The Iowa Conference UCC transforms children, youth and family ministries in local churches by providing leadership development and visioning. Nicole Havelka, associate conference minister for youth and young adult ministries, leads a variety of workshops to help you think “out of the box” and imagine new possibilities for your ministries.
The most popular one-day workshop is Living the NOW…while visioning the Future, which helps your leadership team plan their program to form the best Christian disciples.
Don’t see what you need? Contact Nicole Havelka and work something out! Or download our flyer to hand out at your next leadership team meeting.
Here are the workshops currently available:
Connecting your Youth Ministry to your Local Community: Take a look around you and make your youth ministry serve the needs of the youth in your community. This is a one-day workshop.
Creating a Welcoming Ministry: Meeting the Needs of At-Risk Children, Youth and Families: Using an ethic of peacemaking, create a ministry that offers enough structure and compassion for at-risk youth and their families.
Embodying Leadership: Leadership isn’t just something we think about, we live it in our bodies. Explore your personal experiences of leadership as well as scriptural examples through drama games and other “lived” activities. (For youth or mixed-age groups.)
Living the NOW…while visioning the Future: Rejuvenate your children, youth and family ministries by embracing what’s important about forming faithful young people. This one-day workshop will help you discern and plan how you can create the best Christian disciples while being faithful to your congregations’s strengthen and God’s call. After the workshop, your team leaders will get ongoing coaching to help implement your plan.
Mentoring the Next Generation: Many churches struggle to recruit and maintain leadership in their youth ministry, Sunday school and other youth and family ministries. Delve into how Jesus mentored disciples and learn how that model can be used to recruit new leaders and prevent burnout in your current leaders.
Our Dream for the Church: Begin to dream about what your youth ministry could be by telling stories of your best past experiences of youth ministry. This workshop fits easily into a regular Sunday school class or into a short workshop after worship on Sunday morning. (This often precedes the “Living the NOW” workshop.)
Workplanning: Making your purpose a reality: Do you have a vision for your youth ministry, but struggle to make all the pieces come together? Learn more about the practice of workplanning as a tool for implementing your purpose and vision.
(Youth) Ministry of Hospitality: Do cliques stifle the growth of your youth or young adult ministries? Do you want youth and young adults to lead a more open and welcoming church? Explore Jesus’ call to a more inclusive church and develop specific plans in living out that message in your local church.