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Boyce helps form youth ministry centers in foreign schools
August 16, 2004
By Jeff Robinson
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David Adams (far left) and Boyce Dean Jimmy Scroggins (third from right) are pictured with leaders from the four foreign schools. Photo by Jared Hallal
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The International Center for Youth Ministry (CYM) at Boyce College has formed an informal alliance with four foreign schools that is aimed at training career youth ministers through a combination of academics and hands-on experience.
Through the arrangement, Boyce College has established CYMs at Kiev Theological Seminary, Kenya Baptist Theological College, Mexico Baptist Theological College and Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary.
The foreign CYMs will function in precisely the same way as the center at Boyce College. Students will receive academic training in youth ministry and will also serve at least 400 hours in local Southern Baptist churches. All the churches have been approved as sites for the hands-on mentoring of budding youth ministers.
Leaders from Boyce College and its parent school, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, met with four foreign CYM directors in Louisville Aug. 1-4. CYMs in the Kiev and Kenya schools are already working with students, while Mexico will begin in two weeks and Malaysia next July.
“It is absolutely exhilarating to know that so many people from around the world share our concern for youth ministry, and are working with us on this model to equip a generation of young people for Christian leadership,” said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary. “Nothing is more important to this generation than evangelizing and training young Christians for leadership in the world of the future. I was greatly encouraged by the conviction and vision of these international friends. I can only hope to see this kind of vision spread throughout the entire globe.”
David Adams, who serves as executive director for CYM, said the four centers — while they remain autonomous and not a branch of Boyce — will function through a model that is unique to Boyce College.
The “Boyce model” weds biblical studies in the classroom with practical experience in the church. Youth ministry majors at Boyce College work with a number of Southern Baptist churches in the Louisville area. This way, seasoned youth ministers serve as mentors for budding career youth ministers, Adams said.
“This approach combines academic training with extensive hands-on training through the local church,” Adams said. “The first component contains 30 hours or more of curriculum. The second component is experiential learning [with] no less than 400 clock hours during their training under supervised instruction. Unlike many institutions that have supervised ministry experience that would be more self-guided, … this goes to the next level.”
Working alongside the four foreign schools will also further help the CYM at Boyce to carry out its objectives recruiting, training, placing and networking youth leaders globally, Adams said. From time to time, professors and instructors from Boyce and Southern will teach in the four foreign centers, he said.
Troy Temple, associate director of the CYM at Boyce, said last week’s meeting with leaders from the four schools represents the culmination of several years of planning and labor.
“It was amazing to ... know that God is working through these four schools in strategic regions around the globe to carry out the Great Commission,” Temple said.
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