youth ministry training

well it's been a bit quiet on the blog. a copule of hectic weeks. a few days in melbourne at a mission educators/consultants gathering with Tom Bandy. great to catch up with a bunch of people and also to chat to interstate people about lay education. sue and cheryl took me to the moroccan soup kitchen which proved to be fantastic despite having no meat or alcohol... another sumptuous meal with great wine at rod and lyn's and a chance to catch up with lin hatfield-dodds.

this week we kicked off our college year. great to see a bunch of new students. we've started our youth ministry degree course with a dozen students from across the denominations, and this weekend have had 25 UCA youth leaders and workers at a certificate level training weekend. both great group who were really willing to be engaged.

mid-year the catholics have Bob McCarty from the US coming and we (with the Lutherans) hope to have Gene Rohelkepartain from the Search Institute here as well. it's nice to have good ecumenical co-operation! in the second half of the year I'll be running a weekend course based on the Search Institute material called "healthy communities, healthy youth". we're also about to add a distance unit called "xtreme community" based on the small group leader training material that bruce and I prepared for our national youth convention.

i hope to post a bit about our youth courses and their content. we tend to draw a bit from everywhere - comprehensive approach, kenda creasy dean, doug fields, search institute, augsburg youth & family stuff. we work hard to have an australian perspective in all of that as well.

now off to prepare a lenten labyrinth retreat for the morning!

Comments

[Sue Ellis]

I was just catching up on your site, when my young adults group fell through in one big jump, so I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at present. I am wondering where to start again with ministry to young adults. where can you send me on your page Craig to find some hope and inspiration?

[craigmitchell]

Sue, maybe we should have a coffee and chat.

Have a look at the link under the downloads section on the right - "Mosh, Mambo, Movies, Maccas" - it's from a couple of years back but it still guides my thinking.

but I'd welcome a conversation!