We’re kicking off a new series at EpiscoYouth this week called Mission Mondays.

Across the Youth Ministry Network of the Episcopal Church, there is a great diversity of activities in the name of “mission.”

Commonly, youth groups, dioceses, and even provincial groups plan and execute Summer Mission Trips. Some groups are experienced in connecting with partners in short term mission, some contract with professional agencies for deployment to a mission site, and some simply venture forth with good intentions but with little preparation and planning.

It is our hope that we can begin to build capacity across the Episcopal Youth Ministry Network for meaningful mission engagement by sharing excellent resources and stories of transformation in the midst of mission.

We want to help our congregations discern the difference between taking youth on a summer adventure in which they engage in some sweat equity to help others, and preparing to be transformed by entering into a partnership to embrace God’s mission in the world through cultural exchanges, pilgrimages, and service learning.

We want to help congregations engage in educational strategies to discern if they are called to spend the time and effort organizing travel or to engage local learning and fundraising to respond to an identified need.

 “It is a matter of calling the near and the far off together into the fold. It is about healing and reconciling. It is about making that love incarnate in the lives of people around us and in the lives of people on the other end of the earth.” – The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church, May 19, 2012.

We offer you the Five Marks of Mission as a reminder and a template for how we are called to act upon the Baptismal promises we have made. We hope to journey with you as we collectively respond to human need in loving service.

We will be releasing a new resource, “Episcopal Youth in Mission,” chapter by chapter, until the resource is complete. The Episcopal Youth Event Mission Planning Team will also be making this resource a core piece of learning for participants who will be joining us in Philadelphia next summer for the Episcopal Youth Event (EYE’14)

And we want to hear your stories. Please share with us your stories of when you – youth and adults – have been transformed through active mission engagement, at home and abroad.