Adolescents

“Adolescents: Who they are and How to Minister to them”
That’s the topic of a conference I’m supposed to give tomorrow for 40 youth workers. I have an hour or an hour and 20 minutes to speak on the topic. It’s going to be a crazy time. Some of the things I’ve got in mind:

Who they are:

  • Definition of adolescence
  • Characteristics of adolescence
  • Needs of adolescents

How to work with them:

  • Accept them.
  • Work to understand them
  • Realize that it’s going to take time.
  • How to start the ministry

Those are my preliminary thoughts. I’m sure I’ll get more by tomorrow afternoon. Please pray that I do.

Gridiron Gang

Today in my ministering to troubled youth class, we watched Gridiron Gang, a true story about a guy who works in a juvenile delinquent center and wants to help the guys get out of problems by turning them into a football team. We had a great time eating pizza, chips, and watching the movie.

It’s a great movie. The first time I watched it, I had to fight back tears a few times. It has a lot of great lessons in it, too. It teaches us a lot about helping youth in problems.

  1. You must accept them for who they are.
  2. You must see them for who they can be.
  3. You must have faith in them.
  4. Never give up on them.
  5. Deal with your own problems, too.
  6. Be willing to learn from them.
  7. Discipline is a good thing.
  8. Not everyone is going to agree with what you’re doing.

The list goes on. I’m looking forward to the discussion on Wednesday.

Changes

Changes happen all the time. They can be good or bad. In missions, you always have to be ready for change. In fact, flexibility is important for just about any ministry endeavor.

The workshop that I was going to give this weekend has been changed to next weekend (March 3-4). I had told a student at the seminary that I couldn’t go to something that he is leading this weekend because I was going to be giving the workshop. He tried to change the date, but he couldn’t. I saw him today, and we decided that I would go to his event this weekend, since the change had occurred in the date for the workshop.

Confused? It all just means that I have something this weekend AND next weekend. Whew!

You Can Help!

This is the first time I’m trying this, but I wanted to see if we could raise some money online for a project we’re working on to informally train youth workers in Mexico City. We are trying to raise $500 through Chipin to help with promotion and preparation for an Institute for Youth Ministry in Mexico City.

The Institute for Youth Ministry is a year long training program which will consist of 10 courses in youth ministry. We will meet 4 times a month for 3 hours a week. Each Saturday, the students will receive youth ministry training that will help them in their local churches.

The courses will cover: Biblical Philosophy of Youth Ministry; Youth Culture; Programming for Youth Ministry; Discipleship in Youth Ministry; Effective Teaching; Family Ministry; Troubled Youth; Communicating in Youth Ministry; Missions with young people; Campus Ministry.

The institute will also offer courses online and through distance, making it more available for other students in other areas of Latin America.

If you’d like to help, please chip in and link to this post on your blog, website, myspace page, etc.