Youthblog : Christian Youth Work & Ministry

« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »

February 28, 2005

Youthwork volunteers

Interesting reflections from agent K on the challenges of being a volunteer, I particularly liked the re-hashing of this famous quote on greatness:

Some are born great youthworkers.
Others achieve great youthwork.
Others have youthwork thrust upon them

I think a lot of volunteers have entered youth work by way of number three, this has been the churches recruitment "strategy" a lot of the time. However or whatever reasons that volunteers volunteered, there are thousands of committed people in this role making a difference week by week (I was at a FABULOUS group yesterday morning). It is fair to say though that it is increasingly difficult to find people who are happy to volunteer to work with young people!
Roy wonders if, "the history of poor recruitment in youthwork counts against us?" and I certainly think the answer is yes! I've seen churches where the youth work has been "thrust upon" someone without support and resources, then them being stuck in that role til they die or move! I'm pleased that I am beginning to see clearer expectations being written for volunteer roles as well as a time boundary for reviewing and discussing the role.
I still think though that the Church are suffering from not supporting youth leaders enough in their role, either by not providing resources/training/finance OR by expecting youth leaders to do several other roles in the church too. I would love to see MUCH more support for the volunteers and a recognition that if young people are their ministry that is where they should invest their energy.

Probably about 95% of Church Youthwork is delivered by volunteers. If you're a volunteer, what could the Church be doing better? If you're a Youth worker, what are you doing to support, enable and encourage your volunteers? Comments Please ......

(for those that know Mark Berry ... is it just me or does that cartoon look incredibly like him?)

Posted by ian at 12:26 PM | Comments (5)

Random Drug testing in schools

Good summary on the issues around random drug testing in schools from the JRF. Read it here!

Posted by ian at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

A Youthworkers CV

I love the stuff the teenagers say about you when you're a youth leader. It's fair to say that you need a sense of humour and to be able to not take yourself too seriously. My favourite ever comment about me was from Dave, a member of the youth group. Someone had asked about me as the Parish youth worker and Dave had responded,

"Well there's two things you ned to know about Ian!
Firstly he's very good in a crisis .....
Secondly, he was probably THE cause of the crisis!"

Can't argue with either and it still makes me laugh, I would love the first line on my CV but possibly not the second! (Rather unfairly too Dave often reminds me of the time I accidently set fire to his leg!)

Posted by ian at 05:02 PM | Comments (3)

February 25, 2005

Oxford Diocese "Toolkit" training

Unfortunately the Toolkit training day is a "no-go" due to lack of bookings! Apologies to those who had planned to come!

Posted by ian at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2005

Wrist Bands: The Continuing Saga

Youthblog is being deluged with hits by people seeking wrist-bands! Hopefully the link to Ben Bell's definitive guide will furnish them with he information that they need! I have though tracked down a company that produces them to a minimum order of 200! How cool is that, I'm tempted to order some of my HWHGITMITFP ones but I reckon there must be some more creative ideas!
I've found a Christian ABC one, which is "Admit Believe Confess" and is billed as, "This year’s witnessing wristband!" (I haven't found what last year's one was!) I also found a lurid green band which bears the motto "be a testimony"
I reckon I'd like a "Live Strong" one to support the Lance Armstrong Cancer work (and because he is awesome!) but would have "John 10:10" after it to show how!

Youthblog's conclusion: The wrist band thing has been done to death! But what will the emerging post-wristband theological expression be? (being ironic here!)

The above is my suggestion for the "Ok, I'm done turning the other cheek now" wristband!

Posted by ian at 10:02 PM | Comments (2)

Teenage Misery

This BBC news article on a survey done for Bliss magazine among 14/15 year old girls makes for some tough reading. All sort of stuff in there but I'm very interested in the self-harm findings. These figures are certainly higher than the oficial statistics AND there is not enough research being done in this area .... I'm hoping that's about to change though, especially as this is a growing area in which I am asked for advice from youth leaders. (Please leave a link for any resources that you have come across or use)
The report also draws out, as ever, the need for someone for young people to talk to!

Thanks to Tim for the link to this web site which is really good!

Posted by ian at 01:43 PM | Comments (1)

The problem with teenagers: A story

To a certain extent we all respond in the manner to which we are treated, or at least have to work much harder at responding positively when we are dealt with negatively! Faith or no faith!
This equation of: ‘how we are treated = how we behave’ though is a much more decisive feature of work with young people. The way that you treat teenagers will very much dictate the response that you get. This is enormously ironic of course because those who view teenagers as a problem and therefore approach them on that basis often have their negative prejudices “confirmed!” A person who engages with young people on a warmer level will often experience the encounter much more positively! Now this is obvious at one level but not to everyone! I am often saddened when I have heard accounts of the “shocking behaviour of teenagers” when it seems obvious to me that the aggrieved person has viewed (and indeed treated) them like dirt.

The following is an interesting story and a true one although I am changing a few of the details:

There’s a row of shops where young people like to hang out and the car park of the “Co-Op” is a usual gathering place. On this particular day there were quite a few teenagers congregated although not identifiable as one group. A couple of the lads were getting a bit out of hand and their behaviour was without doubt, out of order.
They were approached by a local businessman who challenged them and the encounter descended into the man being assaulted by one of the youths.
This was reported in the press as “Man assaulted by Youth” and fed the local negative view of young people as a problem.

What the press failed to report and I only heard about via local youth and community workers is very interesting. The man who challenged the youths had not tackled the behaviour but verbally rubbished the teenagers involved, he then allegedly spat in the face of one of the teenagers, it was this I believe that triggered the assault. This is no way condones the assault but sheds an interesting light on it, especially given episodes like John Prescott taking a swing at a protester who threw an egg at him AND I certainly don’t recall any talk of MP’s being barred from public places or being subject to curfew arrangements!
The press also failed to report that it was the other teenagers that had come to the rescue and willingly co-operated with the police over the incident.

Posted by ian at 09:35 AM | Comments (2)

February 23, 2005

The Infinite Cat Project

If you end up talking about eternity with your group OR if you just love obscure web sites then this may be of interest! It's called the infinite cat project and involves a picture of a cat looking at a flower, then a cat looking at the image of the cat looking at the flower, then ....well you can work it out:

"It all began innocently enough when a user on an Apple help forum posted a picture of his cat, Frankie, contemplating the beauty of a flower. Shortly afterwards another user posted a picture of his cat bristling at the image of Frankie on the monitor. I decided this was too much fun and advanced the concept as The Infinite Cat Project which is, simply, cats regarding cats regarding cats in an electronic melieu"

Posted by ian at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)

How to be a Christian and still be cool?

Someone stumbled into Youthblog last night after googling for the above information! What would your advice be? The way I figure it is being a Christian means also being on a journey on which you discover more about God, more about the world AND more about yourself. Ultimately that will help you to Know and be able to value yourself. The coolest people I know are people who are happy to be who they are, however different that may be! However that may be too simplistic and not very practical for the enquirer.
Assuming it's a teenager asking the question, what would your answer be?

Posted by ian at 10:48 AM | Comments (5)

Be authentic

"The young, with their strong loathing for the unauthentic, quickly
detect any dichotomy between the church and its founder"

John Stott

Posted by ian at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

Youthblog's random thoughts

The Calvin and Hobbes cartoons have been great illustrations of the "hope for snow" debate and in particular Calvin's prayer for snow! This led Sarah to comment, "I'm with Calvin ... though I'm not a Calvinist!" and sent my mind off into a reframing of Calvinism into the realms of the weather being predestined unto snow! Obviously this meant hijacking the tennets of Calvinism and re-rendering them as:

TOTAL covering of snow
UNCONDITIONAL playtime
LIMITED slush
IRRESISTIBLE Sledging
PERFECTION of the snowball

Posted by ian at 02:26 PM | Comments (4)

Out on a limb for a good cause

Cool piece of work from Ben Bell who has managed to put together a detailed "post" outlining the dizzying array of wristbands you can buy to support (or campaign against) stuff! It's an impressive list starting from the "live Strong" one that kicked the whole thing off! I reckon it'd make a really good youth session type discussion in the form of:

1. What do we support?
2. How do we show it?
3. What do we actually do about it?

As you can see (strange looks in the office when taking the above photo!) I have my white (actually it's going grey) "Make Poverty History" band. Another two that I wear for the radical reason that I like them! Lastly I'm declaring my multicoloured friendship bracelet as a "being broadly supportive of lots of things" one!
I quite liked the WWJD bands because it is such an awesome question but I REALLY REALLY didn't get the FROG and PUSH ones! My favourite by far though was the one that the youth group made for me which boldly proclaimed, "HWHGITMITFP" .... "He wouldn't have got into this mess in the first place!"

Posted by ian at 12:54 AM | Comments (3)

February 21, 2005

Pleeeeaaasseeee Snow

Posted by ian at 07:13 PM | Comments (4)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Despite high hopes no snow has materialized yet to the disappointment of youthworkers across the South. Pete has even waxed his sledge! I've always wanted to be on a Youth Weekend and wake up to a really awesome covering of snow, the closest we ever got was walking in a blizzard on the top of the Malverns!
So for everyone who is sufficiently and wonderfully childlike to want it to snow, here's hoping .....

Posted by ian at 01:06 PM | Comments (4)

A visual Parable

Does our message to young people correspond with our lives?

Posted by ian at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2005

The preaching Gig (Post Match Analysis)

Had fun at Wallingford and was encouraged to see a "Youth" focused services that a number of churches were pulling togther. I wasn't that happy with my preach! Was already struggling to cut material as "Hope" was such a major topic, in a classic piece of muppetry though I hadn't read the order of service before this evening and only when got there did I spot the "12 minutes" time allocation. Ended up rushing a bit too much. Live and learn eh!
As an experiment I had a series of Powerpoint slides running in the background with video and Gif animation as part of a montage which included some questions and thoughts as well as related Bible verses. Didn't really get a good answer as to whether it added a visual layer to things or was just distracting!
Chocolate Fingers and Party Rings to eat afterwards though which seems far more in keeping with God's grace than Rich Tea or the weirdly named "Nice" biscuits!

Posted by ian at 09:42 PM | Comments (2)

February 19, 2005

Hoping for some help!

I'm writing a sermon on "Hope" for a Youth service tomorrow night at Wallingford. I've been given Romans 5:1-8 as the passage. The talk is coming together but suggestions are welcome, really looking for some creative stuff to run as a Powerpoint back drop though, anyone?

Posted by ian at 10:42 AM | Comments (3)

February 18, 2005

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

I'm grateful to Theoblogy for posting on this fascinating piece of research by Christian Smith. It's work done in the U.S and involved a significant survey of 13-17 year olds and their religious attitudes and is published in a book caled, "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teens."
The survey showed up a greater than expected religious attitude BUT that the teens were theologically illiterate, their faith so watered down that God is relegated to more of a "private butler" role. Their understanding of Christianity really doesn't go beyond "being good people" and "making good choices"
Christian Smith has come up with what I think a very apt descriptor, he refers to their religion as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"

I'm very interested in this piece of research and although the data is exclusively American I can see much to be learnt in the British (and others) context too of the Western, Materialistic Culture.
I believe that these are some of the "shapers" that can lead to this outcome and present a challenge/opportunity to us as the Church.

1. An emphasis on "Teaching" in it's narrowest sense without the opportunity to do and see faith working outside of the Church context.
2. Where there is little discernable difference between the consumerism outside the church and for those within (where we seem just as obesessed with "stuff" even if not in our words, certainly by the stuff we own)
3. Where our examples and illustrations are not dealing with the messy and complicated realities of living out faith in our everyday lives.
4. Where Parents have never been really discipled by the church so young people see an emphasis on being good and conforming rather than a radical and all-week applied faith.

This is no way an attempt to slam the Church, it's my reflections that I am presenting to myself as a challenge as well as to blogdom for discussion. This research has really challenged me and left me wondering if we are cultivating a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"
(I would also add that I see much in Youth Ministry that is bucking this trend and involves radical lifestyle, social justice and committed discipleship)

I seem to recall a paper by Dawkins in the mid 1990's on Epidemiology and the spread of religion where he explored the view that religion was spread in the way a virus might. (I think it was quite negative and really felt that if you were too exposed (by nature of a religious family etc) you would "suffer" the same misguided beliefs).
However I'm left pondering this as an example and whether a series of embibed cultural 'anti-biotics' have left a very weakened strain of Christianity with which people come into contact?

Posted by ian at 11:30 AM | Comments (4)

February 17, 2005

A sense of Wonder

Am updating the blog by the light of a candle! We have a major power cut here and although thanks to battery and dial-up I am still clinging on to the limits of the world wide web, I am reliant on a candle to see the keyboard.
Fabulous day though! Went to the Natural History Museum and took in the Human Biology hall and the "Wildlife photographer of the year"
Both fab and totally uplifting, I am really not sure how anyone faced with seeing such beauty and complexity could deny the existence of a (THE) creator. Awesome!

Given the power-cut and this web page that I bumped into I'll sign off

Posted by ian at 05:00 PM | Comments (1)

Young People's Religious Language and Imaginings

Here's a link to a website in Australia put together by a guy named Paul Teusner. The site is around his research into the effect of electronic media on young people's attitude to religion, interesting stuff.

Posted by ian at 08:58 AM | Comments (5)

February 16, 2005

Fun to Hug?

I asked the question whether I could put "volume 5, FUN to HUG" on the youthwork bookshelf. I really appreciate the responses and I decided to sum up the debate by locating it with appropriate titles in my Library to summarize the discussion!

So in summary,"Fun to Hug"? "Mostly harmless" but a bit of mine-field given the "State we are in", It remains somewhere in the realms of "Youthwork and how to do it" but one wonders, "Among Women Only"?

Further posting to the hug debate must be headed by an appropriate book title :-)

Posted by ian at 05:04 PM | Comments (4)

"High Leigh" unusual Lasagne

High Leigh conference centre is a great place and the food is normally top notch! We had one night though where we experienced the phenomena of liquid lasagne, a Gruel (or gruelling) version of classic Italian food. Roy bravely served it although with a spoon rather than the provided "slicer!" It made us laugh and that is a good thing! Picture is in the extended entry:

Posted by ian at 03:28 PM | Comments (1)

I like Big Bibles!

You have to check out this video called Baby Got Book it cracked me up. I'm unsure whether you could actually use it in a session or whether it'd just be great to show at the start of a team meeting, you decide! It's 13 megs in its biggest form so be ye warned but for the broader-banded of you, enjoy!
Oh and while your in the mood for watching videos, how much fun does this look as an activity? Tarping!

Posted by ian at 12:03 AM | Comments (5)

February 15, 2005

Youth Ministry, to hug or not to hug?

Still a million and four thoughts in my mind about our theology discussion but for the moment I want to talk about hugs! No youthblog is not getting all touchy-feely, just wanted to explore the subject!
The Guardian ran an interesting article called "losing Touch" about teachers and carers being afraid to offer comforting hugs to children. But what of Youth Ministry? I certainly think that if in working with young people we need a hug from them, we need to look to see if ministry is serving our needs or theirs. But giving a hug where needed, Basic Humanity or Potential Accusation? As a male worker it's a bit of a mine-field, or feels like one anyway!

One of my favourite books in my Library is vol 5 of a particular encyclopedia, it has on the spine, "FUN to HUG" but can I put it on the shelf with my Youthwork books or should it be put in "Fiction"? Any bloggy wisdom or experiences?

Posted by ian at 04:52 PM | Comments (6)

Blog Roll Update

Just a quick update that there's been some movement in the blog-roll.
Pete Brierley is out for the heinous crime of non posting!
I've added several people including Tessa, Kathryn, Ben, Richard and Diana.

Posted by ian at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

To boldly theologise where no theologian has been before

The echoes of Matrix still continue to bounce around and Lev has articulated some questions, the major one being, Do we really need a new theology for the twenty first century?
This has been a question in my mind and has occupied a fair amount of my thinking time (LOL, that makes it sound like I allocate time to thinking!) and I'm definitely in the "yes" camp at the moment! Here's two major thinky chunks in my mind:

1. I think most people would agree that Church as we know it is culturally far from effective (agree/disagree?)! If you agree then this flawed ecclesiology must flow from a wrong or partially wrong theology surely? (Our ecclesiology is not based on a working methodology that's for sure!) If my logic holds then it's clear that our theology has led us adrift and therefore needs revisiting!
2. I've also been reflecting on the 1st Century situation: The Pharisees thought they had theology sussed, Jesus blew them away from the same scriptures. Peter thought he had theology sussed, it took a BIG vision to show him that he was way too Parochrial in his interpretation!
These are only reflections but I've found myself trying to see how we might need to re-look at our theology but be free to really see, am also feeling excited by the process. I'm reminded of GK Chesterton saying, "If one looks at something nine hundred and ninety nine times one is perfectly safe, if however one looks for the thousanth time one is in frightful danger of seeing it for the first time!"

Now for the thousand time .............

Posted by ian at 05:41 PM | Comments (11)

An Account of Taxing Times

At the conference there were quite a few conversations about the complexities of being employed by a Church as well as some interesting Tax issues that arise (I once got a bill from the Tax office for several thousand pounds due to a Church setting up a contract incorrectly). Thought the U.K readers may be interested to know about Tax Management for Clergy who are FANTASTIC, you pay them an annual fee and they fill in your tax form and give incredibly useful advice. Youthblog recommends (and doesn't, I should add, get any commission for this plug) having benefitted from their fiscal funkiness and monetary mastery!

Posted by ian at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

Happy Valentines to Youthblog readers

This card made me laugh, hope it does you too!

Posted by ian at 06:38 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

From Methodology to Theology

I was reading Youthworker Journal and found this great article by Dan Kimball which resonates with stuff I've been kicking around for a few days it's a challenge to, "Become Worshiping Communities of Missional Theologians"

"Whether we realize it or not, our methodology flows from our theology. If we aren't thinking about theology, then we'll only have a shallow form of youth ministry. We allow whatever works to drive our hearts and minds because we're mainly judged by and rewarded by results—if the teenagers have fun, if they enjoy coming to youth group, if the numbers are up, if the parents are happy, etc. All of these types of subtle measurements force us to focus predominately on methods without even realizing it"

Posted by ian at 02:30 PM | Comments (3)

February 12, 2005

Thirty Eight and not out

Well today is my thirty eighth birthday, weird but cool! I'm very happy about being thirty eight although vaguely surprised, I'm still fairly cool and doing a job that I love, making a difference to young people! (I've now been involved with young people's work for twenty years!) I'm also happy because I got a bottle of Talisker, THE finest Single malt whisky on the entire planet! As a kind of reflective piece I wrote Thirty eight things about me, an idea I nicked from La Petite Anglais which is a blog I regularly read. If for any bizarre reason you wish to dip into my cathartic, surprised middle-aged self defining musings then click on further reading!

1. Was told by the teacher I didn't have 'a snowball's chance in hell' of passing my physics A-Level! (he was right)
2. I don't have a TV
3. I wanted to be a Pilot for most of my teenage years
4. My oldest boy has Cerebral Palsy and I consider him one of my heroes
5. I once crashed a car by skidding on gravel, Ironically I was listening to 'Going out in a Blaze of Glory' and crashed into the 'Caution loose surface' sign
6. I can ride a unicycle and juggle (not however at the same time)
7. I've been learning German from a book called 'German in Three Months' for the last 14 years
8. I played 'Bottom? in 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'
9. If there was a group of teenagers and a group of adults I?d most likely be talking to the teenagers
10. I have three Children
11. I laugh often
12. I have about 1000 books including a great CS Lewis and GK Chesterton Collection
13. I REALLY wanted a skateboard when I was a boy, I got my first one at 34
14. I can?t read ?I?ll love you forever? to my children because I end up crying
15. I like listening to Meatloaf LOUD
16. I was very immature as a teenager
17. Joanna and I have been married for 14 years
18. I love long distance cycle challenges and have completed the 'Salisbury 100 (miles)' twice, both times in less than eight hours
19. I can't iron shirts (they end up with more creases in afterwards)
20. I love single malt whisky (and of those I love Talisker the most)
21. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of pain in the world
22. Joanna and I went to a Bible School in Austria
23. I am a passionate skier and miss going SO much
24. I broke my arm when I was six by jumping off the top of a climbing frame (but for some reason I told people I fell)
25. Christianity is my life and my hope, my struggle and my meaning
26. I have been knocked off my bike by cars 5 times, twice by hit and run drivers
27. I can't sing!
28. Bruce Cockburn?s lyrics and music have had a huge impact on me
29. I am an extrovert
30. My Spiritual journey has also involved un-learning a lot of what I was taught
31. I haven't really ever had a nickname. A teacher as school called me 'McDafty' which I hated, a bunch of teenagers on a camp once affectionately called me 'Preacherman' which I loved
32. My biggest regret is how poorly I lived out my faith during my teenage years
33. I feel closer to God in the mountains, for me that's a ?thin place?
34. I am still friends with my previous girlfriends (these pre-date my marriage!)
35. I don't like films with sad endings
36. I get really wound up by able bodied people parking in 'disabled bays'
37. My favourite place in the world is Ramsau in Austria
38. I'm 38 years old

Posted by ian at 02:21 PM | Comments (3)

Youth led Good Friday Service

If you're looking for some resources for Good Friday then you need to check out this link! Steven Case has made availble the outline of a youth lead service, Angela Breidenbach a session for your group.

Posted by ian at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

Forging a new path

Tony Campolo has been incredibly provocative theologically over the course of the Matrix and he's forged an interesting path through some established areas. I liked his observation that "All theology is heresy!" as "any human theological construct will be flawed!" It's so difficult to re-evaluate your theology without your previous presuppositions automatically bringing you around to the same conclusion. Tony demonstrated though how so much of our theology is rooted in Greek philosophy, Calvinism and Newtonian physics and has left a complicated maze to navigate and left a question hanging about theology for the 21st Century.
As Sally Nash challenged us though, "our theology must run ahead of our methodology!" so re-visiting would be a good thing to do eh?

Posted by ian at 04:55 PM | Comments (3)

Matrix Conference reflections

The Matrix Conference was awesome! If you're employed by a Church in a youth work role it's my humble opinion that it is THE conference to go to. Clearly not everyone will agree, there are 7000 youth workers out there employed by Churches and the Matrix saw only 1.4% of them gathered togther. However for those that were there we experienced challenging theology, fun, methodology, space, discussion and the chance to hang around with some awesome practicioners! The Worship led by Jonny and Jenny Baker was deep, connected and inspiring! I'm sincerely hoping that in two years it'll happen again and if it does, BOOK early!
It does raise a serious question though. If there are 7000 of us out there, where are the forums for discussion? where is the professional development happening? Where are we raising the stakes in the areas of theology and methodology? Where are we learning from and challenging each other?

Posted by ian at 04:21 PM | Comments (2)

Theology and Card Games

Major theological debate last night, Tony Campolo had done a fantastic talk in which he really got us to look at our theology in a new way, deliberately provoking our assumed theological norms, brilliant! I won't hit you with this at the moment although I've no doubt elements of it will perculate through the blog over the next few days. Thought I'd instead write about the card game we played until way too late last night.
You have to put "Shop" into your "Great Card Games for Residentials" File!
At the start of the round the 4-6 players each pick the name of a high street shop. The cards are shared round and remain unseen face down. The idea is to get rid of all your cards!
Its a bit like snap, everyone places 1 card in a circle in the middle at the same time and continues to do this. IF however two of the cards match then a duel forms between those two players, the first person to shout something that can be bought from the other persons shop (and has not been said before) is able to punt all the cards in the middle to the loser!
If someone puts their last card down they remain in play and any card that matches their final offering would create the usual duel!
Obviously the first person out wins and so on. Once you only have 2 players it doesn't work and they are the Losers!
The game is hilarious as you suddenly have to try and remember your opponents shop and think of something that they sell. Great fun!

Posted by ian at 10:15 AM | Comments (3)

If you build it they will come?

Posted by ian at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

Matrix Moments

Accidentally funny quote of the day
(in the context of new roles in emerging churches)
"We need to recognise new missionary positions!"

Posted by ian at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)

Matrix Key note

Tony Campolo delivered the key note talk at the start of the conference and it was good to hear him again. He was a real inspiration to me over the years at Greenbelt and he's lost none of his passion, energy and ability to hit the nail on the head!

The theme was "Imagination" and how we use it. Tony talked about the fact that we all use our imaginations to construct a Jesus but the danger of this is we create a Jesus in our image. So what are we then worshipping? We were challenged to look at images of Jesus and how they always reflect the culture in which they were formed.

"God made us in his image and we've returned the favour" G.B Shaw

Rom 1:23 "They don't worship the glorious and eternal God. Instead, they worship idols that are made to look like humans who cannot live forever, and like birds, animals, and reptiles"

Having established that we don't need to physically make something to be idolatrous, our imaginations are quite capable of making the construct Tony went on to look at the way our imaginations should be used as a way of entering into the mind of Christ (there then followed a Tour de Force from Tony that I couldn't make notes fast enough for but took in Psychology, Sociology, Philipians 2:5, Phenomonologists and big time theology).
When we enter into the mind of Christ, put ourselves in Christ, Tony showed that we see things in a different light, e.g not "What percentage should I give?" but I need to give! not "Should I be involved in social justice?" but wanting to be involved because we see the need as Jesus would. Seeing with the mind of Christ is the antedote to the legalism we all naturally tend to, the prescriptive Bible verses that we look for!
Tony looked at how using our imaginations to put ourselves into Christ helped us to have a vision of the Kingdom, of the way things could be (lloked at Isaiah 65:17-). Looking at Walter Brueggemann and his assertation that all the prophets did two things:

1. Weep
2. Present an alernative vision of the future

The talk concluded with a real call to use our imaginations in the right way, a way that leads to vision and passion, one that sees what the future could be not just bogged down with legalism and an end times view that depresses not envisions! Imagination, Passion, Vision in our work with young people, good call!

Posted by ian at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2005

Live from the Matrix Conference

Matrix is underway and it's very cool to be here, much lower numbers than I was expecting given that there are about 7000 faith based youth workers in the U.K. Cool people here though and it's going to be a fascinating couple of days. Just met Roy (who thought I'd been joking about having a Youthblog T shirt) and Johnny who was "Aslans Attic!" Currently having a drink with Special Agent K and Deep Thought More of a flavour of Matrix to come, watch this URL!

Posted by ian at 03:06 PM | Comments (1)

Taken to the Cleaners, Parliment should be embarrased

Really good session at college yesterday around "power" and how power dynamics work out in groups and structures. Very interesting to be looking at how power is retained and used by those who have it and of course the effects of having no power by nature of your staus or position. I'll end up blogging about this at some stage as it's an important element with youthwork BUT it was interesting that the media covered a classic example of power and powerlessness last night:

It turns out that cleaners at the House of Commons get paid £4.85 an hour (THE minimum wage), no pension provision and only 12 days holiday a year AND that's in cental London! I am really embarrassed that Parliment can so abuse power to treat workers in this way. As an MP you get £55k a year, many many perks and some of them claim over £100k a year in expenses many of which would be classed as benefits in kind in any other situation BUT the cleaners, without whom Parliment wouldn't function are payed the legal minimum and a shockingly injust amount of holiday and no pension! AND it's a Labour government!

Posted by ian at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

Youth work and under age drinking

Useful report from the JRF who have done a study amongst 14-17 year olds on "risky drinking" Read it here!

Posted by ian at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2005

Talkin the Talk

I'm always interested in exploration around communication, particularly how we communicate our faith. I thought this was quite an intersting article especially as I talk often about a lost sense of wonder in our society AND sadly sometimes within our Christian community!

"The Christian "elite" walk confidently in the grammatical, but not in the mystical. They work tirelessly at the political, but not the poetical. And, they are experts in the literal, but not the metaphorical" Thomas Hohstadt

Posted by ian at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Don't hold on!

In my work with Churches there's one particular phrase that makes me shudder in the way that otherwise only nails across a blackboard can achieve. Its when *cringe* I hear people talk about, "holding on to young people!" *shudder* My first inclination is to beat them with a large copy of the King James Bible (you see I can find a use for all translations)! Now I know it often comes from a well meaning sentiment but it's so depressing and in fact diametrically opposite to the gospel. Why would we hold on to young people? Will they eventually say, "Hey I've been here for long enough now, I no longer know any different, I guess I might as well stay?" Is that want we want?
I believe in the Church, I believe in the faith community! I believe that youth ministry is a whole church endeavour (where youth leaders play an important part) of discipleship, listening and enabling!
I believe that Young People need to discover a faith (with thanks to Mr Yaconelli) of Dangerous Wonder, Risky Curiosity, Wild Abandon, Daring Playfulness, Wide-eyed listening, Irresponsible Passion, Happy Terror, Naive Grace and Childlike Faith AND for their discoveries to help form the changing life of the Church. Working with young people must not be a war of attrition where they eventually conform to a inheritted religiousity!
Here endeth the first rant. Please turn to the paragraph on page 11 and join in the responses in bold:

Discipleship is about enabling young people to taste the Kingdom
We will not just hold on

Discipleship is about letting go
We will not just hold on!

We believe young people have a part to play now in our Church
We will not just hold on!

We shall love, support, teach, listen to and inspire our young people
We will not just hold on!

Amen

Posted by ian at 07:49 AM | Comments (4)

February 07, 2005

Trinitarian Theology Unpacked

For anyone who has been wrestling with the trinity and can handle an off the wall theological reflection, you should look at Feb 4th on The Grace Pages!

Posted by ian at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

A great discovery

In 1799 the discovery of the Rosetta stone by French Soliders paved the way for hieroglyphics to be translated and understood (although it still took until 1822)! This morning I made an even more important discovery! Battling through some of the more gloomy corners of a store room at Church house I found the Anglican equivelent of the Rosetta Stone. I unearthed a piece of parchment that will at last help me to understand the thinking and practice of the Church of England. My only concern is that it is a slimmer volume than I would have anticipated given the amount I don't understand? Must go and read it now, I'll start un-packing the "heiroglyphics" of church practice, policy and systems soon!

Posted by ian at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

Youthblog blog-rolled Sites

I was having a cruise round the blogosphere and beyond wondering how many sites Youthblog is linked from. These are the one's I've found. If any of them are you, thank you!

Oh Sod it
A Youth Pastor
Deep Thought
Sunday Papers
Hutchinson
Jonny Baker
Lev's Blog
Train Rider
The Peat Weblog
I'll get my coat
Alex Strikes Again
The Wibsite
CF Youth Website
Youth Pastor
St Michael and All Angels
Youthwork magazine
Katie's Journey
Ben Bell

Posted by ian at 10:27 AM | Comments (1)

Youthblog's Weekend

Well what shall I bring to Monday morning's "show and tell" post? Had a cool time on Friday night with one of the teenagers that I mentor, we had a crazy time on one of those garden trampolines and then wandered up to the shops for a can of coke! Radical youth work eh? I finally got a "White Band" and found I could bin 60% of my "in" tray, having brought home the mountain it had become. I discovered that Richard Passmore has a blog called "Sunday Papers!" ( I quoted his, " Meet them where they're at" book extensively for an essay on detached youthwork, you should read it! his book that is, not my essay! ) I found an animation called "Magical Trevor" which cracks me up as does the sequel!
Walked to Church, four mile round trip pushing a wheelchair is a gooooood workout. Someone dropped one of the wafers during communion which then travelled some distance along a very dusty floor .... interesting mental theological reflection about what to then do with the wafer! Discovered I'm blog-rolled on a blog called "Train Rider" which I think is written by someone in China practising their English! I'm really not sure why I'm linked but I love his phrases like "I feel my feet are running fast than ever!" and being unsure whether this is an athletic improvement report or a metaphoric statement about life! Oh and I fully switched to Firefox as my browser, I'm now running faster than ever, oh yes!

Posted by ian at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2005

Emerging Church

Posted by ian at 08:33 AM | Comments (1)

February 05, 2005

Barometric Logic and Creative thought

I love this story:

Many years ago a question was set for an outstandingly able physics student. He was asked to describe how he would determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer. He coolly replied, "Tie a long piece of string to the barometer, then lower it from the roof to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer would equal the height of the building."

Though the answer was correct it did not display any knowledge of physics, and everyone there knew that. So the student was allowed six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer. For five minutes he sat in silence, unable to decide which of his answers to use. On being advised to hurry up, the student replied that he had thought of five ways in which it could be done,

"You could drop the barometer from the roof and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height can then be worked out from the formula H=3D0.5g x t=B2 But bad luck on the barometer"

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow. Thereafter, it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the building's height"

"If you wanted to be highly scientific, you could swing the barometer like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the skyscraper's roof. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T=3D2p =D6(l/g)"

"If you merely wanted to be orthodox, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the caretaker's door and say to him, 'I will give you a nice new barometer if you tell me the height of this skyscraper."

That student was from Denmark and his name was Niels Bohr, and he went on to great achievements in the field of physics.

I was reading this story this morning and it reminded me of stuff I've been thinking about recently about young people and the Church.
When the Church asks a question in can be from such a firmly fixed ecclesiology that there is one set answer, when we ask the young people we find a whole set of new posibilities! I'm back to the quote again from the Youth Strategy and asking how do young people find opportunity to be, "leaders and innovators in the Church?"

I love the final answer that Niels Bohr gives, you can't argue with that, if only Churches engaging with young people was that simple eh!

Posted by ian at 08:51 AM | Comments (2)

February 04, 2005

Purple Youth

Purple Youth is for "professionals" working with young people, if that's you, check it out! My fellow DY0's may want to book mark it!
(Quite a few of my colleagues are Youth Officers, I'm merely a Youth Adviser!)

Posted by ian at 02:30 PM | Comments (1)

The Skateboard Tea Tray Stunt

On the previous article about Danger, Kathryn has left a comment about my "Skateboard Tea Tray Stunt" I really can't remember what this refers to although I admit there have been quite a few skateboard incidents! My favourite was getting told off by the stewards at Soul Survivor! I'd Duct-taped a chair onto my skateboard and was very happily whizzing down the hill drinking a cup of coffee. Sadly the attempt to use the umbrella as a sail to further increase speed had been unsuccesful and at this point it was merely serving as a sunshade!

Posted by ian at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

Danger is just what teenagers need

There’s a great story in the UK Telegraph this morning reporting Briefly on two TV programmes, “Serious Artic” and “Serious Desert!” They both involve taking a group of young teenagers away on an expedition where they are given as much responsibility as possible as they faced the challenges of the expedition and the day to day working together to make things work. I’m pleased to hear about a piece of TV where the young people were set up for success not for failure!
Young People need Risk and they need challenge and they are capable of far more then they are generally given credit for! These are bread and butter themes for us as youth workers but nice to have the media on our side for once rather than the unhelpful “Young person breaks toe nail on School trip, Parents to sue” type coverage which gives further ammo to those who limit young people’s opportunities.
The article also makes the point that young people embrace risk. Without the opportunity for meaningful challenge they embrace other risks such as binge drinking, riskier and without the learning and development opportunity.

Couple of great quotes from the Newspaper article:

“I think most people underestimate what the 12-15 age group is capable of. We baby kids so the kids themselves don’t believe they are capable” Marshall Corwin (Producer)

“GCSE’s don’t seem scary now. If I can survive the Artic, I can do anything” Jennielyn (15)

Posted by ian at 10:37 AM | Comments (2)

February 03, 2005

The Matrix Conference

Unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is, you have to see it for yourself!

Less than a week to go until THE UK Full-Timers conference and I'm really looking forward to it, It's going to be cool to meet up with people I have only previously known in Bloggerspace. High Leigh is quite a good venue, wi-fi, good food, tea n cake and a bar!
It'll be cool to hear Tony Campolo again! Also Graham Hepburn who is doing one of the evening's entertainment is fantastic fun, unmissable!
To a large extent though it's our conference and what we put in will determine what we get out of it, I'm hoping to be able to kick lots of ideas around with people. It's so cool to be part of a large multi-denominational bunch of practicioners. Here's to fun, thought, encouragement and not taking ourselves too seriously!

Morpheus: The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's designed to disrupt your input/output signal so we can pin-point your location.
Neo: What does that mean?
Cypher: It means, buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy. 'Cause Kansas, is goin' bye-bye.

Posted by ian at 07:43 PM | Comments (4)

Wasted Youth

I'm back, will blog properly later but have just been listening to Meatloaf in the car and was very struck by the lyrics! I've blogged before on maturation and that teenagers are trying to find their way in a world where the adults aren't sure of the way themselves. Listening to this at volume is more fun though!

Everything louder than everything else

They got a file on me that’s a mile long
And they say that they’ve got all of the proof
That I’m just another case of arrested development
I’m just another wasted youth

They say that I’m in need of some radical discipline
They say I gotta face the truth
That I’m just another case of arrested development
I’m just another wasted youth

They say I’m wild and I’m reckless
I should be acting my age
I’m an impressionable child
In a tulmultuous world
And they say I’m at a difficult stage

But it seems to me to the contrary
Of all the crap they’re gonna put on the page
That a wasted youth is better by far
Then a wise and productive old age

Posted by ian at 02:44 PM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2005

Going Backwards for Wednesday and Thursday

Will be out of blogshot for a couple of days as I am off on our department retreat (I hope we have advanced sufficiently far to justify a retreat!) at St Columba's Woking. Things will be quite monastic as there is neither wi-fi nor internet, a virtual wilderness! It will be good to spend time with colleagues though and I want to think and discuss more about where young people could actually have opportunities to be "leaders and innovators in the Church" as per the strategy document, how this could happen.

Posted by ian at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2005

Perfect Youth Worker

Messing around over my tea break (whoops just confirmed a cultural stereo-typing to all the readers outside of the UK BUT I don't always have a cup of tea at 4pm!) I asked Google to find me a picture of the "Perfect Youth Worker" .... I was please to get Googles opinion:

Posted by ian at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

Young Leaders

I said I'd post something on the "Young Leaders" discussion and here it is. The gathering was of "Diocesan Youth Advisers" and we were looking at "young leaders" in the context of the national strategy document which says:

"The gifts, talents and skills of young people should be nurtured in order that they can become fully participating and contributing members of Church and community"

and recomends that the Anglican Church:

"Develop a training Framework which equips young people to be leaders and innovators in the Church"

So we met to discuss that Training Famework. We looked at training that was already available and shared what was happening in our individual Dioceses, which varied enormously. It became clear that most opportunities to lead were currently in the context of the Young peoples work rather than in the life and ministry of the Church.
We had much discussion on particpation rather than over emphasising leadership, what did we mean by training, actually aren't we just talking about Discipleship, the idea of Calling (specific and General) and the danger of focusing to much on gifts! That probably doesn't do much justice to the depth of discussion and wisdom but gives you an idea of how far the debate ranged. We were often bogged down with the fact that it's no good training young people if the Church won't recognise and enable them to lead but we were able to share some good stories of where young people had grown in confidence and were engaging in Church and Ministry.
What we finally broke through too was the need for this issue to permeate all levels of Church and we recognized three values that were core to any Young leader training, these being

LEARNING
OPPORTUNITY
MENTORING

That is that we had to move away from the idea of what do we teach and ask instead, what do young people need to Learn and how are they particpants too in that learning process. That there must be genuine Opportunity to lead, to step out of the comfort zone and put Faith and learning into practice. That there needed to be a Mentoring or accompanying role, that this was a relational process not a programme one, that this element is vital.

Not really Rocket Science but if we can perculate those values through all approaches to working with and enabling young leaders it could be dynamite. Still much to be done but discovery we needed to be clear on the values rather than designing a programme was an exciting process!

In the Course of the discussions the Teal Trust were mentioned, you can find them here.

Posted by ian at 02:59 PM | Comments (4)