me, especially in church. All the important people on Sunday mornings were fully grown. The people my age were segregated to the junior congregation with the junior Holy Spirit, supervised by a couple of adults crazy enough to lead us.

And here the Apostle Paul was challenging me (not just his protégé, Timothy) to let no one look down on me because I was young. To be an example to believers of all ages. To reject adult condescension and actually lead!

Every day since then, in one form or another, I’ve attempted to empower young people to lead change in their cultures and communities by cultivating their character and competence and then getting out of their way.

Twenty or so years later felt like déjà vu all over again. Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera, founder and president of Latino Pastoral Action Center (LPAC) in the Bronx, believes students are essential to efforts to transform communities. In 2009, that conviction motivated LPAC to produce “Kickin’ It Old Skool,” the first student leadership conference in LPAC’s and my collective memory that was actually led by students. Paradoxically, so-called student leadership events typically involve adults teaching students, or adults teaching other adults, how to lead students. Rarely do adults voluntarily play a supporting role to students leading the event.

Kickin’ It stood in stark contrast to this tradition. LPAC empowered twelve student organizers from four New York City boroughs to defy the stereotype and design a leadership event that they and other students would lead, armed with a budget to pull it off. Sixty-eight of their peers gathered for the conference at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan on September 12, 2009, and 175 enjoyed the evening concert as well. Dr. Rivera’s message that day: “Share your story. Declare your future. Inspire other students. Remember, tomorrow needs you. Prepare for it today.”

Little did he know that two months later, three of the Kickin’ It student organizers would rally a dozen or so other students to coordinate God Belongs In My City (GBIMC), the largest student-led prayer walk in New York City. Fifteen hundred marchers walked a total of eight miles in Manhattan, culminating in a Times Square rally and silent prayer “flash mob” in the main lobby of Grand Central Station.

The catalyst for the day was a dismayed youth pastor who asked some of his student leaders why Christians were publicly silent after atheists launched a citywide ad blitz that October claiming one million New Yorkers reject the existence of God.

They responded as only youth can: by launching a movement. Their tools of the trade: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and smartphones, social media inventions by their generation for their generation that empowered their efforts.

Less than two weeks later, on November 14, despite a storm bearing down on the Northeast and flash floods forecast throughout the day, fifteen hundred people showed up at the two rally points at 9:00 a.m. God smiled on them. The sun began to shine, and the rains held for four hours, just long enough to complete the walk. They walked with a purpose: to radiate love and affection for God and neighbor, while praying that God would be glorified in our city by lives that love others well.

In the last year and a half, God Belongs In My City student-led prayer walks have occurred in twenty cities. Over twenty thousand GBIMC T-shirts have been worn by teens around the country. The GBIMC story has reverberated at conferences and churches, and catalyzed similar student leadership. And GBIMC collaborated with 20/20 Vision for Schools to launch a related student-led education reform initiative called I Am My School. This book tells their story. It’s a story of leadership, student leadership, because “God belongs in my city,” and God requires students to lead.

If you’re a young person reading this, be inspired. But don’t stay that way. Do something. Pray. Serve. Lead. Catalyze change.

If you’re an adult reading this, experience the awe and joy that come after we get out of David’s way long enough to watch Goliath topple.

Buy the Book

Here.

Watch C-Lite’s “In My City” Music Video

Walk and Pray

Attend the New York City walk October 29. Or plan one for your city.

Do you need to recharge your staff and reload your arsenal of ideas as you prepare for the upcoming ministry year? Are you frustrated because your need for training doesn’t match the available budget?

Money is no longer an object as you consider how best to equip your ministry for success.

Design a custom professional development plan for you and your team team utilizing UYWI’s FREE Digital Library.

Revisit Urban Youth Workers Institute national conferences and Reload events with over 700 FREE workshop and general session mp3′s, 75 FREE UYWI training videos, and access to a library of more than 75,000 (yes thousand!) FREE urban ministry training resources from content partners like Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), Salvation Army, FASTEN, and more!

Here’s how UYWI can help you customize training solutions for your entire ministry team this year.

First, organize training topics around key developmental areas such as: Character, Leadership, Organization, and Skills.

Second, select trainers and topics that relate to your ministry’s felt needs. For example:

Month 1 // CHARACTER: Dr. Larry Acosta‘s Reload 05-06 workshop: Being a Leader Who Remains Solid at Heart

Month 2 // LEADERSHIP: Efrem Smith‘s UYWI 2005 workshop: Raising Young Heroes

Month 3 // ORGANIZATIONAL: Jeremy Del Rio‘s Reload 06-07 Workshop: Bagged Lunch and a Drop of Oil: Multiplying Re$ource$ for Urban Ministry

Month 4 // SKILLS: Dr. Larry Acosta‘s UYWI 2008 workshop: Core Competencies of the Next Generation of Urban Leader

Month 5// CHARACTER: Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil‘s 2005 UYWI workshop: The Heart of Racial Justice – How Soul Change Leads to Social Change: UYWI 2005

Month 6 // LEADERSHIP: Rudy Carrasco and Jeremy Del Rio‘s 2007 UYWI workshop: Leadership Development of Indigenous Leaders

Month 7 // ORGANIZATIONAL: Lina Thompson‘s 2006 UYWI workshop: Developmental Assets Will Make You Re-Think Your Ministry

Month 8 // SKILLS: Fred Lynch‘s 2006 UYWI workshop: Flip The Script: How to Develop Creative Bible Experiences for Youth

Month 9 // CHARACTER: Phil Jackson‘s UYWI 2008 workshop: Ministry with Integrity – How to Stay In This For Long Term Impact: UYWI 2008

Month 10 // LEADERSHIP: Dr. Ginny Olson‘s UYWI 2004 workshop: Advanced Leadership – Organizing Your Ministry, Staff Management and Strategic Planning

Month 11 // ORGANIZATIONAL: Dr. Kara Powell and Curt Gibson‘s 2007 UYWI workshop: Holistic Ministry: What Else Do Kids Need Besides A Bible Study?

Month 12 // SKILLS: Dr. Rene Rochester‘s 2007 UYWI workshop: Spiritually Educating a Postmodern, Data-Driven Hip-Hop Generation

Third, distribute the links to your team, or download the MP3 files to a flash drive and make copies for everybody, for homework listening.

Fourth, schedule monthly staff development time to process the workshop content as a group throughout the year.

RELATED

+ Free for All: A Leap Forward in Training Youth Leaders (Youth Specialties’ profile on UYWI’s innovative resource library)

I was a proud big brother on Saturday at Reload NY/NJ (a/k/a Storm), introducing and then watching Eden Martinez teach the three-hour Teen Track at the conference’s Montclair, NJ, location.

I first met Eden ten years ago when she was a precocious twelve-year old visiting YW8? Youth Ministries, where I was youth director at the time. It was just before Christmas, and we were doing some goofy youth group activity for the holidays. I don’t remember if it was a game or a skit night or something else; I just remember that this guest stole the show as she volunteered to take the stage and blew us all away with personality and humor.

This summer, shortly after her 22nd birthday, Eden succeeded my brother Jonathan as YW8′s third youth director. Still precocious, still funny, still exuding enough personality for a dozen people, the soon-to-graduate college senior has added wisdom and knowledge to an already gifted package. And on Saturday, I had the privilege to watch her teach as she’s been taught, modeling for others the extraordinary gifts that happen when students are given space to lead.

Eden and I co-wrote “We Got Next” with Vanessa Medina and Daniel Sanabria, our counterparts at the Brooklyn venue, with the goal of crafting a student-led student leadership experience in the spirit of Reload 1.2.3, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and God Belongs in My City. Below is the workshop description. MP3s and video will be available soon as well.

Thanks to Storm organizers and collaborators Urban Youth Workers Institute and Battlecry for the gift of watching Eden “shine like stars … as [she] held firmly to the word of life” (Philippians 2:15-16). Shout-out to Vanessa Medina of God Belongs in My City for representing student leaders in Brooklyn too!

“We Got Next: Youth Leadership by Youth for Youth”

Goliaths fall when adults like Saul get out of David’s way. Learn from student leaders how and why they’ve been empowered as youth to reach youth and transform their communities. For TEENS serious about creating change, AND ADULT youth workers who are ready to relinquish real authority for exponential Kingdom impact.

• Brooklyn Speakers: Vanessa Medina, introduced by Daniel Sanabria
• New Jersey Speakers: Eden Martinez, introduced by Jeremy Del Rio

Register here.

While away, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Youth Ministries Today revived an article I wrote for National Network of Youth Ministries in 2008, before the launch of 20/20 Vision for Schools.

Why Churches Should Adopt Public Schools

Sometimes a good idea takes a while to generate traction. But then a combination of timing, people, and Providence inspire enough hearts and minds to action that it transforms society, in what Malcolm Gladwell calls a “Tipping Point.”

Consider, for example, the idea that churches should love youth in their communities by adopting public schools. The Campus Alliance has been saying this for years, even creating a website to help promote the idea and track its progress (www.EverySchool.com). But a review of the EverySchool database suggests that the cry has fallen on many ears that are unable, or unwilling, to hear. Many schools still wait to be adopted.

Recently, things began to change in NewYork City.

Article

[Ed. note: Originally published in August 2010 issue of Tri-State Voice]

Goliaths fall when adults like Saul get out of David’s way.

For the last twelve months, student leaders from greater New York have proven this truism time and again. Now some are organizing a citywide prayer walk of 1,600 public schools the weekend of Halloween and inviting the city’s 7,100 churches to participate.

Imagine that: students leading congregations as together they intercede for 1.1 million public school students — on a weekend long symbolic of darkness and mayhem.

This second I Am My School effort, spearheaded by student leaders from God Belongs in My City and 20/20 Vision for Schools, expands a May 15 pilot that included ten walks in four boroughs covering twenty-five schools.

The students will pray, “I am my school,” because “I am,” the name God calls Himself, has sent them to love and serve and transform their schools. On the Monday following the walk, students will wear I Am My School t-shirts to school in an effort to identify other Christians on campus. They will also encourage their churches to adopt one school within walking distance for ongoing prayer, advocacy, and service.

This kind of catalytic student leadership is exactly what Latino Pastoral Action Center hoped to inspire on September 12, 2009, when they produced “Kickin’ it Old Skool,” the first student leadership conference in collective memory that was actually led by students. Most “student leadership” events involve adults teaching students, or adults teaching other adults how to lead students. Rarely do adults voluntarily play a supporting role to students leading the event.

LPAC empowered twelve student organizers from four boroughs defy the stereotype and design a leadership event that they and other students would lead, armed with a budget to pull it off. Sixty-eight of their peers gathered for the conference at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan, and 175 enjoyed the evening concert as well.

At Kickin’ It, LPAC’s President Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera called students, “essential to efforts to transform communities.” Then he charged them, “Share your story. Declare your future. Inspire other students. Remember, tomorrow needs you. Prepare for it today.”

Little did he know that less than two months later, three of the Kickin’ It student organizers would rally a dozen or so other students to coordinate God Belongs in My City, the largest student led prayer walk in New York City. Fifteen hundred marchers walked a total of eight miles in Manhattan culminating in a Times Square rally and silent prayer “flash mob” in the main lobby of Grand Central Station.

In May 2010, those same empowered students organized the I Am My School pilot that provides the basis for the upcoming effort.

Another recent manifestation of authentic student leadership occurred at Reload 1.2.3, the groundbreaking multi-state, multi-site youth training event on June 12 that required every adult involved in the program — from musicians and singers to trainers and general session speakers — to integrate a “Plus-1? student protégé into their content delivery. With live music and workshops at all three venues, this strategy created a platform for more than fifty student leaders to provide meaningful leadership at a premiere training event for more than five hundred youth workers. Kickin’ It student leaders presented the “Student Led Student Leadership: Pipe Dream or Possible?” workshop that was simulcast to all three venues.

Dr. Larry Acosta, president of Urban Youth Workers Institute, challenged adult leaders at Reload 1.2.3, “You need to empower youth to lead with real ministry opportunities,” not just “passing the offering plates every fifth Sunday.”

To the Plus-1’s and other student leaders, Larry exhorted: “We need you … to rise up and lead the church into the future. You’re alive at this time in history at such a time as this. We need you to help us complete the Great Commission in the cities, in the … neighborhoods, in the projects, in the parks, in the places where too many from my generation are afraid to go.”

The Biblical character David was an untested teenager, a shepherd boy with no military training, when he simultaneously proved to be the only man among soldiers courageous enough to confront the giant Goliath. For forty days, Goliath’s taunts paralyzed Israel’s army with fear. Then David overheard the mockery, witnessed the cowardice of the adults around him, and was moved to action. The rest, as they say, is history.

Join veteran leaders like Dr. Rivera and Dr. Acosta in creating space for young people to continue making history. For more information on I Am My School, sign up online at 2020schools.net/i-am-my-school.

- Jeremy Del Rio was 13 when his youth pastor invited him to preach, 19 when his senior pastor asked him to start a youth group, and today directs 20/20 Vision for Schools, a movement to transform public education within one generation of students. www.JeremyDelRio.com

Related

• Watch the Reload 1.2.3 General Sessions for free online.
• Watch the Reload 1.2.3 Workshops for free online.

So you’ve watched the Reload 1.2.3 general sessions and waited with baited breath for the featured workshops to be posted online as well. Wait no more.

For more information on Reload 1.2.3, the first multi-state, multi-site urban youth ministry training event in the country that featured adult youth workers and more than sixty “plus-1 proteges” that occurred in New York and New Jersey on June 12, 2010, visit the Reload 1.2.3 homepage.

Featured Workshop 1: “Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible?”

It’s trendy for youth ministers to say, “Youth ministry is not about ministering to youth, but about empowering youth to minister,” but what does youth-led youth ministry actually look like? Experience youth ministry by young people as NYC students discuss recent student-led ministry models including God Belongs in My City, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and World Vision’s Youth Empowerment Project.

Facilitated by Enid Almanzar (Avenue of Hope Fellowship, Manhattan) and featuring student leaders: Eden Martinez (Abounding Grace Ministries, Manhattan), Johnny Navarro (No Limits International Church, Staten Island), Vanessa Medina (God Belongs in My City, Brooklyn), and Christopher Cortes (World Vision Youth Empowerment Project, Bronx)

Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible? from UYWI on Vimeo.

Featured Workshop 2: “Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities”

“I the Lord love justice” (Isaiah 61:8). How then can youth ministries lead the struggle to overcome injustices such as poverty, crime, institutionalization, and educational inequity that conspire everyday against urban youth and erode urban communities? What role can youth ministries play in restoring the shalom of our cities by advocating for and manifesting Biblical justice in the communities beyond our church walls?

Featuring Ruben Austria and Rachel Carrion, Community Connections for Youth

Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities” from UYWI on Vimeo.

What? You missed Reload 1.2.3? Never heard of a “Plus-1“? No worries. The general session videos are now available to watch online for FREE, and the featured workshops are coming soon. Enjoy the general sessions here.

General Session 1: “Homegrown: The Leader”

Featuring: Jeremy Del Rio and Ryan Schlachter, 20/20 Vision for Schools; Mitchell Torres and Esmeralda Castellon, Harvest Fields Community Church; Efrain Figueroa and Reginald Renier, Glad Tidings Assembly of God; Larry Acosta, Urban Youth Workers Institute

RELOAD123 General Session 1 from UYWI on Vimeo.

General Session 2: “Hand-Off: The Legacy”

Featuring: Efrain “Brother E” Alicea, Elements Church; Joseph Henry Cortese, Crossroads Tabernacle; David Ham, Evangel Church; Andy “C-Lite” Mineo, Sin is Wack; Jay Cabassa, Elements Church; and the Reload 1.2.3 Worship Team

RELOAD123 General Session 2 from UYWI on Vimeo.

Those familiar with 20/20 Vision for Schools’ Transformation Matrix know that empowering student leaders as change agents within schools is a pillar of our paradigm for transforming public education within a single generation of students. In summary, it goes something like this:

1. Stop viewing students as consumers of education, buying a product from teachers
2. Instead empower them as owners of their lives, investing in their education as a means to a life worth living
3. As owners, nurture a culture of leadership among the student body of public schools
4. Develop a 10% pipeline of student leaders within any given school because when 10% of a community changes its values, the rest of the population generally follows

This value has defined my youth work since my own teen years, having first been inspired at a youth retreat after discovering this passage, and then serving as the defining characteristic of Generation Xcel’s “by youth for youth” mantra. More recently, this passion surfaced producing Kickin’ It Old Skool for Latino Pastoral Action Center in September and observing God Belongs In My City in November.

Because of this foundational commitment to authentic student leadership, it was 20/20′s privilege to sponsor Reload 1.2.3 on June 12, the first ever multi-site multi-state student ministry conference. (1 conference. 2 States. 3 sites.)  And it was my privilege to director the event with the help of 30+ other youth workers and dozens of volunteers.

Specifically, 20/20 Vision contributed three core components to Reload 1.2.3′s one-of-a-kind program.  First, 20/20 inspired and shaped Reload’s Plus-1 program strategy, requiring every adult involved in the program at all three venues, from musicians and singers to trainers and general session speakers, to integrate a “Plus-1″ protege into their content delivery.  With live music and workshops at all three venues, this strategy created a platform for more than 50 Plus-1 student leaders to provide meaningful leadership at a premiere training event for more than 500 youth workers.  More importantly, Plus-1s demonstrated what empowered student leaders look like, rather than adults simply talking about student leadership as a value, and created a common reference point for more than 500 leaders who can influence a shift towards more authentic student leadership in organizations throughout greater New York.

Second, 20/20 shaped the “Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible?” workshop which featured four accomplished student leaders as experts on what student-led change looks like and how to achieve it. The workshop description follows, along with a slideshow that captured visually the impacts of their student leadership.

It’s trendy for youth ministers to say, “Youth ministry is not about ministering to youth, but about empowering youth to minister,” but what does youth-led youth ministry actually look like? Experience youth ministry by young people as NYC students discuss recent student-led ministry models including God Belongs in My City, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and World Vision’s Youth Empowerment Project.

(Student Led Student Ministry: Possible from Jeremy Del Rio on Vimeo.)

Finally, Reload 1.2.3 provided a platform for the 20/20 Vision Workshop to be taught live at three venues simultaneously, thanks to our instructors Edwin Pacheco (associate pastor Gateway City Church and director Youth Rock), Walter Sotelo (director New York Gospel Outreach), and Rohin Beach (youth pastor St. Luke’s Baptist Church of Paterson). Here’s that workshop description:

Adults promise children that if they stay in school they will be equipped to succeed in life, but we have failed to make good on that promise for generations — with high school graduation rates in some cities hovering at or below 30%. Come explore how urban youth ministries are transforming public education within a single generation of students by activating congregations, adopting schools, and becoming answers to prayer.

Download video of the Vision Workshop, along with its PowerPoint and lecture notes, here.

Thanks Urban Youth Workers Institute for being an incredible partner and affirming that empowered student leaders are key to reaching their generation.

If you missed the national broadcast of Reload 1.2.3, here’s a flavor of the opening general session, introducing both the technology innovations and the concept of plus-1′s.

Broadcast Intro

Emcees: Ryan Schlachter & Jeremy Del Rio

[VIDEO INTRO: River Rush]

Ryan:

“Welcome to the national broadcast of RELOAD 1.2.3. My name is Ryan Schlachter and I’m a Plus-1. Yeah, I am contagious.

Whether you’re joining us live in Manhattan, Jersey City or watching online around the country, you’ll meet many other Plus-1’s today. Hopefully, we’ll infect a lot more of you before the day is over.

What’s a Plus-1?

We are the next generation leaders, the fruit of the seeds planted by urban youth workers. That’s right. A chosen generation. A royal priesthood. Empowered by God to represent God’s Kingdom Legacy. Wow…I like that.

We’re the future of youth ministry, and our future is NOW.

The Kingdom we represent upends convention and transcends what’s normal. It proclaims good news to the poor and sets free the captive. It restores what’s been stolen and populates empty streets with homes that flourish. It mends broken hearts and fixes broken systems.

And it trusts people like me to change the world.

My generation has already changed the world. That’s why this year, we have revolutionized Reload. Here’s how.”

[VIDEO 2: Social Media Revolution]

Ryan:

Thank you for helping us make youth ministry history today!

RELOAD 1.2.3 is the first multi-site, multi-state youth ministry training event ever.

One Conference. Two States. Three venues that marry the energy that comes when people of like mind and heart convene face-to-face … WITH the real-time interactivity social media provides when face-time isn’t always possible.