While the Beach Mission was used to train the workers for peer evangelism, the Holiday Club was designed to train workers for youth ministry. We decided to use Gospel Light's Sonlight Island curriculum for the Club.
The training weekend was structured as follows (you can follow the hyperlinks to the material we used in the training):
Friday Night
6:30 Introduction. Here we shared the motivation behind running the club: (1) God wants us to reach children! The Bible says: "Think constantly about these commandments…teach them to your children" (Dt. 6:6-7); "I reveal these truths to you so that you can describe the glorious deeds of God to your children" (Ps. 78:4); "Let the little children come to me" (Mt. 19:14). Our purpose was to reach children with the Gospel; to grow Children in the faith; and to show children love and acceptance. (2) God uses children in His mission! Samuel was a boy when God spoke to him; Josiah was 8 when he became king; and Jesus taught in the temple at 12 years. (3) Children are most open to God! 50% of people make a commitment before 15; and 7 out of 8 people make a commitment before 25. (4) Clubs effectively reach children - kids come for the fun and find Jesus too. (5) Leaders are equipped to serve - they are trained and mobilised for ministry in various areas of youth ministry in the local church.
7:00 Overview of Club Programme. The general daily programme consists of: registration (9am); Open Session (9:15); Activities and Games (9:30-10:30); Refreshments (10:30-10:45); Bible Memory (10:45-10:55); Bible Story (10:55-11:05); run
7:30 Allocation of Club Portfolios. We used the following positions: Club Leader; Team Leaders; Registration Organiser; Main Activity Organiser; Games Organiser; Character Builder Organiser; Memory Verse Organiser; Bible Story Organiser; Small Group Leaders; Play Director; Play Actors; Worship/Song Leader; Worship Singers; Worship Musicians; Overhead Operator; Postman; Caterer; Room Manager;
8:00 Learning Club Songs. The curriculum comes with kids songs with actions. We used the video and the CD to learn the tunes and the actions.
Saturday
9:00 Devotion and Revision of Songs
9:30 Relating to Children
10:00 Evangelism and Children
10:30 Teaching Children
11:00 Tea
11:30 Review the Small Group Material. We divided the leaders into the grades they wanted to teach and had them work through the first two days' material on their own.
12:00 Games with Children
1:00 Lunch
1:45 Memory Verses with Children
2:00 Workshop Electives. Here we allowed time to prepare the
different parts of the club programme, namely: Main Activity; Games; Character Building; Memory Verses; Bible Stories.
3:00 Preparation for Club. The team had a chance to get the venue into shape for the club.
3:45 Song Revision
4:00 Ending
During the week of the Holiday Club, have the team meet together for an hour before each day's programme to pray, work though the day's programme and finalise any loose ends. Be sure to spend time affirming and encouraging the team. Remember that they are being equipped for ministry - so allow them to do as much of the work as possible.
Return to Model of Youth Ministry