October 2005 Archives

Preached at a 'Youth Service' in Twyford. Great fun and I love being part of a worship service that is creative and passionate. The theme was "Jesus: Trick or Treat" which I though was quite a neat tie up with Halloween so I used John 10 and "life to the full" contrasted with the "thief coming to steal and destroy"

Reluctant Souls is a blog collective and community worth calling in at.
EasyRew flagged up this Youth of Today report which has some great quotes.
Kathryn has had a quality rant about St Paul's "House of God!"
The Youth Ministry Forum de-bunks the U.S statistic that Youth Pastors only last 18 months ... I'd struggled to believe the figure anyway but it cropped up a lot.
(btw anyone got any UK stats?)

There's been a few e-mail type discussions recently that will no doubt lead to blog posts soon.
a) Ethics in youth ministry regrading proclamation/conversion.
b) The practice of confirmation & confirmation preparation in the UK.

(If you've got some useful pointers on stuff to read, let me know)

and finally .....
Whenever I've been at the water flumes with a youth group there has been much discussion on how to obtain the maximum speed. Up 'til now I've gone with it being the shoulders and heels technique but this is a whole new level:

Nothing to do with youth ministry but it made me laugh! (Thanks to Planet Telex).
Sing along with this

But on the more useful side: I've updated the Read youthblog by themes page!

Soul Survivor are putting on another of their Soul Net conferences for Youth Leaders. The date is the 3rd-5th February 2006 and the venue is at Centre Parcs (Elveden Forest). Sadly I'll not be able to go as it clashes with 'VERTIGO II' but I've been in the past and thoroughly enjoyed it.
As a format it has a lot going for it, veeeeerry cool to be at Centre Parcs (have a splashing time) and the chalet accomodation works well. Much as I enjoy Youthwork the conference it is much harder to get to know other youth workers as you are scattered all over town. By comparison Soul Net throws you into community with other youth workers and this element of 'chalet life' was a real blessing on the previous Soul Net conferences. I found that we invested time in sharing stories, cooking together and looking out for each other even though we'd not known each other before arriving at the Chalet on the Friday evening.
In terms of content .... if you dig Soul Survivor you'll love the conference. The approach is far more about spiritual refreshment than 'professional' input but that's fine by me! Enjoy

OOOH and a little fringe bonus that I discovered. Once you've been to Centre Parcs you get a discount if you go again. As a result of being there with Soul Net I managed to book a weekend for the family the following year because of the discount. Nice

Having had a great e-mail from Ripon YFC I said I'd put their search for a p/t youth worker on the blog. I've not seen the terms and conditions etc but I'll pop the advert below and you can ask about that stuff if the job sounds like your mug of tea.

How's this for a fabulous offer? The Church Times are offering a 'Buy one get one free' offer on all Youth Vacancies! I initially thought that you got a youth worker free but I've worked out now that it just refers to the adverts! I guess it means that you could put a serious advert in but add a really silly one for free! Suggestions welcome ......

Had an e-mail that I am now posting below. I thought it would be a cool question to open out to the collective IQ of the Youth Ministry Blogworld ....

If you enjoyed the quirky little piece with the DJ Hand then you should check out the web site where there are more of these quirky and brilliant clips. (Thanks Tony)

Greetings Bertherin and Sisterin and welcome to another Youthblog Splurge:
1. Alton Towers 06 will be on May 20th, if you like your Christian events big loud and scary click here.
2. FeminYM (A look Youth Ministry by Venusians) now has it's first major post up and poses an important question about whether models of Youth Ministry are male constructs!
3. On November 8th I'm taking some youth workers to see a residential centre in Herefordshire (Woolhope Cockshoot) ... dya want to come along?
4. I'm going to Youthwork the conference for a day on Nov 19th. I'll be trucking from Newbury, M4, M329, M3 etc if anyone wants a lift.
5. After some work on the template, Youthblog now looks the wasp's nipples in Firefox. Weirdly though in some versions of I.E the right hand column is missing? If that affects you please let me know.

I've now moved the blog-roll to the right hand side bar of the main page which I hope will make it more useful. There was a secondary reason for this also, When the blog is viewed on Firefox the right hand column ceases-to-be below the last piece of text ..... and looks a bit 'pants' so it seemed a short term answer to extend the text a bit. (anyone know what piece of code Firefox is interpreting as a cue to end the column?). I'm getting the hang of some html now, so far it's only the ligiustic equivilent of ordering a beer and finding a hotel but it's a start. I'm still somewhat flumoxed by major template changes and even trackbacks confuse me. I'm using Bloglines but we tend to just nod and smile at each other as I can never get it to do quite what I want or in fact to stop doing what I don't want.
The encouraging news though is that despite my inept grasp of codes and templates nearly 20,000 people called in to say Hi in the last 12 months (although some of these were falsely lured in hoping for serious shed related content) and I'm quite chuffed with that! In a bizzare bit of encouragement I've been given a Worthy Website mention from a Chistian site in Sweeden?
I'm now going to play with the template ...... eeeek!

I heard Tom Wylie speak on “Youth Matters” (The Government Green Paper on youth) and as promised, a synopsis of what he had to say (as I understood it):

In his introduction Tom read out the result of a study into the health of young people that was published in 1905. It’s recommendations were a more or less exact match with the priorities and recommendations of “Youth Matters”

Tom used this to say there are always concerns and moral panics about young people BUT what has changed is that young people now have a much more extended transition into adulthood, the move from dependence to independence is now much more difficult.

Tom broke down Youth Matters into four chunks:

1. Things to do, places to go
The introduction of national standards affecting what will be on offer locally. The “opportunity cards” that all young people will be given.

2. Active Involvement of young people
Working within the ‘hear by right’ideas and an emphasis on volunteering

3. Information, Advice and Guidance
Accountability for advice given and Connexions are all to be moved back under local authority control

4. Reforming Targetted Support
A consolidation of funding and leadership given to local authority but with a mandate for partnership work including the voluntary sector.

Tom had worked out “five tests” of whether “Youth Matters” will work

1. Can the Goals be turned into entitlements?
2. Relevance i.e hence young people’s involvement
3. Responsibility: who has the duty to secure provision?
4. Accessibility and diversity
5. Sustainable: will it be sufficiently resourced

Tom concluded that it was not bad but these were the dangers that he believes exists .....

Young people could lose out
Youth work could decline
Vested interests block the outcomes
Opportunity cards divert resources
Smooth transitions to adult life inhibited

He also expressed concern that it seems to be focused more on 12-16’s, it doesn’t cover transitions to housing etc, it has very little on arts or PHSE BUT Massive amounts on Sport.

There's a pdf here that give's Tom's own outline of the five tests.

This Clip made me laugh, Go ye and do likewise.
(Unearthed from Marko who got it from Tony Myles)

The seriously funky Nick Lear sent me a picture as he said it combines my diverse fetishes! Made me laugh although I should point out that I regard Marmalade as apocryphal to the jam world and not cannonised in any way! Real Jam does not contain Peel!

If you've just found this blog via Google and wonder what this has to do with youthwork? the answer is nothing and you need to scroll down!

I was speaking at a Deanery Synod yesterday evening and talked about societies negative attitudes to young people .... something that frustrates me. I gave a few examples of the anti-youth sentiment that peppers media and community. Flicking through the paper today I see that Prince Philip, when asked about whether the DofE Award was still relevent after 50 years, is quoted as saying,

"The point is that young people are the same as they always were - they are just as ignorant"

Grrrrrrrr! I get so frustrated with the calls for a return to "respect" that is usually levelled at young people, when that respect is not extended to them. And while I'm ranting about this I'm also frustrated that the current Government waves flags about the need for respect ....... unless it's someone who disagrees with them (82 year old hecklers being a case in point).

OOOOpppps that was all a bit ranty and unlike me but hey ho. The point is that calling for respect from young people is pointless if it's not a value that society and ESPECIALLY those in power can enshrine and demonstrate themselves. It's all a bit reminiscent of the Conservative campaign on morals (Back to Basics) that as it turned out was thought out by several promminent MP's from their mistresses beds!

I was quite excited when I was told that someone from JAM magazine was on the phone for me ... I had high hopes of being asked to review a new Strawberry Conserve or to comment intelligently? on the legitimacy of mixed fruit jams! It turns out though that JAM magazine is a Christian Mag for 13-19 year olds that exists for two different reasons:

a) a resource to enable, equip and empower Christian young people to share their Faith with their mates.

b) as a resource for youth leaders / workers & teachers to connect with non Christian youngsters in a contemporary, credible & tangible way.

Good stuff eh? I've seen the mag and like the content/layout and I had a good chat with Peter (editor) who was keen to get some feedback as well as to promote the magazine. He's very kindly said that if you e-mail him and include the code word "Oxford" he'll send you a free copy! cool huh? (Then you can buy some).

Here endeth the plug. I shall now work on an article for the mag about my relish, as a Christian, of fine Conserves. I'm going to call it "Spirit of the Fruit"

Off to hear Tom wylie (top bod at the NYA) tonight speaking about the government green paper "Youth Matters" and the voluntary sector ..... will endeavour to take notes for the benefit of all three Youthblog readers.
I've been sent a link for a company called Projected Games, they claim they are "the new innovation, bringing your youth closer together in an interactive, team-playing environment!" Sounds good but I've not really fully grasped it yet. Check it out and let me know eh.
I led some worship this week and used stuff from The Book of Uncommon Prayer .... highly recommended.
There's a great little piece on dealing with difficult people here, a useful reminder from the bods at MMI.
Next Vertigo is scheduled for the 4th Feb. OH and AM HUGELY ENCOURAGED today as someone sent in a gift of £1000 for Youth work in the Diocese. Am thinking/praying about how this should best be used. Cool huh?
Lastly ...... I am challenged by this quote I found on Katie's Blog:

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that didn't really matter!"

I touched briefly on a question I'd asked , who are the youth workers that had inspired us as youth workers or into becoming youth workers. Roy (see comment) was curious to know who people had cited as inspirational. I rattled off an e-mail saying that although Mike Pilivachi and Mike Yaconelli had featured, five of the eight respondees had named a youth worker known mainly to them (usually their youth worker when they were teens). Roy and I were both encouraged by this ....... that inspiration had come through relationship.

"As one person I cannot change the world

In response to this, as a learning and discussion opportunity. The question is, were you inspired by a local youth worker or a national figure? and, What about them inspired/influenced you?

Long term readers of Youthblog will know that while building my workshop I blogged a [tongue in cheek] commentary of my experiences as a pioneer in the emerging shed movement. One of the more bizarre side-effects of this was how the blog rose through the ranks of Google as an authority on Creosote substitute! but there was much frustration, at the time, that I never made it past number 3 in the listings.
Anyway, one of this weekend's jobs is to treat the fence so I thought I'd re-visit Google on the nitty gritty of wood preservatives. Much to my delight, Youthblog is now 1 and 2 on google if you want to know about Creosote Substitute! LOL!

The web is a strange strange place and althouth the blog's contribution to Youth ministry is small, the fact that it is seen as the World's greatest authority on a specific timber treatment feels good :-)

(Stll laughing ...... )

Thrilled to see that a new blog has arrived! Femin YM, a serious look at youth ministry and related issues from a female perspective. I think this will be an important site for both Male and Female (Martian and Venusian) youth workers that will provoke, challenge, educate ...... and probably (or definitely) make us male workers go, "ouch" from time to time.
This was originally to have been a book (I heard the proposal for it in a queue at Legoland on a mad but creative youthwork networking day) but reckon it could be even more influential and useful as a blog. Enjoy

If, like me, you've been around in youthwork for a while and if like me you've not mastered PS2 controllers sufficiently to avoid being beaten at EVERY single game by young people, THEN tadaaaa .....
Time to revisit the games you excel at. Check out this site and get back up to speed on Frogger, Asteroids, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. Bring it on!

Met with the CYM small group that I'm tutor for yesterday which I really enjoyed. It feels like they're going to be an interesting, committed and fun group to be part of. Yesterday was a good start as we began to look at 'Task and Process' in group work, as well as getting to know each other a little. One of the questions I asked was,

"Who is a Youth work inspiration to you and why?"

Some really interesting answers that included national figures as well as youth workers known primarily to individual students. One of the group cited Mike Yaconelli as his 'hero' youth worker but the rest of the group hadn't heard of him, I guess they're a whole new generation of youth workers.
We then explored what skills/attributes/attitudes we are aiming to build into our practice that we'd observed in our 'inspirational' youth workers. Good discussion and got me thinking .....

Sadly YPN mag' don't make their articles available online but if you have today's copy (12-18 Oct) then p17 is worth a look. Three practicioners from the Faith sector get to comment on the Green Paper, "Youth matters!" JBB, Dave Wiles and Andy Poole do a GREAT job of positively critiquing the documents and produce a helpful challenge to the government.

Also encouraging though is the introduction by the magazine, which reads:

"There is no disputing the fact that the christian youth sector is highly valuable. Not only does it employ about 6,500 youth workers but it works with an estimated 1 million young people a week and invests £100 million in cash or kind, according to Churches together in England"

I was amused by this picture of Super-vicar that Sudders found!

I think it was made by Tony using Hero Machine. If anyone is bored today they could contact FA Dumont (Vestment suppliers) and see if they can produce this outfit for clerical use :-)

Phil has written about a new catergory into the churched, unchurched, dechurched discussion. He calls for a recognition of the dechurched-regular. I think this is an interesting idea and resonates with my own experience and also conversations with other 20's and 30's who have a faith but have either stopped attending church or, as in Phil's definition, still go but don't feel connected.

I was speaking at a meeting last night that was organised by the Churches of four villages in a rural area. Usually in these situations I am speaking into a setting that has nothing going on for young people. last night however was so encouraging! Firstly there was a huge age spread of people including teenagers. (it's amazing how often that no-one thinks to invite young people). Secondly the meeting turned out to be very much about building on what was happening AND it was Church and community working together.
It's worth mentioning the youth club based in one of the villages though which was started by a 12 year old and a 15 year old. They'd put together a survey which they'd taken to all the young people in the village. Having read these, they put together a presentation based on the responses and went to see the local Sports Club. They managed to persuade the Sports Club to allow them the use of their building free of charge (in return for promoting membership to the youth club).
The young people concerned found some adult volunteers to be at the club to meet legal requirements but the club is very much led by the 15 year old and a friend and is working remarkably well. Age range is huge (8-16) but works, attendence is about 30 when it runs once a month. I thought this was fabulous but the best bit was talking to the lad and hearing his thoughts on how it could develop, the challanges they faced and the opportunities that existed!

I've been at a residential all weekend and have had an absolute blast! It had all the usual elements, walks, fun, conversation, food, malarky, in-jokes, mad games and the like but as a youth work event it was 20 years past it's sell-by-date, but even better as a result. The six of us on this weekend had all been in the same Christian Youth group as teenagers and developed a great friendship. Historically, a key event in the life of that group was the annual residential at Woolhope Cockshoot.

Way back in the 1980's

A few years ago I realised that being as we lived in different parts of the country, had demanding jobs and the like, we very rarely saw each other. So the plan was hatched to have a weekend away and for reasons of practicality, cost and nostalgia ..... we decided to go back to Woolhope Cockshoot.
This is the sixth such weekend we've done now and although we have weird "where have 20 years gone?" type moments, it's awesome to celebrate that connection with the past and enjoy how much our friendship, faith and life experiences have grown.

Way back to this weekend!

Like all "youth" weekends, none of the stories, jokes and events would probably translate that well or make any sense to those not there. However I thought it was worth flagging up as it's awesome to think, as you look at YOUR group, the work you are doing may open up friendships to young people that will last a lifetime! How cool is that?

I had an e-mail from Dave Walker who read "When to stop doing youth work" and wondered whether this constituted an answer! I reckon, yes! Bleuurgh

I was asked the question recently,
“How do you know when it is time to stop doing Youth Work?” This definitely got me thinking, especially as I've been working with young people for 20 years now.
I definitely don't agree with any "Sell by date" type theories (young people only have two catergories for adults anyway i.e "old" and "reaalllllyyy old!" ..... the latter being about 36 and over!) and I know some fantastic youth leaders who are well past retirement age. I reckon experience counts for a lot and the further removed we are from youth culture(s) the more we are forced to ask and listen ... which is a good thing!
So ....it's open to discussion but my working answer at the moment is. It's time to stop doing youth work if you no longer like/love young people but other than that the role, very much, stays open!

I guess it's a bit like the question, "When it's time to stop being a Rock band?" and no-one is suggesting that that is time boundaried!

Stuff I've read this morning which may (or indeed not) interest you ....... enjoy:
CTE have developed a training course for young leaders based around four residential weekends. It's called Ducamus (sounds like a strange alliance of a Star Wars bad guy and a musketeer). Check out the pilot flyer. Download file
Jonny Baker has put up the pdf of Pete Ward's critique of Practicing Passion and Kenda Creasey Dean's response. Well worth reading these two awesome youth ministry intellects in discussion.
Spectrum have an Newsletter out. It doesn't seem to be on their web site but hopefully reading the site will fill you in!
Lastly is "The Boiler Room Rule" which although still technically a work in process is well worth reading. The six practices are awesome to apply to any youth ministry. Download file

I've been invited to lead an informal seminar for Residential centre managers at a conference. My brief is to facilitate a look from the users perspective. So far I've only sorted out the opening.

Everyone arranged in a circle seated on chairs. I stand up and in a confessional stylee say,
"Hello everyone [hesitant pause] my name is Ian ... "
(the circle all respond "Hello Ian")
" ... and I've been a really heavy user of residential centres for the last twenty years, sometimes two or three a year!"
(Group nods in an understanding sort of way)

Now all I need is some content! That's where you fellow users of residential centres come in! If you have EVER taken a group away (and can spare 2 mins) can you answer these questionettes please?

1. What makes a good/attractive residential centre?
2. What are your biggest gripes about places you've used?
3. What have centres done that made your visit better/easier?
4. What elements have made a stay more difficult?
5. What youthworkery piece(s) of advice would you give residential centres?

Just got back from the Vertigo event in Oxfordshire. An event aimed to get christian teens together from across the denominations for encouragement, worship, teaching, fun and challenge. There were about 400 there in total and there was a fantastic vibe. I was too busy in the cafe to give a really acurate report of how the evening went .... I hope to gather some opinions over the next couple of days. It's been a wonderful event to be part off with so many people from so many denominations really catching a Vision of what Vertigo could mean. Vertigo 2 is possibly going to be on Feb 2nd (Watch this blog or the Vertigo site)

The Cafe team were awesome (Thanks everyone) and even wore their uniform .... The theme of the event was VERTIGO don't look down look up which then linked in with Hebrews 12. The cafe team all had green T shirts bearing "CAFE TEAM: Vertigo Don't Look Down, Wash up!" (yes it was my idea?!!)
Anyway I'm ABSOLUTELY shattered. Have a look at the web page in the next couple of days for a fuller match report and pictures (there'll also be a video of the event)

Additional: Web page now has more on it and we've received some encouraging feedback from some of the teens: For example,

“I was at Vertigo last night and it was probably the best youth event that I've ever been to. I was just amazed by Lanky's talk - it was amazing and thought-provoking and I think it might just have made my friend turn to Jesus. The songs were amazing. Martin… the worship leader…really shone that night. It was awesome to see so many people praising God… (and) the atmosphere was so friendly. I love being a Christian! Thank you so much…tell all the guys who were involved in Vertigo that I thank them deep from the bottom of my heart.”