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Student Interviews of Churches that are Using Peer Ministry #28 Interview JAN, 2000 Suburban Peer Ministry Description How many trained adult facilitators work with Peer Ministry? 4 trained facilitators. How many youth are trained (or being trained) in Peer Ministry? Seven, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders were trained last spring. How long has your church been involved in Peer Ministry? The church has been involved since the spring of 1999. Where and at what time of day did your training take place? We got together once a week on Wednesdays from 7:30-9:00.We decided to use an off site retreat house in Oakdale. We hoped to get the kids out of the youth room atmosphere. We thought that the fusible table and musty old furniture did not give the serious atmosphere that we wanted for them to have. We rented a retreat house in hopes of achieving that atmosphere. It didn't quite work out, things were not as focused as I would have liked but it still was great. I think the kids thought about it as our secret place. That was cool! After the initial training how often do the Peer Ministers meet? We don't attempt to meet as a group, it is understood that the ones skilled in this area are also the busiest. Some have gone off to college, some have moved so the there is no Peer Ministry group. Those three are still very active in the Wednesday night service and I am grateful and happy to see that. What is the overall goal for Peer Ministry? There are no preset goals, no high expectations for them. We hoped that they may get involved more in the church but we did not pressure them to do any thing special. Our true goal was to change their life to have faith be an everyday walk for them and I believe we have improved things around here. Ministry Uses What are some of the ways that Peer Ministers have used their training? Three out of the seven from last year's training lead a drama group for the Wednesday night worships, which is an intergenerational event that we have been doing. It is great to see them take on these leadership roles. I feel that the Peer Ministers are more identified by the way they live, not actually what they do in church and that is more important than having them all be leaders in the church. We haven't done one on one peer mentoring or organized peer groups, we were more or less hoping for personal improvement for the group that we had How has Peer Ministry effected the youth program? I know the three that have the drama group on Wednesday nights have a high visibility to the younger kids. To have them sharing their faith in their dramas, the younger kids look up to that. What do you think is one of the biggest things the Peer Ministers have gained? I think they have gained skills to help them in their everyday walk of life. In Peer Ministry you can really see them at work trying hard to make life better for themselves. Future Hopes and Goals What are some hopes and goals you hope to see for your Peer Ministry group? You really can't have that many goals with this because you need to do the program with all that you can give and then celebrate the results. We are training more kids this spring, and they are going to have a different set of skills and we have to celebrate what happens during the training to help them. It will build over time. |
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