Youth and young adulthood are currently a passionate preoccupation of the Episcopal Church. The 2003 General Convention set the pace through creating and passing resolutions and budget that focused on the urgency of faith formation and development with our young people. Every congregation in the Church’s “Call to Grow” is concerned with nurturing youth in their faith, and every diocese seeks to provide opportunities to examine all the ways to reach our young people in a post modern age. This accent on youth is a reflection of the reality of the age crises that face the church. On the surface there is an absolute drive for survival as congregations age and begin to consider how will we keep alive the traditions and history of the church. Below the surface there is a deep awareness of the importance of our identity as Christians who worship in the Episcopal Tradition. It is to the depth that Jenifer Gamber has crafted this wonderful and much needed resource, My Faith, My Life: A Teenagers’ Guide to the Episcopal Church. Unique in its pedagogical approach and design, Jenifer offers mentors, parents, youth leaders, confirmation instructors an alternative that provides a missionary impetus for sharing the history, tradition and reason with our teens.
The resource descends through the waters of baptism to surface on the development of faith from the Early Church to post modern culture. Active voices provide inspiration to teens who are led by the promise, “God is with you to strengthen you to keep the promises” and “The church community is with you to help you keep your promise.” I can only imagine what youth ministry might look like if this resource is taken seriously. For it expects and honors the dignity of our young people in their quest not only for knowledge but to know the living Christ in their heart. It is a critical time in the life of our church to consider the place of identity, authority and vocation in the lives of our young people through this historical experiential resource designed to reach those in the life of the church who seek to discover what is this church I belong to? And who am I in it?
Robyn Szoke
Associate Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church
Carlisle, Pennsylvania