Ian is the director of youth and children's ministry training at Oakhill College. EN interviewed him in March last year. But his work of training youth workers is so crucial that I thought I would talk to him for myself.
Having taught for 13 years, Ian then became a schools worker in this area. He worked for a trust representing 12 local evangelical churches, quite a rare project at the time. About ten years in, Ian realised the desperate need for a theologically-based youth work course. A course that really treated the Bible as the heart of what we do, in addition to the excellent practical training around. This thinking formed the basis for the youth work module on the Cornhill Training Course. The idea then found its way to Oakhill, which started thinking about this course.
Why Oakhill College?
Oakhill was the ideal college because it too wanted youth and children's workers to be properly trained and given confidence in handling the Bible. The course is constructed with a theological spine in which the youth and children's workers work alongside the ordinands on the same stuff: Old Testament, New Testament, doctrine, etc. Ian then teaches the youth and children's workers how that applies to their work.
