Why Genetik? Let our graduates explain.

Can you recommend anyone for our Genetik courses?

Genetik 10, our new flagship year-out training course, lasts a full academic year (ten months). The course puts students right at the heart of Message life – living with families connected to the ministry or in Eden homes across Manchester. Daily training and placements with Message teams will equip young people to share the gospel relevantly and live evangelistically.

Two tracks will hone students’ gifting as performers or urban evangelists: Urban Ministry students will learn from intensive placements with Eden teams across the city. Creative Ministry students will get expert tuition to nurture their skill as dancers, rappers, DJs, musicians and vocalists.

[youtube width="560" height="340"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuOOCSXw1g[/youtube]

Genetik Elements is designed to give existing youth workers fast-track access to official accreditation. Students attend ten monthly training days and are assessed in observed placements.

‘Since we began training young evangelists ten years ago, the world has changed,’ comments course leader Mat Walls. ‘More churches are offering their own “year-out” schemes. That’s why we’re giving the option for a flexible way to get the best of The Message’s experience in a monthly one-day format.’

Places are now available on both courses and potential students are encouraged to submit applications immediately for this September’s intake.

More details and links to application forms can be found here

Read a recent part-time student’s view of Genetik

Word 4U 2Day is the youth version of UCB’s Word For Today, written by Bob Gass and distributed throughout the world. Over 120,000 young people get each issue, published in one of three languages: English, Portuguese and Filipino.

The Message’s In Yer Face team rewrites each day’s content making it more relevant for young people. The team also narrates the daily UCB Radio version which is then distributed via podcast and accessible by subscription from iTunes.

Team leader Matt Britton comments, ‘One of the things we at In Yer Face love doing is writing Bible studies for young people…we also have a lot of fun recording them for UCB Radio, so that people can listen on the move’.

Read today’s Word 4U 2Day.

Sign up to receive a printed version of Word 4U 2Day in the post.

Subscribe to the Word 4U 2Day podcast.

Sign up to receive it by email.

The Message’s youth discipleship resource Start Something is now available to download for free via iTunes.

Featuring Lindz West, Andy Hawthorne and members of Blush, Start Something answers 12 burning questions facing young Christians and includes tracks from the bands.

Previously full-priced at £4.99, well over 5,o00 copies of Start Something have already found their way into the hands of young people.

Click here to go direct to iTunes to download Start Something as a podcast.

Click here to download the original CD artwork.

‘I love working with the young people in my church, and I wanted to learn how to help them. A while ago, I did a 5-month training course at Genetik, where I learnt about working with young people in different settings, and planned lessons to use in a school. Once I’d finished, I moved back home and carried on working with my church youth group.

‘Although I’d completed the course, I felt that I wanted to get some further training. By this time, I was working at The Message as an intern, where I heard about the Youth Work course.’

The course in Youth Work, which has been accredited by the National Open College Network, is a VRQ (Vocationally Recognised Qualification) Level 3 and provides a valuable foundation to a Youth Work degree.

‘You only need to come in for one day a month (or two evenings a month), but you have to do assignments, and write down how many hours you work with young people. It’s quite hard work when you have got a full-time job and are doing youth work, to have a life and do the assignments on top of it all, but I love it. It’s amazing! You need to be good at time management, which is not one of my greatest skills, but you get better at it as you go.

‘One of the things I like about the course is that Jon, one of the course leaders, is really helpful. He’s happy to help you with your work and chat to you if you’re finding something difficult. The course is so accessible to everyone, for whatever kind of youth work you’re doing. We’re all from different walks of life: there’s an 18 year-old and a 60 year-old in the same class!’

The course leaders use a combination of taught sessions, group work, discussions, assignments, observations and a ‘Learning Log’.

‘We do group work and encourage each other, which is great because if you’ve got a difficult situation in your youth group and you don’t know how to resolve it, there is generally someone else who has more experience, so they can help you with it.

‘We look at six different areas, including the core values of youth work, facilitating learning and development, and building and sustaining relationships.’

‘The assignments focus a lot on personal reflection and making sure you’re not putting your values on other people, but empowering them to develop their own.

‘I’m really enjoying doing the Learning Logs. Basically, you’ll have a youth session or a situation where you’re working with young people, and then you write up what happened, what you learned and anything you may have struggled with. Sometimes, if things go wrong in my youth group, I’m like ‘Ok, I’ve got a Learning Log here!’ It’s an opportunity to look at what you’re doing, and seeing what you can do better.’

Everyone on the course is supported by a mentor and line manager, who is based in your placement setting.

‘Everyone on the course is already working with young people somewhere. The purpose of the course is to train and equip you to meet the needs of those young people, and to give you support as you do it. There may be a new law coming in that means everyone who works with young people needs to be qualified. You can’t really do the course unless you’ve got a placement, but I’m sure The Message would help people find one if they needed help.’

More about Genetik.

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An estimated 50,000 copies of The Message’s youth discipleship DVD Deep are poised to be distributed across Central Asia thanks to a partnership with Kairos Media Trust.

The DVDs, dubbed in Kyrgyz and Russian, are just the latest batch to be distributed. Thousands of copies of Deep and Fresh have already reached young people across Central Asia. Kairos trustee Nick Hall comments,

‘There is such a need for these DVDs. Over half the population of Central Asia is under the age of 25, yet there is almost nothing on DVD to point them to Jesus. Right now, demand for the resources is far outstripping supply.’

Importing DVDs into countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is fraught with difficulty, so local churches are pioneering production and distribution themselves. But you can help. Every £1 donated pays for two DVDs to be produced.

If you’d like to help, contact silkroad@kairosmedia.org.

The Message’s theatre company In Yer Face reword UCB’s daily devotional ‘Word for Today’ for a younger audience, and also narrate the UCB Radio version and podcast.

Team leader Matt Britton comments, ‘One of the things we at In Yer Face love doing is writing Bible studies for young people…we also have a lot of fun recording them for UCB Radio, so that people can listen on the move’.

Around 500,000 issues of Word 4u 2day are produced each year, making its way into the hands of an estimated 120,000 young people. The quarterly devotional is available in English (delivered in the UK, Ireland and Australia), Portuguese (Portugal) and Filipino (The Philippines).

Read today’s Word 4U 2Day.

Sign up to receive a printed version of Word 4U 2Day in the post.

Subscribe to the Word 4U 2Day podcast.

Sign up to receive it by email.