Southern California Jr High Network

Last week I had the privilege of going to California and sitting in on the network meeting of Junior High Ministers in Southern California. The primary reason I went was to talk about the Anaheim believe coming up in January, but I really enjoyed the meeting and learned some things that I know will be helpful at my church and my small group back in Missouri.

First off, Kurt Johnston, the junior high minister at Saddleback, did an amazing job leading the meeting and also sharing his experience about believe. He has been one of our speakers for the last couple of years and I truly admire him in his leadership and genuine humility. If you are a junior high worker, or even have a small interest in youth ministry in general, you should follow his blog here.

Some of the main topics discussed was how ministry has changed or is changing with the state of the economy, working with unchurched kids tied together with working with the parents of the churched kids, measuring spiritual growth in students and assimilating volunteers and the volunteer process.

In my small group I have the senior minister's son, one boy who's parent's don't go to church and another boy who lives in a foster home and is up for adoption. It was interesting to hear how they mix the churched and unchurched kids and the goal of "outreach" events.

Also, since I was in college, I have been a volunteer/sponsor/small group leader for 4 or 5 different churches, and everyone of them has done things really well (and could improve on somethings) with volunteers.

I also met the youth minister from Rock Harbor, which is the same church that Steve Carter (one of the Believe speakers) is going to starting in January. I honestly had not heard of the church till Steve told me he was going there a few weeks ago and since then I have seen or heard about the church a few times.

While I was out there, I also went and took a tour of our venue, the Hilton of Anaheim. I did not realize it until I turned off the highway, but I had actually been there about 4 years ago for a Youth Specialties conference. This location is a drastic improvement from the previous 3 years (Palm Springs, Pomona, Ontario) in Southern California. Also, there is going to be a California Pizza Kitchen and Jamba Juice inside the hotel. Looking forward to January 30-31.