In the book Sustainable Youth Ministry, Mark DeVries shares some methods that he has seen work with different youth ministries to make them sustainable. DeVries has taken time to go to many churches around the country and work with them on created a sustainable youth ministry. Five principles from this book that I feel are important for having a sustainable youth ministry include: investment, systems approach to youth ministry, emotional health of a youth minister, time management skills, and relationships.
First, investment in the youth ministry is important. An example that is given in the text is that of the easy button. “Easy buttons don’t work in life; they don’t work in marriage, and they certainly don’t work in youth ministry” (30). I think that DeVries included this quote because some people try to take the easy way out in many different aspects of life. In the context of this chapter, this quote most likely means that youth ministers should not try and use an easy button when it comes to investing in the youth ministry. Some of the main ideas that DeVries used to help with investment include that we need to plan on about one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars a student, one full time staff member for every fifty youth, and one adult for every five youth. Some of the other things that he discussed were that roughly ten percent of the worshipping congregation is usually the size of the typical youth ministry and that we need to have a cap of about twenty percent of the worshipping congregation in the youth group. I think these two factors in the size of the youth group are important so that way the youth minister knows about how many students they will be dealing with on an average week of ministry. Also, by placing a cap...
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...onships. The youth ministers are very invested in getting to know the youth on a deeper level. The previous four skills all lead to relationships and help create a sustainable youth ministry. Some challenges that might be present would be if something happens at any of the other levels of the ministry where maybe level of investment is not there or poor levels of emotional health of the youth minister or even poor time management skills thus not allowing the time for relationships to be built.
In conclusion, DeVries book was very informative and gave many good ideas as how to create a sustainable youth ministry. The main aspects that I got from his book were investment, systems approach to youth ministry, emotional health of a youth minister, time management skills, and relationships. When you put together all five of these aspects the youth ministry is sustainable.
To say the least, I felt like a failure and that I had wasted people’s time and money. Reading this chapter helped me realize that it is important to learn through a failure (Fagerstrom 126). Failures happen in ministry often, and the way you respond to the failure is important. Chapter fifteen, “Developing a plan for lifelong learning”, is essential for effective leaders. Per Fagerstrom, there are four areas that need constant attention: skill (competency), wisdom and knowledge (learning and thinking), spiritual formation (godliness), and personal development (focus on the word personally)
Cornerstone Youth Center provides a place for kids ages twelve to eighteen to hang out after school. On any day of the week there are approximately thirty to thirty-five students attending the center. The students appear to be from low socioeconomic status. Also, some of the students have learning disabilities or behavioral problems, which lead them to perform poorly in school.
...s is a concept which should resonate with the teenage mind. The title of the book is the same title of a movie a few years old, yet he applies it to a plan which was set forth within the early church. To quote Steir, the outbreak, “spreads like an epidemic. It infected the general populace so quickly that no one was safe.” With a few emendations of word choices and phraseology, this is indeed a unique way of viewing and considering how to do youth ministry.
Youth Ministry is Holistic |. (n.d.). Tree of Life. Retrieved January 24, 2014, from http://jeremypmyers.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/youth-ministry-is-holistic/
In class, I learned about Kouzes and Posner’s five practices that relate to Transformational Leadership; they include modeling the way, inspiring
Although written for church leadership, everyday church members would also benefit from understanding the concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders. Ms. Dawn's work is predominantly scholarly, and she cites several other works at great length.... ... middle of paper ... ...
For the past two years, I have been the treasurer for the Little River Cumberland Valley District Youth. The L.R.C.V.D.Y is made up of about twenty Baptist churches. The youth of each church comes together every third Saturday and have a meeting. We talk about upcoming events, and have a lesson from a Pastor. During the meeting, I collect money to help support the youth. Once the money is collected, I count the money, and report the total to the youth and youth advisor. Then the total is wrote down and added to the total money that's in the bank. In mid-June we
... children’s ministry; and she organizes the nursery and sunday school programs. Without the assistance of multiple people, Pastor Barber would not be able to keep Pine Grove Baptist Church running; delegation of leadership is extremely important.
There are a few scriptures that come to mind when deciding to create and implement the leadership development plan. I wanted to help grow and foster the Mississippi National Guard. Therefore, the need to develop a better plan was a must. Within my plan, one Biblical principle that is being used is staying diligent and creating a plan that will honor God. Proverbs 21:5 states, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but
While exploring my personal leadership I used a variety of books, research articles and assessments. The books were used to cover servant leaders, agile development and organizational learning. In addition to the books used for research I reviewed several articles on both servant leadership and agile development where I was able to being to piece together each methodology.
Aitken, P., & Higgs, M. (2010). Developing change leaders: The principles and practices of change leadership development. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Young, D. S. (1999). Servant Leadership for Church Renewal: Sheperds By the Living Springs. Scottdale: Herald Press.
Sustainability development has three components: environment, society, and economy. If you consider the three to be overlapping circles of the same size, the area of overlap in the center is human well-being. As the environment, society, and economy become more aligned, the area of overlap increases, and so does human well-being. Therefore, education for sustainable development (ESD) is the use of education as a tool to achieve sustainability. Simply put, ESD is a way to make the world a safer, healthier, and more livable place for us and future generations (McKeown, 2002, pgs 7-9).
Vora, M,K, (2013) "Business excellence through sustainable change management", The TQM Journal, Vol. 25 Iss: 6, pp.625 – 640, Emerald, [Accessed 31st January 2014]
The United Nations recently published a list of goals they hope to accomplish by 2030 called the Sustainable Development Goals. These goals will replace the Millennium Development Goals, which were set in 2000, when they expire at the end of 2015. Some of these goals include ending poverty, promoting gender equality, and improving water and sanitation conditions. Arguably, the most important goal is to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” (in text citation- NY Times Article). Hunger was also an important goal on the MDG list, yet it was not fully accomplished (in text citation- Progress chart). The goals was to reduce hunger by half, and yet, the number of people who go to bed hungry