2012 Princeton Forums on Youth Ministry - Day 1

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow could keep the Eastmans away from the 2012 Princeton Forums on Youth Ministry. With the winter storm warning looming over our heads, Tara and I had our Toyota loaded and ready to leave as early as possible... We appreciated the prayers of our friends as we trekked across 86 through weather more suitable for November than April. Angelica and south central NY was the worst for ice and snow, but when we passed through Binghamton into PA things improved considerably. Mostly drizzle.

It was wonderful to walk onto the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary and catch up with friends from my learning cohort. It had been a year since we had all been together in the same place, but we were all so at ease with each other because of our frequent online discussions. Everyone needs community: Face to face, online seminars, and, yes, even Facebook kept us connected.

The theme of this year's forum is "create." To be perfectly honest, I wasn't that intrigued by the theme. The last month and a half has been quite a challenge for me: strep throat, surgery for my mom, a big conference youth event, and a big workload at my day job. I felt sometimes like I was running on fumes over the last week. I was greatly encouraged during opening worship this afternoon. People joke about the Presbyterians as the "frozen chosen" (not my experience at all), but they have this wonderful way of incorporating all kinds of diverse elements into worship without it becoming gimmicky or cheesy. Some youth workers brought a creative and responsive way of retelling the creation story. I was caught up into the story and praising God... I was looking at the theme in the wrong way... I guess I was thinking of it as a bunch of how-to seminars, but in Miller Chapel, the musicians, speakers, dancers, etc. offered their creativity in such a way that familiar scripture and experiences came vividly to life for me once again.

The evening plenary session was by Tim Temes about the Saint John's Bible, the first handwritten Bible since the printing press. You might think that a 90 minute presentation on this project might by dry or even boring, but this was far from the case. The work was done so reverently, and the images so rich in symbolism, that I think I could have sat there all night. We did a short meditation on an image out of Genesis and it was so beautiful, the image and the reality of God's handiwork, that I began to cry. Please do yourself a big favor and find out more about the Saint John's Bible at its website.

I ended the evening by meeting my mentor for the next year, Pastor Ron Foster, author of my favorite book about youth ministry, The Godbearing Life. He talked about how he has incorporated photography into his prayer life and I am going to try and get to his elective tomorrow to learn more.

Create, in retrospect, is a great theme for the forum. I am interested in finding ways of firing youth's imaginations and souls by helping them create content... Must ponder more about this, but for now, bed. After all, I bet even Michelangelo had to call it a night sometime.