And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Ephesians 4:11-13 (HCSB)
training: the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of vocational or practical teaching. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, and performance .
As a person responsible for equipping the next generation of saints, you may have faced this dilemma before: how do you train and teach students ministry skills without neglecting heart issues, and do so in a way that's effective and efficient? You want your students to be mature, competent, and passionate ambassadors of the gospel - and you have a limited amount of time to make it happen.
Maybe this will help:
We’ve searched far and wide to find some of the best student training curricula in the campus ministry and brought it all under one virtual roof. We hope you’ll find something here that will enhance your efforts to help develop students who Win, Build, and Send.
Whether or not you end up using this material, we’d like to know your thoughts in order to shape the future of student training. Would you give us your name and email so that we can get in touch with you to get your feedback? You can do that here :
One of the main priorities of the USCM is to build movements infused with our Win-Build-Send DNA. In order to aid in this process, we’ve created this checklist, highlighting which training resources touch on which W-B-S topics.
Student Training Chart (download PDF)
1. North Carolina State Discipleship Curriculum
This is a comprehensive four year curriculum for student training that utilizes both small group and one-to-one approaches. Content wise, this one covers all the bases!
Essential topics for in the 11 First-Year Bible Studies include: Thirsty, Knowing God, Assurance , and Quiet Times .
Remaining sophomore, junior & senior year studies build upon the first-year topics, and include continued theological, ministry, and leadership development.
Additional Features:
2. Authenticity
Staff Member Chad Young has developed a thorough and compelling one-to-one approach to student training. The helpful “A Guide to Spiritual Mentorship” gives mentors direction for:
Following-up a new believer,
Calling someone into a mentoring relationship, and
Sharpening someone through one-to-one mentoring.
In the Sharpening phase, a person is developed in three areas:
1) Sharpening Character (Quiet Times, purity, relationships, journaling, the Holy Spirit etc.)
2) Sharpening Skills (how to share a testimony, study the Bible, and lead a small group.)
3) Sharpening Vision & Goals (set personal & ministry goals, learn how to discern God’s will.)
3. M29
The M29 curriculum has lessons that move someone from the foundations of the Christian life to leading others. It was developed by Tim Casteel (and team). Each training modules has 6 lessons and it is designed to run with 2 modules in each semester— taking 4 semesters to complete. The material could be used in a small or large group setting. The lessons are well-planned with notes for the students and thorough leaders’ guides.
While it does cover “foundations,” which include, Holy Spirit, prayer and gospel-centered life, it does miss other foundational issues. Students attending this should have previously gone through basic follow up ( Life Concepts, or something similar).
Modules include:
4. SEED Group
SEED is Students Engaged in Evangelism and Discipleship – a small group focused on providing biblical foundations and practical accountability to help Christian students talk to friends and the university about Jesus, grow as disciples, and disciple others.*
Simply focused.
Each of the 12 sessions is centered on a specific Bible passage, and focused prayer time that connects to the theme.
Provides accountability.
Each session always ENDS with a specific personal evangelism or discipleship action point and STARTS with checking in the following week to see how people “got on”* with their action point.
Easily transferable.
After seeing it modeled, group members could turn around and lead a SEED group of their own.
SEED Sessions Table of Contents:
(Once there, look under More Resources on the right side to download the entire curriculum.)
* SEED was created in the UK by Agapé Student Life (part of Cru Int’l). As such, it contains some uniquely British language.
5. LIVING ON MISSION TRAINING SEMINARS
Living On Mission (LOM) seeks to teach students to live missionally for a lifetime. Modeled after the Compass “Faith” template of Walk, Communicate and Multiply, this training curriculum (developed by staff at UC-Berkeley) is designed for a large group/seminar format and covers twenty sessions over four semesters.*
Audience: The intended audience is any student who desires to grow in their walk with God. However, with a lack of focus on some fundamental topics (prayer, assurance of salvation, forgiveness), it seems appropriate to limit attendance to those who have been through basic follow-up, i.e. Life Concepts .
Approach: LOM uses an intellectual, classroom-based approach to topics like hermeneutics, apologetics, stewardship, leadership, etc. It provides the biblical basis for every topic presented, providing not just the “how” of training, but also the “why” of training.
Focus: One of the many strengths of this curriculum is its focus on providing skills to equip students to be lifelong laborers, with content like “Spiritual Multiplication After College” and “Personal Development Plan.”
Features:
*Only the first two semesters are currently available.
6. THE COMPASS
A modern-day classic! Thousands of Cru staff and students have used The Compass over the years, and have loved it. The Compass delivers an easy-to-follow personal discipleship curriculum, providing over 40 lesson plans on core biblical messages, as well as basic ministry skills. It contains everything you need to prepare for weekly personal discipleship appointments.
Focus:
The Compass is essentially a leader's guide, designed to help staff and student disciplers walk younger students through the process of becoming mature disciples.
Three levels:
Topics Include:
Community, Prayer, Position in Christ, Assurance of Salvation, Sharing the Gospel, Filling of the Spirit, Confession, Obedience, Sanctification, Eternal Perspective, Justification by Faith, Spiritual Multiplication, How to Share the Ministry of the Holy Spirit, How to Conduct Basic Follow-up, God's Will, Scripture Memory, Time Management, and Sharing Your Testimony.
Additional Features:
Free Online version: http://crupressgreen.com/compass/
Purchase the CD-ROM: http://crupress.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/discipleship/the-compass
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