December 2006 Archives

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a great start to the New Year, thanks for being part of the Youthblog collective during 2006 and I look forward to 'seeing' you again in 2007 as I'm going off the air now until Jan 2nd :-)

Hope you have a Wonder filled Christmas with plenty of friendship, laughter and mince pies, may you know God's presence and his love. Shalom my friends!

"O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel "

Wooaaaa, it's Christmas eve eve eve eve already and it's my last day at work, I've got quite a lot of stuff to do but it seems to be a 'silly' day in the office due to an impending Christmas coffee and cake break, there's also our Carol Service and lunch ..... a definite 'end of term' feeling.

If you want to virtually join in with that 'last day' vibe then I highly recommend this brilliant Sprout Game that GimD flagged up, highly adictive and visually great fun.

Also amusing me is this language translator that Pinklady linked to. It translates the stuff you write into Tween Type. Genius!

I have a new laptop (yay) as our lovely I.T department have agreed that the old one was juddering to a standstill, this is fab stuff but means loadsa transferring files, WEP codes and other such gumpf. One gig of RAM though and a Dual core processor so it really hauls, oh yes!

Here is a picture of MLD in progress (Multiple Laptop disorder)

Just to flag up that Soul Survivor are hitting the road and doing a tour. It should be a good chance to link in with plans for 2008 and to hear more from Roy Crowne and Mike P. More details here BUT Feb 19th is the date for Oxford-ish bods. For the rest of the UK check out the page!

Oh and there is an afternoon reception tea thing for church and youth leaders ;-) Excellent

I'm just on the way to meet with my fellow 'Tweenagers' author and working out which of these two time honoured excuses to deploy. I'm quite keen on 'The dog ate it' for its elegant simplicity but the, 'I left it on the bus' approach could be the one to go for. (The complete absense of buses and dogs in my life is a downer for the credibility of both I admit). Anyway it's time to face the music and admit that although Chapter 1 is in the bag, chapters 2 and 3 lack substance :-(

Someone once said about Douglas Adams that he was more in love with being a writer than actually writing. I can relate to this. If I ever mention trying to write a book (or part thereof) again PLEASE beat me with discarded copies of Mission Praise 3 until I see sense!

The list of mythical things that you are unlikely ever to see includes the Loch Ness monster, Sasquatch and my half of the book on Tweenagers. I am however still very busy trying to write it. I was therefore delighted when a procrastinational peek at the newspaper this morning became, by accident, a piece of research. The Independent have flagged up a survey of under 10's on the best and worst things in the world. Well worth a read!

The Best things in the world according to under 10's

1. Being a Celebrity
2. Good Looks
3. Being Rich
4. Being Healthy
5. Pop Music
6. Families
7. Friends
8. Nice Food
9. Watching Films

and interestingly

10. Heaven/God

Finally starting to feel a bit Christmassy! The Children and I un-earthed our Christmas decorations and transformed the lounge at home, we also went to a 'family Carol service' at out church that involved so many different age groups from the church including an entire teenage percussion collective. Cool!
I'm a bit of an incurable romantic when it comes to Christmas though and I feel all out of sorts if the weather is (as it is) cold and wet, not frosty and crisp. In fact one of the most disconcerting experences I know* is walking out of Midnight Communion on Christmas eve and discovering that there is no snow on the ground (to me this breaks all sorts of laws of the universe). The bookies though are saying the odds of a White Christmas are the longest for 20 years!

Having declared the importance of Christmas being celebrated in a crisp temperature, there is a certain irony in the fact that the heating has broken down here at Church House today! I've dug out my hat from my cycling kit and borrowed a left-behind cardigan from a secretary who is not here today! F-e-eeee-l-ing Ch-r-i-stmasssss-y Brrrrrr though!

* For the record the other discorncerting experiences that spring to mind are:
Thinking (incorrectly) there's still one more stairs step to go and your leg crumpling slightly as it hits the floor.
Coming out of the cinema and discovering that it's still light.

In a packed programme today we'll be asking searching questions like,

Are the gifts of youth ministry and Administration mutually exclusive?
Why can you never see the floor in Youth Workers cars because of all the resources, debris and McDonalds wrappers?
Why do Parents buy teachers presents but not buy them for youth workers?

But first a round-up of the news. Perspectives Journal is out, This is the summer 2006 edition (Perspectives does not exegete chronology literally) entitled "Hope from the Margins," I recommend getting a copy and especially reading the pithy reveiw of Contemplative Youth Ministry ;-) January 2007 edition of Youthwork magazine is out (more accurate chronology altough I feel legalistically bound to not read it until next year) and if you don't subscribe then you should skateboard down to the 'Mustard Seed' (for this is what 87% of Christian book shops are called) and pick up your copy!

Regular readers of Youthblog (Mrs Trellis of North Wales etc) will know about my attempts to buy a Camcorder. I have now purchased a funky little Sony Handycam that is very proud of the fact that is has a Carl Zeiss lens. I'm all set to get to grips with editting, YouTube etc BUT discovered yesterday that the reason that my laptop has started responding only in Geological time is that the hard disk is FULL, this may make using the video files more tricky!

Professional Development: Please send in your MATRIX forms, it's only 3 months away. Oxford bods please sign up for the Network day on the 30th (well done Simo). Also I hope to see some of you at the Root 66 day in Oxford on January 8th.
(I have a list of all the training days run by the Statutory Youth sector in Oxfordshire if you are looking for some specific 'issues' training)

And finally: The remaining candidates for the much sought after "Father Christmas" position are tested on the simulator for their ability to handle stress for when the Reindeer pull off high G aerobatic manouvres

ht to Add Letters

Tim Schmoyers' series on "Issues in Youth Ministry" has grown into quite a series. My take on the three questions are now up on his site or in the extended entry below :-)

Welcome to the round up of the useful, the useless, the stuff that amuses me and anything else that needs filing under 'B' for blog.

Roy flagged up the contest we had in 2004 to find THE tackiest Nativity scene IN THE WORLD and I hope that if you do find any offerings that should be named and shamed (then pushed off the mantlepiece) you'll post them on your blog or send them to here. My 'favourite' so far is the nativity timer I found on the Twelve Days of Kitchmass

On the cooler side of Christmas though, check out Dave's FREE Calender that you can download over at Cartoon Church. I'd also like to promote Buy nothing Christmas again and there resources for living counter to the commercialised consumptive orgy that Christmas is according to Advertisers!

If you are looking for a graphic that will fit with an Advent talk then I thought this photo by Ben bell was great, there's a bigger/better copy on his site

.

Root 66 are running some training in Oxford and Sheffield on Jan 8th and 9th on Youth Ministry. A good start to the New Year methinks.

It's tagged as:

"Four Youth Ministers from around the world share how to get the most out of a youth ministy that seeks to be centred on Jesus, grounded in scripture and relationally strong"

I reckon I'll pedal over to the Oxford one, see you there?
Visit the web site to download flyers and the like.

This video is great, it's a bunch of teenagers being a subversive force for good and a role model for adults. I think it really captures the energy and creativity that teenagers have and live. It is also a pointed reminder of the fact that the societal assumption on seeing a group of teenagers is that they are up to no good, Fab stuff!

Thanks to Lewis the Weird Hippy where I found this!

I was at Woolhope Cockshoot over the weekend, this is the residential centre that I am one of the trustees of. The place is a small self-catering and very funky cottage in the middle of nowehere. It's dirt cheap to use and is a popular venue for a goodly number of groups from around the country.

As a centre we have to rely on groups cleaning the place when they leave in order that its pleasant for the next group to arrive to. One of the things that unsettles me a little is Youth Leaders that work on the basis of 'what is the minimum tidying and cleaning we can get away with?' and I'm not sure what this models to the young people from those groups. On arriving this weekend though I discovered that the previous group had gone to little or more probably, no effort at all, Woolhope was a right state.

It's quite sad when groups don't look after the place, what I found is that all the groups I've ever taken there have got a real kick out of leaving it in tip-top condition, we've had fun with young people and leaders working together to give something back to the place that has provided us with such a memorable weekend. To me it's basic Christianity in action, be a blessing to the people, places and situations that you encounter.

I should add that the majority of Woolhopians are very consciencious, but as a result of the group that left the place in such a poor way, we need to look at issuing much more specific cleaning instructions and maybe some sort of contract. Some help please ....
If you were going to use a residential centre, what tidying instructions would be helpful and what would wind you up? Should they be on the wall or should they be sent to you in advance? How can we be prescriptive enough without appearing naggy or overbearing?

The new Bish' announcement has finally happened, it's *drum roll* John Pritchard who is currently in Durham Diocese.

It was late last night when I heard that today was ' D' day (I would have put 'B' day but that sounded all wrong!) and that there would be a 'meet n greet' straight after the announcement this morning. Unfortunately I'm on leave and couldn't get to Oxford but I look forward to meeting the New Bishop soon. More details here. He is around and about the Diocese today AND is having tea at Sarah's church so I'm hoping she'll have chance to tell him good things about the Diocesan Youth Adviser ;-)

I'd also like to register my thanks to the youth leaders and especially the young people who took part in the consultation process.

The i.e7 update has just reached my little corner of the web and it looks good. Having read loads of fellow bloggers saying that their banner now looked wonky (technical term) I was muchly relieved to find that my banner had not been monkeyed with (humour intended) at all. So Youthblog continues to look, well, Youthbloggy and people are still calling in to read it (or doing something very clever with the little orange box and getting it to come to them).

Looking at the Technorati stats I have discovered there are 49,000 bloggers in the world who are more interesting than me (boo) but then thats in relation to 55,000 000 bloggers (hurray) so I guess I can still hold my head up if I get invited to a dinner party :-) ...... A thought occurs though, maybe bloggers blog because we don't get invited to dinner parties!
I also note that Chris is overtaking me in terms of UK's most prolific Youth Ministry blogger! I'd like to extend my congratulations ...... oh AND challenge him to a html duel !

I'm away for the weekend but next week have some bloggy thoughts to air on Tweenagers, advent, Christmas and consumerism. I also hope that the run up to Christmas will provide a rich vein of humour to tap into.

Groovy Advent wishes (all appearing via the new Clear Type of i.e7) and hope that the round of Youth group parties, Advent services et al are coming together well.

A friend of mine (whose secret blogging identity I ought to protect) has started blogging from time to time as Admiral Dick at Home-Port. He works in a bookshop and has posted reveiws of books based soley on their covers which I think is genius, and makes me laugh.
Well worth a read and it may encourage him to post a bit more often. I also half-inched the picture below from his site!

Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

I'm not even trying to write a whole book, just half of one (and a very small one at that) but it's really difficult, I can't believe that people do this for a living! I've got certain parts of the process nailed i.e Having a coffee, laying out pens and books, making another coffee, sitting at the computer thoughtfully for a while before going to get another coffee. It's just the ACTUAL writing bit that's proving tricky. I can churn out Blog posts faster than the West Cornwall Pasty Co. turns out pasties, but Chapters of books, NO!
The book(let) is on Tweenagers, a subject which I've read extensively on and trained youth and Childrens workers in, SO I've just got to write some of that stuff down, I'll go and do and that then. (Just going to grab a coffee first).

Just picked up the authoring equivalent of a "Get out of Jail free card" ..... The editorial meeting tomorrow that was looming over me like the Sword of Damocles has been postopned. Yes, yes yes! Hurrah :-)

I was at a youth event on Sunday morning where the 'round up' at the end included this line,

"speak to an adult or one of the youth workers!"

I wondered whether making these two catergories exclusive was a slip of the tongue or a profound truism!

It was the first day of Advent and the photo shoot prior to the Launch of 'Porpoise Led Christmas Ministry' was going well.