Break-out Sessions

True: Leading a Ministry Where Honesty Thrives
Jon and Janelle Furman
When it comes to growth, we’re only as successful as we are honest. We’ll be talking about creating and maintaining a youth ministry culture where kids feel safe enough to open up, and brave enough to live.

From Hurt Kid to Karate Kid
Rusty St. Cyr
Insights (from "Mr. Miyagi" and the "Cobra Kai") and dialogue for coming alongside lonely and hurting adolescents on the journey toward Christian spiritual formation.

Called to Listen
Elizabeth Sherwood
Come and learn how to build your ministry around the needs of your students as opposed to program expectations. Elizabeth will put practical application to Chap’s message.

Getting Off the Spiritual Roller Coaster – Building a Solid Life of Prayer
Paul Anderson
We live in an age of "Spiritual Attention Deficit Syndrome," but how do we deal with it? In addition, the emotional lives of adolescents go up and down, often affecting their spiritual lives. This biblical approach to a solid life of prayer helps the believer focus on several aspects of the Lord’s Prayer a few minutes at a time until one develops a basic, well-balanced prayer life. Instead of five minutes of prayer being difficult to manage, you’ll wish you had more than 15, as prayer becomes meaningful and life changing.

Creative Worship: Engaging the Young Adult in the Heart of God
Sarah Thomas Baldwin
Experience a time of worship that incorporates Scripture, the visual arts, media, liturgy, prayer practice, teaching and music in a way that will inspire your creativity and open your spirit. A "Q & A" will follow, along with a discussion of the elements of worship that help young adults experience God, the process of discernment in worship planning and preparation, and a theology of worship.

e:YM (electronic youth ministry)
Chris Henderson
Jumping into social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can be an amazing youth ministry tool, multiplying your ability to connect with students, publicize events and keep in touch with what your kids fill their lives with and get excited about when they aren’t with you. But there are several issues to think through carefully before you get too far. How are you representing yourself and your ministry to curious students? How can we spread good news virtually? Do your curiosity, compassion and mentorship still seem genuine in cyberspace – or are they accidentally creepy? What is your plan for when you see pictures of students doing things that they haven’t mentioned to you? Ignore or confront? Get parents involved? In what ways can we effectively lead our students to Jesus using 140 characters at a time? HWJT? (How would Jesus tweet?)

Tension
Ben Sand
Can you feel it? Left or right, which way do you lean? Yes or no, what do you believe? Young people are negotiating a world that is changing faster than we’ve ever seen before. Integrating evangelism and discipleship into daily life has become more difficult as people question where truth can really be found. What do we say? Jesus!
But how does this hit the street? What we believe about Jesus directly impacts how we live out our ministries. Come join us as we discuss how we can authentically live out faith in the midst of the tensions of the world.

Courage to Disciple
Judy Glanz
Some of the last words that Jesus spoke to his disciples were to go and make more disciples. God himself taught us that love initiates. Do you have the courage to reach out across the generations to another Christ follower to walk with them as they walk with Christ? What holds you back from entering into relationship with another believer? Are you ready for the next step of faith?