Subscribe to the NetworkYouth Ministry Coaching Q&A with Mark Oestreicher
Somehow, Mark Oestreicher (former president of Youth Specialties, author, youth ministry dude) and I have never actually met. Yet – here’s the weirder part – we’ve become friends in spite of that (thank you, Internet!). In the last few weeks, we’ve talked on the phone and had a bunch of email, text and Facebook interaction. Somewhere in the midst of these last weeks, Marko’s new “Youth Ministry Coaching Program” came up, and I asked him if he would answer a few questions about it for the blog.
So, here you have it – 3 questions for Marko:
JG: I know you’ve written about this on your blog, but what are you up to these days?
Marko: Bon-bons and daytime TV, man. No, actually, I’m pretty stoked about the stuff God’s been leading me toward. Speaking opportunities and writing projects that are right in my wheelhouse. And I’m launching two things: a consultancy for organizations that focus on justice/relief/missions/advocacy/education, helping them in the arena of youth and young adults, and the ‘youth ministry coaching program’.
JG: Yeah, so that last bit, tell us about it. What’s unique about it?
Marko: I’ve spent much of this last year in a leadership coaching program with John Townsend (the “Boundaries” guy). So I’ve taken some ideas from that process and experiences I’ve had of hosting multi-day dialogues with youth workers, and mashed them up into a 360 whole-life development program intentionally tweaked for youth workers. When I say “360”, I’m referring to the fact that it will be a small cohort (10 or 12 people) who will journey together for a year, meeting 6 times for 2 days, and staying connected via online tools and phone calls. I will guide the program, but the whole group will speak into each other’s lives. We’ll wrestle with youth ministry stuff, to be sure; but it will also be about each participant’s emotional, spiritual and relational health and maturity.
JG: Sweet. What should people do if they want to consider it more?
Marko: Check out the details on my blog here. There’s a simple application process. I hope to have the first cohort selected within a month or so, and we’ll get going in April or May.
JG
