On Wednesday next week, our year 9 students will participate in a ‘Catch the Wave’ retreat which will see the boys examine where they are with their faith and where they can take it forward.
This retreat will be facilitated by Youth Ministers from the CE including our own College Youth Ministers, Gerard Teng and Sam Stubbs. This retreat program will invite the boys to engage in a number of activities and create an open and safe environment where they can share their ideas and experiences about faith.
This experience also leads our boys into the opportunity to elect to do Youth Ministry as a subject in semester 2. In Youth Ministry, we seek to engage young people in learning about their faith in a deeper and personal sense. In mainstream Religious Studies curriculum, there is an emphasis on skills development and concepts while Youth Ministry takes on the personal faith dimension of each student. When completing the Youth Ministry course, the boys’ leadership skills are fostered as they are shown how to lead a retreat, give testimony and plan an experience for their peers. Learning about faith from their peers and Youth Ministers forms ‘peer to peer ministry’ and has shown to be so much more beneficial to young people as they explore and develop their faith. An important part of this is ‘Witness.’ To give witness is to declare belief and be an example of one’s faith, we hear the words and testimonies of young people of faith within the Youth Ministry program and this serves as a wonderful learning experience for our boys. In a contemporary climate when expressing faith can be counter cultural, our Youth Ministry program is specifically designed for those who are curious about their faith and who are willing to step into the water to ‘Catch the Wave.’