Peer Ministry Leadership

Leadership Training

Groups

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South Dade Dearnery of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida

This is a picture of just some of the group that gathered in Miami. We had some very perceptive youth and very dedicated adults. Vashti and Pam had been through the training a couple years ago, but wanted more in the area to experience this from someone else in order to bring some legitimacy and help shape future possibilities.

I am most pleased that PML is starting to be understood as a core relational need for everything we do in youth ministry. People are understanding that this is not a side-bar. People caring for people is a necessary element of every church event.

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Missoula MT — PML training

The switch we are making is from training just Adults to including Adults and Youth. The picture describes the group. We ranged from 7th grade to… well, older adults… like myself! As one of the pastors told me, “This far exceeded what I expected.”

I have to admit that as over 30 kids and adults gathered and I watched all the younger teens pile in… I wondered how it would go.

Two reflections… when you treat youth as valued leaders they will surprise us every time. They become the very leaders we wish them to be. Early on I learned I needed a staff to work with, and the very best staff was the youth themselves.

The second reflection… Trust the process. The PML training is good. It is very good. It works. The process is experiential and it is about the topic that is most important to youth, their friendships.

I am leaving Missoula a believer. Youth need to be included in the facilitator training.

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Equip • Empower • Allow


Episcopal Youth Leaders in the Diocese of Virginia invited me to join them at Phoebe Needles Center in Callaway, Virginia. The Diocese has only three paid youth ministers in Parishes. Thus the leadership relies heavily on the volunteering adults and a very vibrant faithful core of youth.

One of their issues — maybe too many youth who want to be leaders.

I woke up this morning reflecting on Jesus’ disciples telling Jesus, “There are too many! Should we send them home?” Jesus’ coment? “Feed them.” And so they did. (Loaves and Fishes)

Youth are either leading or they are leaving. We either equip, empower and allow or the demands of others will prioritize kids time away. The church’s job is less about consumer programming, which assumes kids are attracted by more glitz, more gadgetry, with bigger, and better entertainment. Instead the church is about making of meaning, developing purpose, and giving responsibility in ways that kids know they count!

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Madison, WI Triple-A

I love sitting right in a group sharing and hearing the stories. An unforgettable moment came from one participant, an adult, who told us he had only been in a church for the last few years.

As he laid out names of people who had shaped his faith in the various relational places of relationship he realized… “As I look at all those names I suddenly realize that God has been working on me my whole life. I just didn’t know it.”