Youth Ministry Academic Program
The In-Class Experience:
Here's the core of our youth ministries program. The Strategic Youth Ministry class teaches you how to be intentional and "strategic" in your approach to ministry to teenagers. It is an all-access backstage pass to what should be happening behind the scenes in youth ministry to be intentional in how we go about ministering to teenagers. It is in this class that we lay the foundation for evangelism, discipleship, and ministry to be built upon.
Then we begin the deconstruction process through Youth Evangelism, Youth Discipleship, and Youth In Ministry. We believe that effective ministry to teenagers can take place and last by (1) teaching our teenagers to share their faith, by (2) equipping them to live for God by educating them in discipleship and allowing them to experience what they are learning in a supportive environment and then making those disciplines a habit in their own lives, and by (3) helping them to discover the gifts, talents, and abilities that God has uniquely placed inside each of them to be used to build the Kingdom of God and placing them in ministry.
At the end of each of these three classes, you will be fully prepared to put into action a plan for winning, building, and sending teenagers to be disciple-makers. You will be ready to come off the starting blocks and know where you are running and how you are going to get there and not just launch full speed ahead only to realize (after about a year when your "cool" ideas for youth ministry run out) that you are running in circles (which is what we do when we are lost).
It is through Youth Evangelism that you will be equipped to be instantly ready on day-one in ministry to begin ministries to the high-school and college campuses and equip student leaders to be as intentional as you are in reaching out to pre-Christ-followers.
Through Youth Discipleship you will walk away with your own customized plan that is ready for immediate implementation to intentionally educate teenagers in spiritual disciplines, facilitate their experiencing those disciplines in real-time (being doers of the Word and not hearers only), and then make them personal habits that become second nature to them-- even after graduation.
Youth In Ministry will have prepared you to help your teenagers identify what God has given them to work with in their own lives and then facilitate and support their placement and involvement in ministry now and not be benchwarmers that never get to play the game and end up quitting the team after the season is over.
We bring it all back together again in Seminar In Youth Ministry Leadership as we bring in a variety of speakers that are currently serving in the trenches of youth ministry and are seasoned in battle to address some specific areas that apply to youth ministry. You'll synthesize each of the elements of evangelism, discipleship, and youth in ministry into the creation of your own blueprint for building a healthy youth ministry that will serve as your "playbook" for launching and sustaining a Biblical model of ministry to teenagers and increase the likelihood that they won't walk away from their faith after graduation and you won't walk away from your youth ministry position after one year !
The Out-of-Class Experience:
You will have many opportunities for hands-on ministry as each of the youth ministry courses requires you to participate in a local church youth ministry or Chi Alpha for the semester that you are enrolled in the course.
You will also be a part of the Youth Ministry Learning Community which will greatly enhance your training for youth ministry.
There are also many student-led ministry opportunities that you can involve yourself in that will let you "do" ministry and not just have a head full of knowledge about ministry.