Build It! A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community
The Build It! Toolkit is an intergenerational spiritual community resource for meetings and worship groups to use. Build It! is available in print and PDF versions for sale at QuakerBooks (print version or downloadable PDF version).
The Build It! Toolkit is designed to strengthen and nurture ties among generations in our meetings, worship groups, churches and in our larger Religious Society of Friends, and contribute to meetings’ efforts to identify and cultivate emerging leaders. It is both spiritually enriching and fun.
Background: Young Friends and Young Adult Friends
Staff and committee members of the Friends General Conference Youth Ministries Program worked for five years on a concern about a sense of separation of youth and young adults from our meetings. In response, FGC has gathered a compilation of best practices for building youth-included community, Build It! A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community. The book contains an introduction and six chapters of discussion, explanation and resources, 38 activities and games, plus the 12 "How Tos" and the script for the skit A Short History of Quakerism in 10 Easy Points, both available on this website.
Workshops: Building Intergenerational Spiritual Community
FGC Youth Ministries staff has designed workshop templates for F/friends to learn how to use this toolkit. The Build It! Toolkit gives practical support for increasing the involvement of youth and young adults in our meetings, using both spiritual exploration and fun. To aid F/friends in leading activities and sessions from this resource, please see the page in this website with Templates and Materials for Leading Workshops on the Build It! Toolkit. FGC Youth Ministries staff has trained volunteers to lead sessions from the Build It! Toolkit, so if you feel led to request additional support beyond the book or PDF and the materials on this website, please contact Youth Ministries staff with questions. Workshops are for almost all ages (elementary-school aged through retirement).
At my meeting?
Reasons to host a Build It! Toolkit workshop or lead activities from the book at your meeting:
- Strengthen connections as a community and as a spiritual community
- Learn about other meetings’ good practices to reach out to and include youth and young adults
- Cultivate future leaders now
- Reach out to young adults who have geographically relocated from your meeting
- Make your meeting more welcoming to younger seekers and sojourners
- Include all ages in your community
- Identify and use your meeting’s and individual members’ gifts to help build sincerity, trust, affirmation, accountability, practical support, play, friendship, and love
- Talk, play, worship together and strengthen lifelong relationships
- Empower each other and your community and create space to listen deeply to each other and the Divine
- Identify and nourish the best practices that your community is already using, and share them on the Comments page of this website
Remember, youth and young adults aren’t the future of our meetings, they are the now of our meetings!
Read the Table of Contents
Click here to preview the Table of Contents from the Build It! Toolkit.
Contact Youth Ministries Staff
Click here to contact Youth Ministries Program staff of Friends General Conference. The FGC Youth Ministries Program is under the care of the Committee for Nurturing Ministries.
