166 Creative Environments Training

"I came that you might have life in ALL of its Abundance." - John 10:10  Volunteers and student leaders… train them and educate them regularly on what is expected and consistently remind them of God's vision through you for themselves and your student ministry. During my time as a student minister, we would take our volunteer staff to various trainings hosted by student focuses groups (YPS, SLU, YFC, FCA etc.) and a few weeks before the school year would start, we would have one weekend for training at a special location (beach, mountains, etc.) with our volunteers and their families. That was the best, but one year I decided to change it up! At that time you could park at any of the Disney World hotels for free and and hold impromptu sessions in the lobby or on the outside of the property. I loved the Animal Kingdom Lodge, with the outdoor fire pits, rocking chairs, all while being surrounded by wild African animals roaming the zoo like setting onsite. If you knew someone working there, in upper management, you could even get a special room set up in the lobby or a special meeting room.  Larry Stephens With CRU (episode 140 on the Youth Worker On Fire Podcast), came to train our volunteer staff and it was beyond amazing! Another time we used Disney University, because of Don Levonious (episode 06 on the Youth Worker On Fire Podcast). He was the Executive who was in charge of the University (yes it is an actual University). Several of his staff were Christians who were Professors at the University of Central Florida, UCF, and Valencia State College. They and Don became the trainers for our volunteer training weekend. Yes, living near Disney World and the ocean has its perks. However… wherever you live has its perks also! You just have to be willing to interact with your community, pay it forward, and the world around you that God is using will open up. _______________________________ Looking for a new student ministry resource? You can read my book "Burn Up Not Out: A Student Ministry Fire Builder's Guidebook" here: https://amzn.to/3PtBTIy Listen to more episodes from the Youth Worker On Fire Podcast here: https://bit.ly/3saDyYq _______________________________ EPISODE CREDITS Email us at: [email protected] Hosted by: Doug Edwards Theme Song: "The One and Only" by The 808 : Listen to more at https://bit.ly/3FTYIAJ Intro/Outro Voiceover: Michael Helms : https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelTheSoundGuy  Edited by: Secret Roots Music House