Growing Apostles: Youth Leaders Conference
<font size="2">I recently attended a conference for Qld Youth Leaders which was run by YACMU. This was a very interesting weekend as they addressed many shortfalls which are present in the way which Youth Ministry is done in the western world.
The speaker there was Ken Moser. He has a significant background in Youth Ministry (infact he has been doing it about as long as have been alive) and during this time has had plenty of time to observe what doesn't work.
Basically his message is that we have moved away from Youth Ministry and more towards providing entertainment. You just have to look at the way that the majority of Youth programs are run to see this. His position is that the games based groups simply don't retain people past high school age. Furthermore he think that Kids will generally come along to learn about faith. I cannot say that I disagree with any of this.
<font size="2">The general aim of a Youth Group should not simply be numbers, but to help young people to grow in faith.
Funilly enough while he spoke, I had the distinct impression that I had heard it before. Upon returning home from course I found that the book which I had gone through before starting as a Youth Leader was actually written by him…
In addition to the speech, YACMU have also produced a resource called "The Fridge" which is based around the theory that we need a well rounded spiritual diet for strong faith.
The 7 "Soul Food" Groups are
<li><font size="2">God and I: Enjoying an intimate relationship with God
<li><font size="2">Hanging Out: Cultivating healthy and authentic relationships
<li><font size="2">Serving Others: Using gifts and abilities in a life of sacrificial service
<li><font size="2">Doing Church: Belonging to and participating in a community of faith
<li><font size="2">Living Life: Being sustained, recharged and empowered by the Holy Spirit
<li><font size="2">On a Mission: Actively engaging in Mission
<li><font size="2">Who I Am: Developing a Christ-Like character
<font size="2"> Overall I think it was a great weekend and I think that the resources will be very useful. We will be taking what we learned and implementing some of the suggestions into our 2007 program.
Blog | Iteration 30/08/2006 | 
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