If you want it done right . . .

I suppose you have to do it yourself. My semester is wrapping up, and one of the classes I have this semester is "Contemporary Ministries with Youth". Since my degree program is Christian Education and youth ministry is where I want to serve in life, one would think that this class would be a cornerstone course for me, and I wanted it to be. Sadly the course has been not so great. Most of the books have not been worthwhile (one was so bad I got rid of it the day after the class was done with it), and the course discussion has lacked severely (mostly because the professor is not very skilled at crafting questions or facilitating discussion), so through May and into June I am going to do my own Youth Ministry course to hopefully learn some of the stuff I wanted to learn. I divided it up into three "micro courses" and the workload is light (seriously I am not going to assign myself a 12 page paper for an imaginary class that is just lunacy) Anyway, for four weeks starting in May here is what I am planning to do teach myself:

Soul Care

Week 1
First half of A Perfect Life
Soul School Chapter 1 (assignment, Lab, and test)

Week 2
2nd Half of A Perfect Life
Soul School Chapter 2 (assignment and Lab)
Soul School Chapter 3 (Test only)

Week 3
Sage Advice
Soul School Chapter 4 (assignment, lab, and test)
Make blog post about A Perfect Life

Week 4
Soul School Chapter 5 (assignment, lab, test)
Soul School Chapter 6 (lab only)


Youth Culture 101

Week 1
Chapter 3, 4 and 5
Listen to the top songs on iTunes
Spend some time looking over websites specifically marketed toward teenagers

Week 2
Chapter 6 and 7
Spend time reading magazines about pop culture, specifically ones marketed to teens

Week 3
Chapter 8 and 9

Week 4
Chapters 10 and 11
Do independent research on “cutting”

Approaches to Youth Ministry

Week 1
Chapters 8 to 15 In Jesus Centered Youth Ministry

Week 2
Introduction- Chapter 7 in Presence Centered Youth Ministry
Skim and familiarize with at least three selections from Imaginative Prayer

Week 3
Chapter 8-11 in Presence Centered Youth Ministry
Section 1 in Deep Justice in a Broken World

Week 4
Section 2 in Deep Justice in a Broken World
Final Due by end of week: Plan out one curriculum set for Fall Semster.