Training Opportunities

Critical Concerns Course

Come a day early to participate in one of our 6-hour Critical Concerns Courses. Get in-depth training on issues that matter to you and your ministry.

Schedule

Youth Ministry and Marriage

Jim Burns, Cathy Burns

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

This Critical Concerns Course focuses on cultivating a healthy marriage in the midst of ministry. Through discussions, personal interaction, and shared insights from 30-year veterans of simultaneous marriage and ministry, you’ll learn how to keep a marriage growing despite the daily ministry stresses. Jim and Cathy will cover topics such as overcommitment, spouse involvement, children, sex, finances, spiritual growth, communication, and more! Everyone who attends will receive more than a dozen communication sheets to assist them in continued growth and future interaction. Jim is the author of the best-selling book Creating an Intimate Marriage.

Leading From the Pages of Your Life

Dan Webster

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

Type in “leadership” at Amazon.com and you will get over 20,000 hits. There is so much being written on the topic today it's difficult to know what are core elements to leadership and what are simply other people’s ideas. Many youth workers are tempted to listen to the latest loud voices in student ministry and then shape their ministries around those instead of hearing and following the quiet voice of God within. Freedom and life will come for you when you live within the bounds of who God has made you to be. Impact will come as you discern both your calling and passion—and then live from that. A heavenly authority will come when you lead your ministry from your authentic walk with God. How do you do all this? In this CCC, you’ll learn how to lead from the pages of your life instead of the pages of the latest book.

Speaking to Teenagers: How to Think About, Create, and Deliver Effective Messages

Duffy Robbins

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

Chances are you’ve been asked to speak to a group of teens at one time or another. Whether those words are spoken in Sunday school, at summer camp, at a Young Life club, at a Friday night outreach, at a pre-game devotional, at a Sunday night meeting, or whether they’re spoken by someone who’s serving in ministry full-time, part-time, overtime, or as a volunteer, the intent of this seminar is to help you speak to students more effectively and with great impact. This session will help anyone who speaks to teenagers to look squarely at both the unique challenges and opportunities of that mission. It will also, in a practical and encouraging way, offer some strategies for planning, preparing, thinking about, studying for, crafting, and delivering a message that will connect with students.

The Present Future of Youth Ministry: Rethinking Traditional YM Models

Mark Helsel, Brock Morgan

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

What should youth ministry look like today and what will it look like in 2020? Culture is changing by the second and the issues students are dealing with are like no other generation before them. So how do we respond? And are we actually willing to adapt? Are we willing to change our youth ministry methods and truly care for the hearts, minds, and souls of our students and do the work that's not currently being done? Drawing on 34 years of combined youth ministry experience Brock and Mark will share their own successes and failures and give insights into the future direction of youth ministry. This new and insightful course will be fun, interactive, and very practical as we dig into the current and future youth ministry trends, explore the current state of teenage spirituality, and share new ideas you can easily apply in your ministry setting.

Dangerous Opportunity: Helping Kids + Families in Crisis

Jim Hancock, Rich Van Pelt

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

Bullying, cutting, death, divorce, eating disorders, sexual assault, suicide, violence, addiction... If you work with kids and families, you will face crisis—the question is whether you’ll know what to do. This interactive experience prepares novice and veteran youth workers and educators to distinguish crisis from normal adolescent angst; how to respond effectively in two dozen widespread crisis scenarios; when and how to call in reinforcements, how to guide kids into healthy self-assessment; and how to partner with parents and schools before, during, and after a crisis.

Equipping Your Volunteer Leaders to Shepherd Students in a Changing Culture

Chris Folmsbee, Kelly Lashly

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

There is only one of you. Regardless of how efficient and effective you might be, you can't possibly do it all yourself. At times, for the sake of the students and their families, you wish you could do it all but the truth is that each of us needs a team of people surrounding us and supporting us. We need volunteers that understand their role as shepherds and seek ways in which to minister out of their role. This course will guide you in thinking strategically about equipping your volunteers as advocates, advisors, and guides—three critical roles of any volunteer. This course will also provide you with tools and resources to help you effectively train your volunteers as they seek to nurture students in this culture of inevitable change.

Extreme Makeover Tech Edition: Building a Better Student Ministry Through Technology

Jay Delp, Joel Lusz

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

Today's teens and technology revolution continues to march on! You can stay in step or wander off out of sync. This course will get you up to speed and stretch your existing use of technology in your ministry with students and staff. In addition to diving into Web 2.0 concepts such as blogging, podcasts, and social networking, we’ll explore presentation software, communication and media tools, and teach you to create your own videos. Help make this course meet your needs by joining the Open Source network prior to the event. You’ll connect with the presenters and other attendees and help shape the course to meet your needs. In this course, you'll receive a truly creative smorgasbord of technology, techniques, ideas, and resources (with a generous smattering of freebies sprinkled throughout, including a free CD-ROM of media content for each attendee).

Deep Ministry in a Shallow World

Chap Clark, Kara Powell

Critical Concerns Courses

Sacramento - Oct 9 6:00 PM-9:00 PM

Sacramento - Oct 10 8:30 AM-11:30 AM

Do you ever feel like you’re working hard in youth ministry but you’re not reaching your full potential? Do you ever feel like you’re splashing around in the shallow end with kids instead of living out the deep ministry of God’s kingdom adventure? In this Critical Concerns Course, Chap Clark, Kara Powell, and Megan Hutchinson will share the insights of the latest research and perspectives on youth ministry, gleaned from the work of the Fuller Youth Institute, and offered in Chap and Kara’s best-selling books, Deep Ministry in a Shallow World and Deep Justice in a Broken World, as well as Megan’s eight-step recovery program, Life Hurts God Heals. This interactive training is for everyone who wants to take their ministry to deeper levels. You’ll learn to use the Deep Ministry model, critically assess your current ministry, and discover how to incorporate new ideas into your ministry setting that will take your ministry deeper in purpose, leadership, discipleship, teaching, justice work, mentoring, and engagement with kids and culture.