Welcome to the youth ministry site for the Riverina Presbytery of the Uniting Church of Australia, here you’ll find resources, ideas, reflections, preaching ideas, photos, links to interesting articles on youth ministry and the latest news for people who are interested in ministry with young people.

We hope that the information we post here will be of use to as many people as possible.

Things to check out:

Youth and Children’s Ministry Training May 31 2008

Please do pass it onto your networks as I hope it’ll be a good time for people in ministry with young people to meet and network and learn and fellowship together.

Rob Hanks and Lindsay Cullen will be down on the last weekend of May  (the 31st) in order to work through some training ideas with us, with lay people and ministers alike on youth ministry, preaching, scripture, story telling, safety, using technology in worship and ministry…  I’ll also be running a couple of sessions on bible studies and formation ideas for young people as well as Godly Play.

Rob Hanks is the Synod Youth Unit Coordinator and a Youth Worker of many year’s experience. Rob’s recently spoken at a Easter Camp in WA, delivered a paper in Qld and is working in the UCA to help support the growth of missional and emerging youth ministries. Some people might already have met Rob on various occasions, camps, meetings…

Lindsay Cullen works for the Education for Ministry and Life centre in Sydney. A Minister of the Word with experience in Cowra in the Central West as well as a number of other settings within a previous denomination, Lindsay is excited about the ministry of lay people within the Uniting Church and enjoys being involved in their education and training.  Before coming to Ministry Lindsay worked in the IT industry for 18 years as a programmer / analyst and in software support and training. He continues to have a geeky interest in all things computerish, and is excited about the possibilities for the church inherent in Web 2.0 and the general use of technology.  Before moving to Cowra, Lindsay spent time in the UK pursuing doctoral studies in the area of Science and Theology, and he has been published in the journal Science & Christian Belief.

Please pass on the information to interested people, the more the merrier…

This will be a good time to gather and learn and be challenged and go home with a lot of ideas and support as well as friends and contacts to support our ministries in the next few years…

Download the form below.

The breakdown of the day looks as follows:

10:30 - 12:00 Session 1 Workshop (choice between 2)

12:10 - 13:40 Session 2 Workshop (choice between 2)

13:40 - 14:15 Lunch

14:15 - 15:45 Session 3 Conversation / Discussion / Panel / Sharing (a time for participants to discuss our celebrations, our troubles, our hopes, our frustrations, our needs in youth ministry and children’s ministry with each other and the guests, this will feed into future events and provide some resource sharing opportunities as well as provide an opportunity for some questions to be answered)

15:45 - 17:15 Session 4 Workshop (choice between 2)

To register contact Darren Wright on djwright@netspace.net.au

Download: Riverina_Youth_Training Brochure (pdf file)

River Camps and Kids Camp Out 2008!

It’s now a couple of days since the CRYC River Camp at Kooba Beac, Darlington Point came to an end, the SRYC River Camp at Smithers Beach, Tocumwal was held the weekend before. Overall almost 300 people gathered on the shore of the Murray and the Murrumbidgee rivers across the Riverina to worship, fellowship, swim, wade, play, sing, pray, float, ride, canoe and eat.

On the Murray River leaders and young people gathered from the 22nd - 24th of February, it was a tad windy and the Murray is rather low but we all had a great time, the speakers Theo and Jannette spoke with passion about the love of God while the campers enjoyed great camp food, mountain biking, tubing, canoing, a 1 hour float down the river and time of worship and prayer together.

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