PDYM Day 3

I am going to skip day 2 for now so I can be current on my blogging.  Day three gets us into more of the practical side of PDYM. I grabbed Michael this morning, grabbed some breakfast, then got to the Refinery.


The student bands continue to rock and do a great job at leading worship.   Doug talked about the purpose of Fellowship that is for the congregation (connected) students. For Saddleback, they use small groups to fulfill the fellowship purpose. Doug gave us some big picture ideas, they are:

• smaller is better
  
• volunteer is better than paid
  
• shepherds are better than chaperone's
  
• better is better
  

He pushed relationships with students as being the number one priority.  After Doug talked, Megan got up and talked about Life Hurts, God Heals and how they created a small group within their small groups by targeting students who are hurting. this is a cirriculum that I have looked and think I will get it and teach on it. She made a statement that floored me, she said "who will help our students who are hurting, if we don't." Very Powerful.


Katie and Jason came up and talked about specifically how Saddleback does small groups and some key learning points.

• there's more than one way to do small groups
  
• small group leaders need to be setup for success
  
• small groups can bridge to the next step

It was funny that they talked about having reconfigured their small group programs every year. Some PDYM State Mentors talked about how they were doing small groups. They emphasized helping you small group leaders understand their role as youth pastors to their small group.  


We broke for some debriefing and lunch. I decided to head outside and sit in the sun. The weather here is awesome and I really enjoyed it.  I almost fell asleep :).  The Refinery is an incredible place to hang out.  The design fulfills many different purposes and gives you so many options to build relationships with students or just sit by yourself.  I had lunch with Chris Harkins, Chris Reed (young adult pastor @ Saddleback) and Matt from TX.  I had never met. We had great discussion about doing small groups, recruiting leaders and various other ideas.


Day 3 continued in a minute...