Welcome To The Next Level

Hey everyone!  It's Intern Tuesday again so get excited. As we continue to highlight the various ministries of NB Families, this week I would like to focus on a summer leadership program called "Next Level," hence the title of this blog. "Next Level" is a month long leadership program designed for incoming junior and senior high school students. We started the program here at New Beginnings three summers ago. The year we started the program was actually my (Derek) first year working as an intern here and Lacey was an exiting senior and participated as a student. That being said, Lacey and I have had a lot of experience with this ministry program and it has been really cool to watch it progress!

On a personal note, the program has been and still is extremely beneficial to my spiritual growth and the development of my leadership skills. I can honestly say this, and I promise I'm not just sucking up to the rest of the staff, (though they do deserve major credit for all the hard work they put in every week) I have learned more in the 3 summers I have worked at new Beginnings then the 4 years I spent at college. Part of that may be my fault though. I always joke that the two things I learned at school were how to cook and how to take naps.

Anyways, since I have built up so much hype about "Next Level," I should probably tell you what all it involves. At the beginning of the summer, the interested students went though an interview process to evaluate their commitment to the program. We end up taking 8 to 10 students each summer. What the students commit to is a Monday-Thursday teaching time which starts at 9 a.m. Thats right, no sleeping in for these future leaders. The teaching time is a great opportunity for our students because they get to hear and learn from each of our pastors here at New Beginnings. Each of our pastors focus on different areas of leadership. For example, yesterday Terry led the students in an event planning activity where they had to delegate responsibilities, plan an entire event, and do it all under budget. All of our students did a fantastic job and I'm sure Terry was glad that they all managed to do it under budget!

The next focus of the program is not only to teach the students how to be better leaders but to actually put the ball in their own court. They are actually planning an entire VBS for the John 3:16 kids! How cool is that? Typically from 10:30 to 11:30 the students work on planning and coordinating their big event. Two years ago, our next level group served at Salvation Army helping them organize a large storage container and various other needs. Last year, the group put on a day in the park for families in need! It was awesome!

Lastly, Next Level provides the opportunity for our students to take upon leadership roles in various ministries on Sunday morning. Our students get to serve everywhere from Genesis Kids to worship arts. I've found this to be a very fruitful experience. If you want to understand what NB Families is all about, there is no better way than serve in all the different ministries that take place on sunday morning.

I think the coolest thing about Next Level is that it paints a great picture of NB Family ministies. A church that takes the time to invest in its youth, a church that understands that our young students are going to be future leaders, and that they are a generation that is going to make a difference!

-Derek

*Here's a couple videos from the past Next Level classes:

• Next Level ITK 2012
• Next Level ITK 2011