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Family
Ministry around the World
The research, resources, training, and outreach offered by Augsburg's Youth and Family Institute (YFI) have taken it to every state in the U.S. and now are literally taking it around the world. During the past year, Dick Hardel, executive director, and David Anderson, director of faith formation education, have traveled to Canada, Norway, and Australia. In Canada alone, the institute's activities have included two workshops, four bishops' theological conferences, and plans for four more trips. Both Hardel and Anderson will return to Australia for three weeks in the spring to present workshops and train church leaders. And, in the summer, Hardel will lead a group, as part of a new family well-being program, to Poland, East Germany, and the Czech Republic. This is not to mention the service requests that YFI has received from church leaders in Malaysia, India, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. A message and a paradigm What the Youth and Family Institute offers and what churches across denominations and around the world are seeking is a vision and workable models for a new paradigm in ministry with children, youth, and their families.
YFI's message was articulated recently to the Augsburg community in chapel by Rev. Thor Sommerseth, pastor in residence, from Bergen, Norway. "The message is that if you want to make a church, you have to make it in every family, not only in a chapel," said Sommerseth. "[The institute] research shows that the influence of faith comes from families." Around that concept YFI has developed a range of resources—consultations, workshops, printed materials, a peer ministry program, internships for the youth and family ministry major at the College, and a summer leadership conference. Special ties to Norway Sommerseth's visit to Augsburg is part of a special relationship that has developed over the past eight years between YFI and the Church of Norway. In 1999, Anderson and Hardel enjoyed a rare opportunity to lead a two-day conference in Oslo with more than 100 church leaders in the Lutheran and other Christian communities. Each year, Anderson teaches a course at the Norwegian Teacher Academy in Bergen for Augsburg students, and YFI is now exploring a partnership with this academy to help them begin training Norwegian students in youth and family ministry. Beginning in the fall, Kari Burke, an Augsburg student graduating with a double major in youth and family ministry and Norwegian, will begin youth ministry work with Sommerseth at two congregations in Bergen. Tripp Trapp, the Church of Norway's subscription series of resources for the home, became the model for YFI's FaithLife in the Home resource guide and center. Offering materials from more than 50 publishing sources, the guide makes available books, Bibles, CDs, videos, games, puzzles, and toys to assist families in passing the faith from generation to generation. Resources and conferences Resource centers have been placed in over 200 churches across the country; and many of these churches have established partnerships with the institute and provide internships for the more than 40 Augsburg students majoring in youth and family ministry. YFI's popular Child in Our Hands two-day conference series has also traveled around the world. In addition to the three conferences that Hardel and Anderson will lead in Australia, 11 are scheduled around the U.S. during 2001. The ecumenical and international Summer Leadership Conference brings together pastors, youth directors, Christian educators, and church leaders from around the world. The fourth annual conference, "Worship and the Spiritual Life," will take place on the Augsburg campus from July 30-August 3, 2001, and feature Dr. Martin Marty among others. The Youth and Family Institute was founded in 1987 by Merton Strommen ’42, in memory of his son, David ’83. Over its 14 years, the institute has provided the spark for many new programs in church groups and congregations. "We've created a vision of how to create a new paradigm to pass on the faith," Hardel said. "You can't own a vision—you have to give it away."
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