Youth Leader Training Syllabus

I’ve been thinking more since first posting about training youth leaders. In particular thinking about planning a training strategy. Most of the youth leader training programs I’ve come across so far take a grab-bag of ideas that the trainer perceives as important for leadership and teaches about them. Thus, there may be training topics on the spiritual life of a leader, how to run a small group, or the strategy of youth ministry. Whilst topics such as these are vital to youth leader training, I think it could be helpful to have a broader structure that helps each training topic fit into a whole training strategy. Below are my first thoughts on how this could be done.

I think it would be helpful to have four broad training modules, which would link together as shown in the diagram below. There would be a number of training topics that would make up each module.

Youth leaders do not progress through the modules in order, as if they first gain a complete understanding of the bible and then move on to think about culture. Rather, the arrows show how each module provides foundational material for others. We should aim for youth leaders who are consistently maturing in each of the four areas.

I'll post some thoughts about what topics might be covered under each module over the next week or two.