A year out for God?

Are you coming to the end of your studies? Do you have a career break looming? Do you feel the need for further training and equipping? Are you trying to clarify the call of God on your life?

Getting the right training and discipleship is very important! Jesus came to earth with a massive job on his hands and, rather than just getting on with healing people, his first step was to start a discipleship programme, involving teaching, mission and training in character, team and godliness. Training disciples to make disciples!

We're in the process of drawing together our Year Out options into a joined-up framework where we

• work together on certain highlights in national events and encounter weekends
• continue to work through regional centres to provide on-the-ground practical training

For 2008/9 we'll be working through 4 regions:

Manchester and Wales The NET team year is for the 18-25ish age group. Teams are placed in Manchester, Bury, Caernarfon and Bangor. There are 3 strands to the year: Training – personal discipleship, training days, study breaks at KBCTC Serving – serve in local church according to need and developing gifting Pioneering project – a new project to pioneer into the community. Jenny Hagon (Manchester) www.smcf.org.uk/net

Derby If you under 25, eager, servant-hearted and looking for experience across a regional church with a range of ministries, the Derby based EMCF NET Team could be for you! You’ll get dedicated discipleship, an overseas mission trip and a study programme leading to a qualification. Don’t miss out! Ben Rook (Derby) Website

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire Community Churches run two ‘time-out’ training programmes: The Year Team – service, discipleship and training for young people who want to explore the call of God on their lives as they give themselves to service and training in the context of local church for a year; The Apprentice programme: a tailored opportunity for those who already have a clear call from God on their lives to ‘ministry’ within the church, providing opportunity to ‘minister’ as well as training, using KBCTC study breaks to bring theological input. John Bilson (Oxford) www.occ.org.uk/training

The Northeast (Teesside and Tyneside) A year-long training initiative called ‘The Daniel Challenge’. In brief, it is a year of mission, training, reflection and challenge based in the North East for those in the 18-30 kind of age group. The theme of TDC is Daniel 11v32 – Know God, Display Strength, Take Action. Steve Foreman (Newcastle) www.danielchallenge.com

Other UK churches offering year out options: