Her question, "What are you using for student leadership training with your group?"
Kristel,
I wish I had an organized series of steps and progression of points to share with you. As I convey this just know that it is by memory and if needed I will be happy to explain anything that your interested in knowing more about.
We do leadership training in the context of community.
When I came here 17 months ago the Uprising had one service to reach out to seekers and believers with. My observation was that we were not doing both really well because our energy and program was try to meet students in the middle. We had no small group paradigm at that time.
One night in May of 2008 I made an announcement at the end of our Wednesday night show that I would be upstairs in the church office hosting a five minute meeting for anyone who want to go deeper in their relationship with God and be given the chance to lead as a student. So that you know, about 90% of our students come on their own. Their parents are not members of Gateway.
About 20 kids showed up in the conference room. I explained to them that during the summer my wife and I were going to host a Gathering on Tuesday nights. There would be food, worship, and then discussion over the Bible about how you lead a small group of your peers. I told them to spend the week deciding if they wanted to do that and that I would get in touch with them about what time and how to get to our house. I let them off the hook as well telling them it was totally okay if it was something they weren't sure about.
So we started with seven students. Every time we met I told them our plan.
1. I'm gonna teach you about Biblical community.
2. In September we're gonna launch small groups.
3. You're gonna lead your peers in discussion.
4. Adult leaders are gonna shepherd the group and you but the small group moment is yours.
5. We're gonna grow the house to about 35-40 students then multiply into another house.
6. When we multiply you need to have taught another student what I'm gonna teach you so they can lead at teh next house.
During the summer I followed this progression...
1. First night... Defined the community and created an environment of high expectation as well as safety and security for them to grow in. Told them to read the book of I John for next week.
2. Second night... Discussed verses that stood out in I John. Had them draw a life map and then share that life map with the group. The life map was a pivotal moment for the core as they had to explain pain and life progression to the group. The we moved to Acts for the next week.
3. We discussed Biblical Community. Broke into groups by gender. Confessed sin to each other and paired them into accountability partners.
4. We discussed passages on how to read the Bible. Taught them how to journal.
5. We discussed passages on prayer. Taught them how to pray using ACTS acrostic... adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.
6. We discussed the great commandment and the great commission. Had them right down friends at the uprising and in their school they would begin to pray for and bring into the community.
7. We did a service project. They made about 300 sandwiches, place them in bags. Went downtown handed them to the homeless and spoke with them as they gave food.
8. By this time they were hooked. Right before our launch we were sitting at about 15 students. When we launched officially they had already been talking to their friends.
9. We taught them how to generate conversation with their peers and how to ask questions.
10. We took communion and prayed the last week before our launch.
We launched and started with about 25 students at one house.
I started a Facebook fan page for the group where I could celebrate and provide updates to them. We gave them the lesson the week before so they could study it. We paired student leaders with adults so they could bounce their questions off of them. The house had 3 cells for girls and 2 cells for the guys. By November the house had an average of 37 students. I divided into another house in January.
We met in that house as a group. Prayed for the house, new leaders, divided the kids, had worship and launched that house like you would a church. It is very important you weekly tell the kids that they will multiply so they don't get cliques.
We changed one thing after we launched. We told them once a month we would unite both homes for celebration, prayer, worship, and stories. We still do that except that one month is praise and worship, then the next month is service.
By May of this year we had on average 55 students in community. We broke for the summer but only met once a month. We relaunched last month with our two original homes and added a college house for our exiting seniors.
We will repeat this pattern of raising up leaders and multiplying houses. I gave our adult shepherds of these student led communities the book, "The Be With Factor" by Bo Boshers to help them mentor their student leaders. Leadership is by weekly interaction with those students in the backdrop of community.
I can't tell you enough how this revolutionized our program. Life on life is better than any curriculum I've ever used and this is my 15th year of vocational student ministry. The Bible and Biblical community is the only way to go.
If you have questions let me know.
Chad
I forgot to tell her that as soon as we did this we were then in turn able to go all out seeker in our wednesday night show.
4 comments:
This is really great stuff. I'm going to share this with some others...
Another great post Chad! It is cool to see in one post the many pieces here and there I've seen through your blogging. Thanks for giving enough detail to make it helpful, while still majoring on the principles that guide it so they can be applied in different contexts.
Hi friend, peace...
Your blog very interesting.
If you willing visit my blog, and read my article at http://sosiologidakwah.blogspot.com
And... if you love books, read The Holy Qur'an please...
Wow, right on! I am not satisfied with our small groups and am looking for...something. This may be it.
Gratefully,
Dave
www.UthBuild.com
www.BethanyCommunity.com/HSM
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