What is SEEDS?

What are SEEDS?

SEEDS EXPLANATION VIDEO from SEEDS Youth Coop on Vimeo.

What is the goal?

SEEDS is a youth ministry cooperative in the Cookeville District of the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church, but is not limited to that denomination, though this is the context we are working in now.

What are the objectives?

Under the mission statement of the United Methodist Church, to "make disciples for the transformation of the world," and following the goals of the United Methodist Church (UMC), for "personal piety" and "social holiness," and within the context of transient youth programming and leadership which seems to inhibit that mission and those goals, to develop a system of sustainable leadership for the sake of biblical engagement and transformative meeting. 

Proposed Solution?

Local church youth ministry is often unstable, inconsistent, and lacks vision due to high turnover rates and often untrained leadership. This leads to ineffective meeting times and lack of biblical education because of what appears to be a broken system that youth are subjected to. This all seems to inhibit the mission statement of the United Methodist Church overall to make disciples for the transformation of the world and its goals of personal piety and social holiness, leading to not simply a quantitative decline in the UMC, but also a qualitative deficiency, especially in biblical literacy and discipleship. This cooperative aims to give vision and focus to local youth ministries while unburdening the often willing and yet not-so-able youth volunteers and staff by providing them with partnership, education and training through the SEEDS youth ministry cooperative. 

SEEDS Outline:

SEEDS (Strategic Encounters to Engage and Disciple Students) is a 2-part vision.

Part 1: Biblical Engagement (Informative): SEEDS Manna and Mercy Pocket Guide is a 100-page curriculum for youth leaders surrounding the 100-page paraphrase of the Bible called Manna and Mercy by Daniel Erlander, along with video and accompanying biblical literacy education from Alan Storey; It is simple and strong! mannaandmercy.com (Ideally, this exists within a morning meeting time.) 

Part 2: Youth Meeting (Transformative): SEEDS Meeting Manual will guide the youth leader through a simple way of engaging and discipling youth through ideas, play, conversation and prayer. (Ideally this exists within an evening meeting time.)