Youth Ministry Leadership Certificate
Are you drawn to building next-gen disciples?
Explore the unique ministry challenges of working with next-gen students while grounding everything you do as a youth ministry leader in Biblical literacy, Gospel fluency, Biblical community, and Holy Spirit dependency. Integrate the Gospel holistically in Biblical ministry to young people, developing skills in Bible-centered teaching, designing and facilitating youth ministry experiences, enhancing student relationships, and equipping youth for Christian leadership. Recognize how next-gen ministry fits into the overall church mission and vision and how to serve well from the second chair. Youth ministry workers, lay leaders and youth pastors lead in a post-truth world and must know how to exegete culture and use God’s truth to address it and more.
Here’s a brief word of encouragement and invitation from an Ascent College faculty member with over 25 years of youth ministry experience, Pastor Mark Freeman:
The need for youth ministry - the need for next-gen ministry - has never been more crucial, never been more important, and never been more strategic than it is right now. We have to come alongside teenagers and young people and help point them to the foot of the cross, where they’re given an identity, where they’re given a purpose, where they’re given hope.
Courses Needed
About the Certificate
The Youth Ministry Leadership Certificate consists of five courses, each lasting eight weeks. You’ll earn twelve credits while addressing the unique challenges of ministering to next-gen students.
MIN330 Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry (3 credits)
This course lays a foundation for being a Gospel-centered leader, creating a Gospel-centered culture, having good theology on suffering, and creating Biblical literacy and Gospel fluency in leaders and students.
MIN343 Discipleship Strategy in Youth Ministry (3 credits)
This course contributes to forming a philosophy of ministry where students view all of life as discipleship and understand a definition of discipleship. Students learn to leverage all ministry environments for discipleship, develop a culture of disciples making other disciples, and the role of the Gospel in discipleship.
MIN322 Understanding Adolescent Care (3 credits)
This course helps students be savvy about technology and social media, how to address mental and emotional health matters for adolescents, leading in a post-truth world, and knowing how to exegete culture and use God’s truth to address it.
MIN412 Youth Ministry in the Local Church (3 credits)
This course helps train youth leaders to understand their part in a larger church-wide discipleship strategy by being a team player, supporting the vision of another, and working with other ministries. This course trains students to equip parents to be disciple-makers.
*All Ascent College students pursuing the Youth Ministry Leadership certificate program are required to complete GEN102 Orientation and Library Resources (0 credits).
Skills Acquired
Articulate theories and methods for effective youth ministry.
Demonstrate effective skills for youth ministry.
Embody a commitment to serving young people that emerges from your own spiritual development.
Tuition
Ascent College delivers accredited academic instruction for $350 per credit hour. Participants of the Youth Ministries Leadership certificate program receive an exclusive 25% scholarship off their tuition.
Want to go further in your exploration of faith-based youth ministry leadership as you deploy next-gen Christian leadership programming in your church? Check out our Bachelor of Arts in Ministry Leadership (BAML) degree program, concentration in Youth Ministry Leadership here.
Captivated by the conversation surrounding youth ministry and Biblical study for youth leaders, but not sure you can handle college-level work right now? We get it. Auditors welcome! You can audit this program at our special auditor’s rate of $50 per credit hour (not eligible for scholarship) and engage with all course materials without the pressure of submitting assignments, receiving graded evaluations, or taking tests. Learn more about how auditing a course works here.
Join us in preparing ministry leaders to make a lasting impact for God.
Learn how you can become a part of the Ascent College community, where we equip passionate individuals to grow spiritually, lead effectively, and make a lasting impact for Christ.
