Class Descriptions (with topics covered)

Gifted speakers will come each week and speak to the students Monday night and Tuesday night, as well as Q&A time Tues morning. This time will expose the students to some gifted, world-renowned speakers and teachers as well as local business people, and leaders from dozens of ministries and organizations of many styles. Each week, they will have the chance to see experts in action and to ask the questions they learn from best.

This class will meet two times per week and will have a different speaker each month. This teacher will sometimes be Pine Cove staff, other times not. They will speak on what they think “future leaders in ministry need to know.” This class is named “Nehemiah” for that leader’s example in his desire to do what God would have of him. The goal is for us to encourage each speaker to present skills and ideas that encourage growth in the students

Example skills developed:

• Speaking skills – learning to prepare and deliver a great speech. We will listen to and even memorize segments of great speeches, hear from guests who are talented and well-known speakers, and deliver speeches in various settings and to various audiences. Each student will be delivering talks and be evaluated by leaders and other students.

• Staff Management – developing the techniques for selecting, recruiting, hiring, and maintaining a staff. We will probably focus on small staff issues, but we will also have some management trainers educating the students on communication skills, HR basics, evaluations, etc.

This will be team time that will include training in other spiritual disciplines, calling, identity development, team building, group discussion, discussions of spiritual gifts, family issues, dating, marriage, etc. This will be facilitated by different people depending on the topic or day, facilitated by different staff of Pine Cove.

Example skills developed:

• Team building – through teaching, problem solving, team meetings, and competition, the students will learn team theory and put into practice leading a team through a specific task, with evaluation following.

• Identity Development – through group discussion, teaching, and evaluations (Myers Briggs, Strong’s Analysis, DISC, Spiritual Gifts discussion) the students will develop an understanding of their own identities, unique skills, temperament, character, and tendencies. They will be able to discuss intelligently personality theory and the proper usage of that kind of information.

This is a chance for the students to spend time working alongside some department or person learning life-skills (car maintenance, budgeting, etc.), or ministry skills (designing a talk, programming events), or camp skills (theories about camping, preparation for groups), etc.

Example skills developed:

• Event Coordination – strategic thinking, planning, innovating, and executing events is a skill rarely practiced with excellence. However, Pine Cove enjoys over 34,000 guests a year, each with their own needs and wants. Experts in this field will train the students in the theory and application of programming.

• Coaching – offering tactics and critique designed to hone skills in a certain area. “Leading by playing around” is no joke. It is important that Camp staff be able to engage in and learn new forms of recreation, and be able to wrap a training time around them for the purpose of developing people.

This is a time for teaching and discussion based on various books and materials. It will involve tapes and other kinds of leadership training and discussion of the theories presented in them, facilitated by director or guests.

Example Skills developed:

• Leadership Theory – exhibit through discussion, writing, and testing a firm grasp and a well-justified viewpoints of significant leadership issues including “What is a working definition of leadership? Are leaders born or made? Is leadership a positive, negative, or neutral trait? Etc.

• Follow through – learning the skills of great communication, motivation, and influence. This will include training in skills of marketing, fund raising, and vision casting.

Different teachers (from within and outside of Pine Cove) will teach an inductive style Bible Study based on various books of the Bible.

Service is a vital component of any leadership position. Evangelism is the by-product of a life that is following Jesus. In this class there is a deliberate merger of these two concepts - not only to proclaim the good news of the Gospel, but also to apply all that is being learned in the program. So, each week, students will find a variety of opportunities to serve families, ministries, and communities as a means of living out God's call for us not to be served but to serve.

This is a class about Basic Theology as well as its connection to worldviews. It will cover the Pine Cove Statement of Faith as well, facilitated by the Chaplain.

Example material taught:

• Basics in Philosophy – the underpinnings of all other study is philosophy. Gaining a basic understanding in it is advantageous for all other studies.

• Theology – a systematic didactic class with emphasis on the basic studies of classic theology including God, Christology, Pneumatology, Anthropology, and Eschatology. This class will not train the students in one particular dogma, but instead introduce them to various views (some not even Christian based) and encourage discussion along with conclusions.