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Aims and Vision

 

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What we want to achieve

  • ‘To help grow at least 30 missional youth churches over the next five years by creating church ‘for young people by young people’.

Starting with local partnerships of churches, diocese, school and community; youth leaders and their volunteer teams begin working with young people. As relationships build and community is formed, young people begin to experience transformation through connecting with Jesus. These new churches create the conditions needed for discipleship to happen, worship to deepen faith and grow young leaders.

This then affects others.  School communities and teachers, church members and those in the wider community can be encouraged and inspired and their understanding of God grows as they see the changes in young lives.  This is particularly the case when struggling, disadvantaged young people begin to show kindness to others and demonstrate transformation of character. Missional youth church flourishes.

  • ‘To provide on-going learning, training and support to leaders and young people by developing Learning Communities.’

The establishment of Learning Communities will help the wider church, as both young people and adults develop their skills and understanding, establishing support networks and developing relationships. There will be input from experienced practitioners, peer to peer learning, and tools to action-reflect.
 

  • ‘To create models of church for others to learn from and to produce resources that will equip the wider Church.’
Prior to the launch of MYCN, the stakeholders in the Northern Province stated time and again that the church had lost its way with discipling young people. MYCN, in facilitating the planting of at least 30 MYCs, will be a beacon of good practice. Others will follow and establish contextual churches for non-churched young people.
 

Where we work

We support people all over the country, here is a look at where we currently have Missional Youth Churches:

What we offer

1. Our Learning Community happens online and in person and involves teaching input, peer learning and self-reflection so that attendees are supported to use their learning and combine it with specific action points so that learning is directly connected to what happened in the youth work on the ground. Each Learning Community is based around 3 key questions: -

  • What is? On arrival, we break into groups to share what is going on for us locally in our youth work regarding a specific topic.
     
  • What could be? Through both teaching and discussion, we explore what it could be possible to do in our local contexts.
     
  • What will be? Finally, after prayer and advice, participants are encouraged to ‘nail down’ specific action points to take away and put into practice so that learning is rooted in ministry and not just in our heads. 

 
2. We offer mentoring support to the youth leaders overseeing a MYC. This is an opportunity to discuss problems and opportunities regarding youth work, mission strategy, teamwork, community development and local partnerships (our mentoring is specialist support and designed to complement existing local line management.)
 
3. Local Partners Groups – we encourage each MYC to be supported by a Local Partners Group that meets 2-4 times per year and might be made up of local church leaders, youth workers, a school rep, a senior diocesan rep, a mission agency rep and/or a community worker.  We offer consultancy support to each Local Partners Group with the aim of helping the whole group understand the vision of the MYC, our experience in solving problems and finding ways to grow the MYC in interdependent ways with the partners.
 
4. Action-Reflection-Learning – we encourage attendees of the Learning Community to reflect on their ministry practice through ongoing consultation with young people, their local team and with other practitioners. This can be one of the most effective ways to learn. We also encourage attendees to reflect theologically on what God seems to be doing in their midst.   

5. Resources – we offer Resources to support youth leaders and volunteer teams & emerging young leaders.
 
‘Get started - with this 10 session Resource for youth leaders and their volunteer teams…’
 
Taking an ‘in depth’ look at key issues such as: - how to get alongside local young people, building relationships with young people, how to empower young people, youth discipleship and youth worship are all explored within the framework of taking a step by step approach to pioneer youth church. This Resource will give a team a clear sense of direction, some key pieces of learning and the tools needed to develop youth church in different contexts. Take a look….
 
‘By young people and for young people – a 10 session Resource for young leaders learning to lead & for youth leaders keen to help them grow…’
 
We explore some of the foundational building blocks that can help young leaders grow whilst then exploring exercises and tasks to help young leaders begin leading, this Resource aims to both inspire young leaders to get going with God and step out in faith whilst equipping adult youth leaders to support, nurture and mentor them at the same time. Taking a both/and approach reduces the risk of burn out or unhealthy development as we aim to grow young leaders into Christ like disciples.
 

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