PROFILES
New Directions Christian Church
and 180 Degrees Youth Ministry
Memphis, Tenn.
by Jeff Hou, 15, Y-Press
New Direction Christian Church opened in 2001 “to empower all people to know God through life-changing experiences from the inside out,” according to its Web site. In particular, it has reached out to its youth members with a variety of experiences, including some that find expression in music, drama and dance.
While adults lead many of the activities at the 180 Degrees Youth Ministry, such as its junior high and high school ministries, many other activities are youth-led. For example, youth have special roles at many levels of the church, including the choir and Bible study. But most importantly, New Directions lets youth lead one Sunday service a month.
“I think that’s quite different because most churches don’t give young people an opportunity to showcase their gifts and talents once a month,” said Jasmine Walker, 18, who has been involved in the youth ministry for more than six years, most recently as a youth leader.
How would you describe the 180 Degrees Youth Ministry?
Youth tend to think that a Bible study at church consists of sitting down with a Bible and the preacher just having a sermon; you listen and go home. But at 180 it’s much different. The pastor recently sent some of his youth to Lexington, Ky., for a youth conference, and he also sent about 10 of us to Indianapolis for the Disciples of Christ Great Assembly. So he often opens us up to different environments and gives us different opportunities to learn more about Christ in different ways.
How would you describe your work at the church?
I’m the chaplain of the [youth] choir. My job is to run and to lead a Bible study before every rehearsal we have, which is every Monday and Wednesday. I was a part of our student executive team. I’m also a part of the spoken word ministry and am a youth leader.
What is the youth-run Sunday service like?
Maybe they want to sing one month and maybe dance the next month and maybe step the next month. We’re open enough to let them do all of those things because we believe that everyone doesn’t have just one gift. We give them the opportunity to minister in many different ways.
What do you consider your group’s biggest success?
I would say our biggest success hasn’t happened yet because we have a youth summit coming up in September, and I believe that that will be our biggest success at the 180 Youth Ministry.
What advice would you give to kids who want to get involved with religious activism?
I’d say just go ahead and go for it. I mean, there’s nothing to lose, but there is much, much to gain. Use your gifts, use your talent. Even if you aren’t quite sure what your gifts and talents are, you can always pray for guidance.
North American Federation of Temple Youth
Nationwide
by Jake Thornburgh, 16, Y-Press
For Sophie Vener, 17, a desire to perform on stage turned into a desire to perform public service.
In ninth grade, Sophie chose to attend a performing arts high school in San Diego. She was amazed by the diversity of the student population and the stories and trials of her fellow classmates. “Being involved in such of an artistic community, I’ve learned a lot of important lessons that have applied to social justice,” she said.
Sophie found the perfect place to channel her energies in the North American Federation of Temple Youth, a youth-run organization founded on the Jewish value tikkun olam, which means “repairing the world,” she explained.
Could you tell us more about NFTY?
It’s a Reformed Jewish youth movement that is pluralistic, so some of its main values are learning about the religion and exploring Judaism for young people. It’s a safe place for spiritual exploration and self-exploration in a Jewish community.
You’ve held numerous roles in NFTY since you became active in ninth grade. Describe a little of the work you’ve been done.
NFTY is broken up into 19 regions, and my senior year in high school, which was last year, I was the social action vice president of the Southern California region. And what that entailed is writing programming, which is like a two-hour block of basically informal education about topics that Reformed Jews are passionate about. For example, I’m writing a program about four different African regions and issues that happen there.
A lot of the approach to this type of programming is simulations and discussions. And so the discussion that came from me was malaria. But the programming always has different components: an action piece, which would be a hands-on form of social action, and then an advocacy piece.
One of our big focuses was the organization Nothing But Nets. We raised about $1,000 for Nothing But Nets, which is an organization that sends bed nets that prevent people from getting malaria in refugee camps in Africa.
Could you describe some of the other projects your region has undertaken?
Another program that had kind of very direct results was a social acting carnival, and it had different stations. There was a station where you wrote letters to your senator about environmental issues. There was a station where we signed petitions about Darfur. There was a station where we made about a couple hundred peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for homeless in LA, and there was a station where we made butterflies for the Holocaust memorial in Austin, Texas, that’s a memorial for children who died in the Holocaust.
What do you feel is NFTY’s biggest success?
I think one of the biggest successes of our movement is that we have thousands of young people who truly care about pursuing justice. We have kids all over North America who will stand up and say that they support gay marriage, that they want to end the genocide in Darfur. That’s like the biggest success that I can think of.
But on a more tangible level, during Hurricane Katrina, the North American social action vice president started this, but basically we raised over $20,000 through NFTY, which was on a completely grassroots level, to give to kids who were displaced from the hurricane.
by Tommaso Verderame, 15, Y-Press
Advertising itself as a “light on campus,” Project Nur works on 23 college campuses across the country to promote leadership and understanding among people of different faiths. Originally created as a student arm of the American Islamic Congress as a way to challenge negative media perceptions of Muslims following the 9/11 attacks, it is open to everyone.
Corina Kwami, 22, has been involved with Project Nur for nearly a year at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She recently helped organize “flash mobs” in support of Iranian students protesting the recent elections in that country.
“We have a number of people who are of the Muslim faith but also people within the Christian faith,” Corina says. “It is not a one-faith organization.”
How would you describe your work with Project Nur?
I started out as a media-outreach intern in the fall of ’08. From there I began brainstorming ways to bring Project Nur off campus, like helping run the Campus Hope campaign last summer here in D.C. We did a number of videoconferences between our campus at Georgetown and Morocco, Jordan and Egypt.
What kinds of response have you received?
Most recently, we got a lot of coverage on our D.C. Iranian flash-mob action. D.C. is always very much covered with protests and banners, so one of our chapter members from America University wanted to do an action based on silent demonstration. We started at Union Station and moved to Federal Triangle, then to the Lincoln Memorial, DuPont Circle and then finished up at the Iranian Embassy.
It was 30 three-minute sections of silence. A lot of the sidewalks were just covered with students, people on lunch breaks.
What piece of advice would you give to other youth who want to get involved with activism, specifically related to religion?
The strongest activism is one built in solidarity. And solidarity does not have
a religious, cultural or ethnic line. Like Project Nur, even in our leadership there are Muslims, Christians, different people from different cultures. It’s better to have a broader base, without being partisan to a certain faith.
