MANAGE:  Could you use some help controlling the chaos in your life? This class will cover the stuff that kills most youth workers – including budgeting, time management, program planning, creating a calendar, risk management, personal finance, developing core competencies and implementing action steps for moving a ministry forward.  This isn’t glamorous but can have grave consequences when not done well. Your long term ministry success is often rooted in the details. These 3 days will help you in behind the scenes areas so you can stay healthy, achieve your mission, and keep doing what you love to do. Trust us – you need this class. Find your calendar, mark it down, and make it happen.

Teachers:  Tiger McLuen, Ginny Olson

COUNSEL:  We live in a fallen world and our teens are hurting.  This 3-day intensive will give you tools, information and strategies to increase your counseling and caring skills.  We will prepare you to care for teens dealing with a wide variety of adolescent issues while avoiding common counseling danger areas.  We will give you helpful, concrete tools to improve your focus, your effectiveness and your confidence in caregiving.  Youth ministry constantly requires you to be in the middle of crisis issues and it takes more than good intentions. This is where you can powerfully communicate God’s love and grace if you know how to respond.  This class is an excellent resource for every adult who truly wants to love and care for teenagers.  Crisis can happen any time. Don’t be caught unprepared - your students are counting on you.

Teachers:  Tiger McLuen and Steve Merritt (Seattle)

            Tiger McLuen and Kevin Harrington (St. Paul)

UNDERSTAND:  Culture is changing at an alarming pace.  Can you keep up?  We will teach you new perspectives in adolescent culture, developmental and sociological issues facing teens, ministry to teenage girls, the realities of postmodernism and why urban and multicultural issues affect all ministry settings. Youth ministry requires more than being young and cool; it demands leaders who can communicate the gospel into a rapidly changing culture. We will help you ask crucial leadership questions: Do you really need to know everything about youth culture? How much can you fake it?  How do you love teenagers right where they are, but have the courage to challenge the very culture that is distracting them from the gospel? 

Teachers:  Ginny Olson, Efrem Smith, Tiger McLuen, Mike Bernard

ESTABLISH:  The right framework for your youth ministry can mean the difference between success and failure. We will teach you how to create and implement a vision plan, recruit volunteers, work with parents, develop programs and clarify your leadership role.  This intensive will help you understand and deepen the critical principles required for effective ministry to teenagers and their families.  It will help you go past the youth ministry phrases and buzzwords so you can explain why you do what you do.  Long-term success in ministry requires theological, theoretical and practical foundations.  This class will help you articulate your core values, but more importantly, be able to explain to them to parents and volunteers.

Teachers:  Tiger McLuen, Kevin Farmer, Kara Stromberg,

COMMUNICATE:  Everyone in our society is talking to your teens. Make sure your message gets through the clutter. Let us teach you how to communicate a biblical message, evangelize, use different teaching techniques, speak to large and small groups, incorporate technology and grow in your discipleship of teenagers. Effective communication goes beyond loving God and loving kids. This class will help you understand the process and develop tools and ideas to become more effective.  Is anyone listening to your talks or devotionals? Are your small groups actually impacting anyone?  You deserve some time away to strategically improve yourself in the area of speaking and teaching in our postmodern, adolescent world – because communicating effectively to teenagers involves more than just good intentions.

Teachers:  Tiger McLuen, Bob Stromberg, James Brown, Kara Stromberg

LEAD:  Growing as a leader is a complicated process.  What makes an effective, long-term youth ministry leader?   Do you feel like people don’t take you seriously?  Could you use some help with finding your voice?  Everyone is talking about leadership but how does that apply to you as a youth worker?  In this class, we’ll go beyond generic definitions of leadership and help you understand how to better minister to teens out of your areas of strength, as well as how to work with those who differ from you.  We will discuss the issues in leading change, building effective teams, understanding personality differences, and dealing with conflict, stress and burnout.   Take three days to improve your leadership because…nothing happens without a leader.

Teachers:  Tiger McLuen, James Brown