Youth Lead with the Common Read

January 5, 2012

There is a great opportunity for youth leadership with Eboo Patel's Acts of Faith, this year's Common Read book. In this autobiography, Mr. Patel discusses his faith journey starting as a young Ismaili Muslim in the suburbs of Chicago through his experiences with the Catholic Worker movement to the founding of the Interfaith Youth Core. The Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, as part of its Youth Ministry Project Grant Program, is offering up to 20 free copies of the book for congregations that are using it for youth-led multigenerational projects. Acts of Faith:The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation emphasizes the importance of investing in youth who are searching for meaning in their lives and new ways of remaking the world. Mr. Patel points out that the most extreme, right wing theological groups in the world target these emerging adults for recruitment, while institutions on the other end of the spectrum that push for more a more just and compassionate world often neglect the demographic. Says Patel, in reference to religiously-motivated terrorists and assassins, "If we had invested in our youth programs, could we have gotten to those young people first?" Patel's book is a call for greater investment in meaningful youth ministry and engagement. His organization, the IFYC, puts this into practice and has a huge Unitarian Universalist presence (read more about the UUA's work with the IFYC here).