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Staff and study group

Fit for kids – the staff study group

What do kids today need? How can the gospel unfold its effect of Jesus Christ as a joyful and liberating message? How can the boys and girls feel Jesus’ friendship and help at first hand? Who will show them the heart of God our Father and will help them to discover their call as a child of God and how to practice this in everyday life? What does the community of God’s family look like in a society where more and more families fall apart? Where are the believable role models and reliable directions in the middle of a complete loss of values and in the glittering world of the shimmering media? Where will we find members of staff who wear their hearts on their sleeves and who do their utmost to watch out for children whose lives are shaky and who offer them room for their hopes? Who looks after these staff members who work with children, who are often on the "front line"? Those are questions which responsibly aware youth workers will have to deal with intensively. Situation analysis alone is not enough. We need people with fire, with dreams and with vision. However we also need clear concepts and well thought through strategies to achieve successful youth work. It often goes wrong at this point. For this reason, here are a few strategical corner stones, which are of particular importance for youth work in the third millennium.

Fit for kids – the staff team

FIT stands for friendship, inspiration and training.

Friendship

FIT stands for friendship, inspiration and training ©: Robert Kneschke - Fotolia

The be all and end all is a creative and successful team of workers who are ready for action. The workers are not machines who perform a certain task. They are people who are bound by friendship and who support und compliment each other with their various talents. Therefore such teams need community time and a clear direction along with the support and promotion by the respective municipalities and federations. Concentrating on the work is important, not multi-functionaries.

Inspiration

Inspiration is necessary. That is the readiness to learn from others and the desire to ask curiously, what other interesting forms of work with children there are in the realm of God. Lots of things can be successfully integrated with youth work groups such as musical elements from TenSing, Kings Kids and scouting elements from the scout guide association.

An important part of inspiration comes with help from above which is the inspiration through the Holy Ghost. We need to ask together: "Jesus – how do you see our place and the children who are entrusted to us? Father in heaven: what is in your heart for these people here? Holy ghost; please send us good ideas and set of creativity and fantasy free, save us from routine und simply “functioning” and help us to find tailor-made solutions for our special situation here".

Collective prayer is therefore a must. Further helpful ideas are a “perspectives weekend” with special prayer times and prayer god children partnerships for female members of staff and children. Test it!

Training

No pain, no gain and no certificate without training. Training members of staff is an important aspect. Music, sport, bible studies, pedagogical practice, group leading skills, character development... "Where are the skills and how can we develop them?" is one of the key questions for people who are responsible for leading groups. Regular training which builds on previous knowledge helps members of staff to remain on a "learning curve" and to keep building on challenges.

Source and with the kind permission of: The evangelical youth work in Württemberg / boy’s brigade. Translated into English by Praxis-Jugendarbeit.

Another couple of tips:

Try to win members of staff from your group. The older youths who have decided to devote their life to Jesus might be able to given the job as junior leader of a younger group of kids.
All members of staff should meet up regularly in a staff study group in order to discuss current matters and the problem children, to talk about the group situation and to pray together about it. The study group should be led by a person/ a team. This person / team should love team work, should have an overview of what is happening, prospects, experience in group work, pedagogic and pastoral experience and experience of organising camps, events and activities which span the whole group. A clear position to Jesus, clear proclamation as well as a trusted position with relation to the other staff members is also very important.

The goals of a study group:

Collective prayer for the youth groups and for the individuals
Redirection towards Jesus
Talking through the problems
Theoretical questions / training themes (you might want to invite a speaker)
Planning comprehensive group ideas, camps etc.