Portfolio

As part of my degree program at Luther Seminary, I have to compile a portfolio of my coursework and my professional “competencies.” I figured this was as good of a place as any to keep all of that information. Email me if you would like the Microsoft Word files of any of the PDF documents.

CY 4510 – Ministry with Children, Youth, and Families: Theological and Strategic Frameworks

CY 4515 – Children, Youth and Family Ministry in the Church and Its Mission

Competencies
Below are samples of things I have done and areas over which I have held responsibility:

  • Introductory presentation to parents upon arrival at Hope Lutheran Church, August 2006
  • Coordinate Vacation Bible School for 200 children aged birth through high school, 2005
  • Plan and lead annual youth retreat
  • Coordinate annual confirmation retreat; teaching done by pastor
  • Teach high school Sunday school
  • Preach on Sunday mornings (at least once a quarter). Selected Sermons:
  • Plan monthly social events for junior high and high school
  • Build and maintain church website and youth ministry website
  • Maintain and track youth ministry budget
  • Lead small-group ministry
    • See sample of curriculum developed, modified from Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Amy Simpson’s Diving Deep: Download Small Group Curriculum
  • Plan and lead annual week-long junior high and high school mission trips through various missions organizations.
  • Plan and coordinate annual youth-led service for Maundy Thursday
    • Script for 2007 Maundy Thursday service, highly modified from Part 2, Service 6 of Peter Rollins’ How (Not) to Speak of God: Download Script
    • Script for 2009 Maundy Thursday service, loosely based off of “Burial of the Dead” liturgy in the Lutheran Book of Worship: Download Script.

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2 Responses leave one →
  1. Kristen permalink
    April 26, 2009

    So according to your powerpoint, was Jeremiah a failure? Is success measured by results, or by being faithful?

    • Matt permalink*
      April 26, 2009

      Kristen, you might be interested in my post “The Next 50 Year of Youth Ministry: Becoming Theologians.” In it, I write:

      I honestly believe that youth ministry’s obsession with success has driven us to failure…

      The goal is success. We want souls saved and will stop at no cost to achieve it. The problem is that we have attempted to achieve the proper end (saving souls, bringing forth the kingdom of God) and have not reflected more carefully over the means we are using to accomplish it. Too often, our means contradict our end.

      As a result, we have failed. The call of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not success, but faithfulness. Jesus said that “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” We need to lose the life of youth ministry because it is killing us. We need to lay down the idol of success, of security, of comfort. And we need to rediscover what it means to be faithful to the gospel.

      In my presentation I was trying to offer a different way of measuring success that was not the instantaneous measures often used in churches like increasing size rapidly, increased giving, or even short-term radicalism and instead was arguing in favor of a long-term approach. Essentially, I was trying to help people think about what it might look like to be faithful cultivators of faith in our young people and thus, help them redefine success within ministry.

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