Hot 5 Contributions
1. Leader Talk
I wish I had good scholastic reasoning for this, (I don’t) but the reality for me is that I just lean towards personal experience in youth ministry as the supreme tool. Even after doing some sifting of possible other factors playing into each scenario offered, I appreciated these insights more than the general study due to the ‘validation’ of reality. (plus…I like a good story…it makes it easier for me to remember what I learned down the road J) I especially enjoyed reading Dave Ambroses submissions.
2. The Curriculum
31 meetings…(can I get that to go?!) O.K. I’m a sucker for pre-made stuff…especially if it is on a specific topic such as student leadership. I make a decision to work on developing student leadership, I find a book like this (with a ‘yes, I’ll give you everything you want kind of title’) and then I get to completely ignore the amount time and or days they suggest I use, and use all the prefab stuff I get however I want to. Sounds good to me!
3. The Mini-Prayer Retreat
I have a number of youth leaders and leaders of other ministries within our church who have been seeking to hold an overnight prayer retreat with the youth. While the version presented here seemed to be designed of simply the 2-hour variety, I plan to use it for an overnight, just spreading out the segments with breaks and other programming. It also seems to be a good resource to give to youth leaders who might be able to customize it for their own small group retreat.
4. Speaking of prayer…
If there seemed to be one consistent topic weaved into most all lessons, it was that of prayer. There was a definite principal of the need to seek God’ s assistance in all endeavors that was hammered home. I love the way that this encourages students (and leaders for that matter) to continue to rely on God to work in their lives.
5. What Pumps You Up?
I really appreciated the way that this session (#6) meets the students’ where they live. It took what can be a very difficult area to address with students (feelings – without it just being a runaway blab seesion), and gives a good deal of direction to a discussion on this area.
Cold 5 Contributions
1. Helping friends in crisis…
I like the idea, but I’m fairly concerned that we are dealing with very dangerous topics in the life of adolescence and seem to be empowering students to play the role of counselor with a miniature lesson. It’s not that I don’t believe that it is a worthy subject, but don’t believe it is a subject that should be included as standard teaching in student leadership.
2. Time With God Contract…Bad Idea. (pg.105)
I wish I could temper my feelings on this one, but this just feels like an exercise in the school of young Pharisees. What kind of consequences do we really want to put on the peers of students for failing to live-up to the ‘prescribed’ amount of quiet time with God. This is not the message I want to send to my student leaders. It seems to reinforce the idea that you have to hold to a certain level of religiosity to be a true student leader.
3. Making Decisions as a Team seems idealistic.
As much as I appreciate the idea trying to make good group decisions, this session seems to be at odds with one of the other principals we are working so hard at developing in student leaders which is being able to make hard decisions even when others don’t understand and/or agree with what we are doing. This seems to be a ‘teach students how to create a feel good atmosphere’, when in the end, it would be self-defeating.
4. Fonts are terribly distracting.
More is not always more. And even if you came with the argument that we are passing out some of these as handouts to students, I would still suggest that creating handouts that are of this nature actually disrespect the students into the idea that they must be ‘lured’ into work by catchy designs. They are being trained in this realm, likely because they have chosen to dig deeper. The sell is unnecessary and distracting.
5. Sort of tailing on my last cold…
I can’t figure out in what order the chapters are supposed to be read. The content is good, but you have to be really committed to make it through, because it leaves you looking for a map…are we still reading from top to bottom, left to right, or not?
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