My friend Brit is looking for resources to help him incorporate a mentoring component into his youth ministry. So far, he is planning on using some resources from Faith Inkubators and the Full Circle Triple-A Training, but he’s looking for more. Please drop me a comment, or go to Brit’s blog and let him know if you have any good resources for developing mentors. Things like:
- Websites
- Books
- Curriculum
- Scripture passages
- Training events
Obviously, we’re looking for stuff that is quality material. Thanks for your help.
guess everyone is to busy!!! mentoring to give me some input 🙂
I just picked up some books that might be useful from Group Publishing. Again I think its creating a healthy church model which holistically follows the Family… but the big piece is equipping the parents and leaders to be the best that they can be
Yeah, when June hit, blog traffic and comments have decreased. I think summer might not be too good of a time for blogging.
been following your blog for a week or so, great stuff! just finished reading Getting Fired for the Glory of God by Yaconelli and something stood out. i read your post yesterday and was on my own search for d-ship materials. then i read an essay titled, “Disciple Abuse,” in the book by Yaconelli. he says we shouldn’t ask students to be disciples, but we should instead show them how we are disciples. we should be in relationship with them and show them. basically, he feels like the call to discipleship is something students can’t honestly commit to so we set them up for failure. it was an interesting read and i’m not sure how much is hyperbole, sarcasm, rant, and how much is honest, but it got me thinking about trying to create a d-ship program when d-ship is about living life for Christ. it’s about making decisions and choices that are influenced by faith in Jesus Christ.
without reading the essay, it’s probably hard to ask you to weigh in, but what do you think?
you’re probably asking for matt to weigh in i’m sure, but i’ll throw some coins in this pot as well if you don’t mind
i think you need to define discipleship. Dallas Willard would go with the idea that we are learners and disciples of something/things building our kingdom. we are called to be disciples of Christ, not just followers. In his book the ‘Divine Conspiracy’, Willard draws the line in the sand in that all people have been called to be disciples of Christ, most just follow and are fine and comfortable with that. most have never seen a real life disciple of Christ.
that point i would agree with Yaconelli is that we in relationship show them how we are in fact in a relationship growing and learning in Christ…and that they too can/should follow after Christ. a disciple (and i could be off with this) is the decider! they must choose if they want to follow and learn and be taught… one must first be called (which we all are) but then we/they must choose if they are going to follow.
I think we need to be very intentionally and honest with our teenagers about what we are called and invited to participate in as Christian! not dumping tons of weight and condemnation on them for ‘failing’ but calling them into discipleship with Christ and with others. we got with mantra at our church
“Allowing Students to Screw up, just not allowing them to be a Screw Up!”
anyways. those are a few of my thoughts.
What kind of resources you been looking at Chad
i’ve been looking at some at Simply Youth Ministry, but haven’t found any i like. i’m not a fan of most curriculum series mostly because of the cost and amount of time you have to put in weeding through the crappy material or shallow theology. to tell you the truth, i’m leaning toward using a resource like Christianity Explored or the Alpha course as a way of “re-introducing” faith and looking at faith from varying perspectives. other than that, i’m not really sure!
Chad, regarding Yaconelli’s comment, I am going to have to agree with Brit on this, to an extent. A lot of it has to do with defining our terms. I think that when many people think disciple with teenagers they think “finished product.” But we are never finished products, not even as adults.
The life of discipleship is a life of a particular orientation. I agree with Yac that the main way we disciple people is through relationships, but to say that youth cannot be disciples is setting the bar too low. As the NT shows us, disciples still have significant failures, just like our youth will have. But that does not mean that they are not disciples of Jesus.
Chad Alpha is great. I used it over in Northern Ireland with our church, and we are starting to launch it here with our older adult groups for a starting point. the problem with Alpha is there is no Omega (i know lame joke)! you have to be very intentional of what steps you take next!
check out these books, The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, In His Steps by Charles Sheldon, A Multi Coloured Kingdom (many authors)… for a start. they are all great resources for rethinking discipleship and what we are called to do as ministers
Brit, have you seen the video curriculum with NT Wright based off of Simply Christian? I think its from a Methodist publishing house (but could be wrong). Might be another good alternative to things like Alpha.
Also this website and resources doesn’t offer as many resources and links as I thought it would when I become one their “ambassadors” a couple of years ago. It’s still a good place for links, structure, recruiting ideas,and a connection to several mentoring organizations both Christian based and secular. It is sposored by the National Network of Youth Ministries. here is the sight: http://www.mentoryouth.com/