Seeking open-minded, engaging, and spiritual volunteers to facilitate serious and fun conversations with St. Paul’s middle schoolers in our Rite 13 church school class.
The ideal volunteers are:
- Experienced in working with middle schoolers and enjoys their unique energy and perspectives.
- Comfortable with facilitating conversations about faith – especially with a group of reluctant participants!
- Committed to listening to and supporting young people with an open heart and mind.
- Very familiar with and/or willing to learn about the Book of Common Prayer and Bible stories.
Description
Rite 13 is a part of the Journey to Adulthood curriculum created by The Episcopal Church for youth ministry. Middle school is a special time full of development, creativity, and stress. The Rite 13 class focuses on self-discovery, spirituality, and service to others.
The 12 to 14-year-olds meet with their teachers in a cozy room in the tower. They start each session with bagels and a chance to catch up; then, they begin a discussion or small group activity. These discussions and activities center around core Christian values- loving God and loving your neighbor. In addition, the curriculum challenges young people to learn to love themselves by asking them to reflect on the ways that they were made uniquely by God. The Rite 13 facilitators should lead these conversations with engaging and tender patience because it can be hard for middle schoolers to speak their minds! The most important thing is that each young person is given the opportunity to reflect in a supportive and loving environment.
Requests
- Volunteers are asked to dedicate 5 hours a month for the church school year, September 11, 2022, through May 22, 2023. (Each volunteer is asked to teach two times a month. Every lesson takes about an hour to learn/prepare. Each class period is an hour long and requires approximately 15 minutes of setup and/or 15 minutes of clean-up.)
- Volunteers are asked to learn the lesson plan and set up the materials before class on Sunday morning
- Volunteers are required to take Safeguarding God’s Children, an Episcopal Church training course that teaches church policies and best practices to ensure young people’s safety.
- Volunteers are asked to find their own replacements if they have a scheduling conflict.
- Volunteers are asked to serve with an open heart, mind, and tenderness for our teens who are walking their own spiritual paths.