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 | Jonathan’s Resource Ezine |
Weekly Resources, Ideas and Articles from The Source for Youth Ministry
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
| In This Issue |
- Featured Article: What Do You Mean “Train” … ?
- Last Chance to Win the BEN HUR Collector’s Edition DVD: To enter, just submit a new discussion idea for a scene from the movie!
- Something New: Even More Video Clip Discussion Starters. Look out for our new “NEW” button on our Video Clip Discussion Starter page
- Training Opportunity: Jonathan Teaches at the West Coast Youth Specialties Convention This Week!
| If you aren’t a subscriber of this EZINE and would like to subscribe – it’s free – just pop on www.TheSource4YM.com and sign up in the upper right hand corner. |
| Featured Article: What Do You Mean “Train” …? |
September 27, 2005
Youth workers always talk about the importance of training our volunteers. What if you don’t know what to “train” them?
You’re not alone!
A youth worker named Todd just sent me this email:
- I hear about how I am supposed to be training my adult leaders (I call them sponsors). But to be honest, I don’t even know where to begin. What am I supposed to be training them to do?
I can imagine you are rolling your eyes right now totally astonished that a youth pastor could be so clueless. But the question is, what do I train them to do? How do I train them to do it?
Feeling sheepish,
Todd
Let me touch on the “How” first. Four options:
- Do it yourself. Consistently submerge yourself in youth ministry books, articles and training helps. Then turn around and guide your staff through the material.
If you’re looking for some free material, we provide a bunch of good training articles on our web site on the I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO … page: www.thesource4ym.com/howdoi/ Many of these articles will have tips and helps that you can turn around and teach to your staff. - Lead a discussion group. If teaching isn’t your forte’, just print out articles or a certain chapter of a book and send them to your staff each week. Tell them to be prepared to discuss the material at the next meeting. These weekly discussions can educate a staff team week to week about key youth ministry principals or common issues we have to address.
On our web site www.TheSource4YM.com we have a SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND button at the top of every page. That way if you find an interesting article, training help, or maybe even a funny question that someone submitted to us on our ASK JONATHAN page … you can send that page to all of your volunteers and tell them to be ready to discuss it the next week. - Bring someone else in to train. I never hesitated to bring in other people to train my volunteers. Once a year I would pay someone to train our staff. Then, throughout the year I “swapped” training with fellow youth workers and pastors, training each other’s volunteers in the area of our expertise.
Sometimes you’ll have people in your church that might be experts in certain areas: teachers who have good insight about disciplining, pastors who have great insight into counseling, or people with the gift of evangelism who can train your staff how to lead a kid to Christ.
Many ministries will take one weekend a year and bring someone in to train their volunteers in a “retreat” setting. I do several of these kinds of trainings each year for churches around the U.S. Yes, it is a budget item. But your volunteers are worth it. - Bring your volunteers to a training conference. Conferences from ministries like Saddleback, Willow Creek or www.YouthSpecialties.com are great options, providing excellent training experiences for your whole team. Your volunteers will not only learn great content at these kinds of training events, but they will hear it from the experts in the field.
If these conferences are out of your price range, some of these ministries offer one day conferences such as Youth Specialties’ CORE conference or our DO THEY RUN … conference. These provide affordable one day training events that you can experience as a team on a Saturday.
Here are the top 4 youth ministry essentials I always want to teach my sponsors. (I spend considerably more time talking about each of these subjects in my new book, DO THEY RUN WHEN THEY SEE YOU COMING?)
- Loving Kids – The most important thing our volunteers can do is love kids with a Christ-like compassion. I spend significant time training staff to step into the shoes of different kids and look at them like Christ would. We study the life of Christ and observe how he loved the lost.
- Hanging Out With Kids– Whenever I recruited new volunteers I always let them know that their number one objective would be simply to “spend time with kids.” That could include hanging out at youth group or during the week with a small group. But most importantly, hanging out with kids one-on-one.
One-on-one time is the most fruitful time with kids. It is through these times that I’ve really got to know kids. Kids open up one-on-one. In these one-on-one times I’ve led kids to Christ, discipled them, counseled them, and encouraged them. Our staff need to know the importance of this time. (For an article about the power of one on one use this link: www.thesource4ym.com/howdoi/powerofoneonone.asp) - Understanding Kids– How are we going to reach out to kids if we don’t understand them. Our volunteers need to have a basic understanding of youth culture. They don’t need to dress in sagging pants and get a tattoo … they just need to understand a little about why kids do those things.
There are some great youth ministry resources available that educate youth workers about kids today. Our free EZINE newsletter will often visit issues in our youth culture. You can sign up for this newsletter on any page of our website in the upper right hand corner of the page: www.TheSource4YM.com
Our I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO … page has several articles on understanding today’s youth. (For example-this article on Understanding and Reaching the Unchurched: www.thesource4ym.com/howdoi/stafutu.asp)
Web sites like www.cpyu.org devote themselves fully to youth culture. All these are great resources for educating our staff about youth today. - Sharing Christ– Evangelism training has also always been a key part of my volunteer training. I want my staff to know how to talk to kids about Christ, and HOW NOT TO talk to kids about Christ.
Never stop learning! In other words, if you want to equip others … never stop getting equipped by others. As we get trained and equipped by others, we will gather ideas, insight and materials to turn around and train our own volunteers and leaders. Whenever I train youth workers, I always tell them to “steal” my stuff and use it to equip others.
Even if you can’t afford to bring your volunteers to conferences like the ones I mentioned above, make an effort to attend yourself. You can gather enough knowledge from these kinds of conferences to train your staff all year long.
Jonathan McKee is president of TheSource4YM.com and author of the new book “Do They Run When They See You Coming? Reaching Out to Unchurched Teenagers.” (CLICK HERE FOR THE BOOK) Jonathan speaks and trains across the country and provides free online resources, training, & ideas for youth workers at www.TheSource4YM.com | Last Chance to Win the BEN HUR Collector’s Edition DVD: To enter, just submit a new discussion idea for a scene from the movie! |
THIS WEEK IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO ENTER!“I love using clips from this film as a discussion starter about who Jesus is!” -Jonathan McKee-
HERE’S HOW TO WIN: We are giving away THREE of these New BEN HUR Four-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD’s to three youth different youth workers who submit a “discussion idea” for a scene from the movie BEN HUR.
WHAT DO I SUBMIT: Include the following in your video clip discussion idea write-up for the movie BEN HUR:
- Include your name, how you serve in youth ministry, and where you serve
- Where the clip is in the movie (what DVD chapter, start time, stop time)
- Describe the scene and any important dialogue
- Include the main idea you teach from the discussion starter
- Include any discussion questions you would ask.
HOW TO WRITE UP A DISCUSSION STARTER
WE WILL PICK THREE WINNERS OCTOBER 1st! Each Winner will receive one of the new BEN HUR Four-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD’s with Bible Study Guide
CLICK HERE FOR AN EXISTING ONLINE DISCUSSION IDEA
FROM “THE SOURCE” FOR BEN HUR
| Something New: Even More Video Clip Discussion Starters. Look out for our new “NEW” button on our Video Clip Discussion Starter page |
Ever looking for something new that you can use? We’ve added even more video clip discussion starters to our web site. And each of them has small group discussion questions, a corresponding passage of scripture and a discussion wrap up guide.
Just look for our new “NEW” marker by any of the video clip ideas added to our VIDEO CLIP IDEAS page. “NEW” highlights any new “write up” added to our site within the last month.
| Youth Specialties Convention This Week! |
Youth Specialties/Zondervan recently released Jonathan’s hit new book, DO THEY RUN WHEN THEY SEE YOU COMING? REACHING OUT TO UNCHURCHED TEENAGERS. (CLICK HERE FOR THE BOOK) This week Jonathan teaches the workshop at the West Coast Youth Specialties National Youth Worker Convention.September 30th, Jonathan is doing his workshop from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the convention. If you are attending the convention, don’t miss this incredible seminar. Click here for details.
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Jonathan McKee
Jonathan McKee is the author of over twenty books including the brand new The Guy's Guide to FOUR BATTLES Every Young Man Must Face; The Teen’s Guide to Social Media & Mobile Devices; If I Had a Parenting Do Over; and the Amazon Best Seller - The Guy's Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket. He speaks to parents and leaders worldwide, all while providing free resources for youth workers on TheSource4YM.com. Jonathan, his wife Lori, and their three kids live in California.