The BER months are here. Christmas is just around the corner and before the year ends, Methodist youth from all over the Philippines would come together for the annual Christmas Institute. Every district (or conference) has it and for most Methodist youth, the year is never complete without the Christmas Institute.
Do you remember your first Christmas Institute experience? What made it very memorable? Was it about new-found friends and the spiritual awakening you’ve had? Was it a heart-warming experience with God? A discovery of Christ and the wonderful adventure of following him?
A lot of young people attend the C.I. in the hopes of growing spiritually and at the very least meeting new friends. But leaders are concerned about the activities and the experiences that young people will, or should have during the C.I. How could you tell that the Christmas Institute is successful or not?
image credit: Cosmopolitan United Church
Attendance. A good attendance is surely great! It allows you to reach out to more youth and initiate them into a deeper relationship with Christ. It also means that you did your homework and promoted the C.I. well.
But remember that quantity attendance is good, but quality is even better!
Response to activities. No matter how many youth attended the C.I., you need to look at the response of the delegates to the planned activities. Are they participating? Do they ask questions and share their opinions? Do they talk about the activities when they are done? Such response would let you know if the activities are really suited to the delegates.
The best time to measure such responses is at night after all the activities. You should actively gather feedback from the delegates during or after the sessions. If you could prepare Evaluation forms for every activity, that would help you measure the success of each one. At night, gather the C.I. staff together and talk about the responses of the delegates. It doesn’t have to be a long discussion. It can simply be a run-through of observations.
Good feedback. More than the delegates, you should also gather feedback from pastors, deaconesses and parents. What are they saying about your activities? The delegates will certainly talk about their experiences. The parents will hear about it. And the pastors will also know about that. Such feedback, though, will have to be gathered after the Christmas Institute.
The above success indicators are during the C.I. What about after the Christmas Institute. How can we say that the C.I. achieved its goals of empowering the spiritual lives of the delegates?
Youth going to church regularly even 6 months after the CI. The tendency of a lot of C.I. delegates is to go to church regularly about two months after CI. After that, their fire dies down and then they will only go to church once in a blue moon. If the C.I. were successful, it means that young people will be encouraged to attend church worship services regularly.
You can measure this by getting a list of delegates and going to their churches six months after the CI. Sure this is hardwork and might take a bit of your time. But if you really want to understand the impact of CI, this would be a great exercise.
Delegates continue to grow spiritually even after the Christmas Institute. This is actually difficult to measure. But you can tell that a young person is growing spiritually if: 1) They have a personal quiet time, 2) they pray; 3) they participate in worship; 4) they help out in UMYF and church activities in the local church; 5) they exhibit personal change for the better.
Try interviewing the pastors and the members of local churches to get an idea about the spiritual lives of the young people who attended the C.I. This will give you a good idea about the impact of CI in their lives.
This might take a lot of work even after the CI but it is certainly necessary to make the necessary changes for succeeding CI’s.
At the very least, you should have a good CI evaluation form that every delegate has to accomplish at the end of the Christmas Institute.
What do you think makes the CI successful? How will your CI be memorable this year?
hmm christmas na naman…time to share blessings again..may ondoy’s victims be no.1 on our gift list
Spiritual growth and participation in church after CI will really be poor if our CI activities are not Bible saturated (not just Bible-based). Growth is caused by God and God is known through His Word. But a lot of our CI activities are based on shallow entertainment.
Let us make our activities be channels of knowing the only Source of satisfying joy. If we can’t make God appear glorious (as He really is), we can’t make our young people desire Him.
Kuya Nard,
I agree. that’s why a lot of people are criticizing the CI program because of what they perceive as shallow activities. Maybe we really should start thinking how to “deepen” the level of the CI for our young people. And when they go back to the local churches, there should be supplemental activities–not big events but more of the discipleship and spiritual type of activities.
thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Leading them deeper in relationship needs a plenty who are already on that state to guide our young people. The problem comes when the ideals are plenty but when it comes in implementation, the doers are few..Bible study materials are good, but BS teachers on that day mostly are unprepared…CILT is good.,But nevertheless I do still believe that putting these young people in an environment of seeking joy in many ways with the presence of God will give them at least a SPARK on their faith…it is then another question if the local church will keep the fire burning or will be the one to stop the flame…
Hmmm…. nice points.
I think we can measure the success of C.I. based on its objectives… objectives that were proposed based on what youth leaders observed as the current need of our youth – as far as our youth leaders are concerned…(involvement of social issues, politics, church life… etc..)
I believe it is not C.I. who will change our youth.. it is still God. God on their day to day life, and nothing will compensate for that..
I believe firmly that C.I. is just a supplementary activity for our youth and it is not intended to be a “one time big time once a year response” for putting our youth on “fire”
sometime i feel sad when people expects too much from C.I. to make our youth active for the whole year, or to see major spin in their lives….it can’t be..
but it is sadder to think that sometimes, the church is relying on such activities to achieve something for itself, when all the while it is the mission of the local church to do something for the youth for them to be developed and to see things from the youth which they expect to be seen in them after going to C.I.
Nothing would replace proper discipleship and setting of examples from the local church in leading youth to Christ. All year round, majority of the the youths who goe to C.I. are in the local churches,and if we ask to measure the success of C.I., I guess it is also fair to ask, whats the role and success of the local church in terms of bringing the youth to the place that we so desire to see from them as a result of going to C.I.
and i am tempted to think… that our local churches are not capable of doing it, so there is a tendency to put the burden on such activities.
the local church must function as the primary source of nurturing spiritual growth.
Yes, youth is a part of the church, C.I. is a youth activity, but who plans the C.I.? it is the youth themselves.
on the other hand, there is so much room for improving ad revitalizing our activities..mainly C.I.
C.I. is just one of the many tools/avenues. on which youths could grow. I observed that youth who involved themselves in the leadership roles and planning are those who get the most benefit from the activity. They are not the delegates, but they are the staffs, and they have the best opportunity to be “shaped” in terms of building their character and commitment. (this is just a general observation)….
anyways… I have so much to say…
I love our church.
“Anong kaya kong gawin? Kahit anong galing, talino, o talento at kahit anong mga bagay pa ang meron ako, ay nagmumula din sa kanya… at kahit gaano ko pa hangarin, o kahit gaano pa ako ka-determinado, hanggat hindi Siya manghihimasok sa sitwasyon o hindi Niya loloobin, wala akong magagawa… ‘pagkat Siya Pinagmulan, Siya ang Simula, Siya ang Pagbabago!”
SIYA MISMO! =)
Godbless sa Ci nating lahat! let’s all continue to pray for one another =)