Training Opportunities

Big Bucket

Includes a potpourri of seminars, with everything from women's issues to teen culture to parenting, and more.

Schedule

Where Is the Church Headed and What's Our Response?

Tom Sine

Seminar Series #6

Sacramento - Oct 13 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

Have you noticed the soaring gas and grocery prices? Overnight, we’ve moved into a highly volatile, new global economy and an increasingly uncertain future. Tom will enable you to identify some of the new challenges we’re facing in a rapidly changing world and church. More than that, he’ll invite you to ignite your imagination and join the new conspirators—young innovators and risk takers who are creating new expressions of church, entrepreneurial youth ministries, monastic communities, and urban cooperatives with the poor to engage these new challenges. Come discover the new ways that God can use your imagination and the students you work with to create the future—one mustard seed at a time. With leaders in the Veterans Cohort, we’ll start by soliciting your insights on challenges facing the church, the young, and those at the margins. Then we’ll invite you to spend the final hour in small creativity groups, creating imaginative new ways to address these challenges that you can then share and take away.

Christianity: Modern and Postmodern

Tony Campolo

Seminar Series #6

Sacramento - Oct 13 9:00 AM-10:30 AM

Thinking church leaders understand the necessity of helping young people develop a Christian worldview, but they’re not always cognizant of how the ideologies of secular intellectuals such as Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx have subtly undermined their attempts to do so. In this seminar we’ll explore the impact of their perspectives and consider ways to help thoughtful young Christians integrate biblical teachings in an overarching mindset that takes the challenges of such secular intellectuals into consideration.

Why Healthy Youth Ministry Needs Both the Masculine and the Feminine

Dale Fincher, Jonalyn Fincher

Seminar Series #5

Sacramento - Oct 12 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

When was the last time you saw a man and a woman leading side by side in a healthy partnership? This session explains why today’s youth need to see men and women working together in leading, teaching, and decision making. Join us as we reflect on what women provide for men, and what men need in women. (Hint: It’s more than sex.) We’ll see why God was excited about the work that men and women (married, single, seasoned, or new) can do together, especially with those they mentor. We’ll offer the reasons why youth ministry run by one gender (male or female) doesn’t reflect the full picture God intended. Be prepared to think more deeply on the meaning of words like masculine, feminine, provider, and helper. We’ll conclude with ready-to-implement ways that male leaders can benefit by sharing leadership space with women.

The Internet: More Than Just a Resource, It Is an Opportunity

Sean Dunn

Seminar Series #5

Sacramento - Oct 12 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

If teenagers need to research history, they’ll run to the Internet. If they want to know what time the movie starts or what the weather will be, they run to the Web. And where are they going to find spiritual answers or to ask life’s most difficult questions? They’re going to the Internet. When we understand the opportunities that exist there—not just to post content, but also to engage dialogue—we’ll truly be crossing over the cultural barrier and touching lives.

The Scandal of Grace

Shane Claiborne

Seminar Series #3 - Super Seminars

Sacramento - Oct 11 2:00 PM-4:30 PM

With new eyes can we look at people we don’t even like and see the One we love? Let’s imagine a revolution that’s gentle and magnetic, a revolution big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free. With hard stories from the streets of Philly and the war zone of Iraq, Shane will invite us to reflect on the scandal of God’s inclusive love…in a world that’s starved for grace.

Brave Heart: Because We Have Courage in Leadership

Denise Van Eck

Seminar Series #2

Sacramento - Oct 11 8:00 AM-9:30 AM

Being a courageous leader involves much more than just sucking it up and doing the things you’re afraid of doing. Cultivating courage in yourself, giving courage to others, and living in authentically courageous ways is at the heart of true leadership. We’ll explore these ideas and more in this interactive seminar.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Multicultural Ministry

Fred Lynch

Seminar Series #1

Sacramento - Oct 10 4:00 PM-5:30 PM

Dynamic ministry that is also multicultural often seems as elusive as locating the rainbow’s end. Yet there is a rising number of pioneering ministries that not only long for multicultural ministry, but have also gone through the struggle to see it birthed. And they’d be the first ones to let you know that you can do it, too! Come and find out some of the things they’d tell you NOT to do.

Confident Parenting for Youth Workers

Jim Burns, Cathy Burns

Seminar Series #1

Sacramento - Oct 10 4:00 PM-5:30 PM

The title of this seminar is a bit of an oxymoron. Some of the least confident parents are often those who work in the church on either a volunteer or paid basis. Parenting isn’t easy, yet there are some important principles youth workers must look at to become more effective parents ourselves. Here are a few of the topics we’ll cover: • Finding Replenishment for Overcrowded Lives • Overcoming Negative Family Patterns • Creating a Grace-Filled Home While Providing Healthy Discipline • Teaching Our Own Children a Healthy Sexuality • Developing an Atmosphere of Affection, Warmth, and Encouragement in the Midst of a Ministry-Oriented Family Jim and Cathy promise no easy answers, but if you’ve ever felt humbled by the task of raising your kids to become responsible adults who love God, then this session may be for you.