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Youth

Opportunities for Youth Ministry Training

Ministry with youth and young adults is a vital ministry in The United Church of Canada. This ministry is made more effective when our leadership is strengthened. Whether you are a volunteer youth group leader in your church, a fulltime youth minister, or a solo congregational minister, there are opportunities to deepen your passion and skills for youth ministry through a wide variety of training programs across the country.

Available Training Programs

British Columbia

Certificate Program in Youth Ministry Training

This year-long learning experience, offered since 1997, is a joint venture of Naramata Centre and BC Conference. The program includes several residential modules, ongoing support, and supervised learning, with a curriculum based on five areas of leadership: communication, planning, models of youth ministry, theology, practical spirituality, and educational theory. Due to the highly individualized nature of the program, a limited number of students are accepted each year.

This program will benefit those who wish to offer quality, authentic, faithful leadership with teens in churches and other community settings. If you are a youth leader or minister and want to build a solid foundation for your ministry, this is the program for you.

Contact Allison at Naramata Centre, or Doris Kizinna at BC Conference 1 (800) 934-0434 ext 303 for an application package.

Practices of Youth Ministry

Practices of Youth Ministry is a four-day BC Conference event that takes place each June at Naramata Centre. Practices are activities that we do again and again; they shape our lives and deepen our faith. Based on Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster’s book,The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1998), the workshop will help you develop an ability to facilitate and engage youth in the practices of faith. This program offers a practical approach to youth ministry focused on learning in a highly engaging way through theory, discussion, community life, and practice.

Facilitator, Doris Kizinna, is the staff person for BC Conference’s Ministry With Youth and Young Adults. For more information visit the Naramata website * or e-mail Doris Kizinna .

Annual Children and Youth Ministry Institute

This is an important forum committed to deepening and developing leadership in ministry with children and youth. Plenary speakers and workshop leaders focus on issues of significance for people in leadership with children and youth. Whether you are a lay leader or ordered minister, paid or volunteer, the Institute offers a place for you. The week-long event, held each October, is presented in three parts. You may choose to attend the parts that are right for you.

For more information visit the Naramata website .*

Alberta

Alberta and Northwest Conference

The Conference offers certificate and diploma training in Youth and Young Adult Ministry. The program offers both an academic certificate and a practicum certificate which, when combined, grant the student a diploma from Edmonton’s St. Stephen’s College.

Intended to accommodate distance learning, most academic requirements can be met in a weekend or week-long intensive study, with follow-up on-line conversations and projects. Required components include Principles in Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Hebrew Scriptures, Christian Scriptures, Church History, and a variety of weekend workshops including Pastoral Care with Youth and Young Adults.

The practicum component offers supervised field placement in a setting that has established, healthy youth and/or young adult ministry. Finally, the student’s personal and spiritual journey is nourished through a mentorship program and regular collegiums as intentional times of reflection—to listen, pause, pray, and repeat.

For a more detailed description of this program, view the website * or contact our program coordinator at 435-3995 ext. 221.

Saskatchewan

Ministry with Youth Leadership Certificate Program

The Ministry with Youth Leadership Certificate Program is designed to give ministry personnel, volunteers with youth, and interested individuals the tools needed to offer challenging, passionate, and effective youth ministry in any setting.

The program consists of four weekends focusing on Youth Ministry Basics, Faith & Spirituality, Pastoral Care, and Leadership Development. Each spring and autumn, one of these modules is offered at Calling Lakes Centre. Participants are welcome to register for any module whenever available and receive a certificate upon completion of the full program, or to take individual modules of specific interest to them.

For more information, visit the website , e-mail Calling Lakes Centre , or call 306-332-5691.

Manitoba

Centre for Christian Studies

The Centre for Christian Studies, one of the United Church’s theological schools, offers a four-year diploma program in diaconal ministry and one-year certificate programs for education, pastoral care, and social justice ministries. Students continue to live and work in their home communities, gathering two to three times a year with staff and student colleagues for intensive learning circles. The program design allows a focus on working with youth during a field placement, writing papers directly related to this leadership, and spending time in learning circles with other church leaders.

In the Educational Ministry year skills are enhanced in faith development, ecumenical and interfaith awareness, and worship. During the Pastoral Care year areas of life crisis and personal concerns are examined as skills in responding compassionately to individual concerns are developed. The Social Ministry year focuses on theologies of liberation and justice, social analysis and advocacy, solidarity, and becoming effective agents for change.

There are four elements to the certificate year:

  • A three-week introductory learning circle, the Leadership Development Module, explores themes like group dynamics, facilitation, and conflict resolution from theoretical and theological perspectives. This course may also be taken alone as a certificate.
  • Two two-week learning circles allow students to integrate their learning while drawing on a variety of sources: research and reading, experience, exposure visits, group discussion, role play, and more.
  • An eight-month field placement (12-15 hours per week) will be with a congregation, parish, or larger church ministry.
  • One elective course is taken through one of 25 universities in Canada.

For more information, visit the website * or call 204-783-4490.

Ontario

Five Oaks Education and Retreat Centre

Five Oaks is a United Church Education and Retreat Centre.

Fresh New Vision

Representatives from the Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, and United Churches in the Ottawa area have come together to plan a series of youth leader training sessions. These training sessions are offered for youth leaders in the Ottawa area, for members of all of these denominations and beyond. The sessions are open to anyone who is interested in helping to invigorate youth ministry in their own congregation, and in the broader community.

It’s all a part of an effort to work collaboratively and to find fresh new ways to envision our ministries among youth. For more information, visit the Fresh New Vision * website.

Neos

Neos is a Five Oaks youth ministry certificate program for those working with youth—or those considering it. Neos is a Greek word meaning young or youth. Every fall, winter, and spring, there will be a Neos program.

To obtain the certificate, one needs to complete six Neos programs. Two of the programs, “Beyond Bowling: Faith Development with Youth” and “Nuts and Bolts of Youth Ministry” are compulsory and held bi-annually each fall. Over two years, the four other choice programs will focus on worship, leadership, outreach, and current issues.

Neos programs are open to all; one does not need to be a part of the certificate program to
participate. This program is possible through a generous bequest from Frank Ellis and the dedicated work of a volunteer Design Team. The goals of the program are:

  • to enrich participants through sharing, worship, and community
  • to develop a supportive network
  • to engage participants in relevant and practical education
  • to celebrate and energize intentional youth ministry

For more information, visit the website * or contact Five Oaks at 519-442-3212. 

Ontario Theological Colleges
  • Emmanuel College
    75 Queen’s Park Crescent East
    Toronto, ON M5S 1K7
    Website: Emmanuel College *

Emmanuel and Queen’s are two of The United Church of Canada’s theological schools. Both offer courses on youth ministry for credit or audit. The classes may be scheduled during an academic term or a two-week summer school.

To learn more about their current offerings, visit their websites.

Quebec

The United Theological College/Le Séminaire Uni

The United Theological College offers “Education in the Church” both on site and by distance once a year in the winter term, for credit or audit.

For more information, visit their website .*

Nova Scotia

Facilitating Youth Groups

November 13, 2008, 7.00 p.m. to November 16, 2008, 1.00 p.m.

The Tatamagouche Centre partners with Heartwood Centre for Community Youth Development to offer this program for people working with youth—whether in schools, community groups, organizations, or religious institutions. The Tatamagouche Centre’s leadership and facilitation expertise coupled with Heartwood’s 17 years of experience working with over 25,000 youth make this an essential program for people interested in youth leadership. This program combines the theory of group dynamics, facilitation, and experiential learning models, and explores and practises the basic tools and processes for proven and effective facilitation of youth groups. 

Leadership

Paula Knowles, a certified teacher, works with Heartwood Centre for Community Youth Development and has over 14 years’ experience working with rural and urban youth, and with adults serving young people. Paula has designed and facilitated initiatives focused on youth action teams, school culture, youth leadership, environmental education, youth/adult partnerships, service learning, and youth engagement practices for organizations and government agencies. Paula is also an associate facilitator with Peak Experiences and True Potential, as well as Nova Scotia Outdoor Leadership Development.

Anna Sheridan-Jonah is a member of the Program Resource Group at Tatamagouche Centre. She is also an adult educator, researcher, and justice activist who is inspired by nature, children, and youth.

For more information on these and other programs, visit their website .*

Atlantic School of Theology

The Atlantic School of Theology offers a youth ministry course on a regular basis for credit or audit.

To learn more about its current course offerings, visit their website .*

Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary is an institution of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Princeton Theological Seminary’s Institute for Youth Ministry offers two forums on Youth Ministry yearly, one in January at a rotating location around the U.S., the other at the end of April on campus. This high-quality event includes lectures by world-renowned theologians, three-day mini-courses, and 90-minute workshops led by respected leaders in the youth ministry field from across North America. The wide variety of offerings means that there is something for everyone—the youth ministry specialist, the lay youth group leader, the academically-inclined, and the church leader who craves time and space to reflect on life and ministry. The four-day Princeton event is well attended by United Church folk.

Participants who attend three forums and a capstone retreat receive a Certificate in Youth and Theology. Early registration is a must.

For more information, visit their website .*

Are You Involved in a Training Program?

Are you involved in a United Church youth ministry training program that hasn’t yet been listed? Let us know, and we’ll let others know.

  • Rick Garland
    Program Coordinator, Youth and Young Adults
    CECM Unit
    The United Church of Canada
    3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
    Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4
    Tel: 416-231-7680 ext. 4027
    Toll-free: 1-800-268-3781 ext. 4027
    Fax: 416-231-3103, Attn. Rick Garland
    E-mail: Rick Garland

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Last updated:
2010/03/11
Created:
2008/07/03