May 2007 Archives

ht to Pip

I am trying to look at trends in youth work, wanting to take a bit of a pulse to identify where the heartbeat is at the moment and where it's flowing. I have asked the collective wisdom of the federation of Diocesan Youth Work bods and I'm now asking the question here too?
What do you think?
Trends, changes, becoming history, the future?

I hope you'll forgive the glimpse into the inner workings of "The tribe called Macdonald" but I wanted to mention that its the birthday of my youngest, he's 7 today! My daughter and I made him a sword (which I'm rather chuffed with). His other present was some Meccano, he opened the wrapping and in a VERY VERY happy and excited voice said,

"Wow, I've waited my whole life for this!"

I just thought you should know that hyperbole is alive and well in our household.
Happy Birthday son

We've just had our annual meeting of the trustees of The Woolhope Cockshoot Christian residential centre, the funkiest SMALL residential centre within the Western Spiral. I've taken the chance to update the flyer, if you want one then you can download it new woolhope leaflet 2009b for e-mailing.pdf or e-mail for a snail mailed hardcopy. If you are thinking of taking your youth group on a weekend away It's also possible to arrange a visit and tour :-)

For those who know the centre, plans now include finding some money to re-do the bathrooms, make the Bakehouse safe and at some point replace the boiler. All a challenge when the centre only generates £10k a year BUT that's never been a barrier with developments so far.

Phil tagged me on a photo thang. The challenge being to post 4 photos without explanation that give a kinda picture of who you are:

Blog Update: Spam continues to be a problem (Grrrr) and I've had to switch off 'comments' from some older entries, this goes against the grain a bit but it is effective. The anti-Spam-bot on Moveable type needs to gain a few extra I.Q points as it lets quite a bit of stuff slip through, you'd think "Nice Site" would be a dead giveaway but the software doesn't.

Encouragingly though, Youthblog had visits from 52 different countries in the last 10 days, weird but Cool! I added a widget thingy on the sidebar that records where people virtually arrive from. Admittedly some will have only come to half-inch pictures BUT it's funky anyway! I'm hoping that Luxembourg and Ecuador will put in an appearance today :-).

Have you noticed that Technorati has changed? They no longer put "number of links" by the data on how many sites link to you, instead they put, "Authority". This made me laugh as it seems a bit like, TOP TRUMPS. So if you are playing a game, Youthblog: Authority 82 This sounds quite good until you look at the other Top Trump data and find there are over 56,676 blogs that are more interesting than this one, LOL!

I dropped my PDA this weekend :-( and the Screen has gone Pete-Tong, this is BAD news from an organisational point of view! I thought you should know as you can then watch my general descent into chaos as I try to keep an Outlook diary and a paper diary sync'd :-) I did like this possible recycling idea though that would at least maintain its calculator function:

If you are a leader within a Youth group and if you take groups on residentials then PLEASE can you answer these questions via comment or e-mail .....

1. All things considered do you prefer to take your group to a centre that caters and provides activities or a venue where it's down to you and your group? (and Why?)
2. Has your use of centres in the last few years seen a shift in focus?
3. How many young people do you take away at a time?
4. What are the age ranges on residentials that you run?
5. How far do you travel to residential centres that you use?

This follows on from some earlier questions that I asked and is VERY VERY useful. Many thanks for your help and I will be sending a copy of "Happy in My Skin" to a random respondent, lacking, as I do, access to Blue Peter Badges.

Shalom :-)

In African understanding, the person is first identified in relationships. To be a person, male or female, is to have the gift of life and to belong in relationships. The primary relationship is an interpersonal kinship bond in which one could say:

"I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am."

Professor John Mbiti, Kenya.

ht to Michael

Is it possible to get a Christian book published at the moment if it hasn't got 'Mission' in the title?

oh and the rumour that the Macdonald/Hassall book on Tweenagers has been reneamed "Mission Shaped Mission to Tweenagers, a Missiological Exploration" is mostly untrue!

Over on Mustard Seed Shavings, Steve Tilley has been posting an ongoing cryptic quiz where each clue is a different band or artist name. This has been occupying quite a bit of my driving time as I try to crack them. You have to have a look BUT I warn you they are pretty brutal, this is my favourite:

"There is no light on in the house. Nevertheless the strange half human male/half bird of prey creature who lives there can be heard using the vacuum cleaner"

I reckon you could have some fun with these on minibus trips with the youth group, especially getting the group to devise their own!

Oh and if you want the answer to the above click on continue reading
but be prepared to cringe :-)

On Sunday evening I was somewhere near the top of the Diocese at a place called Woughton (near Milton Keynes) to go to FREEDOM, a Youth Service that flows from the Youth Work at Woughton. It Rocked!

I was reflecting on the Service and trying to work out why it had made such an impression on me, thunks so far:

1. A number of older people who were there (I mean older than me) participating and worshiping alongside the young people.
2. The depth and quality of the music from the Youth Band and how much practice/thought must have gone into the weaving together of the worship.
3. The Preacher being 15! She was awesome and spoke powerfully and honestly about her life and journey to faith, then used the Bible and experience to deliver a relevant challenge.
4. Humour and community were key components
5. The service had a theme which flowed through and linked everything together.

Now that's what I call exciting :-) Way to go Woughton

Low down is here and the opportunity to have your say!

If you want to make your blog a bit more gangsta, hip n street then try running it through the Gizoogle translator (but not if you are offended by bad language)

The long and the short of it being that although I can access the blog (sitting as I am now, in the BEST coffee shop in the whole of Oxford using their wi-fi) I have no access to e-mails. if you are trying to get an answer to something then please be patient and/or phone me on the mobile!

CAPTAINS LOG SUPPLEMENTAL: The power is back on and the Servers are able to do their funky e-mail routing type stuff. Hello World :-)

Fancy hosting a gig in October? I had an e-mail from The MacGregors to say they will be in the UK and are looking for opportunities to sing/minister at some Youth events! They are a sister and sister duo and have some impressive credits to their name, their web page is here. They'll be in the UK from October 1st - 15th with the first week mainly in London-ish and the second week in Oxford-ish. Click on continue reading for a fuller brief of what they do and are looking for ........

'Following the Spiderman 3 reviews posted by Youth Ministers, Spidey's
film career was effectively over. His income now being more or less
reliant on Street entertaining'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darren left a comment agreeing that SM3 that it wasn't as bad as all that AND to say he's written a discussion guide for the film, well worth a look and here it is!

Less usefully BUT quite funny (especially the EMO observation) is this list of what we learn from Spiderman 3!

Such as:

Volunteer Drivers Handbook from RoSPA which you'll find here

Starfield playing Milton Keynes on June 14th, details ............ there

A reminder that Fire Regs have changed and you can get more info by clicking on click

For the most part I avoid writing about Cycling BUT every now and again it just kinda happens. Regular reader(s) of Youthblog know that I ride a fast skinny road bike, a hardtailed Mountainbike and my folding bicycle (although not all at the same time you understand). My folder is a British built (yay) bike called a Brompton. This piece of kit goes nearly everywhere with me and is SO useful, folding as it does into a small package in under 20 seconds (and unfolding as fast) and riding in a zippy, fun and efficient manner. The folding market is seeing massive growth at the moment as these bikes are harder to steal (if you keep them with you, which you can), join transport options together (you can take them on buses and trains without hassle, or indeed being thrown off) and they are dead easy to store. Brompton have been producing their bikes as fast as they can while companies like Dahon have innovated and produced a wide range of folders. The holy grail though has been to make a bike that rides well, folds down to a small package AND folds quicker more efficiently than the Brompton. I think Bike Friday may have done it, check this out ...........

The instruction video is here. I've not ridden one yet so can't comment BUT it's genius is it not?

If you are wanting to look at some stuff around conflict then scoot over to Nigel's site and check out this outline, there is some great wisdom therein!

Here's all the little green blips on the Youthblog radar ..........

The Magazine JAM has just put out its 14th edition, they'd love you to order some copies for your group. Fuzz Kito is speaking at Shirley (West Midlands) on the 8th June, 10-1pm. E-mail for details. A new media company, FortyOneTwenty asked for a plug and as there's some useful looking stuff on there, I've given it a mention. The Methodist Church in this country has a FANTASTIC record of Youth Work and continues to impact young people, the Methodist Church however are about to significantly reduce support for youth work, if you think this is a bad idea then sign here!
Tim Schmoyer has put together an e-book of 130 tips for youth ministry, there's some great stuff in there that informs, inspires, corrects and challenges.

Download this FREE Ebook!

Also: I'm trying to compile the definitive record of youth work/schoools work (and related) conferences for 2008, need input? Send Info! Oh and is anyone going to the CRE on Friday? (yes, I know that lots of people will be going BUT anyone I know?)

I'm absolutely cream-crackered this morning as I spent virtually all of the weekend re-qualifying as a First Aider. Time flies though when your constantly thinking, evaluating and responding OR just lying in puddles being a casualty! (I was particularly proud of my interpretation of the 'broken neck' with bonus arterial bleeding from the leg).

This is the third time I've been trained by MWS delivering an ITC course in Outdoor First Aid - Incident Management and I rate the course and the trainers extremely highly indeed.
As ever there had been some changes since the last time I trained and CPR has changed again* radically, but actually become simpler (although more tiring). The compressions have now gone up to 30 for every 2 breaths, with the Cardiac arrest requirements changing to an emergency call BEFORE any rescue breaths.

*Did you know there is a UK Resuscitation Council?, It was a surprise to me BUT at least I know who to blame every time the numbers change!

Last night saw me at the cinema for Spiderman 3, I'd smuggled in a drink as I'm not sure you can buy a coke or lemonade without a Plantinum credit card, and I'd mentally prepared for the film being a disappointment (swayed as I was by the reveiws). Right as I was about the price of the drinks, I'm happy to say that I thought Spidey 3 was great. I admit it's a bit to long, it's kind of clunky in places and the dialogue lacks some finesse BUT it's an enjoyable outing if you are a Spiderman fan and I guess that I am. I also rate the acting and liked the humour.

It's central theme of "the battle within" and the choices each of the characters needs to make lacked some subtlety in delivery but gave an excellent thread running through the film, it also means the mileage for youth group discussion on choices, sin, hope, pride etc using this film are MAHOOSIVE! I also read that it was not very credible????? I'm not sure superhero films ever make sense (ok, apart from Batman Begins) and there are some holes in the logic, but Hey I'm not sure I want Superhero films to entirely add up!
I liked it, it's not as good as '2' but it'll probably be better than '4' and hey, it's Spiderman!

Watchability with the Youth Group:

Usability for discussion and illustration:

Really encouraging report from The Taize visit to Montreal.

In Apropos of nothing other than the 'A Team' rocked, here's Mr T helping to sell Snickers bars!

Had a blast yesterday afternoon when I was the recipient of some media training at Oxford Brookes. (This is the university, then a Poly, that 20 years ago, due to a computer error rejected me three times in the same week for the same course, but I'm largely over that now). The training was delivered through The communication training programme that runs out of Archbishops Council, the trainers Gillian Oliver and Andrew Greystone were excellent.

Anyway the training was a blast. We did outside TV interviews and spent time in the Radio Studio on a phone in programme. As ever I loved thinking on my feet and working out the best way to respond BUT the playbacks really showed how much more there is to know and how easy it is to look/sound like a complete Muppet.
Interestingly one of the key themes was the same as in preaching, selling, communicating generally i.e use story, paint a picture with story, be anecdotal. It was funny to see how boring a factual recital was, especially on TV. It also brought home how important it is to REALLY know your core message and to be able to deliver it concisely and to have anticipated what other stuff is going to crop up, like it or not.
I'm clearer now that I need to work hard in advance on the prep AND ensuring I know exactly what the format, length of piece, interviewers angle is before committing anything to 'tape'
Meanwhile on the blog, I'll continue to blather

This is Ian Macdonald, live from the Loft at Church House ....... back to you in the studio :-)

eeeeek, a thousand apologies to all Youthblog Commenters whose comments have not been appearing on the site.

The site has been hit by a sustained Spam attack while my Spam filter seems to have gone all Spiderman 3 on me, discovering it's evil side. It seems to have been allowing a lot of Spam through while relegating all my blog friends to the junk box AND not telling me. I thought it was odd that no-one had commented for a few days. I've spent a happy hour or so trawling through the junk and hopefully retrieved all the missing stuff.

You have to check out Fd's Flickr Toys! ...... trust me on this, it's a couple of clicks beyond awesome, the dial goes all the way up to 11 on this one.

You don't even need to be a Flickr user (although there are some tools that are Flckr specific), you can work from images on your hard disk and this site will turn them into Motivational posters (great for a laugh), art work, magazine covers etc etc etc. Whatever publicity you are working on at the moment, a few minutes on this site and you'll be able to add some real kazazz to what your doing!

(The examples here are from running pics through the Warhol and the Hockney art generators)

The other site that is worth flagging up is Slideshare. This will mainly be useful to fellow blog dwellers as one of it's chief weapons is being able to hoover up a Powerpoint presentation then re-rendering it as a reduced size slide show that can be embedded into a web site. Genius!
I've run out of time to demo this one so here's my Warhol'd Youthblog logo instead via Fd's Flickr Toys.

I like this site, a lot! (If you've got similarly useful sites then please let me know about them)

Brilliant campaign by Greenpeace that's trying to get Apple to stop lagging so far behind on Green issues and start being a leader! As so many Youth Ministry bods and Emerging types are Mac-minded, I thought I should flag it up!

Drum Roll please! I'd like to announce a new feature on this dusty corner of the world wide web:

From this moment forth you'll find a page where I put all the job advertisements for Youth Ministers, Church based Youth Workers and the like. You can click here or just glance to the right where you'll see the link (or up and right once this becomes an old entry). If you've got a job you want includes then just shout (actually, e-mail) and I'll post it.
There is no charge for this service BUT obviously if as a Church you do want to pay me 5% of year one salary as a recruitment fee I shall not mind too much :-)

Ignore this next bit as I'm going to spout relevant words for the Search engine. Youth Ministry Jobs, recruiting Parish based youth workers, youthwork positions and posts available. Jobs page for Youth Pastors, Youth and Community Workers, Christian Youth and Family specialists. (Well I did tell you to ignore this paragraph).

I liked this on re:Jesus! It's by Jude Simpson and would be be a good discussion starter .......

You won't find Jesus on Myspace

Jesus doesn’t have a Myspace page.
He doesn’t sit at his personal computer
for hours
making lists
of his favourite lists.

Jesus doesn’t have a Myspace page.
He hasn’t composed a profile
which sums him up in fifty excruciatingly well-chosen words,
making him sound like God’s gift.

Jesus doesn’t have a Myspace page.
and he doesn’t get worked up
at how both Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise
both list him as their number one friend
in the world ever,
or that they schmooze him daily
by email
to try and get him to make them his
number one friend in the world ever
in return.

Jesus isn’t even particularly bothered
that both Madonna and Michael Jackson
have already appropriated “the Messiah” as their MySpace i.d.
Jesus doesn’t have to prove himself electronically.
He doesn’t have a funky alias.
like sinforgiver or waterwalkingdude.
He hasn’t listed his interests
as home brewing,
complementary medicine, and
extreme fishing.

Jesus won’t email you every week
with a “hilarious” new photo
of him wearing a funny outfit,
or a video of his pet goldfish doing synchronised swimming across the sea of Galilee.

Jesus is not the sort of friend who instant-messages you
twice a year to say, “hey we should meet up some time!”

cont ......
See the Re:Jesus page for the rest of this piece

While my daughter shares my love of words and of utilising precisely the right term in any given sentence, my youngest boy communicates far more with gesticulation and sound effect in order to add emphasis to his vocabulary.

At lunch today my wife and I happened to use the word 'flexibility' and my youngest said excitedly that they'd done 'that word' at school and proceeded to define the word using a combination of mime and sound effects. Pursuing his understanding of the subject we asked if he'd learned any other words related to 'flexibility'. He said there'd been another one (long pause while he retrieved the information from his head), it begain, he said, "with ...... Richard"

I was stumped for a few seconds before I realised that the word in question was, rigid!'
I suspect that this will immediately become part of our family folklore with calls for people to be more flexible about things and hence much less Richard!

In the best traditions of corny Star Wars jokes*, 'May the 4th be with you.'
In the best Anglican traditions**, 'and also with you.'

Anyway the news:

Soul Net retreat is back again next year (and I'm thinking of going). It's at Elveden Forest Centre Parcs from Feb 1st - 4th and all the details are here. Leave a message if you may be up for going.

The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services are doing some research into the JNC in terms of how understood it is and what effect it has. If you would like to contribute then please e-mail me and I'll forward you the gumph.

Diocesan Stuff: Yellow Braces is now full for girls but there are some boys spaces left. Next Network meeting for employed Youth Workers is June 5th. Vertigo is June 23rd. Also I need a volunteer to write "Youth Work" view for the Diocesan Newspaper this month (thanks).

Via Sarah, the Star Wars orchestra made me laugh :-)

*Other examples being where the two robots go their separate ways and the question hangs in the air, "Will R2D2 See 3PO again?" and the reasonably funny, "I have felt your presents Luke!"

** Too numerous to mention

I was training a bunch of youth leaders last week and there was a leader who had never been a teenager! Seriously, he hadn't. I'm not denying he'd been through adolescence but as he was 85 he was long done with being teen-age before the term teenager was ever used. I mention this for no particular reason other than it amused me. The other funny thing was that he spoke to me at the end of the session to chastise me on my poor spelling, whoops!

A brief mention of McDonalds, in a previous post, inevitably meant that the, 'are gherkins evil?' debate cropped up again (this is one of those veja du* conversations) and needs addressing. So, with tongue firmly in cheek, a theological reflection:

The Gherkin: Several Christians question the presence of the gherkin within the Cheeseburger (or indeed without) and venture as far as seeing it as evil, or at least a post-fall food stuff. The gherkin is of course a small (pickled cucumber) and only mentioned once in the Bible [Numbers 11:5] where it is given as an example as one of the things the Israelites miss about being in bondage in Egypt. Theologically 'Egypt' is always a picture of the world (the rescue of the Israelites by God being a picture of our own redemption) and of slavery to the world system. Cucumbers and hence gherkins are therefore theologically rooted in 'The World' (in the theological not geographical sense). This would be enough to castigate the gherkin to theologically non-acceptable foodstuffs, however adding in Johns words, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" [1 Jon 2:15] then it is clear the gherkin is a non-christian, wordly, forbidden and dangerous vegetable! QED, LOL :-)

*veja du is the feeling that you'll probably be there again