Over the last few years, GCI-USA Church Administration and Development (CAD) has been providing “Outside the Walls” consulting services to renewal churches. A primary tool has been helping those congregations conduct community outreach events. Those events are then followed up with ministry training workshops. A Teen and Family Ministry Workshop was held recently at Christian Family Fellowship, GCI’s congregation in Jacksonville, Florida.
Facilitated by CAD team member Anthony Mullins, the workshop was attended by about 25 youth ministers and pastors from GCI congregations in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, FL (see some of them pictured above). The workshop addressed these topics:
What does it look like to communicate a Christ-informed belonging to young people through word and deed?- How do we minister to teens in a culture that can be confusing to them?
- Youth ministry hacks (shortcuts) that can be implemented today.
- Going to where youth congregate in the community.
- Spanning the generational gap and how Boomers think differently than Millennials.
- The role that camp ministry has in supplementing local church ministry.
The interactive sessions during the workshop celebrated the good work already being done in these congregations, and challenged them to build on that base. Once it concluded, teens from a nearby neighborhood came to the Jacksonville church building to play a game of touch football and to have a fireside chat with Jacksonville Lead Pastor, Marty Davey. It was a good day of inspiration and hope for the future.
