February 2006 Archives

Yesterday I was interviewing youth workers for a job in Reading! Great time and I enjoyed the informal time with the candidates as well as the formal interviews themselves. I find it a fascinating process!
Can’t really say too much (obviously) but what really impressed me yesterday was the questions that the candidates asked us, these communicated so much. I have often been amazed at lack of preparation from candidates for Church youth ministry jobs which is evident from the ‘token’ question the panel get asked. Not yesterday!
Confession time: I love being interviewed and thrive on the whole ‘game of chess’ that it is as you answer the questions, apply experience and examples AND work out why the question was being asked and respond accordingly. I’m actually sometimes tempted to apply for jobs as it looks like the interview would be fun! (Sometimes a background in Sales messes with your mind eh?)

So as we are in the twilight zone of the interview .... What’s the best question you’ve been asked? and conversely, what’s the worst?
(Oh and any comical horror moments from interviews that you are willing to share would probably elicit much need chortling from various offices and homes within the readership)

I have been musing in the car on how difficult to know exactly where to pitch youthblog. The readership is broad and includes:

> Youth workers/ministers (voluntary and paid) who tune in because of the content
> Teenagers who know me (& have told me they like somewhere that's positive about teens!)
> People who like the humour (hard to believe I know) and have never met me
> Friends and relatives (Hi Stuart P the Autostuhlmeister)
> People who stumble in accidently looking for sheds or coffee!

So, where do I pitch it. Obviously Youthwork/ministry is the unifying feature but some of the blog-guests are underwhelmed in the extreme by talk of 'incarnational ministry' or 'informal education'. Humour seems to be popular, but how far from Youth ministry can I stray? And probably the biggest issue is how much of my world should flow into Youthblog? ... too little and it becomes a factocentric bulletin board, whilst too much and it becomes a self obsessed private (but public) diary. Further to this the overlap between these two is complex, for example this weekend was spent with a few friends and their children BUT it's been the inspiration for a major piece of theological reflection on the Church and discipleship .... which will appear later in the week ............. all of which is a longhand way of saying, Should I write about my weekend away OR not?

Apologies for the blogging vaccuum but I've been away for the weekend (maybe I should have mentioned this before but am unsure how many burglars read the blog). I will post properly later but right now the school run beckons. In the meantime here is a Radio 2 stylee thought for the day ......

Sometimes banning things makes them even more attractive
(but then again, sometimes it doesn't)

I see from 'Young people Now' that the snappily titled, 'Youth work sector skills council' are considering a 'Licence to Practice' for youth workers! It's early days yet and what this might mean is open to speculation but I thought it was worth flagging up. I guess it could be anything from a basic approach that means that you are registered and checked...... right up to a training requirement. I guess this is interesting for us in the 'faith sector' with SO much quality work being delivered by volunteers, not to mention the large number of employed youth workers with a diverse range of deployments and focuses. It's also interesting because the professional qualification will soon need to be a degree and I'm unsure whether this will limit the 'Christian' courses' ability to include theology and ministry in a degree that also gives professional youth work status.
I am a huge fan of the double-negative so enjoyed this take on the idea from 'Lifelong learning UK' that this,
'is not an uncontoversial issue!"

I cobbled together Youthblog's idea of a 'Licence to Practice' but obviously I'd prefer us to have nifty Metal Badges in a leather wallet ala the NYPD.

"Stand aside please I'm a Youthworker!

A couple of people have asked for some of the activities that my group have accessed from Woolhope. I'm putting it on the blog so people can find it in future. If you are not planning to go to Woolhope then this entry can be filed under 'About as useful as a chocolate teapot'

Woolhope Cockshoot is on the junction that is shown on this Google Map, but the other side of the crossroads than marked.

At the Centre: 1. Bonfire in the back garden (you'll need to find wood for this)
2. Walks from the cottage. Woolhope Cockshoot is on the junction of five roads and in an area with plenty of footpaths. OS Explorer Map 189. 3. Table Tennis in the Cellar (worth bringing some ping pong balls) 4. The Dining Room and the two downstairs rooms lend themselves quite well to dividing up for challenges, discussions etc. It's a great place for group work. 5. Woolhope is great for 'Hide and Seek' if the group are mad enough. 6. Woolhope is also great for involving young people in the organisation and delivery of the residential, planning, cooking etc AND cleaning the centre ready for the next group!

A great late night option is the 'walk around the block!' It's a hilly 35 minute stroll and the map and instructions are here: Download file

The nearest towns are:

> Ledbury (nearest supermarket)
> Great Malvern
> Hereford (Leisure Centre 01432 272512 & 10 Pin Bowl)
> Ross on Wye

These all lend themselves to photo challenges, treasure hunts, hunt the leader etc. You'll find the Tourist Centre for Malvern here and the other towns here.

Just beyond Ross on Wye is Symmonds Yat where there is a MAZE museum (bit naff for teenagers), A Canoeing centre and an Activities Centre. There is a good walk up to Symonds Yat Rock or another, down one side of the river, over a suspension bridge and back via a rope ferry (summer only).
There's another page of links here including the Forest of Dean (a bit further away)

The Malverns (OS Explorer map 190) are awesome and some great walking. At 425m (peak) not mountaneous but groups do need to be prepared as conditions can be different or change quickly. We've done Kite making and then flown them, egg rolling, a Dawn communion on Easter day and some orienteering.
One walk option is to park at 'British Camp' then walking over the peaks to Great Malvern itself and catching the bus back to 'British Camp'

Mountain Mayhem is about an hour away but unfortunately all their activities are for 18 plus APART from Painballing. To their actual centre at Craswall from Woolhope, use this: Download file

Out to Grass is a mountain boarding centre near Bromyard. Note that it's a good idea to phone and confirm as our bookings have got 'lost' on a couple of occasions.

It's 25 miles away but I hear good things about Moat House Karting at Cotheridge. (I have not had chance to check them out yet).The person who runs it is Tony Collis 01905 333673. (If you go, please let me have more info)

Kenda Creasy Dean will be in the UK in May and I highly recommend that you invest some time in hearing what she has to say. Pete Ward in his critique of her book, Practicing Passion said that it was 'the most important book written on youth ministry in the last twenty years' ...... and given that Pete contributed majorly to the field in this time himself, this is quite a recommendation!

She's doing a day in Guildford on May 15th (e-mail Tim Sudworth for details) and CYM Oxford are hosting a day on the 16th and you can download a booking form here. Download file

I'll be at the Oxford one and am very happy to meet folk at the station before walking onto CYM.

I'm just reading Starting right at the moment ............. reveiw to follow

I'm OK with words but must, I reckon, have dozed through lessons at school where 'punctuation' was covered.
When I was at st Nix, one of the youth group became the official punctuation adviser and re-hashed publicity and the like before it was allowed to be printed.
I've just sent out a kit list for a residential and was surprised to get a text saying, "I haven't got a waterproof Top hat!" SO if anyone else is confused about this ...... it is should read,

Waterproof top, hat and gloves!

Sonning Deanery were due to have their annual weekend in March but sadly it has had to be cancelled due to lack of numbers :-) The Good News however is that EXALT (Hip Hop groovy Saltmine type bods) are still coming for the day on Saturday 11th, hence publicizing an EVENT that is REALLY close. It should be a fab day though and if you can mobolize your young people rapidly enough then I hope you can support it. If you are interested please drop them an e-mail now to register an interest. All the details are below ..................

I had a great weekend! On Saturday Jo and I went to hear John Hegley (very cool performance poet) and had a great laugh. He dedicated the evening to everyone who had 'teaching difficulties!" On Sunday I had the privilege of dining at Brasenose College Oxford as JP (former member of the youth group) invited me. Great fun and a WHOLE different world, I loved it.

Anyway that was stuff you don't need to know, this is stuff you might: (click continue reading)

I only have one and half terms to go before I (hopefully) gain my professional qualification in youthwork, A black belt in informal education snappily entitled a 'JNC!' Although it has at times been a frustrating experience given that there is no recognition of 20 years experience and prior training, I am enjoying it. The area I am struggling with though is essays *shudder!* In the Darwinian battle for available time the dominant meat eaters, as it were, are clearly family, work, home and the like. Essays exist merely as an ill-equipped herbivore struggling not to become extinct. BUT sometimes a looming headline gives them that evolutionary edge and they fight back. This being one of those ocassions I am sitting in a coffee shop battling with,

‘Critically discuss the ways in which new Labour have sought to identify and tackle social exclusion in relation to the young people you work with’

However my PhD from the University of Life (a highly accomplished piece of research in the art of Procrastination) is kicking in big time. I have done 500 words BUT then decided to use an Essay Generator to see what it might come up with. Sadly the results (below/continue reading) are not going to cut-the-mustard but amused me nevertheless :-) Shalom

The Romance Academy TV prog last year that sparked a lot of really cool debate is now available on DVD. There were quite a few groups that I know wanted to use the three episodes in their groups AND my video's of the series have been out on loan with further requests outstanding. So, ask the Vicar for £20 and log onto the web site to get a shiny DVD of some top notch informal ed' on Sex and relationships. (oh and If the Vicar is feeling really generous, an extra tenner will get you at T Shirt too!)

Talking to youth workers from across the denominations it still seems that there is MUCH that can be improved in the way that they are line-managed. It’s also not unusual to encounter laughter when I tentatively ask about their ‘Annual review!’
I am a passionate believer in effective management of workers (including reviews) and see it as a ‘win win’ situation. The worker is more positive, engaged and effective whilst the Church gets high quality RELEVENT work, shared vision AND a better chance of joined-up working. (Recently I spoke to a Baptist worker who had been poorly managed BUT in the last few months the Church had really sharpened up and good supervision had been put into place. He commented how much more focussed he was now AND happier). As employing Churches are investing anything from 15 – 35k per year in a youthwork project then this is kinda important.
Anyway: When I dived into McDonalds just off the M4 to pick up e-mails via wi-fi (The MOTO Services not only don’t have wi-fi, they don’t even have a pay to use terminal!) I was fascinated to find myself sitting at the table next to the Manager as he conducted staff reviews. I had a bit of a chat with the manager and discovered that ALL staff get a review after six months and then annually (more often if necessary).
The staff fill in a self assessment on how they are doing, the manager discusses their progress and level of responsibility, helps them to identify area’s they need to develop in and sets goals. Thought there was a lot Churches could McLearn here!

There was a moment of irony though …..

‘Some’ (actually, most) of the youth-workers I know are devotees of the coffee bean, further to this, they tend to love and frequent funky places in which it is served well, they are a vital venue for youth work and for meetings. For example here, Doc Sarah H got invited to a staff party at her local coffee shop! (I remain uncertain as to whether this was because: a) She is such a good customer or b) She is in their so often they thought she was staff).
Now I’m actually a BIG advocate of the classy independent coffee shop BUT these are rare (at least good ones) so I regularly find myself in that classic dilemma, Café Nero or Starbucks? As this is probably relevant to at least 15 of the readers of Youthblog, I thought I’d articulate my (very subjective) thoughts on this in case you face just such a dilemma.

Starbucks

Coffee Good
No free Newspaper
Non Smoking (Huzzah)
No loyalty card
Standing around like a muppet waiting for your coffee
Wi-fi that accept roaming partners and hence more accesible

Café Nero

Coffee Good
Newspapers available
Smoking area which you often can’t avoid if you want some sugar, a newspaper or the toilet (Newbury is especially bad on this)
Loyalty Card (which therefore makes them a bit cheaper)
Standing around like a muppet waiting for your coffee
Expensive and limited Wi-fi

So the coffee is great at either venue and I'm a bit torn really. I love cafe Nero's loyalty card, always having newspapers to read AND the Apricot Croissants BUT loathe the smoky atmosphere and the limited wi-fi option. I love Starbucks being smoke free and the fact that you can use the wi-fi via a number of different subscriptions. Overall Nero has much more going for it but the wi-fi and the smoke mean that for my vote: Starbucks is the 'Wizard' Choice.

I have tried to let Nero know some of my critiques but the comment section is in the smoking area (duh!) and in the Newbury one I have never ever seen any comment cards available there. Oh and if Starbucks are reading this and feeling smug, ONE THING! The practice of selling the Times for 50p is OK, but putting the discarded ones back on the pile and selling them again (and possibly again) is wrong, so wrong!

The great, sadly no more, goffle band:
Fat n Frantic from the Album, Quirk

The 'Open Day' at the Youth and Community Centre yesterday went off quite well. Actually if you ignore the two incidents that the Police were called for it was a HUGE success. The centre was buzzing and although I was only visiting (not on-duty) I needed to muck in as there were SO many young people there. I helped build the 'Mobile' Skate Park (whoever deemed it 'mobile' should be severly repremanded), Had some good conversations and Cooked LOTS of Bacon and Hot dogs. The Community Police Team brought a van and we managed to get seven young people in the little cell at the back of it .......... but they insisted on being allowed out again :-)
The real positive though was that took my children with me and the young people were really great with my eldest (special needs) boy which I found hugely encouraging!

SO FRUSTRATING though that despite a Massive effort/investment from the team things should still kick off and have to involve police assistance of the not 'part of the fun' type. Hey Ho.
The residential I am organising for them is coming together though BUT I am feeling that it will be a 'Make or Break' trip. My prayer is that it's a 'make!'

During the drive to work this morning I was thinking about some youthworky stuff like Drugs and Alcohol Policies. Somewhere along the road my mind clearly started to wander and without consciously knowing why, I was then thinking about an OLD TV series, 'Magnum PI'. Having become consciously aware of this, a question popped into my head, "What were the names of the two Doberman dogs owned by Higgins?" Within 20 seconds I had hit upon the answer of "Zeus and Apollo" ........ This is weird. Weird that I end up thinking about Magnum, weird that I asked myself that question and even weirder (given that I haven't seen it since the 80's) that I came up with an answer!! (Actually it may be the wrong answer as despite a quick look on the web, I could not verify the facts)
Anyway having confirmed that my though processes are somewhat random, I'll come back to the original thought. Have any of you got a 'Drugs and Alcohol' policy in place at your church? Or if you haven't, Is there a definitie line of thought you have in place for young people and/or leaders on residentials?

Off to an open day at the Youth and Community centre now! We have the mobile skate park there today so my next blog-post may be from Casuality as I did throw my skateboard in the back of the car!

Monday returns. The new URL for the blog seems to be working OK apart from 'search' on the site, oh and my Technorati rating now makes me less succesful than the Sinclair C5. Please update your links and blog-roll to the new address :-) If you've got any technical questions on the URL move then it's no good asking me as I'm now so far from my understanding threshold that I'm in a different timezone . On the other hand, if you have a question about youth work ..... Let's have a coffee :-)

Diocesan Stuff:

Next Network of full timers meeting is on March 21st and we'll be meeting at Farringdon.
Christian Aid are putting on a couple of evenings called "Recycling Rubbish - Renewing Hope" which look really good, details in the extended entry.
The latest edition of Youthwork Update is out and a copy has been posted to all Parishes!
On April 7th a consultation will be happening at Church House on the 'spec' for the new Bish'. I want some young people and youth leaders to be involved in this process! Are YOU up for it?

This week's most pointless activity (but very funny) is Poke the Penguin! Enjoy.

Last year on my 38th Birthday I wrote a list of things that were part of what makes me, me (if you see what I mean). It was actually a really interesting excercise (for me) and I've since used this with young people (their lists NOT mine) in helping them to look at some of the unique things about them. Anyhow as it's my birthday today I reckoned it was due an update .....

The revised list with the new entry is below. Shalom and Birthday Cake :-)

If I am on your blog-roll or you link to the site PLEASE could you change the link from www.oxford.anglican.org/youthblog to www.youthblog.org.

Thanks :-)

Youthblog has now relocated to the fashionable end of the blogosphere and youthblog.org is now the host adress not just a re-direct. This may induce some weeirrrd stuff though, If you experience Star-Trekesque anomolies in the space time continuum or bits that fail to achieve warp drive then please let me know :-)

someone has e-mailed me a question! In order to annonomize their identity I shall call them, 'Mrs Trellis of North Wales' and 'her' question is this:

We are having a mission in a school, I've volunteered to organize some follow-up. Do you know of any discussion style material that would be suitable for unchurched teenagers - pre-Alpha in style as they will know nothing!

Suggestions welcomed ........

Youthblog will be moving! The URLs will remain the same but there may be a bit of weird stuff happening during the transition. (If the www.youthblog.org address fails to work then the www.oxford.anglican.org/youthblog one should). The move is to a more reliable host and because of issues with Bandwidth. I'm still having some SPAM problems! Also the number of Bloggers who hot-link to pictures on my site is TRULY annoying. Basically my bandwidth takes a beating every time their sites are looked at. Grrrrrrrrr
Geek stuff ends ..... but remember:

There are only 10 types of people in the world,
those that understand binary
and those that don't

The training last night, "How to 'do' sex with your youth group" seemed to go well and we had a great bunch of people taking part. Those involved agreed that what they wanted out of the session was:

Greater confidence in Tackling the Subject
A Framework to work from
Ideas and resources that work

If anyone from the evening is looking for the stuff that we used then these are some of the links:
Film clip was chapter 7 of Four Weddings and a Funeral where Carrie is listing and describing her sexual partners.
The book PURE was commented on postively. The Crusaders resource on relationships is called With or without you (page 54 of this is the two circles illustration which I think is very powerful). The exercise in looking at the pro's and con's of Saving Sex for marriage is here as a pdf file. And for some fun with an introduction to the subject these MP3's from the 70's on how to talk to your kids about sex are great :-)

If anyone has got other good conversation starters, ideas and the like that help youth leaders enagage young people in exploring sexuality then please bung them into the mix.

Back online, Huzzah

'My morning' by Youthblog! Muchos traffic malarky on the way in to work and then I discovered that the servers at work are 'moby dick' and I have no route into the web or e-mail :-) Ever a one for the hasty Plan 'B' though I have cycled into Oxford, dropped the left over Fairtrade stuff back and THEN HAVE HAD TO COME TO STARBUCKS so I can log in! So I have been able to answer my e-mails in a Latte fuelled stylee and am now blathering on the blog! (as you can see).
This morning I have to attend a 'Web Strategy' meeting and then put the finishing touches to tonights training session, "How to 'do' sex with your youth group!" ..... A snappy title I thought and no-one has got cross with me (yet). Should be a good session on engaging youth groups in the topic of sexuality, the title has certainly stuck in people's minds!

May have had too much coffee ...

PS: How cool is the web? A friend who's a student in Oxford has just read this entry and popped in to see me in Starbucks. Nice!

It's another Manic Monday but hey that's cool with me, Bring it On!
VERTIGO 2 happened on Saturday and was MASSIVE in every sense! I reckon more than 500 young people there but have no official figures yet, I was, as ever, largely confined to the kitchen with the awesome Cafe team (thanks all). It looked like the worship, talk, malarky, challenges and testimonies were well received and people were blessed from being part of it. It was well cool to be praying before the event with SUCH a huge team from soooooo many churches.
Friday night drop-in at the Youth Centre was really quiet and apart from a bullying incident, all was easy going. NICE!
HEY IF YOU WERE AT SOULNET this weekend, HOPE YOU HAD A BLAST, let us know what it was like?
The News in brief: This Schools-work conference looks good, if Schools-work is your bag (satchel?) then I think this website is newish and useful.
Year out type Stuff: Care Force have a new website for signing up or applying for a volunteer. We also have some youth workers in training (not CYM) looking for Churches in Oxfordshire(ish), if you are looking for someone, talk to me on this one!

Thought for the week:

Martin Saunders (Youthwork, the bloke) from Youthwork the magazine has started Youthwork the Blog! Great to have Martin's voice as part of blogdom!

Just noticed that I have achieved the 'dizzying' heights of 23,026th on the Technorati 'Top of the blogs' chart .... I'd better stop linking to competition if I'm ever going to make the top 20,000 *Laughing*

Driving in Oxford is a frustrating experience! It basically involves a stop-start virtual crawl in first gear, you watch the brake lights on the car in front as the cue to when you can inch forward once again, you look enviously at the pedestrians as they walk at a pace you can only dream of.
Today I have to pick up a load of Fairtrade munchables for VERTIGO on Saturday. Driving is not an option, both for the reasons above and the vagueries of the one one-way system which dictates having to go round Oxford first before an approach to the shop can be made, SO ......
Last night I disappeared into the Shed and re-hashed an old kiddy trailer into a useful cargo trailer for the cycle. Today therefore my transport is an

Enviromentally Friendly, sustainable transport, recycled, Fairtrade Velocipede!

Thought you should know :-)

The continuing Story .....

At the conference a bunch of us from different denomonations were discussing 'The Church' and exploring our hopes and our frustrations. I won't go into our frustrations ... but just point you to Dave's itching cartoon* which is a profound piece of theological reflection!

In looking at our hopes we were discussing the exciting things God seems to be doing with missional/emerging Church and asking, how that might impact upon the mainstream Churches(s). As ever there was some pondering about the willingness/ability for some churches to change and (thinking outloud) someone said, maybe we just have to view those Churches as a "A slightly senile (but much loved) older Relative" The imperative being to invest in mission where opportunty exists.

It was a good discussion though and a definite acknowledgement that we live in 'interesting times'
I hope and pray I have the grace to work in/from THE CHURCH whatever it's expression AND to discern what God is calling us to. From a youth ministry perspective this is a HUGE responsibilty in terms of how our lives and thinking impact young people ..... gulp, No Pressure!

*Please note this cartoon is the property of Dave Walker

Greetings from Swanwick ... the daddy of all christian conference centres! Actually it's OK here (Wi-fi enabled, yea) AND you can get a decent ale in the bar, Waggle Dance being my prefered option last night :-) Frustrating though that they allow smoking in the bar (or is that just an arrogant opinion of a non-smoker?)
Great session last night from Elaine Storkey on 'Film and Theology' but particularly (and I love this phrase) 'The Myth of Redemptive Violence'
Anyway Breakfast and theological reflection beckons (in that order). Shalom

Filing this entry under 'quite boring'