Baptist Youth Worker Training

If you’re on our email list (Praise ‘n Prayer Update), then you know that Nov. 24-26, I will be teaching at the National Slovak Baptist Youth Workers’ retreat.

In that, I am working through my talks and am brainstorming more specifics. If you’d like to have some input into this, I’d be grateful. Here are the parameters within which I must work:

        * I have 4 sessions approximately 30-45 minutes in length
        * 99% of these are volunteer and/or bi-vocational youth leaders
        * Most of the youth groups are about 10-12 students in size
        * Most of these youth are church-goers from birth
        * Few, if any, of these groups have any kind of regular evangelistic outreach
        * Leadership is done by individuals, not by teams
        * 33% of the churches in which these people work are “pastor-less”
        * Many of these youth leaders have received their position by default - no one else wanted to step in

So, for now, I have come up with these 4 foci for the Baptist youth worker training (what do you think?):
What is leadership and what is a leader?
The concept of servant-leadership.
How can I grow as a Christian servant-leader?
How can I lead others effectively?

more later...

GEM-Youth Ministry, Ireland, Elders and more...

I’m a bit overwhelmed right now. On Thursday, Nov. 02nd, the elders of our church met as usual. Unusual, though, was that the “old“ elders (that just sounds weird) were present as were all of the newly elected elders minus one.

The previous elders came to meet with the new elders and to say goodbye, hand over keys, responsibilities, etc. After the ”old“ elders left and after some discussion, I went downstairs to the men’s room and upon returning to the meeting, discovered that I had been elected as temporary chairman of the elder board until all of the elders could be together and decide who would have what roles. I accepted, with the condition that it was truly temporary.

I left 36 hours later for Ireland to meet with most of the Greater Europe Mission - Youth Ministry department members. Some serious changes were in the wind and as many youth workers in GEM as could possibly attend were asked to be present. The actual meetings started Monday, Nov. 5th and officially ended Tuesday, Nov. 6th, but most of Wednesday, the 7th was also packed with additional meetings. I cannot go into the nature of the meetings, nor the results of them just yet, but stand by as I will be able to share lots in a short while from now.

Suffice it to say that we really do have some incredibly quality people in the GEM-YM arena. I am the ”oldest living thing in GEM-YM“ (that’s a direct quote from our beloved Rod Taylor) and I am blessed by the wisdom & experience & insight that the rest of the team shared during our time together.

We did get to watch a couple of American football games - that’s a real treat in this part of the world, but I do feel VERY behind the times as I don’t know but a couple of the more famous players. It is, indeed, a large part of the USA culture.

I’m including a link to a picture of Matt Kingsley’s toe here (WARNING! It’s really ugly!). Why? Because he had the toenail removed and was having recurring trouble with it. As far as I know, he is still in the hospital (he went in on Wednesday night) on an IV to help clear up infection and diminish the pain. Pray for the brother, please.

I returned Thursday from Ireland and spent the drive time back from the airport finishing up prep for the Prayer Hour at our church which I lead and writing up the agenda for the elders’ meeting that followed the prayer hour. I have been asked to pray about and decide by Sunday whether or not I will accept the role of chairman of the elder board at our church, so I would truly appreciate your prayer support for wisdom in this. I have to repeat that I did not ever expect nor did I necessarily desire to be chairman, so it does come as a bit of a shock and the decision causes me to fall before our Lord in fear & trembling. There are many factors that come into play for such a decision and I’ll list a few here:
        * I’m a North American
        * My primary focus is youth ministry (though I do see my role as an elder as crucial to developing youth ministry                 within our church and throughout the country
        * I already have a ”full plate” with Big House, GEM-YM and the local ministry of M-PLUS

That’s enough for now. As always, I’m open to input.......