A chat with youth ministry worker and muso (and my brother) Daniel Kitson, from our DWELL event in July!
Can you tell us a bit about your faith journey? Where have you been, who’s been part of your journey, what have been some significant parts…
I come from a Lutheran family, with a Lutheran pastor for a dad and two Lutheran pastors for brothers so I was always exposed to the Christian faith. I was born in New Zealand, have lived in Western Australia and in the Barossa Valley and am now living in Adelaide. For me, high school was a formational time for my faith journey as I took part in youth camps run by Blueprint Ministries (part of the LCA SA/NT District) and Veta Morphus which is a course I did in Year 11 that resulted in a Certificate III in Christian Ministry and Theology. Through these experiences, I was exposed to other denominations which allowed me to determine what my beliefs are and why I might not believe other things I was coming across.
A part of the Veta Morphus course that was important for me and my journey was meeting regularly with a mentor. To pass the course, I needed to find a mentor and have a number of sessions with them to go over big questions I might be facing with a trusted adult in the faith. This was a new experience for me and one that I can look back on as being a positive challenge to open up to a Christian that isn’t just part of the family. In these discussions, I remember focusing on what it means to be a part of a Christian community and contribute to God’s family which has shaped how I view our church as a whole and where my place is in it.
How are you and Ebony finding parenthood??
Ebony and I are finding parenthood challenging, but so fulfilling! We’ve definitely found ourselves needing more patience or resilience than we think we have at times, especially when Gil is refusing to stay asleep in the middle of the night. Despite that though, we feel so lucky to be parents and to have our little boy whom we love so much!
Watching him experiencing everything for the first time and learn what his hands can do, or how a new food tastes, or how a new texture feels has been a real privilege for us. We’ll be praying that he continues to grow and learn, and that we can keep supporting him as he needs us to.
What do you do in your current role with Blueprint Ministries?
My role at Blueprint Ministries is Camping and Events Ministry Coordinator which means that I help the 11 camps that we run annually to run smoothly. A large portion of what I do is compliance for leaders so that they’re able to be on camp and follow the rules to keep everyone safe. I also help with planning and promotion for the camps, as well as contributing to bigger picture strategic thinking for children, youth, young adult, and family ministry in the SA/NT District under Jeanette Mann.
Each year, we run 6 Christian Life Weeks (CLWs), 1 district-wide high school camp called NOVO, 2 primary school camps called SPIN and JC Life, and 2 young adult camps called Renew and Lutherans@Uni. As a camper and a leader I got to be a part of 5 of these camps before starting my role at Blueprint in January so I feel fortunate and blessed to keep contributing to this ministry!
What’s the idea behind ‘Handmade?’
Handmade is one of the events we run as Blueprint which is focused around sharing the work and storied of local Christian artists in Adelaide. We gather once a month on a Sunday evening to hear from a featured artist as they share what their artistic and faith journeys have been and how they might have intertwined. We’ve been lucky enough to have wonderful musicians like Robin Mann, Leigh Newton, and Kathie Renner come through as well as visual artists and filmmakers.
One session we held earlier this year featured Diffusion Productions, a team of Christian Adelaide filmmakers that made a short film interpreting the story of Samuel hearing the call from God in the night. We showed their short film as a premiere and heard from Holly and Riley about their journey in making the film and what they plan to do next. The short film is called Listen and you can check it out here!
The vision for Handmade came from wanting to inspire younger creative people in our church to share their work. What we had noticed is that there weren’t many places for artists in our communities to share their work or hear from artists from other communities, despite there being plenty of creative people around. We’re praying that by showcasing what experienced artists have made in the past and what younger artists are making now, we can give glory to God and connect with each other more deeply.
We are hand-made by God (Ephesians 2:10) and so we hand-make expressions and reflections of his love and sacrifice through art.
What is something you love about church (your church, wider church), and what is something you’d like to see?
Ebony and I have been floating between congregations a bit recently. We were going to St John’s in Unley for a time but we moved not too long ago and have found ourselves a lot closer to other churches so we’ve been going to some different ones. What I’ve been able to appreciate in this season of worshipping is how we are truly one family.
We have all been united in Christ through baptism and we all experience his forgiveness through Holy Communion, no matter where we are or how old we are or what we’ve done. The languages of worship change, just as family traditions change over time and depending on which family you look at, but we are still unified. Some aspects of how we worship might resonate with me more than others, particularly when the song we’re singing is one I know really well and one that fits with the other things we’re hearing about, but I still find it essential to gather with the heavenly family however it may look.
One thing that I would like to see more of is people’s talents and gifts being recognised. It can certainly be difficult to do but I’ve found that it can be really valuable for young people in particular to hear that people in the faith that they look up to value them and think they have something to contribute. The kinds of things I’m thinking about are when someone is alright at public speaking, then including them in the readings or leading worship and equipping them in that if they’re up for it or when someone plays an instrument then including them in the band and walking the journey with them, or if someone likes cooking then asking them to help with morning tea and appreciating what they make. They’re simple things but they can make a big difference in a younger person’s journey.
In the past year, I’ve come across some research done by Converge Oceania about the faith journeys of young people and what kinds of factors make a difference in their stories. It’s called Your Story and it was conducted by surveying many young people across Australia to determine common elements in their stories.
A key finding from the research that stood out to me was about the kinds of relationships that connect with young people the most and have the most positive impact on their faith journeys. The acronym to remember is A.B.O.U.T. – Acceptance, Belonging, Ownership, Understanding, and Trust.
Acceptance refers to how the young person feels they are received. Do they feel that all of their identity is accepted by the people around them? Belonging is not just recognition of the young people, but the deeper sense that the young person belongs in a community. Ownership is asking the question of how much a young person feels empowered in their faith. Do they feel that they have firm beliefs or are on the way to developing them? Understanding is the young person feeling understood entirely, particularly in one-on-one relationships. Finally, trust in the community or other individuals is vital for developing all the other aspects of these relationships.
The key findings document can be found here so do check it out if any of that sounds interesting or useful to you!
What resonated most with me is the Belonging and Ownership aspects. As a young person in the church, I’ve had the most positive experiences when people have noticed me and included me to help me feel that I belong. This could mean people asking me to play for Sunday services when they find out I play guitar, or it could mean someone having a meaningful two-way conversation with me and doing their best to remember what I’ve told them.
I’ve also seen and heard from many young people go through Blueprint camps how important they are in their journey of establishing their faith. Encountering Christians that are mature and experienced, or from non-Lutheran backgrounds, or new to Christianity as a whole can be an eye-opening experience and one that encourages young people to define what they believe and how they’re going to go on living as a child of God after camp is finished.
Thinking about these things makes me ask ‘how can we keep engaging with young people in meaningful ways?’ It can certainly be difficult but I believe we’re called to take on that challenge and have a missional mindset towards each other as we hear in Colossians 3:16:
‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.‘
Tom Kitson 