LAKELAND — Mike Standifer, director of the Florida Conference Council on Ministries’ (CCOM) Youth Ministry office, spent three days in isolation in St. Petersburg earlier this month praying over 90 flip-chart pages of suggestions about what is and is not needed for youth ministry in the Florida Conference.

"It was a great experience for me," he said. "I’m not sure I have a clear vision for youth ministry, but I definitely am more focused in my own spiritual life."

The prayer retreat was the second step in a three-part process Standifer is leading to help redirect and improve the quality of youth ministry in the conference.

"I was feeling like youth ministry in the conference is not where it’s supposed to be," he said, adding that he has taken on added responsibility since CCOM staff member Carol Sue Hutchinson is no longer working with the children’s Summer Camp program so she can assume other ministry responsibilities at the conference level.

He said it’s difficult managing several priorities and keeping "them at the level they should be."

Standifer’s accountability group challenged him to go back to the beginning of his ministry. "Seven and a half years ago, when I started as conference youth director, I invited everyone interested in youth ministry to come to Lakeland to talk about youth ministry in the conference," he said. Nearly 80 people attended that meeting.

"I felt like I needed to get back to the conference," he said. "We developed a three-step plan: listen, pray, plan."

The listening was in the form of nine regional listening posts over two weeks in March. Standifer invited youth ministers, coordinators and volunteers to meet with him and share their vision for youth ministry in the new millennium.

"We asked three core questions," he said. " ‘What do you struggle with in youth ministry? Who do you turn to or what do you do for help and support? What would you like to see happen that you can’t make happen?’ "

The prayer step happened the first week of April during Standifer’s retreat in St. Petersburg. "I wanted to see where God leads us," he said. "He might push us to a new place or affirm what we did in the past."

The planning step happens May 10-12 at the Spring Training Event for youth ministers. By then, the 90 information sheets collected at the listening posts will be compiled into a more manageable format.

"We’ll see what’s needed and what’s not needed," Standifer said. "That doesn’t mean we’ll have more programs. That’s one thing we don’t want to have happen—more programs to fix more needs."

Standifer says the process has not led to any revelations about youth ministry so far, but he believes it has prepared him to receive a vision.