STOP PRESS: Next Network Meeting. June 5th, Oakwood centre near Bracknell. We'll be doing the usual catch up, prayer, eating and encouragement AS WELL as seeing what the centre could offer to groups we work with. OH AND we'll be doing a high ropes and low ropes course :-)
Made me laugh
Not sure I agree*, but I love it
ht to Tim
* Maybe if you are talking about working with churches
Claire of Hereford has been invited to speak to gazillions of bods from across CYM about her reflections on the CYM degree and how well it equipped her for her role. She's asking other alumni now in Church based roles for their thoughts and reflections ..... go share your experience.
Another weird thing about McDonalds that affects me is this. Nearly all of them have BT openzone wireless internet, so I can drop in grab a coffee and pick up my e-mails when I'm out and about being Diocesan Youth Adviser bloke. But the McDonalds branches are made with so much glass it's more like being in a greenhouse and hence virtually impossible to see the laptop screen! I can get the e-mails, I just can't actually read them. So if you ever in McDonalds and wondering who the weird bloke is who has built some sort of shield like thing around the screen out of a rucksack, a menu and a tray, ....... it's me :-)
(Full Monday Splurge to follow later)
I'm running a session at a group tonight and I'm going to be exploring, "What is authentic?"
With so much 'stuff' being more about image than substance I thought we could have some fun with that and then be looking at what Authentic Christianity is?
I'm trying to come up with some contrasts in terms of bands, fashion, TV etc where there's an example of the authentic (really is what it claims to be) and the inauthentic (no substance or reality to match the claim or image), any ideas?
I'm going to use Dasani as one example (The mineral water that Coke launched in the UK that turned out to be just tap water and contained a potential carcinogen)
The video below was made by K2, a youth group in the Diocese. I love it :-)
It's called 'Christian?'
Chatting with a friend yesterday we were discussing experiences of belonging to Bible Study groups. Although the vast majority of our stories were really positive we had both experienced the type of Bible study where there are set questions that are designed to lead to the 'correct' answer. You know the kind of thing, where people all respond until someone comes up with the set answer and everyone beams securely in this affirmation of faith and life certainty.
My friend had inadvertently discovered how to tell if you were in this kind of scenario. If, she discovered, you asked a searching question or gave an off the wall answer, there would immediately be a gasp and a collective leap to head off the potential 'danger.'
For example, if you were to enquire say, "Do people go straight to heaven?"
You'd hope that the response might be, "why do you ask that?" and/or "Lets have a look together at what the Bible says" and/or "That's something that quite a few people have wrestled with."
While the closed Bible study might look frightened and leap in with, "Yes of course they do!"
We decided that bowling in a tricky question or an off-the-wall answer could be an important thing to do in order to ascertain whether the group you were part of were open to grappling with the Bible or merely wanted to live in the black and white safety of pre-prescribed answers. In honour of my friend I'm going to name this testing process as the Bosworth Googly!
Your job is to throw in a Bosworth googly at your next Bible study to test this in non laboratory conditions! Have fun :-)
It's also worth noting that if you are leading discussion with teenagers then there will always be Bosworth Googlies! How you handle these will very much dictate whether trust is established and whether real discussion will take place. Sometimes they are genuine questions that may sound off-the-wall to you, BUT often too there will be deliberate absurdity; either way though how you handle the googly will dictate whether the discussion that follows flys or crashes and burns!
"There has been a blurring between the chronological adolescence of youth and the psychological adolescence of much adult culture"
"Without adequate time for rest, we lose the ability to be fully present"
Ruth Haley Barton
Greetings Earthlings!
Hope all is tickety boo with your good selves. Here's the usual splurge of stuff that I hope may possibly vaguely be of some use to you:
The CRE (the Marmite of Christian resourcing i.e you either love it or hate) is on from May 15th - 18th at Sandown. (Urban Saints are looking for some help on their stand if you know the organization and have some time free).
If you into Parachute games with any of the groups you work with then you may like to know that the Oxford Army Surplus shop has some stock of pukka military silk parachutes (infinitely better than the 'play chutes' you can buy). Costing from about £60 - £100.
June 23rd is next Vertigo. Cafe team anyone? (More fun that zero gravity, more rewarding than premium bonds and harder work than PCC meetings).
The uber funky St Laurence in Reading are after a youth worker. Details on their web site.
The Get Real Camp, Scripture Union 14-20th August for 14-16 year olds has some places left they'd love to fill. More details from: Claire Jones
If you've ever wondered what the shoes from Ephesians 6 look like, I assume this is the answer. (although maybe they'd be more dynamic at getting out there with the good news if they were heelies?)
Oh and a personal PS. Has anyone got an old Vodafone or O2 phone in a drawer they are willing to sell? My eldest boy managed to drop his into the sink!!! Because of his cerebral palsy it needs to be a relatively straight forward one that isn't too fidly ....... hence the quest for a slightly outdated one.
A while back myself and several others linked to this INSANE video of a human slingshot. As far as I can track down its something a guy built on his ranch in Utah for a bit if fun and 'entertaining' his guests. The video now appears on GodTube entitled Christian Youth Camp Slingshot!
As far as I can tell there are absolutely no facts to link it with a Christian youth camp, all pointers are to a ranch in Utah.
ALSO, I'm sure that no Youth Minister would be that reckless with young people in their care, and if it were a youth camp then there would be other teenagers standing round encouraging, whooping and shouting FOR SURE!
So I reckon someone saw it on YS Marko /Youthblog/ et al, lifted it without checking and just assumed. The dangers of the web (and Christians appropriating stuff regardless of the facts) ho hum!
The PCC were into their fourth hour and item 17, "changing the colour of the newsletter" was nowhere near reaching consensus, (the "it should stay yellow" lobby remaining firmly entrenched)
I loved this story about the evolution of the Worlds Most Dangerous Bible Study and how through prayer and willingness to change one guy stumbled into youthwork principles that had a huge ministry impact. Cool.
"Beware equally of an undevotional theology and of an untheological devotion".
Bishop Handley Moule (a 19th Century Anglican bishop)
ht to Sam Harvey
Driving back from a Youth Ministry Meeting thing last night I stumbled across a brilliant new show on Radio 2 (This is not a contradiction in terms, you cynics). From Monday through Thursday, starting last night, Maconie and Radcliffe co-present a live show that plays GREAT eclectic music, blends a silliness about life and a seriousness about music seemlessly, and is just a fab piece of radio!
also: Stuart Maconie has one of the best titled autobiographies around, it's about his life in the music business and called, Cider with Roadies!
Here's the news as it breaks, is broken or is just a bit cracked. The national stuff is first with the Diocesany Stuff in the 'continue reading' bit.
But first an important News Flash: Yellow Braces is REALLY filling up fast, more so for the girls than the boys. There are about 6 girls places and 15 boys spaces left. My apologies, the bookings have really flooded in while I have been away and we've had LOTS of new people, churches come on board.
Nationally:
Firstly a really interesting piece of research from Tear Fund on Religious allegiance and attitudes to Church Download file. LICC are running an event on April 24th called Journies and Stories looking at research on how, in todays culture, people become christians. They are also running a day on May 22nd on Strategic Schools work but I can't find it on the web site?
JRF have published a useful evaluation of the changing paterns of work, it's called Work-rich and Work-poor and the link gives a good summary.
There's an interview here around understanding slang and hip hop words, it's fun (and mainly relevent to America) but there some good analysis in there about Global language and influence.
RURAL YOUTH conference. 17th May in Derby
A couple of websites to check out: Christian Youth Group and God Teens
Interesting piece in the Guardian about schools and parents placing too much emphasis on drugs and not enough on drinking and smoking. Article here.
Good reminder for the need for this diaogue to happen in relationship AND be connected with the real needs and issues, not just focused on Societal worries.
I'm sure that the Latin in the title is not quite correct but hey it sounds pukka. There is a theory that folk (like me) who are from Birmingham should be naturally good at Latin as we instinctively use the verb endings! For instance the Brummy verb signifying surprise at what is being said, Hark-at-him, Hark-at-her Hark-at-us!
Anyway I'm back! I went, I saw, I skied :-) Before I get back into the serious business of Youth Ministry I thought I'd blather on a bit about my two weeks:
The Ski trip was a blast. I only wiped out three times (and they were all on the same day) and considering that we were well into April the snow was great with a BIG fresh fall of the stuff on the Tuesday, nice! The Swiss coped well with my German and humoured me by nodding at what I was saying, the mountains were stunning and 
Adelboden itself was a funky place to be. I had a day skiing above the cloud which was so cool (see photo) and a day in the most bewildering, disorientating whiteout I have ever experienced (see photo*)
In terms of the ministry stuff (thanks for your prayers) all went OK and although the age range and after dinner setting of the evening meetings was less than ideal, it was good to be worshipping and exploring Holy Week together.
Family Holiday at Butlins was great fun, lots of time on the beach, oh and managed to infiltrate 'Spring Harvest' too (The evening Family worship was fabulous).
*This is a recreation of the view from the main slope of everyone skiing and the mountain backdrop
