One of our fun nights in fall 2023 for our youth group was to run an escape room. I'm sure that the youth would have been so excited to be locked in a room and told they had to escape, but there might have been some issue with that, (think safety policy) so when we hosted an escape room we focused more on the code breaking and moving through the
Youth ministry has a great symbiotic relationship with camps. Youth ministries and Christian camps both strive towards the goal of the next generation knowing and growing closer to Jesus, but we each have our specific platforms in which to accomplish that. That being said, there are many ways we can complement each other in attaining that goal. (You can see specific ways Kwasind, Kids and Youth do this as CBOQ Next Gen in our onboarding guide.) Resource Sharing: God has equipped each of our individual churches and camps with various
In 2012, Matt Wilkinson wrote a book that guides a conversation between the lead pastor, youth leader(s) and parents in how their church can move towards a youth ministry that is youth-led, adult-mentored and family-empowered. From October to May, each month, we'll spend an hour together with Matt as he shares some key considerations followed by a group discussion with those on the Zoom call. The 10-min sharing by
Last Saturday, I had the privilege of attending parts of the Toronto Children’s Ministry Conference. (Tanya Yuen was one of the key organizers.) At face value, it may not make sense for the “youth guy” to be at a children’s ministry conference. However, strengthening a child’s move from children’s ministry to youth ministry is crucial. A few years ago, Tanya and I wrote a booklet called “Faith Formation in Children
The 36th Today's Teens Conference continued to inspire and equip over 1200 youth workers and student leaders. This year featured Sunder Krishnan and Iona Snair challenging youth workers alongside Melinda Estabrooks and Shawn Naylor inspiring students. The Meeting House was filled with worship led by the C4 Worship Team. Alongside a number of Canadian breakout speakers from across our nation, this year featured the first awarding of the John Wilkinson
In youth ministry, many of us tend to focus on the content of teaching. Looking at a year-long calendar, many youth leaders try to pack in as much content and topics they can think of. Is that the best approach? For me (Alvin), I wonder if there is a significant shift in our youth ministry programming. Since the birth of the church, one of the primary drives was to share
Evaluation and feedback are key in helping to see if a ministry is continuing the direction God has given. Regular feedback (whether informal or in a more structured approach) helps to give a "pulse" of where things are at. Every couple of years, it's worthwhile doing an audit of your ministry. The purpose of an audit is to give an accurate snapshot of where things are at. It takes your
