Hope this note will encourage and inspire past, present or future Youth leaders or those who have invested much in youth ministries that our youths are the hope and future of the church!A few people have asked me what legacy I hope to leave with this youth ministry before I officially step down from this ministry by end of this month.
After much thought about it in the last couple months I hope just like my past YM leaders, that I have played a small part in our YM Mission of "Laying the foundations for life long discipleship" to reach our YM vision of seeing "Youths Transformed for Christ" in this ministry. Besides the "legacy" I hope to have left with my youths, this note is written specially with the leaders in mind of how important their role are.
After spending 12 years growing up in this ministry, first as a young sec 1 boy fresh into this new ministry which was just about to be formed at the end of 2002. Going through different stages as a youth, a youth leader and then as a full time youth worker here. There's so much of this ministry that have been a part of me that I know will be hard for me to let go especially in the beginning stages of Seminary life.
Below are some of my past reflections notes of YM in the last couple of years:
1) Reflections of YM after 10 years!
Building a Community With Your Fellow Leaders
(Was reminded of our YM Mission, "Laying the foundations for Life-long discipleship when I saw this photo. This was taken in a mission trip to Nepal in Feb where we helped in the initial process of laying the foundations of this church building project & each brick was literally laid one brick at a time.)
And then there was YM Camp in 2012, where I felt the camp comm had came out with an amazing system of leadership development in big community of leaders, where there were 75 leaders in 5 different tribes. And each Tribe leader & 2IC shepherd the leaders together, and within each camp group. There was a Mentor, CGL, ACGL, Which allowed Discipleship and community building at TRIBE level to sub-grp level. The Tribe leaders also came together often in this meeting known as the TRIBAL Council to debrief together each time. Out of many camps I’ve been too over the years, this was the most effective and intentional leadership system that I actually saw working effectively. As the Tribe leaders were very intentional in building the camaraderie to the groups in their tribe!
We have Increased from about 20 from the first batch to 50 this year! And many of them are leaders and future leaders of the ministry from As young as 17yr old to 30 yr old)
1) Reflections of YM after 10 years!
Building a Community With Your Fellow Leaders
Prepared this sharing about a month ago when Ps Raymond invited me alongside him, to share a segment of his workshop with a group of youth leaders from Trinity Methodist Church on 18 May 2013. As we brainstorm together on what we should do at the workshop on "Building a Community with your Leaders", I decided that I can share some of the platforms that i've seen or been involved in my time serving in Wesley Youth Ministry in the past 8 years.
As I was preparing this segment, my heart and burdens for the leaders in our youth ministries continue to grow, and below are some of my experiences first hand of our past & present leaders who have done their part in YM for laying the foundations for life long discipleship. Eventually it is my dream to come back to this ministry to see such a strong discipleship culture being formed. And to know this are the future of our church. 
1- Leaders Development (Monthly Leaders Meeting/ Leaders Trainings/Committee Meetings)
Here are some of our YM Sessions that I’ve been involved in my time in YM where I’ve seen and experience first hand leaders coming together to mutually support and encourage each other in this journey as they serve in various sub-ministries and lead different small groups.
The Working group meetings (originally known as the Sunday Service Working group Meeting), was initiated by our former chairperson Adriel Loh in 2007 to gather the young sub-ministry leaders who are stepping up in the ministry to meet monthly to discuss and plan the sunday service together in a more "light hearted" platform compared to our YM Committee meetings which had a lot of older leader in the past where the young leaders tend to feel intimidated. Continued this with my camp committee too in 2011, and saw that comm meetings shouldn’t just be all about planning alone, but a discipleship journey together.
And then there was YM Camp in 2012, where I felt the camp comm had came out with an amazing system of leadership development in big community of leaders, where there were 75 leaders in 5 different tribes. And each Tribe leader & 2IC shepherd the leaders together, and within each camp group. There was a Mentor, CGL, ACGL, Which allowed Discipleship and community building at TRIBE level to sub-grp level. The Tribe leaders also came together often in this meeting known as the TRIBAL Council to debrief together each time. Out of many camps I’ve been too over the years, this was the most effective and intentional leadership system that I actually saw working effectively. As the Tribe leaders were very intentional in building the camaraderie to the groups in their tribe!
2- YM Committee & Leaders Retreats
One thing about serving in YM as a full time staff, you get to be involved in so many retreats. Retreats are one of the best platforms for such constant interactions with one another over a period of time. Here are some of the activities that we had over the years that bonded the leaders together.
3- Praying together as a Leadership
About 10 years ago in 2003, there was this prophesy at our youth camp about the leadership in our ministry. That the leaders need to be united together and pray together, if not the evil one will slowly pick them out one by one. Ever since then, there was much emphasis for leaders to always come together to pray. Especially before our services at YM Camps and now before every service in YM. Praying for one another is a platform for discipleship too! This is where our weekly prayer meetings, known as GAP,God Answer’s Prayers also started and was formed.
4- Mentoring Groups-“Bands” (Small Covenant Discipleship groups)
Mentoring groups/Discipleship groups-Is another intentional platform where I see life to life discipleship taking place. We tried this DG group system where every leader in YM were grouped in similar ages and will have someone to shepherd them. Manage to meet up with my dg group for a few sessions, but after a year of trying it. The leadership felt that not all the groups are meeting, and restructure it to a level group ysgls meeting instead. Above here shows a photo of a couple of “bands” of small mentoring groups which Ps Ivan introduced to me a couple years ago. Modelled that platform with 2 other younger youth leaders that I was mentoring and put 2 of them together and ask them to find one more peer to form a “band”. Following the concept from Rev Dr Tan Soo Inn, 3-2-1 (3 Friends meet 2 hrs , Once (1) a mth)
5-DISCIPLE1 (Becoming Disciples Through Bible Studies)
DISCIPLE 1 – Is still yet the best platform that I see different ages coming together every week to study the bible together, constantly praying for one another and journeying together through bible study for 9mths, ending with a retreat where we affirmed each other spiritual gifts and have a covenant service together)
We have Increased from about 20 from the first batch to 50 this year! And many of them are leaders and future leaders of the ministry from As young as 17yr old to 30 yr old)
6- Informal Activities (Discipleship platforms)
Informal Activities! Are sometimes one of the most effective ways to build up the leaders in a more light hearted platform. A ministry which is close to my heart is this “run ministry”. Where we have spiritual conversations in our runs, even do prayer and worship runs together. There’s this movement called “Run for the Nation," where Christian groups from all over Singapore come together in teams to pray and run together in a massive rally across Singapore! The first year got my camp comm to sign up for it together as we trained by doing prayer runs around Singapore River. The following year we sent 4 teams from wesley. A Staff team and 3 YM teams… and we continued that vision of praying and running together with the TRACKERS group too. And a the end of this prayer runs we will do a reflection by sharing what we sense from God as we prayed & run together.
7- MEN’s KELONG SPIRITUAL RETREATS!
Our yearly Men’s Spiritual retreat was started by our former chairperson, Adriel Loh, in 2008. Some of the key male leaders came together for 3D2N at this kelong own by his Christian friend. This was not an official YM event, but we continued having it for the last 6 years where male leaders come together as we have times of worship, prayer and sharing of the word too. Many of our male leaders were deeply impacted through out sessions with one another in this spiritual retreat over the years. One of them who was part of our original kelong group is a pastor today at PLMC.
Concluding Remarks:
At the end of the day, our YM Committee once came out with this slogan which resonates with me till today, if we want to see "Youths Transformed for Christ", the leaders in our ministry needs to be transformed first! Thus this phrase comes in!
“Transformed Leaders will lead to Transformed Youths”
