On 29th-30th October 2019, I led 8 hours worth of training sessions introducing the Gospel and how to use it with children and young people. This was a part of South West Youth Ministries’ foundation year training scheme called, “Be Transformed”. Over those eight hours, here are some of the things we looked at:

• An assessment of our understanding of the Gospel, an introduction to the Gospel and an introduction to Kingdom theology.
• We looked at the big picture of the Biblical narrative and the Gospel’s climactic place within that.
• A session on the story of Jesus, and particularly what it was meant by him being “The Messiah”.
• We took an in-depth look at the story of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, how Jesus used those stories to share his good news, and how we can too.
• A session on what it means to contextualise something, and how we can do that with the Gospel by understanding people’s hopes, fears, and beliefs.
• We looked at the impact the Gospel has on us and how we can use it as a tool for discipleship with our children and young people over two sessions.

Around 12 people attended the event held at SWYM’s training base at Brunel Manor in Torquay, Devon. I asked for those there to fill out a feedback form on the training I provided, and all 12 did so. In four different areas they ranked me from 1 (awful) to 6 (excellent). Here are the average scores from their reviews:

• Session Content – 5.92
• Session Delivery – 5.83
• Interaction Level – 5.17
• Use of Media – 5.75

Here are a few quotes from some of the participants:

“All content was explained super clearly and any questions were welcomed and answered clearly.”

“Matt is very open to questions and helps the tone be relaxed enough to feel comfortable and enabled to leave feeling empowered!”

“You’ll never look at the Gospel the same way!”

“This has blown my mind in the best possible way! I can already feel what we have spoken about and what I have learnt having an impact on relationship with God.”

“The teaching was excellent as it was both deep and relaxed simultaneously.”

“I really enjoyed unpacking the Bible stories and looking at the meaning behind them and their message.”