i haven’t done it much… i write a bit of my own stuff…

but we’ve used stuff from tim hawkins on life of the leader. from leaders that last.

i think all of the following books have chapters that can easily be read and briefly discussed in 30 minutes:
Tim Hawkins: Fruit that will last & Leaders that will last.
Doug Fields: Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry (and maybe some of the chapters from ‘your first two years’)
Al Stewart et al: no guts no glory
Moser: changing the world through effective youth ministry (wouldn’t use the creative one for training – go ideas… but not worth using as a training material – i find youth evangelism a little disappointing – but i’m sure there’s some good stuff in there to throw around)

i don’t agree with every single thing in each of the above books… but i think it’s good to help people read things critically. but on the whole… each of those books has some great stuff.

i have a stack more of books… but the above would probably be the ones i’d use most.

is that helpful?

i think it might be part of being big??? it’s difficult to get everyone together.

we have lots of commuters… so before youth is tricky – we have lots of leaders who run small groups before youth.

we do have 5-10minute meetings afterwards… but i’m conscious of not making them go too late into the night!

our monthly meetings have been great.

spend some time together. year 7-12. and then split into juniors 7-9, seniors 10-12.

Dave, what books would you suggest that have chapters that can be read and discussed in half an hour?

Thanks.

How do you not have a weekly meeting? At the moment we meet half an hour before youth group starts to work out any final details and pray together. I don’t think youth group would really work without it.

My intention is to change our weekly meeting from half an hour to an hour to allow some traing time.

Fact 1: roger that

Fact 2: good idea. it must be a privilege having a weekly meeting.

Fact 3: okay

Fact 4: you can always do a chapter a week from some good youth ministry books. can easily read and discuss in 30 minutes.

The plan is to gather a few people and together write one year of youth ministry training material that can be used in half hour blocks at a weekly youth leaders meeting.

sounds good.

What do you think of the idea?

Great idea.

If such a resource existed, would you use it?

I’d be interested to see it. Other than taking some ideas, I wouldn’t use it. We don’t have weekly meetings. Ours are monthly.

What areas do you think should be covered the training material?

Or perhaps you have some resources you have already developed that could be contributed?
—————
Brief outline of what I’m writing:

3 years worth of material.
Although it could be done in 1.5 years.

we have 4 sunday arvos in a row for training 4 times a year.

i encourage people to do 2 a year.

101 – intro material. life of leader. role of leader
102 – teaching Bible to small group
201 – follow-up, work with parents + programming
202 – teaching Bible to large groups
301 – understanding teenagers
302 – masters – going the long haul – and leading leaders.

progress
101 – written, run twice
102 – written, run once
201 – writing – running
202 – part written – run term 4
301 – outline done
302 – rough outline done

i’m keen for our material to be specific to our context… but stax of it is applicable to others.

tim let me know if you want a more detailed ooutline of the series and i’ll email it.

peaceout