Journey with the Master (JWM)

Click here to download a Journey with the Master information brochure (PDF).

What is Journey with the Master? JWM is a two-year long journey of discovery through which older teens and young adults discover and live out their calling to a lifetime of ministry with Jesus.

JWM includes three highly interactive weekend intensives:

• The Master's Touch: discovering who you are in Christ
• The Master's Wisdom: embracing who you are in Christ
• The Master's Calling: identifying and living out your calling to minister with Jesus

Between these intensives, JWM participants learn and grow together with help from older adult ministers who serve as journey coaches.

Those who discover and decide to pursue a calling to pastoral ministry are invited to participate in additional Worldwide Church of God pastoral training and internship programs.

Who is it for? Most JWM participants are involved as staff members in a Generations Ministries camp or mission - though all older teen and young adult believers (typically age 15 to 25) are welcome to participate.

Who conducts it? JWM is sponsored by Generations Ministries and the three intensives are conducted by GenMin national development team members with experience in helping teens and young adults pursue their calling in ministry with Jesus.

How do I learn more, including scheduling a JWM intensive in my area? Email Greg Williams.

Related resources

• For currently scheduled Journey with the Master and Servants Passage "intensives" see the GenMin calendar
• To help you become a ministry coach see the resources on the WCG Ministry Development website
• Multiplication through Mentoring (Power Point presentation)
• Mentoring That Makes a Difference
• The Leadership Baton (excellent book on leadership development)

• Coaching 101 (excellent book on coaching by Robert Logan)

• The Fine Art of Mentoring (excellent book on mentoring by Ted Engstrom)

Servants Passage

Click here to download a Servants Passage PDF information sheet.

What is Servants Passage? Perhaps it's best to answer that question first in the negative: Servants Passage is not a formulaic, one-size-fits-all program. It's not about notebooks and 'busy-work.'  It's not about loading a bunch of new tasks on top of an already over-flowing plate.

Rather, Servants Passage is a lifestyle that involves teams of existing and potential ministers (ministry workers, ministry leaders and pastors) growing in passion and skill related to shared participation in Jesus' ministry in and through their congregation.

Servants Passage is a 'journey' of exploration and learning that...

• Provides special opportunities for thinking deeply about personal and shared ministry callings and giftings. 
• Affords individuals and teams insight about personal and shared ministry strengths and needs for growth. 
• Equips participants with highly useful tools to grow over time, within 'real-world' constraints of time and money. These tools are typically utilized within what we refer to as church-based 'mentoring communities' - usually these are existing ministry teams that learn in the midst of doing ministry together. This approach is both realistic and transformational.

Who is it for? Servants Passage is a valuable tool for any believer who wishes to make progress as a ministry worker, ministry leader or pastoral leader.  It's ideal if ministry teams participate together - but it's accessible to individuals who want to explore a personal calling to be used of God more effectively as a servant of Christ within the church.

Servants Passage is a great way to 'jump-start' a ministry team by clarifying roles and callings - perhaps leading to restructuring for greater effectiveness. We find that Servants Passage leads to meaningful ministry transformation. This is real ministry life - not a theoretical program.

Why is Servants Passage conducted by GenMin? Two reasons:

• Our staff of pastoral leaders are deeply committed to and experienced in growing ministry teams. Many also have significant experience in team-based mentoring strategies in the corporate world.  We have personally seen how these principles work in real life and we're devoted to sharing them with the whole church.
• GenMin seeks to serve the whole church even as we pursue a specific vision of God using Servants Passage to help raise up a new generation of spiritual servants within the WCG.

What's involved? Though Servants Passage is a life-style, it's of limited duration (and the actual duration is flexible). It typically includes the following five steps that cover a two-year period:

• Join the Journey. The journey begins with an initial exploratory intensive (click here for details).
• Church-based discussion. For those who choose to continue following the first intensive there will be about six monthly small group meetings back home to further explore the material covered at the first intensive. These meetings are usually an adjunct to ministry meetings the group is already holding. We are sensitive about your time limitations.
• Growing Deeper. This second intensive helps journey participants grapple with 'ministry survival' issues and leads them in measuring ministry abilities with an eye toward better utilizing strengths and filling ability gaps.
• Church-based learning. Following the second intensive participants continue for about 18 months meeting in monthly ministry 'mentoring communities'  where they focus on shared learning that helps them utilize strengths more optimally and fill identified ability gaps. This learning in community is focused and achievable (recognizing limitations of time and money).  Servants Passage staff coach the teams to help them take advantage of readily available learning resources - many downloadable from the Servants Passage online resource catalogue (which is freely available to all participants).
• Staying the Course. This third intensive ends Servants Passage in a formal sense. It provides both a 'graduation' and helpful teaching about life-long growth strategies and resources coupled with more focused discussion about ministry 'survival' issues.

How do I get on board? Take the first step by participating in "Join the Journey." By attending you're committing only to coming to explore. You then decide whether or not to take additional steps (but if you're like about 95% of the participants-to-date, you'll be hungry to continue!). See the GenMin calendar for a listing of currently scheduled Join the Journey intensives. Perhaps you'll find one near you. Then invite other ministry workers, leaders and pastors in your congregation and neighboring congregations to come with you.

If your ministry or congregation would like to host "Join the Journey" in your area, please email Ted Johnston.