If you lead a youth ministry team, you are likely looking for ways to train and equip your team. I could not do what I do without the team of volunteers that dedicate so much time to volunteering with our middle school students. As we work with teenagers, training can help our team be reminded of their calling to teenagers and be equipped as they learn what's important for this age and stage of life. The more and more we serve, the easier it is to forget some of the most basic elements of youth ministry.
In the intro to the Youth Ministry 101 series, I referenced Vince Lombardi's football camp:
Vince Lombardi, famously began his football training camp by saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” This was a camp with football players making more money than any of us have ever made for playing a sport. But Vince Lombardi realized something very important; no matter what you’ve already learned, the fundamentals are always critical to a person’s performance.
Because training volunteers is both essential and something that so many of us in youth ministry are trying to continually improve, I wanted to share an insider tip on what we have done that has seemed to be a great tool for my team. This may not work for you and your team, but has been well-received in my context as I've tried to consistently
Steal From 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders
Don't steal the book, just take the thoughts from the book and use them. This book by Josh Griffin gives incredible tips in a very easy-to-read bite sized form. Every week what I do for my team, particularly those leading small groups, I give them our weekly updates and also share a section of thoughts on leading small groups. I tend to choose 3-4 thoughts from the book and put those into my e-mail as a way to remind and train our leaders every week. I use thoughts from other places as well, even generating my own occasionally, but the 99 Thoughts book has been the best resource for this that I've found so far and has been a great tool for me to make training a part of my weekly communication.
What do you use for frequent or weekly training?