July 2005 Archives

Grant has tagged me as part of some sort of interbloggernational book thing so it only seems right to answer the questions!

> How many books do I own?

I reckon about 1000 in round terms which includes fiction and my reference library (made a bit redundent by the internet but I still love it). I have a really good collection of CS Lewis and GK Chesterton and I own 2 complete sets of the encyclopedia Britannica (1995 and 1955) and 27 Britannica year books! I also have some books that I just love the titles of such as "German in three months" (yeah, right!) and Vol 5 of a different encyclopedia which has on the spine "Fun 2 Hug"

> What was the last book you bought?

Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop

> What was the last book you read?

Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

> What are FIVE books that have meant a lot to you?

woooa, only 5!
1. Hitcher Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. The Club of Queer Trades by GK Chesterton
3. Whats so amazing about Grace by Philip Yancey
4. The Bible (technically a library I know)
5. Calvin and Hobbes The Lazy Sunday Book by Bill Watterson

(aarrrghhh wanted to include Yaconelli, Pip Wilson, Campolo and CS Lewis)

> Tag 4 more people

If you are a regular reader of Youthblog, consider yourself tagged!

I've blogged before about youthworker's cars. I'm of the opinion the ideal car is one that is a bit unusual, not over ostentacious or expensive and with plenty of room and character! I stumbled across this .... in the absense of me ever getting a tricked up mini-bus this is the car I want!

There is a beautiful camp site used by various groups at Stoke Fleming (not far from Dartmouth) that I've been too lots of times. Fabulous Place! Anyway I've just heard that the Crusader camp running there on the 6th - 13th August has suddenly lost a couple of leaders. If you have the week after next free and can be part of a kitchen team or help lead worship then send me an e-mail. Long shot I know but I thought I'd mention it as its a great opportunity to be making a difference to young people AND be in a stunningly beautiful place!

I have been asking for sometime about whether piggy-backing someone else's
wi-fi is illegal or a "grey area" as there is no specific legislation. I guess this is the specific answer, ouch!

The great news is that Matrix 2007 conference for employed youth workers is all systems go! Huzzah! The slightly scary thing is I've been invited to a planning meeting in September and therefore the surreal mind of Youthblog may have a bearing on the conference!
So if you are a Matrixite and have an opinion on what colour it should be, who should speak and I guess who shouldn't, whether laptops should be banned and whether we should develop a secret handshake ..... comment below, let me know how deep you want the rabbit hole to go!

Ideas so far

MATRIX 2007
Putting the "party" back into PArish SuppoRTed Youth work

MATRIX 2007
Networking, theology and a bar

MATRIX 2007
Journey to the soft centre of the Youthwork Rolo

MATRIX 2007
Funkier than you thought possible at a Christian Conference centre

Going to lie down now!

I'm suddenly becoming a bit overwhelmed by surveys about youth work! JBB is doing some work on employment of Youth workers across the denominations. The National Youth Office for the Anglican Church are looking into employment practice (practice is actually a really good word for this) and I've sent this out to the crew across Oxford Diocese.
Youthwork magazine have just begun a big survey of "Why we do what we do?" and I'm happy to say this is about volunteers and employed. If you want to add your three penny worth then click here!
And before ALL OF THESE I had asked for info about youth work in all the 620 Parishes that form my world.

So apologies if you are feeling overly questionairred (new word) but hopefully we'll know a lot more as a result!

Oh and can I ask a question?

How do you respond to surveys?:

1. You are really pleased to be asked about your opinions and experiences
2. You don't mind filling it in if its not too long or complicated
3. You think that maybe they are sort of a good thing sometimes and will think this each time it rises to the surface of your In-tray
4. You file them neatly under "B" for bin
5. You see what I've done here, you've answered "4" but in doing so have become a "1" aarrrrghgghh

Thanks (I think) to Agent K for discovering this web site. Here's an example of their stock in case you've ever thought, "I'd like the mints I suck to reflect my faith!"

I believe Christianity is a dynamic life changing encounter with God, a purpose, a challenge, a radical, freeing, counter cultural lifestyle of service love and grace!

I believe we manage to communicate a pro-consumeristic twee nicety that is about as radical as warm milk or slippers.

This item filed under "despair"

Managed to get in a 30 mile ride this morning which was cool, and a cracking pace too (averaged 20mph for 7 of those miles) even though I was on the tourer rather than on the racer.
I wish I could use the cycling a bit more in my youth work. The Brompton (really cool folding bike) and the racer (absolute weapon of a bike) do provoke some good conversations with young people and have provided some openings on the estate where I am currently a volunteer. Sadly though I know of very few youth groups who still go for cycle rides as they're deemed far too risky. Even when I fix bikes for young people these days I'm a little nervous that they might end up pranging them as they are not used to the brakes working AND I might be deemed responsible.
(On the funny side though I taught the kids in my road here how to use a chain rivet remover and they are now all sporting genuine bike chain braclets!)
I am a qualified "Mountain Bike Leader" but there's very little opportunity to use this qualification sadly.

Just realised that this blog post is going nowhere in particular, hey ho!

Am on annual leave which is great! Went to a party on Friday night, a kind of a church affair, had an awesome time. Good food, good conversation and lots of malarky. Coolest bit though was the time I spent with the teenagers just chatting, some of them had been in the younger group when I was the youthworker, it was great to chill, chat and catch up with them! I always end up talking to the teenagers, not because I can't talk to adults just because thats always what happens, Cool but weird™ (but cool)

Blogwise: There's now a piece of coding somewhere in the matrix that stops you from commneting on any post over 2 weeks old. Sad move to have to make but the evil dwellers of planet Spam made it a neccessity.
Bit of a dilema with the the blogroll: It expanded wildly a couple of months ago BUT since then there's a whole lot of de-facto bloggers on there rather than the kind that actually blog! Taking a lead from the harsh world of buiness and commerce I intend to cull any that have not posted since June! You have 12 hours to make ammends, the clock is ticking! *James Bond villian type laughter*

Anyway I'm off cycling now! Download file.
For anyone (anyone?) who is interested here's my bike. A "Giant OCR 3" upgraded to Tigra groupset and with some sweet rolling Fortezza Tricomp 23mm's running at 110psi! Awesome!

"The scariest thing about kids today is how adults feel about them" San Francisco Examiner

Good post from Mike and the comments are worth reading too! I guess this is an area that the U.S and the U.K have in common culturally. How did we get into the kind of mess that allows us to demonise and/or disregard the upcoming generation?

"Oh England,
sick in head and sick in heart
and yet though art the sicker still
for thinking that thou art not ill"

(quoting from memory, source and date completely forgotten ... wording at least approximately correct)

A few years back at Soul Survivor we had a lot of fun when we taped a chair to my skateboard and used the "chairboard" to come down the hill through the site. Pretty cool I thought but I just found this picture where someone has taken the concept to a new dimension, respect!

Anyone want to do the risk assesment on this one!
(I wonder if the "race down the stairs in a cardboard box" that we used to have in our youth building is still allowed?)

The last six weeks has seen a steady stream of emergency type calls to the Youth Adviser hot desk. One of the recurring "emergencies" has been "Help, we need to get hold of a minibus to get to ........." Sadly I have no minibuses in my youth-work arsenal (although I've always wanted one I could trick up into an A Team type stylee).

Getting a minibus at the last minute is extremely difficult short of a commercial hire (TVR are my recommendation) but in preparation for next year here's the Youthblog Minibus Scrounging Algorithm:

1. Minibuses are expensive so owners only lend them out to people they know/trust.
2. Build a relationship with the local School, Voluntary Youth Service or Community group that has a minibus.
3. Ensure that you have a driver that has a D1 on their licence and has completed whatever the local authority certification is.
4. When you ask to borrow a bus be professional about it! Either write or ask (but if you ask follow it up with a letter). You need to detail your organisation, the event that you are taking a group to and why you are asking. Communicate that you have a suitably qualified driver who also has X years of experience at working with young people. Be very specific about when it will be collected and returned. Enquire as to what they'd charge so that you can build the figure into your budget. It's also worth mentioning that "You appreciate them looking at this request for help from a community group"
5. If you get the bus then you now have a chance to shine. Do everything as stated in your letter AND return the BUS shinier, cleaner, tidier than its been since new to show your gratitude. (I was so embarrassed once on reading the log book of a minibus belonging to a local school that a local 'christian' group had written in the condition column, "Returned filthy as found!)
6. Write and thank the lending body!

Am on annual leave for 2 weeks from and including today! Not going anywhere but It'll be great to have some family and cycling time, and you never know what adventures may crop up ....

Oh yeah, in answer to the question from ex-blogger Miz, I will still be blogging over the next couple of weeks but maybe at a lesser rate! (The reader stats are down with people away anyway).

There's an article on blogging in this week's "Young People Now" magazine AND it mentions Youthblog, Huzzah!
It also quotes some of my thoughts on the noble and random art of blogging! Amusingly though, although they requested a photo of me they didn't use it .... ??
Youthblog has now made it into YPN, Youthwork magazine and onto an international shed site! And my teachers didn't think I'd amount to much!!!???

BBC Radio news extracted maximum mileage yesterday out of a proposal from the PAT (Professional Association Teachers) conference. The idea being put forward was that the word "failure" should be removed from schools!
Having read a fuller article this morning it's clear that the proposer has a real heart for young people and enabling them to have the maximum possible opportunity! (something to make a youthworker glad).
However I'm not sure that lexicography is the answer, I'm not sure we can banish the word "fail," it's got to stem from a changed attitude!

I'd love to see Schools having the resources and will to:

Give Form tutors time to know, value, understand and invest time with their pupils.
Recognise that there is a reason for challenging behaviour.
Not give the lowest ability pupils the least experienced teachers or "class sitters"
Be able to put the emphasis on learning and growth rather than just exams and results.
Reduce the number of teaching sessions each teacher has to deliver in one week.
Work more closely with youth workers

and finally I'd love it if calling pupils stupid, writing them off or making them feel without value would be put on a parr with bullying or racism.

We still need the word fail, because we still fail young people!

Was supposed to be on a Drugs course all day today but unfortunately my place had not been booked in time. Hey ho, no to drugs but yes to cycling! I'm owed a wadge of time in lieu so it seemed like a good opportunity to get in some miles. The morning went by catching up with stuff but by lunchtime I was able to get togged up and head on out. Obviously wasn't going to use the Brompton for a distance ride. Didn't feel a huge need for speed so the racer stayed on the wall. Opted for the tourer! Seven miles later however a piece of flint sliced entirely through the tyre and the inner tube. So a 4 mile hike in full cycling kit!
Still, can't take a joke shouldn't have joined!
Off to a session at the Riverside Youth and Community Centre now, hoping I don't get any questions about cycling or drugs!

Just like my bike, going nowhere and in need of a fix

As long awaited as Harry Potter, ladies, gentlemen and youth workers here it is (drum roll) ..... on the dfes website.

Initial reading throws up that:

1. It's positive about young people

7. There's an opportunity for us to respond up until November.

Trawling through the shoals of stuff that interest me in the ocean of blogdom this morning, it's Harry Potter who has emerged as the recurring theme. Sarah, Beth and Rob I suspect will be utterly engrossed in the Half Blood Prince as I write. I'm also pretty sure that were I to own a copy and read the first page I would probably accomplish nothing, not even sleep, until it was finished. Hence why I haven't gone near a copy!
What interests me more though is what the Harry Potter phenomena is saying about the way people think and feel. Natasha Walker has written a brilliant piece in the Guardian called "A hero for our time" and it's well worth a read.

Writing about the whole genre of magic and fantasy writing she notes,

"Above all, these books comfort readers against the harshness of a secular world. Although rationalism has captured minds in the west, it has not captured hearts on quite the same scale. It is tough to live in a world where there is no grand force that cares for your existence, no sense of purpose to the universe, no conscious presence being expressed in the cheerful sprout of flowers or the menacing rumble of thunder. Even if you were brought up on a very high-minded atheism, as I was, you can still find a totally rationalist world a rather dry and quiet place."

Well worth a look. As for "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" I have no opinion (yet)

I know there are far too many President Bush gags on the internet and generally I have not felt the need to link to them. However I thought this spoof video that creates Bush's speech writer was fantastic! It could actually form the basis of a really good youthwork session on what and how we'd like leaders to communicate to us.
Found this via Phil who is a must-read on my daily blog list!

I've been collecting together some gap year information and I've put it on the Young Leader page. If you need the info for your youth group then go ye there, If you know of other opportunities then let me know!

I was out and about around the Diocese yesterday with meetings all over the three counties. I like to check in during the day with the blog and answer e-mails that need dealing with (So much better than arriving back in the office to the oppresively loaded in-box).
I can log in via wi-fi from most McDonalds or Weatherspoons using BT Openzone but I still have not got a definitive answer on the legality of using the enormous number of un-encrypted hot spots that my laptop finds?

It's out on Monday!

In the hot issues section of this week's "Young People Now" the debate is around, "Should youth workers help to encourage teens' spirituality?" Three of the four respondents say YES and even the NO is coming more from a reaction against religion than saying that we shouldn't. I'm encouraged that spirituality is so much on the agenda. Of course enormous sadness too that Spirituality is not always seen as part of Christianity but almost in opposition to it. I hope we get more opportunity to help young people engage with faith, spirituality and philosophy, to be able to help them assemble an informed worldview.

I also received a report from CULF today on Spiritual health and teens. Worth looking at!

I'm not sure that all of these apply to youth workers but they certainly do to those who manage to juggle the commercial world and voluntary youth work.
Made me laugh (and think)

You know that you're living in 2005 when.....

17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a number 9.

Walkie Talkies! I worked out pretty early on that these could be really useful for youth work residentials and the like ..... and "invested" some of my youthwork budget in getting six. There's loads out that verging from the Gerald Ratner to the rather good. We bought Motorolla ones that have the maximum legal range of about 3km and cost about £80 a pair! When I left my last job I had to leave them behind (sob) but managed to get some more for Yellow Braces (Hurrah)

So, are they useful or just a gadget geek fettish?

They do, I admit, produce an enormous amount of silliness and humour BUT are also incredibly useful for example ......

1. We invariably had a convoy heading to residentials and the walkie talkies enabled the "pack" to stay together (or find each other again) as well as navigate around hold ups!
2. Over a large site (like Hill End) it enables organisation, discussion and allows for changes of timetable to be communicated. It also means that finding the missing person and receiving that information happens much more quickly.
3. They work in areas where there is no mobile signal.
4. When leading a large hike the back marker can communicate when the group is too strung out or when there is a problem.
5. You can always contact the First Aider.
6. At festivals like Greenbelt you can actually meet up with the members of the team!

That's just a few examples but communication is always useful. They definitely earned their keep when I led the Ski Ventures as a response to an emergency could be co-ordinated and managed very effectively!

The UK legal have 8 main channels then 38 sub divisions of those. For the last seven years whenever I'm involved in something I use channel 4 sub division 12. So if you're at Soul Survivor B or Greenbelt give me a shout on 4.12 ..... receiving, over!

Found this quote on Mike King's blog. I think that "Emergent" will continue to play a significant missional role for many years but it would be great if it also provokes change in the mainstream!

“…I remain convinced that the future of the Church in the West doesn’t lie in the Emerging Church movement. The value of this movement is to influence and provoke the inherited church forms into change rather than to replace them. Still a vital role…” Mark Pierson

Yellow Braces was a fantastic weekend and I'm happy, extremely proud of the team, missing the young people and somewhere beyond exhaustion!

The weather was soooooo hot and the outdoor (VERY cold) swimming pool was a popular option. As ever I was limited to pacing the side as the qualified life guard. I was just on the verge of picking on someone to rescue so I could actually cool off when the speaker (thanks Vicar boy) took the initiative and pushed me in!

Further reflections on residentials to follow and a piece I've been meaning to write on how useful walkie talkies are for camps!

I'm afraid this will mean nothing to Youthblog readers outside of the UK but we've been waiting quite a while for a frequently postponed Green paper on youth service provision.
Community Care claim to have some of the details via a leak ...... you'll find them here!

The draft of Youth Matters, which is due to be published shortly, also sets out a new statutory duty on councils to provide positive activities for young people.

"With themes that strongly echo Every Child Matters and the adult green paper alongside key Labour messages of “rights and responsibilities” and citizenship, the draft document pledges to give young people:

• The chance to develop into fulfilled and active citizens"

Apologies for the lack of posts but as mentioned the pre-residential maelstrom of activity has been fairly intense AND I've been ill.
Today's the day though and Yellow Braces starts at 6pm. I'm pulling everything together now and trying to pace myself as I'm still not feeling 100%. There is SO much stuff to set up and organise eeek, so glad there is a fantastic team!

Occupying my thoughts at the moment is the "Welcome" talk in which I need to establish some ground rules without sounding too "thou shalt nott-ish" As ever the "No Purpling" rule will figure :-) Has anyone got any stuff they do to help the "Welcome" set the right tone but still cover the "Smoking in the wooden buildings would be a really bad idea" type of stuff?

(For those who reaaalllyyy want to know "Yellow Braces" is a mutation of "Green Belt" and I have NO responsibility for this level of cheesiness, it's an event I inherited when I became the current incarntion of Oxford Youth Adviser!)

Interesting job combining a Schools Chaplaincy and Youth work in a team ministry. It's in Rugby.
Download file
Contact: rector@rugbyteam.org.uk for more details

It's "Yellow Braces", the Diocesan Camp this weekend (please don't ask about the name) so things are quite busy at the moment. It's now that classic phase where there are parents to be phoned to beg for the medi form back and working out the dorms and arranging people who "HAVE TO BE" together even though there's age and space complications. Yesterday I realised that with 68 young people, a core team of 21 and a training programme for 10 young leaders there is NO WAY they will all fit in the dining area. So I am now the proud owner of a cheap Heath Robinsonesque 6m x 3m marquee (actually it's more of a gazebo with delusions of grandeur!)
It will all come together, it will! I have a fantastic team and the venue at Hill end is a top place! In the meantime chaos reigns!

Regular readers though will know that I am a HUGE believer in the residential as a youth work tool. So I am dead chuffed to have been invited to be a trustee of Woolhope Cockshoot which is my favourite residential centre in Europe! (excuse the Hyperbole and ignore the fact I don't know any outside of Europe!)

I'm also putting together a training event for October on "How to run a residential" which I hope will encourage and enable some smaller groups to take the plunge!

John Baxter Brown is doing some research and trying to get a clearer picture of the employment situation for Church Youth workers. I think this will be some interesting stuff as I don't believe anyone has a very good handle on what is happening across the denominations. All we know is that UK Churches employ a HUGE number of youth workers and some do it well and some do it really really badly. If you'd like to contribute to this data then download the file, (Download file)
fill it in and send it to:

The inimitable JBB
Executive Officer (Youth)
Churches Together in England
27 Tavistock Square
LONDON
WC1H 9HH

The headline on the Times today is all a bit Daily Mail, it's a bold declaration stating one in 10 teenage boys carries a gun! The headline is blatantly alarmist and reading further the stats are for inner city boroughs of London (and not for the UK as a statistic on a front page would be interpreted) and includes replica guns and the like but I struggle to believe this is true. (I'd love to hear from any youth workers who work in the areas cited for their estimate). I know there's a growing culture of young people being "tooled up" especially with knives but I'm struggling to accept the statistic and am certainly hacked off with the Times for a misleading headline that continues to stigmatise young people and encourage fear and mistrust.

When asked what is the most important factor for church growth, a staggering 81% of the 1,125 churches that took part in the Christian Research survey replied 'the warm welcome received.' (Ev 70 Leading Ordinary Churches into Growth, p 16)
I found this a slightly worrying statistic! It puts the idea that the "attractional" notion of church:
a) works?
b) Is a more imporatnt factor than say mission, community involvement or discipleship.

Christian Aid have put out a caption competition. Given that youthblog readers are a witty and articulate crew I thought I'd get your suggestions for my entry :-)

We used to have a group at Church for 11-14's which was called TGI Friday, not long after that though Chris Evans started his TFI Friday programme. Funny thing was that some of the congregation seemed to transpose the names and would ask if TFI Friday was going well, this involuntary swearing always made me smile. But anyway Thank God it's Friday (I have most of the weekend off yahay!).

It's been a good week. Had a really cool e-mail from a teenager who'd had a BIG experience of God in Church and wanted some advice, she contacted me as she seen on a Diocesan thing that I was the "Youth Adviser" ..... how cool is that!

I'm still not best pleased that all comments to the site will have to be moderated for 6 weeks due to Synodical elections but thanks to Daniel for making me laugh, he asks

"Who’s standing for election? Do they have a policy on garden furniture? Does the shed have a view on them?
Are the candidates for this election pro-emerging shed or orthodox-shed traditionalists? Do they favour light or dark substitute creosote? We must be told. The truth will set us free"

Also this weekend I have the daddy of all digital cameras to play with .... I mean practice with. I'm the press bod for Oxford Diocese at Greenbelt and need to make sure I can get some fab shots.

Better get on with some work! (me not you!) TTFN