|
Quick Link
|
Student Interviews of Churches that are Using Peer Ministry #18 Interview JAN, 2000 Suburb of Portland with a population of about 25,000 and is an
affluent community.There are many young families and the town
has two high schools and two middle schools. Youth night hangout on Sunday nights has about 125 youth attending. About 1/3 attend Our Saviors, 1/3 are unchurched students that attend with friends, and 1/3 attend other churches but come to their youth night. This hangout is called The Lounge and the youth come for choir and then a big group youth style worship. Then they split up into small group Bible studies led by adults in the congregation. Peer Ministry Description There are two trained adult facilitators at the church. The first year of the program there were 30 students and there were 15 the second year. They have opened the program up to any youth who want to be trained. The program started at Our Saviors in 1997. Being that the group training is open to everyone, they get together when the group is formed and write a group covenant. This helps keep the group together. When they first trained they had a 14 week training session every Sunday morning. They were initially encouraged to attend the training and there was interest from the start. The goal for the church's Peer Ministry program is for the youth to be leaders and friends to others, especially in the youth program. They also are intended to be used as a referral system. They would be connected to other needy youth, and they could help them with various programs using their training. Peer Ministry Uses The high school youth that have been trained are used to lead the junior high youth. There is also a nine person high school leadership team that helps to plan for youth events. There are students from all four grade levels. They have monthly brainstorm sessions and communicate to the youth and the congregation. Chris said that he thinks that the best way Peer Ministry has helped the youth program is that they now have taken ownership of the program and they feel that they have a say in what happens. They have gained awareness and self confidence in their faith and friendships. They have told stories of how they feel that just by listening to a friend at school has helped them and they feel like they have accomplished something. There was a story of a girl who had lost her father and another girl had been trained by Peer Ministry felt that she helped just by being there for her, being a shoulder to lean on and a friend to listen. The only frustration is that there isn't much follow up. Chris feels they need to do more once the youth have been trained. Also, a challenge is to keep they youth in front of the congregation and in front of the youth. Future Hopes and Goals Chris hopes that in he future, there will be pictures on the walls and more publicity for the youth that have been trained. He sees there being better follow up and extending of the training into other areas of the church. He thinks there should be a better structure with a great way to plug the youth into areas of the church that they excel in. They should be working in areas that they are good at. He hopes to show the youth better how to use the Peer Ministry training and to give them constant encouragement and support. Chris Lyons words of wisdom are that the best way to keep the program alive is to plug in youth to important areas of the congregation. To make them feel like they can use what they have learned. and to give them genuine affirmation on a constant basis in multiple ways. He also sees that this Peer Ministry Curriculum would be excellent for adults to use and that is would be great if a majority of the congregation could be trained. |
Penguin Ministry Website Design
www.penguinministry.com