Spiritual Formation Tour

Saturday I attended a Spiritual Formation seminar (by the Wesleyan Church). It was a wonderful time of refreshing the spirit, and learning methods of developing spiritual formation in ourselves and those in our churches. It was good to be reminded of the fact that the most important spiritual formation to maintain is our own. We must follow spiritual discipline, and take care of our own spiritual formation before we can train/develop others.

I attended the youth ministry track. Their were many valuable things discussed. However, the most important thing was the emphasis of mentoring; the importance of a one-on-one relationship with the students in our youth groups. Students will come to churches were they are accepted and loved. As we strive to develop spiritual formation in the lives of our students, mentoring becomes essential.

In my youth ministry experience the most valuable times of ministry were the times outside of church/youth group. They were the times at McDonald's after church. They were the times of taking a student along to perform some task, nothing really planned, just spending time with these students.

They gave a staggering stastic: 90% of Christians today are converted before the age of 14. Youth spiritual formation/ministry is more important now than ever.

We dsicussed 5 steps to establishing youth groups:

1.) Pray (for God's annointing on the ministry, spiritual strength, teen leaders).

2.) Develop a teen prospect list (write the names of teens, known or not known, and their hangouts, develop rapport).

3.) Have a start-up meeting (with whatever students you may have, what do they want the ministry to look like, what's important).

4.) Plan a big kick-off event (develop importance of youth ministry, outreach, promote).

5.) Stick to it (develop long-term goals, plan to stay for the long haul, youth pastor turnover rate is probably the #1 killer of youth groups).

Their are many youth ministry resources available at... www.unstoppableministries.com