Exciting course will develop young leaders
Our SERVE: Developing Leaders course has started and we have 19 young people drawn from 12 separate parishes across the diocese signed up to be part of this exciting journey.
This is a new course for young people in 4th to 6th year. It has been designed to help encourage their unique leadership qualities whilst also developing firm foundations of faith.
SERVE is an eight session course and within each session there are four core elements designed to build a sense of community and support, engagement with God, and a deeper knowledge of who we are as people and leaders.
The course elements
Communal Meal: You can’t beat some sharing good food with good people! Spiritual Discipline: This is to encourage engagement with God and also to encourage the ongoing practice of the disciplines. Book Review: Our book is ‘Storylines: Your Map to Understanding the Bible’, which introduces the big story of the Bible and helps place us in that story. It also gives us a context for Christian leadership, born out of knowledge and intimacy with God revealed through the Bible. Teaching and Discussion: Where we discuss spiritual, practical and personal aspects of Christian leadership through discussion and activities.
Part of the practical outworking of the course is that the young people will be helping to lead their peers on the Kilbroney Weekend Blast coming up on 3–5 November. They’ll also be encouraged to link back in with their own parishes and the volunteering opportunities there.
We are really excited about what God will do with these young people during and after the course, plans for a follow–up are already underway.
Saturday Night Live
Coming up on 7 October in Willowfield Church Halls, our first Saturday Night Live of the new school year.
SNL has been running for two years and we’ve had 80 – 90 young people coming together from across the diocese to worship together, have fun, pray and hear what God has to say to them through the Bible.
SNL runs bi–monthly and includes worship, prayer, Bible teaching, food and a chance for youth groups to mix with others from the diocese.
There will be five events from October to June at various locations throughout the diocese. Our theme this year is The Psalms, where we will explore what the Psalms say to us today.
Tim Burns, Diocesan Youth Officer