City Youth Ministries

The premise of Cannister’s book is that when teenagers matter, everything changes in student ministry. Cannister uses the introduction to look at four basic core principles that have lasted almost a century. First there is having a clarity of purpose which, without, a youth ministry will crumble. Second is exemplifying authentic leadership. This is not someone being perfect but genuine with youth. Third is the overall goal: transformation of lives. Lastly there is creating and maintaining genuine relationships with students. These four core principles have been “beacons of light” for youth pastors/ministries for decades.

Several years ago God moved upon the heart and mind of Bishop T.T. Scott, prelate of the Northern Mississippi Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, to make choice of Pastor Larry Lee Lewis Sr., to serve as the Jurisdictional Youth Department President. For 16 years, President Lewis led our department with dignity, class, vigor and great distinction. Not only has President

This formation of a large, urban, public school sports league was a major development for organized youth athletics and also signaled that athletics had become an important part of public education (Bowen & Hitt, 2016, p. 8).

On Monday, September 28th, we visited the YMCA. We went into their conference room where we set up the computer and the projector. Finally when the teens arrived, we presented a short PowerPoint about community service and a few ideas for this event. We then broke off into two groups to get to know the kids a

Throughout the past four years I have had the fortunate pleasure to immerse myself in many extracurricular activities; however, one service project has truly changed my high school experience for the better. The summer before my sophomore year I volunteered as a teacher aide for my local parish's religious education classes. A month before the classes began I received a call from the administrator asking if I would work one-on-one with a third-grade boy with special needs. As a fifteen-year-old, I had very little experience working with children with autism; however, with the help of the young boy's former instructor and the administrator, I felt reassured that I had the ability to help this young boy who was so eager to learn about his faith.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Mathew 19:14 highlights Jesus’ love of children and His desire that they be able to come to Him unhindered. Unfortunately, with many children attending public schools where there is a general intolerance of all things Christianity, it is becoming more and more important that both families and churches are able to fill this gap. Enter Christ Church at Grove Farm’s Kid’s Ministry. CCGF offers Sunday School, Sunday Morning Childcare and Awana weekly, as well as Summer Day Camp once a year. This ministry is headed up by the family ministry pastor* followed by the director*, associate director*, employee*, child care staff, and volunteers. Every summer CCGF also hires one summer intern to assist in the planning and running of their Summer Day Camp. Although CCGF has been able to accomplish a great deal considering how shortly staffed they are, there are still many problems largely in the inner-workings of leadership that need to be improved in order for the ministry to better succeed. Christ Church’s Kid’s Ministry would improve with better communication, specifically in the areas of conflict and clarity, recognizing employee’s level of competence and placing them in an area where they can best use their abilities, and by focusing more on collaborating with parents. This paper will specifically document the ways in which these changes could be made in hopes of

As a teen growing up in a small town I’ve worked and volunteered at many places gaining different experiences quickly. However, the most memorable and special experience I’ve had was at Greenwood Court a division of Tri-County Mennonite Homes after spending a semester as a co-op student and eventually working as a full-time employee. Greenwood Court is located in my hometown Stratford and is well known for providing residents and their families with “a place to call home”. While at Greenwood Court I was impacted by their values and beliefs, hands on teaching which eventually changed my career plans and the relationships I made with both staff and residents.

When I decided to volunteer for Crossroads Corporation, I was prepared to inspire the lives of children in need. However, I was not ready for the emotional and spiritual journey that was about to transpire. Voices for Girls focused on using religion, arts and crafts, and other activities to empower students to confront daily problems. Several girls’ lives were full of obstacles, not to mention the pressure of meeting societal norms. I was surprised to learn how one young lady overcame problems with a free and religious spirit. The perception of issues was either I can overcome my problems or will I allow problems to get the best of me. As I met each student, they shared stories about all of the voids in their life, not having a father and

Rebuild a structured youth group ministry within a year from 8-10 students/leaders to 25-30 students/leaders in attendance of youth service

Macquarie University Sport and Aquatic Center is a multi-purpose fitness offering swimming pools, health clubs, and group fitness classes for students and local community. Macquarie University’s sport club also offers Mac Warrior which includes the different levels of the competition and competitive sporting programs such as AFL, cheerleading, cricket, quidditch and so on. Baldwin (2012, paras 8-9) finds that traditional sport clubs usually have strict training timetables and regular matches such as football, basketball, or rugby so less conventional sports are widespread popularity among the students. Macquarie University’s sport club should support more social sport groups like hiking to the sport club. The members would enjoy outdoor sport trips in the weekends throughout the academic semester. There are many reasons the students should join the clubs in terms of social skills, personality development, and management skills and friendship and fun. Gidda (2013, paras 2-8) examines that joining a university society member is the best chance to find out social benefits and do not stick the familiar activities that you know. Moreover, Harris (2013, paras 12-17) finds that competitive sport reflects the bigger impact on a student’s grades of 14-18 years old than join the debating or drama club. It can be said that sport helps to develop a mentoring relationship in adults at school because sport leads to help develop time management skill and ability to work with

Charity has faced many challenges such as trying to balance all her responsibilities and dealing with criticism from church members. Mrs. Charity works a full-time job, is a mother to nine year old twin girls, leads a high school girl’s Bible study, leads a twelfth grade Sunday school class, and coordinates the youth group’s travel plans. It’s difficult to find a way to give each activity all the attention that it deserves while finding time to do things for herself. Yet, with great organization, time management, and trust in God, Charity manages to complete all her tasks while remaining at peace. Of course, she’ll slip up every now and then and will have to decide what she needs to sacrifice in order to give more attention to another area in her life, but this is inevitable. She’ll make the decision not to partake in an opportunity or to take on an extra responsibility because doing so would cause extra stress, and that would take away from her ability to lead in other areas. Church members have sometimes criticized her for not paying special attention to different students or for being too involved in her class’s lives. However, Mrs. Charity takes these criticisms into consideration and focuses on what the students want and need instead of what outside parties try to suggest. Her goal as a leader is to make students feel involved and comfortable based on what they need, and to point them in the direction of the

Beginning in 2011, I have been volunteering at Calvary Bible Church’s annual vacation Bible school. Each year, I adopt the role of a “team leader” for a week, who supervises, assists, and encourages the children who make up my team. Last year, I was given the task to lead a team of third and fourth graders. Each day, I led them to various classes, like

The God-sized vision for my life and ministry is to fulfill the vision shared by my husband, which is to build a youth center for children that offers positive Christian values to enrich their lives and their families. Youth intervention has been a ministry of deep passion for the last six years of our life. Thomas and I decided we could no longer sit on the sidelines knowing we could do more to help children in need in the community. So we opened the doors of our fellowship hall to feed, clothe and tutor as needed to meet their needs. The non-profit, Integrity Unlimited CDC started with this outreach. Its mission is to invest in children, strengthen families, and build communities. The call of God on this

As the school year ended I looked to begin yet another hard working summer. What I had in mind was not what I was presented with. Throughout this paper I will explain how those things helped me for the better during my summer break. This paper will be broken down into four parts and through those I will gradually introduce and explain my experiences and things that I have learned while working, leading, and instructing at summer camps. During this time, I have been reading a book by one of my favorite authors, John MacArthur, which I will use quotes from within my paper. It has helped me learn about strong women in the bible and I know it has helped me become a stronger person. I have shown a lot of growth but I am sure that my greatest

Colin Houston assumed the Cathedral’s Children and Youth program, in August, 2015 rising to face the challenge of organizing a working program and a body of volunteers in the midst of ‘The Pilgrimage. Using the resource, Sustainable Youth Ministries (Mark DeVries), Colin aims to design a sustainable system, focused on building a ‘community within a community’, where children and youth may develop lasting relationships and engage with the larger Church community, in the hopes that this will create a sense of permanence in the children/youth of CCC. Ideally, children and their families will grow up and into the church, moving from nursery up into the teen program, in an environment that offers love, spiritual training, and support. Although