T.R.A.I.N.

What in the world went on at T.R.A.I.N. ?

Three speakers and 19 enthusiatic youth worker's met for two and a half days of intense sonlife youth ministry training.

Speaker Dave VanAcker shared about Ministry City, The Process of Ministry, Leadership, and The Product of Ministry - Having a clear Description of a Discipled Person.

Speaker Kevin Olson shared about the ministry Environment, and Personal Vision.

Speaker Jason Norlien shared about Personality Types and Key Result Areas.

"My feedback as one of the trainers was how exciting it was to see the youth workers desire to serve Jesus as best they can and to learn as much as possible in such a short time of training. The schedule was packed and yet those attending were eager for more training and had lots of good questions. It was very rewarding as presenter to see this response from the youth workers." said Norlien when asked for feedback on T.R.A.I.N.

When asked about their experience at T.R.A.I.N. youth worker's responded saying...

"I walked away from TRAIN with a keen awareness of our need to raise up key adult leaders to actively participate in making disciples. We may have adults who will get a certain task done if we ask, but people will only do so much for a task. One of our speakers said, "But get them to catch the vision and they'll do anything." So that's something that I'm currently working on... building a team of adults to do ministry, to engage kids in the discipleship process.

Something else that impacted me was a statement that went something like, "I don't do ministry because I'm a youth pastor, but because I'm a Christian. My job as a youth pastor is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, according to Ephesians 4.11. That brought new understanding to me regarding the application of that passage in my life and ministry. I see now that my role is to create an environment where other people can do ministry."

-Ryan Chase, Abiding Savior Free Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls, SD

"I really enjoyed the personality inventory. It was helpful to gain a better understanding of how God created me, and others and how we can work together.

The section on KRA's (Key Result Areas) was changeling to me. It forced me to look at what I am doing and why, and what I want to accomplish the Big picture. I have a tendency to get lost in the trees and forget about the forest! "

-Eric Christenson, Amery Free Lutheran Church, Amery, WI

"TRAIN assisted me in thinking through the disciple-making process in detail that I had not before. Because of other AFLC youth ministry training events, some of the materials I had heard before, but the condensed time together with like-minded youth workers was invaluable. It deepened my understanding of the whole disciple-making process from the life of Jesus.

Two times were very significant for me. First, the reflection times with youth workers that had been in the trenches the same length as myself was rich! The interaction and feedback was excellent.

Second, the insight that we are called to more than "do youth work". We are called as youth pastors to create an environment for others to "do youth work". Are we investing in teens' lives? Absolutely. Are we the only ones? Absolutely not. Along these lines, if we flesh out the target of making disciples, we find that we are seeking to make disciples that in turn make disciples. Targeting a goal of making a student into a disciple of Christ is short-sighted. It is missing a key ingredient of the disciples' life impacting others. TRAIN really drove that reality home for me.

TRAIN immediately led to an updated approach with my Student Leadership Team for the year. It also impacted our monthly series for youth group in evaluating the Person of Jesus in the fall of 2006, and discussing the marks of discipleship in 2007.

-Jason Holt, Calvary Free Lutheran Church, Fergus Falls, MN