If you know anything about our ministry with Youth Ministry International, you know that we talk a lot about formal training and that we focus a lot of our energy on Seminary programs that will systematically train youth workers for local churches.
You may not even know that we do “informal” youth ministry training…but we do.
In fact, while I was in Mexico teaching a Seminary course about “Youth and Family Ministry,” Claudia, the director of the Seminary program, was in Merida, teaching a weekend conference on youth ministry.
Today I got this message on Facebook from a young man who was at the training event with her:
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I keep joking around with my friends here that everyone is going to think that all I did during my trip to Mexico was drink Starbucks and eat tacos.
The reality is that tacos and coffee are just the means by which I can have meaningful conversations with youth workers and other friends that I haven’t seen in a while.
I will admit, I’ve eaten many tacos and drunk a lot of caffeinated beverages during this trip, but the times I’ve had with people during those meals have been well worth the price of admission.
Here are a few things I’ve accomplished either during a meal or a coffee:
- Josue gave a talk at Starbucks about love and values.
- Meeting with Josue and David about their church’s worship service and how to make it more efficient.
- Lunch meeting with youth ministry certificate graduates about starting a network in Monterrey.
- Tacos with Josue and talk about Seminary and the Family ministry class we are co-teaching.
- Meeting for coffee with Rafa, one of our graduates who is serving as youth pastor in Ojo de Agua.
- Lunch meeting with Adolfo, Masters in youth ministry graduate who wants to talk about future training opportunities.
- Meeting with Claudia, currrent director of the Center for Youth Ministry at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary.
- Dinner with my good friend and missionary from Argentina (and youth pastor) Gerardo.
Im sure I will have other meetings while I’m here, and some of them just might be at a Starbucks or a taco place. I might as well take advantage of the time I have in Mexico. 😀
Yesterday I was in a meet-up with the students of the certificate program here in Monterrey, and I was sitting next to Olga and her husband, who have recently started taking the Certificate classes taught by our graduates Josue and Kareny.
As we talked about our desire to begin a network of youth leaders in the area, she was excited. They had both been telling me about how there is a lack of vision for what to do with the youth in her denomination. She was talking about how they do events with no purpose and was excited about the possibility of inviting others who have not received any youth ministry training to these meetings.
Olga hopes that these other youth leaders will learn some of the principles that are taught in the YMI program to better reach out and disciple young people. The rest of the group agreed that the meet-ups would be a good idea for them as well, and the first one will be scheduled for some time in April.
Please pray for these youth leaders who have received training from YMI. Pray that they will put into practice the things they have seen and learned so that many more young people will be impacted by the churches in this region.
Current certificate program students
I spent last week in Nigeria along with 24 new youth ministry students at the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary. I was teaching “Understanding Youth Culture,” one of the courses in the first block of twelve classes these students will receive from YMI in order to think more strategically about reaching the next generation and train others in youth ministry.
The trip was eventful and new for me, my first time in Africa. The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary belongs to the Nigerian Baptist Convention, which has 4 million members and 6 million attendees. The Convention has 13 schools, but before now there was no youth ministry training programs in any of the schools.
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Our mission organization, Youth Ministry International, trains youth workers for local churches. In the past few years we have realized the potential impact of training men and women who could train others for youth ministry. This strategy has a multiplication effect where our friends around the world begin to influence more youth workers than we could have ever imagined.
The strategy proves effective as we watch national youth workers in Cuba, Mexico, Kenya, and other parts of the world take what we have taught them and teach others to apply it in their own local churches. Our own trainers have adopted this vision and begun to expand their ministries to other seminaries and Bible institutes. Ukraine is one such example.
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This past week my friend Frank Mills went to teach the 9th course in a 12 course training program at Nassa Theological College (NTC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. While he was there, I asked him to research some statistics about the impact of the ministry there in that East African country. Here’s what he sent back.
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