The Youth & Family Institute offers a variety of training opportunities to maximize your ministry effectiveness and nurture a vibrant faith. Our trainers share insights from their congregational experience and draw upon the latest research to provide you with an exceptional learning experience that links exemplary faith practices to a solid theological framework. Listed below are some of our current training offerings:
Growing Groups
Energize your small group leaders by providing them with a hands on, interactive training experience that will build their confidence and say Dynamic Bible Study Leaders! “I can’t wait to get started!”
Growing Groups is an education of the heart for youth and adults who want to help kids talk and learn about an active faith that applies to real living. Growing Groups is more than a “how-to” teachers training. We realize that “kids don’t care what you know until they know you care” and that “faith is passed on through the trusted personal relationships of families, peers, and caring adults.” Growing Groups training gives you the relational tools to plant the seeds of faith with in your group. These gardening tools fit any curriculum and apply to all types of group settings.
What others are saying:
"This is one of the most creative and fun experiences I have been a part of. These ideas have changed the way I teach!"–Gregg
"I wanted to let you know how beneficial the Growing Groups was for my group and myself. I enjoyed the day very much and found our energy and passion very motivating. This was my first experience with The Youth & Family Institute but would recommend it highly to everyone." —Monica
"This is a very practical experience with ideas that you can walk away with today and use tomorrow in whatever small group experience you are a part of." –Connie
The Welcoming Church
How did you first decide to attend your church? What made you want to come back? What has kept you coming back?
Most likely it was the warmth and welcome you sensed from the people. Hearing about a quality program may have gotten you in the door, but it was the personal relationships that kept you coming back.
The 5-hour Intergenerational Experience is designed for 30 - 100 or more people, ages 13-113.
Leaders from every group in your congregation come together to open the doors wider, creating a growing, caring and welcoming place. The day is based on the story of the Good Samaritan; but instead of preaching and teaching it, participants learn the skills to live it. Every group in your church would say, “We want to be a welcoming place.” But, most groups have never thought about, talked about or planned how this will happen. When a new person comes into a church, most decide in the first five minutes if they will ever come back. Send leaders to make sure they will come back!
What others are saying:
“I used to come to church and hardly anybody would talk to me, but lately everyone has been so friendly, especially that group of teenagers who greet and talk with me every Sunday.”
A Presbyterian participant said, “If we use the listening and understanding elements from this training in our Presbytery meetings our church will take on a whole new atmosphere.”
A woman told the group, “I never thought the wisdom of a 15 year old would be helping me to make some large life decisions.”
A teenage boy who had been participating in gangs told the group, “If I were to build a church it would have big doors all the way across the front.” As he stretched his arms out wide, he added, “So that anybody can get in.”
Exemplary Practices
CHURCH IS A TEAM SPORT!
Whether you are a pastor or a lay person, you know that a healthy staff team is at the heart of every thriving congregation. Building teamwork and collegiality among staff and key congregational leadership teams is an essential component of a vibrant congregation. Participants will explore:
- The five stages of team development
- The five dysfunctions of a team and the five key characteristics of a healthy team
- The essential factors for creating high performing teams and high performing individuals
- How, where and why teams tend to get stuck
You’ll both learn about your own role in nurturing teamwork and about how to teach others to replicate the team-building process. You’ll discover how temperament type and work styles impact team communication and trust issues and be introduced to specific approaches to managing team conflict, building team accountability, and leading impactful meetings.
LEADING CHANGE
In a time when change is the norm, how do you “lead change” in a spiritual and healthy way? Why do congregations resist change, desiring stability even when there's an awareness that the current way of doing things is no longer working? Participants will learn insights, strategies, and techniques for leading change through
- Reviewing John Kotter's essential elements of change
- Understanding and addressing one's natural resistance to change
- Recognizing the forces that hinder organizational change
- Practicing techniques that anchor the change process
- Developing strategies for leading change while celebrating the past
This seminar is for congregational leaders whose roles involve facilitating change. Through lectures, small-group discussions, and interactive group exercises, you will have the opportunity to learn and to share your learnings with other change agents. The seminar draws upon Robert Quinn's work found in his book Deep Change, and Burt Manus' research highlighted in Visionary Leadership.
FINDING REST, RENEWAL AN DELIGHT IN OUR DAILY LIVES
Could you use just a little help in balancing your physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health as a congregational leader? Vitality in life and ministry over the long haul is rarely possible without taking stock of one's lie and without setting aside time to create renewal in ministry and your life. This seminar is designed to guide you through a review of your ministry through the lens of Wayne Mueller's work found in his book, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in our Busy Lives
- Get “a fix” on your ministry with the aid of key theories and recent research
- Consider vital information on your ministry from surveying your key lay leaders
- Learn to use some coaching tools for identifying and working on specific goals
- Recall your original call to ministry and discover new ways to renew that vitality
- Set directions for the future that help balance your ministry and renew your life
You will leave this seminar able to identify the current strengths and liabilities you bring to your ministry. You will leave with a multitude of ideas to create sabbath moments throughout your day!
60-90 Minute Workshops
Adult Faith Formation
“If we want Christian children and youth, we need Christian adults and parents” … and every Christian adult is a faith parent! This is foundational to passing on faith. Recent research demonstrates that traditional adult education in our congregations has not been successful at passing on faith to the next generation. The fundamental question is, “What can congregations do to help equip faithful and effective disciples?” The answer takes us beyond the classroom and understands every aspect of our life of faith as an opportunity for adult faith formation. Come and learn ways your congregation can equip all adults in faith formation that will bless homes, congregations, and the larger world that God so loves.
As For Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord!
Why would we do service as a family? Isn’t it enough to do it individually? Learning that “faith is caught more than it is taught,” we understand that we need to be together as family, linking the generations, to serve as a loving response to what God has already done for us. Together, we have a chance to talk about what we have done, why we have done it, and what we have learned. This is the way to make service a joyous opportunity to love God back, to say “thank you”, to be the light of Christ for others. Serving with children makes it a habit, a spiritual practice, a faithful way of life.
Called to Live Well in Christ
Wellness is not the lack of illness, but being in balance with God, centered in every aspect of life. Wellness is the integration of body, mind, and spirit. Through active learning designs, participants will learn abut seven areas of well-being: intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, physical, environmental, and vocational/occupational. Participants will learn how a congregation can be proactive, leading ministry inside the walls with its own staff and members and outside the walls of the congregation in the community to strengthen children, youth, and their families that "it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."
Children in Worship
They wiggle. They giggle. They are disruptive and adults can’t hear and concentrate. Do they really understand anything? So, why include children in worship? Remember that Jesus welcomed the children and reminds us that we have vitally important lessons to learn from the children. So, how can we make worship welcoming and engaging to children? How can children participate in worship? What worship leadership might children provide? If we want them in the pews, in the congregation and in relationship with Jesus Christ and one another when they are no longer children, let’s plan to include and honor them now.
Christian Education of Very Young Children
Is this really something we have to do? After all, we start Sunday school for young children. We offer confirmation. Will they learn anything? Can they understand and remember? Isn’t the nursery enough? Learn how to partner home and congregation, equipping all of the adults in the young child’s life to nurture faith from pre-birth or adoption on. Learn the simple, everyday things we can do to get our very young children off on the right faith foot. There are books that tell us every step of the way what is happening physically intellectually, emotionally and socially with our child's development. What about faith development? Learn the simple, everyday things we can do to observe, nurture ,and celebrate our child's faith development.
Congregational Support of Parents Parenting is inherently a spiritual journey, one for which parents feel iill-equipped and woefully inadequate. There is no answer book for their questions. Most don’t have a network of other parents with whom to share expertise and experiences. They don’t know where to turn for resources and help. What do parents need from congregations in order to parent their children well and faithfully? They need knowledge. They need skills. They need a network of support. They need to feel safe, loved, empowered, and forgiven.
Couple Care
Couple Care is an outreach to all couples of all ages and in all of life's stages in the congregation and community. A congregation's "full service" approach with couples includes work with youth and singles on "what is a healthy relationship," intentional marriage preparation, beginning even before engagement; mentoring; support to empty-nesters; and celebration of milestones through all the joys and sorrows of a faith-filled, life together. Couple Care includes small group ministry, enrichment and skill building classes, and leader training for offering reconciliation and restoring of relationships. Intentional care for couples can literally breathe life into a couple, renew life for an entire family, and change the life of a community. It takes a congregation to support a couple in the daily offerings of grace and forgiveness for a life-long, faith-filled relationship in Christ.
Cross+Generational Ministry
A congregation has the potential to bring all the generations together to pass on faith. Yet too many congregations divide people into age-segregated classes, rather than interacting and worshipping together. This workshop will address why it is essential to gather the generations, identify the generations and each generation’s unique gifts; experience simple approaches for creating circles of blessings in all aspects of your congregation’s ministry.
Faith-full Grandparenting and Godparenting
How can we grandparent these gifts of God so that we support our children as parents, love our grandchildren in faithful, life-giving ways, and help pass on a life-transforming faith in Jesus Christ. Learn how to “meddle” in loving, supportive ways. Come and discover how to bridge distance and time apart, love them well, stay in touch, give good gifts, and build relationships we all treasure.
Four Keys in the Life of the Home
Learn a variety of ways to bring the life of faith into the home on a regular basis through the Four Keys of caring conversation, family devotions, family rituals and traditions and family service. Together we will explore ways of looking at the seasons of living your days, years, and church year that are grounded in faith, hope and love through these practices. Come and find out how to turn a personal or family vacation into a Christian pilgrimage!
Getting Your Congregation on Board
The number one concern of those who attend Passing On Faith Conferences is how to get more people on board when you go "back home." We will look more closely at the issues raised by those concerns and how to address them. Participants will explore 1) who's the targeted audience; 2) what are the key resources to get you started back in the congregation; and 3) two leadership outlines that will help determine what needs to be done, when, and how.
Gifts-based Ministry
If we truly believe that people are given gifts for the good of all believers, then there is no such thing as a volunteer: there is only the invitation to disciples to use their gifts. Too much time is spent in congregations twisting arms or pleading for folks to volunteer, only to have the same people on board. The danger that some people feel burned out and some people feel left out. God created and calls each person to make a difference. Discover how a gifts-based ministry can revitalize your congregation and engage everyone, regardless of age, to be the community of Christ.
HomeGrown Faith: An Old Fashion Recipe for a New Life in Christ
We encourage our children to practice, practice, practice - piano, soccer, karate ,or their math. But what about faith practice? How do we practice our faith in the home? Learn 10 simple ways to nurture and support our child's faith, that can be incorporated into the routines of the day. We are told in Deuteronomy to teach the faith in the house and out of the house, in bed and out of bed – all the time! The at-home faith practices provided in this workshop, all based on research, may also be used in small groups or parenting classes.
Milestones Ministry
A faith milestone is a marker along life’s journey that says, “This is something important and God is here, too.” Begin today, being deliberate about looking for opportunities to name and claim God’s presence in the lives of children, youth, and adults. Learn how to combine family enrichment and corporate worship, partnering home and congregation in the vital task of passing on the faith. It is a strategic way to reach out to not-so-involved caregivers in the faith lives of children. You will receive a framework to develop milestones for every age and stage of life, beginning at birth and continuing through baptism, first Bible, communion, new driver's license, marriage, first home, retirement, and more!
My Body, God's Gift: Faith-filled Conversations About Sexuality with Children and Youth
Sexuality is God’s good gift to humankind. As children mature physically, this is a time to partner home and congregation to make sure that the children we love have good information, clear and consistent values, and support to be moral. It is important to reclaim sexuality from the media and industries that exploit, demean, or misuse it in our culture. Finally, a way to partner home and congregation to mark this vital faith milestone!
Peer Ministry
Peer Ministry is a way of life. It is the "practice of doing unto the least of these to the glory of God" and service to those in our families and neighborhoods. Peer Ministry affirms the gifts of our youth, connects them to the community and empowers them with the skills needed to help others from the perspective of the Christian faith. Learn about practical models and resources that can be helpful in beginning a Peer Ministry program in your congregation.
Rituals and Traditions: Finding God in Everyday Life
We already have a multitude of rituals and traditions. How do we wake one another up, say goodbye for the day, welcome one another home, and say good night? How do we celebrate birthdays and holidays? What stories and recipes and activities and values shape our identity as a family? How might we pray for one another when leaving for the day, when facing a hard decision, when dealing with stress? Find God in the midst of these daily or seasonally repeated experiences and we will suffuse family life with God’s presence. This makes it very clear what our family values, believes and promotes, and how faith shapes us individually and as a family.
Sabbath: Rediscovering God’s Spiritual Oasis in a World Traveling at Warp Speed
We live in a world addicted to speed, achievement, acquisition, and busyness. People are frazzled, stressed, burned out, and exhausted. We have forgotten God’s example, God’s commandment, and God’s invitation to re-creation in observing the Sabbath. What would Sabbath look like? How can we recapture the natural, healing, restoring rhythms of a life well lived? Can we reclaim Sabbath for ourselves, our families, and our congregations? Yes, we can!
Spiritual Journeys of Young Men
The church has been losing its 18-35 year-old men at an alarming rate. Research from the book Coming of Age: Exploring the Identity and Spirituality of Younger Men by David W. Anderson, Paul Hill, and Roland D. Martinson, identifies six major areas of concern in the lives of younger men and how the church needs to address those concerns in order to invite men back into the life of the church. It is not only the younger men who are coming of age, but the church, too, that needs to come of age in the twenty-first century, to reach out to these men in a faithful and compassionate way.
Splashed with Promise – Living Out Your Baptism on a Daily Basis
Baptism is filled with promises--promises from God, from parents, from godparents, from family, from friends, from the congregation. Most families do not know how to keep the promises. To tend the baptismal journey from pre-birth to the grave, a congregation should help the family live out the promises they made. Participants will learn exciting ways that members of the congregation can assist by making FaithChestsÒ, creating special receiving blankets, participating in a milestone visitation team, or preparing a Faith Starter Kit for the age level of the person baptized. Participants will receive numerous ideas about supporting families on their faith journey.
Dr. Paul Hill's Workshops
Listed Alphabetically
The Adolescent Brain- This is not an Oxymoron
In the past 20 years much has been learned regarding the development of the human brain. It is now possible to observe the brain as it functions and grows. The research shows exuberant brain growth takes place in infancy and during puberty. These are incredible windows through which to observe how God shapes human beings. In addition, these times are doors of opportunity to walk through and help shape the values, faith and life choices of adolescents. Participants will learn about the growth of the brain and how these insights must shape our ministry practices.
Adventure Education is a way to Pass on the Faith
This highly experiential workshop engages participants in a Christian, adventure education immersion. Depending upon the goals of the participants, this workshop/encounter can last one hour or up to one week. Low and high element ropes course activities are utilized as the adventure tool. You will learn how to lead a Bible study or explore deep theological themes and issues through the medium of the adventure experience. This is a site-specific workshop dependent upon access to a low and high ropes course.
All Youth (and probably their parents) are “Psychological Lutherans”
Lutheran theology really does relate to our world and that of young people. It’s not cold doctrine; it’s a way of describing life as it really is and identifying what is really needed. Participants will connect core Lutheran teachings with the real world of kids. You will learn to read the times through a Lutheran lens and make connections with the realities of being young (and older). What may have seemed detached concepts and teachings come alive. Most significantly, you’ll discover why forgiveness really matters and is really needed. Brain Development and Gender Differences
Through new technologies we can now observe the brain as it is working, and guess what? Men’s and women’s brains tend to function differently. They may come up with similar abilities, feelings and/or opinions, but how their brains got them to that point varies between genders. While being careful not to sexually stereotype males and females, especially adolescent youth, this workshop helps participants understand the differences, the significance of the differences and the implications for doing ministry between and with the genders.
Getting Started Right: Youth Ministry 101
Where does one begin either as a volunteer or a paid youth worker? What are the first steps necessary to launch an effective ministry with young people? This workshop takes it from the beginning outlining vital principles and core key practices that shape effective youth ministry efforts. This workshop is for small group leaders, church professionals and volunteers who love kids, love God and want to make a difference. It is also a good event for council members to attend so that they will understand how youth ministry must be integrated into the larger life of the church’s ministry.
How to Integrate Large Youth Gatherings into Your Youth Ministry
Many denominations sponsor and host large, youth ministry events every three-years or so. They can have a huge impact on the your youth, or they can seem like a Six Flags Over Jesus outing-fun but not life changing. In order that you don’t waste your time and resources it is important to design your attending these events in the context of a larger youth ministry strategy for the home and congregation. Participants will learn how to maximize the large youth gathering to create faithful disciples.
How to Raise Money for Your Children, Youth and Family Ministry
Move your fund raising efforts from the back to the front of the stove. Integrate your efforts with the larger stewardship emphasis of the congregation. Make the case for Children, Youth and Family Ministry to be a central part of any congregations financial plan. And learn some fun, creative and lucrative ways of raising money for your children, youth and family ministry efforts.
How to Lead a Bible Study: A Workshop for the Embarrassed but Curious
Most adults feel and probably are Biblically insecure or uninformed. Yet they also know it’s important to connect the Biblical story with their story and the stories of their children, youth and families. This workshop provides a simple process for doing Bible study that is easy to remember and fun to engage. You can either D.R.A.G.Bi.G or get W.E.I.R.D with Scripture. Either way, your embarrassment over being less than fully informed will be transformed into enthusiastic curiosity and competency in engaging Scripture and real life.
Listening to the Voices of Youth
When youth are asked what they want from the adult world, they most often respond, “We want them to listen to us.” Adults often assume they understand the world of young people, but it’s not that simple. Their worlds, challenges, joys and concerns are different. This workshop will focus on how best to listen and hear young people, and how to jointly shape ministry practices. Participants will engage the many cultures that young people navigate and they’ll explore how these cultures impact all of us. Most significantly, participants will let the youth be the teachers and guides. Pop Culture and Theology: Both are Everywhere (and this is a good thing)
From YouTube to country western music, text messaging to movies, and commercials to media…pop culture is full of theological messages, if you know where and how to look. This workshop will fully engage the world of many pop cultures and seek out the theological themes they touch upon. Each of these touch points becomes an opportunity to engage young people in conversation and theological reflection. But it won’t look like the typical devotion around the dinner table.
Shape Your Synod/denomination so that it focuses on Passing on the Faith
Passing on the Faith is about cultural change, not just a program. This kind of change means the entire system must be engaged including homes, congregations, youth, adults, camps, campus ministries, church leaders, volunteers, senior citizens, pastors and judicatories. This workshop will demonstrate how it is being done well in the six synods of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan in the ELCA. The effort has changed the landscape of the church in this area. It’s a template that can be repeated. Dr. Paul Hill, on of the shepherds of this movement, will tell you how it can be done.
The Vital Role Camps and Outdoor Ministries Play in Passing on Faith
Since before the turn of the 20th century camps and outdoor ministries have played many roles in shaping values, character and faith in young and old alike. At camp, many people clearly discern their sense of God’s presence in their lives. They also determine how God wishes them to live out God’s presence in discipleship and service to others. This workshop not only views the historical role camps and outdoor ministries have played in passing on the faith, but how best to utilize these resources in concert with ministry practices in the home and congregation. Attention is also given to how to select a high quality camp our outdoor ministry. Why Doing Theology is Critical to Effective Children, Youth and Family Ministry
Doing theology is a life long interpretive process. It is THE most important lens through which to view our world, our children, our families, our congregations and our ministry. Participants in this workshop will learn how to “think theologically” through the practical theology circle. There will be lots of times to practice and to see the critical value in learning to be a theologian who happens to do youth ministry, not a youth leader who may or may not know anything about theology. |
