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No longer just a startup, neXus is emerging, flourishing, and making a real impact on youth workers and their youth in the area.

Two years ago, in the March-April 2007 issue of Inside EGC, we introduced neXus Boston, a program birthed through collaboration between EGC and five other urban ministries. The six partners each had experience serving urban youth, and desired to find some practical ways to work more closely together to encourage, support, and train Christian youth workers in the city, knowing that youth workers are best positioned to have strategic, face-to-face impact on urban and high-risk youth.

By January 2007, the partnership hired a full-time director, Rev. Matthew Gibson, and commissioned him to support, train, and network urban youth workers, and to provide research, an essential ingredient to undergird the other three. Today, in addition to Matthew, neXus is staffed by Chase Grogan, operations coordinator, and Tamecia Jones, research coordinator. neXus has an office in Roxbury in a building also housing Gordon-Conwell’s Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME), one of the six neXus partners. EGC serves as fiscal agent for neXus and provides supervisory support for Matthew.

We are excited about the way the four streams of this ministry continue to grow, and we invite you to take another look at neXus Boston to see what God is doing…

SUPPORT: SHARING HEART TO HEART WITH SEASONED MENTORS

James Austin heard about neXus from his aunt, who is also a youth worker. She told him about a one-week class being offered by neXus. Although he enjoyed the class, James didn’t get involved with neXus again right away. Then one day, while unloading his frustrations about youth work to his aunt, she mentioned that Matthew would be a good person to talk to. This was the second time someone said that to him. “[That first] time, I was like, why do I need to sit down and talk to somebody?” James says. But this time he made the call and got together with Matthew. They have been getting together ever since.

“I do not get a chance to talk with other Christian men very much, especially someone near my own age who is also a father and a husband, and who can really relate to me,” James says. “Being a new Christian, I have questions, and he is able to give me an answer, but not like a counselor. We are just two friends sitting together, being able to share. It is very helpful.”

James works in an afterschool program at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. His current position is coming to an end, and this came up in a recent conversation. “I asked Matt about jobs, and he gave me information about some possibilities, and, to be honest, being able to hear that takes that stress off my mind.”

David Edwards, a youth worker at Stoughton Street New Testament Church of God in Dorchester, also finds that one-on-one time with either Matthew or Chase has been more than a time to just get advice, but a time when “you’re able to find a friend who can really understand what you do as a youth leader. The cool thing is that you get to know the person beyond just a ‘hi’ or ‘hello’. A bond is being made during our time together.”

“People are not coming here necessarily because something is wrong, but because they want to grow as youth workers,” Matthew explains. “neXus is a place where you can share your heart with somebody who has been there.” Matthew points out that these relationships are two-way and he considers the youth workers his ministry partners. “There is a mutuality there. There is a mentoring aspect and a friendship aspect as well. Spiritually speaking, a prayer partnership.”

TRAINING: PROVIDING BEST PRACTICES FOR PROFESSIONAL, URBAN YOUTH WORKERS

Every week, Chase sends out an “E-Blast” to hundreds of youth workers. It includes details on upcoming seminars and training events. neXus offers training on many fronts: from seminars and workshops, to certificate-level seminary classes, to a year-long intensive leadership program.

Teresa Brown, a youth worker who has been serving at Christ Tabernacle Church in Dorchester for eight years, wanted training to help her do a better job in youth ministry. “There is no training at my church—you just kind of do what you think is best, so I knew I had to get some help so I could do a better job,” she says. She also mentions that being involved with neXus helps keep her going in her ministry.

Burnout is one of the main obstacles to long-term urban youth ministry. One way neXus addresses burnout is through “self-care and resilience training” in partnership with Trinity Boston Counseling Center. Self-care teaches participants to recognize and treat stress, secondary trauma, and a variety of other mental, spiritual, and emotional issues that arise from doing intense urban youth ministry.

Pastor Sharyn Halliday, a youth worker at the Bethel AME Church in Fall River, Mass., says, “One of the things it has helped me to do is reflect on all the things I do. In ministry, you aren’t always aware of how many commitments you make. As a result, you can find yourself overwhelmed and stressed,” she says. The course has helped her to identify the stress and discover tools she can use, like simple relaxation techniques. These have provided a clear shift in the way she works. “Now, I screen every call. I hear it, process it, then respond.” When she knows she will be facing a particularly challenging day at church she arrives early for some quiet. “I identify anxiety, and I get in tune with what I’m feeling.” Through the training, Sharyn is also learning to delegate more. “Caring for myself is probably the biggest priority in my ministry,” she say. “When crazy comes, I get out of crazy’s way!”

Every year, Matthew sees more youth workers sign up for the Master’s Degree in Urban Youth Ministry program at CUME. For those who are not able to, but still want to be certified in youth work, CUME, in partnership with neXus, offers the nation’s only Urban Youth Ministry Certificate. A two-week course entitled “Strategies and Management of Youth Programs” starts May 15, 2009, taught by Dean Borgman, a professor at Gordon-Conwell and founder and executive director of the Center for Youth Studies, a neXus partner.

Another opportunity offered by neXus is the one-year neXus Leadership Initiative, a program based on curriculum developed by the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative that seeks to equip participants to take on higher forms of leadership, be able to develop richer relationships with the youth, and be more effective planners. The current session began in June 2008 and included workshops, weekend retreats, required readings, and monthly meetings with mentors. A dozen youth workers will graduate this spring, including Eugene Schneeberg, director of operations for Straight Ahead Ministries in Lynn, Mass. “This has been life changing,” says Eugene, who is also nearing completion of a Master’s Degree in Urban Youth Ministry from CUME. “The Leadership Initiative is part grad school, part boot camp, part retreat, part seminary. It far exceeded my expectations. The other students are exceptional leaders and add perspective. We are a diverse group in race, culture, and age. It is just phenomenal.”
 
NETWORKING: JOINED TOGETHER BY EVERY SUPPORTING LIGAMENT

When Leah Beidler began working with inner city children, she asked her pastor where she might find some peer support. He referred her to neXus. “Matt did a very good job seeking out ways to help me,” she says. Leah teaches children at the Umana Middle School in East Boston, and she is also a member of Quincy Street Missional Church in Dorchester, which offers programs for children and youth in their neighborhood.

She says the high point of each month is a neXus program called the Living Room, an informal gathering for youth workers that meets once a month at the Bethel AME church in Jamaica Plain. “Those have been good for my heart,” she says. “We share stories, we share battles, resource, prayer, and we encourage each other.”

Aja Jones, Girls Program Coordinator with the Boston TenPoint Coalition, another neXus partner, also attends the Living Room. “It gives me a place to go where I can fellowship with folks I wouldn’t normally hang out with. I network there and get insight from other people who do the same thing as me,” Aja says. Aja has learned she is not the only one going through what she’s going through. “[The Living Room] gives me an outlet to talk about it, without someone giving me advice on what I should have done or should do. Just let me get it out.”

As many as 30 youth workers come together to enjoy mutual support, a few from as far away as Lowell, 30 miles from Boston. Leah says she has been making friends and some really good connections around Dorchester. “Two months ago, Matt had us group off into different areas of the city. It was good to see who else is working near us.”

The greatest benefit of the Living Room for Leah is what she calls “the spiritual feeding. It is great to hear people pray for you, to have people hear your stories. You feel restored to go work again.” Leah now has people in her life who really understand her. “We are facing the same issues. We are in the same field. But with the love of Christ as a solid foundation we can share, and we can come together and pray. That is what I love. It is so Christ-centered. It is all about Jesus.”

RESEARCH: HELPING YOUTH WORKERS BE MORE CONFIDENT AND EFFICIENT

The research coordinator for neXus Boston is Tamecia Jones. Research helps make youth workers more confident and efficient, Tamecia says. “Sometimes youth workers have an idea for a program that has never been tried here,” she says. “I can encourage them by letting them know their idea worked in another area of the country, and then pass along the contact information so they can get advice about starting the program here.” Calling herself a “sleuther,” Tamecia’s job includes reading articles, synthesizing them, and posting them on the Center for Youth Studies website (www.centerforyouth.org).

Although she enjoys working directly with youth, Tamecia knows her role as research coordinator at neXus Boston is strategic. “If you can empower people doing one-on-one youth work, you can affect more people than if you are doing one-on-one work yourself,” she says.

ADDING VALUE TO THE SYSTEM

“John” attended a neXus forum on violence. He listened as other youth workers described their frustrations with their work and their churches, and later told Matthew, “I was at a crossroads. I was ready to leave the church. But the fact that they were hanging in there showed me I couldn’t run away.” Matthew feels that for one forum to make someone decide to stay in ministry, let alone stay connected to the Body of Christ, is tremendous.

It is equally tremendous, he says, that youth workers once laboring in isolation now have a gathering place to share ideas. Teresa Brown shares how a simple connection can have a huge impact on her kids. “I was invited by another youth worker at the Living Room to a play that the youth at Morning Star Baptist Church were doing. I took the kids in my youth group, who were really excited and encouraged to see other kids doing other things for God.”

All these little stories—and the big ones, too—add up to something even larger. “The biggest thing I can stress about neXus is that it’s essential to a larger scheme of things and it’s a tool that’s really effecting change in the Boston area,” David Edwards says. Matt adds, “People from around the region are beginning to see what we’re about and beginning to value that.”

[published in Inside EGC, May-June, 2009]