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North American Youth Worker’s ConferenceBy Kent d Curry This conference is a bit like that classic saying about personal responsibility, “If you want to feed a man for a day, give him a fish. If you want to feed him for a lifetime, teach him how to fish.” The General Youth Division of the United Pentecostal Church International instead states, “We could feed souls for a week by preaching at youth “events,” but instead we’ll feed youth for a lifetime by teaching their leaders to minister more efficiently.” With a gamut of six teaching sessions, three preaching services, two specific idea blocks, and a sprinkling of skits and crowd breakers, that’s what happened from August 3-5 at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott South. The conference concept is simple enough: have grizzled youth veterans (whose ages are disproportionate to their experience) from seven states share their passions and ideas with youth leaders from around the country. Judging by the attendees, the term “youth leaders” seems to include wives, teen youth staff, and just about anyone of any age who cared about ministering to youth groups. These demographics were unexpected¾and cool. After all, there is no limiting age to a burden. Specific sessions covered fundraising, hosting spiritual and social events, defining leadership and developing a mentor relationship with teens, basic organization, examining today’s teens and dealing with the multiple demands of leadership. Still, despite crowd willingness, training has little to do with the topics and everything to do with the abilities of the trainers. In this area, there were few disappointments. Yes, some speakers did offer mildewed clichés applicable to every age, making it obvious that the topic was not their passion because they had no insights to share, but most struggled to keep their subject-matter within the allotted time, so abundant were their thoughts. With six blocks of four concurrent classes, I was unable to attend them all, because the highlights were many: · Tim Sanders (Missouri) exhibited his battle scars to the glory of God by exploring the grave need for emotional healing in today’s teenagers. He delineated a youth leader’s role in filling the voids within hurting teens, explained how this affected their walk with God, and named the many healthy signs of growth (one sign being rebellion). · Darrell Johns (Georgia) covered “Multiple Responsibilities” through metaphor (Life is a farm with many fields in it. Each field requires committed time, but not all require the same time.), unexpected experience (for 22 years, he has gained a new ministry, without losing current ministries, every two years) and scripture (Mark 6:30-33 shows Jesus and the disciples in a similar, never-ending struggle for private time). · Tim Zuniga (California) expounded on the importance of including parents in a youth ministry, then embellished the point by explaining the many successful Parent Only Workshops his youth staff implemented. · In the only obvious College and Career session, Charles Johnson (Texas) discussed the contrasting stories in Mark 10. The first is Jesus welcoming, and then blessing, the children. Immediately afterwards, the rich young ruler, eager to follow the Good Master, asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Of him, Jesus required a commitment. Johnson believes that born-and-bred Apostolics begin backsliding as teenagers when they can no longer slide by on the Lord’s blessings, but must accept responsibility for their Christian walk. · Trouble with your Apostolic youth in chat rooms? Harold Linder (New York) decided to see what his young people were sharing in unguarded moments, so he created a chat identity and visited rooms his kids used. It wasn’t long before he found one and soon entered into a probing conversation where the teen revealed too much to this total stranger. At the next youth service, Linder told them what happened¾without naming the teen¾and was then in a position to discuss this explosive topic and its implications, with every transgressing teen feeling busted. All three “traditional” services were powerful, with the underlying theme of the latter two being the restoration of the leaders and their wives. Obviously, leadership renewal is a subject close to the heart of the Lord. Not that there wasn’t time for fun, as well. There were beach ball crowd breakers, extended skits, a Midnight Madness idea session, and a message board splattered with craziness, the worst being the heavy-handed proclamations that the conference banner had misspelled “Pentecostal” as “Pentacostal.” (Youth can’t be faulted for a vendor that changes the spelling without consultation.) Despite a crowd of over 300, Youth
President Scott Graham admitted that they had expected more in attendance due to
the overall quality of the session topics and teachers. A Youth Pastor friend
admitted to me that the conference timing was perfect for him, so maybe more
leaders will agree when NAYWC runs in 2002.
Or maybe this is a conference for the extra-committed. ninetyandnine.com
ã 2000, Kent d Curry --------- Kent d Curry is an Executive Editor of ninetyandnine.com. Have an opinion on an article? Let us know how you feel! Click feedback & fill us in. |
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