December 2008 Archives

To all my friends scattered across the Blogosphere and beyond, here's wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a great start to whatever the adventure of 2009 will be for you. Thanks for your company this year and for all that you have taught me, thanks too for joining in with the laughter and the silliness!

I'm not going to be blogging now until the New Year .......... we'll re-group then, eh!

I thought it would be fitting to include the shed (this will have to be 'Shedding the tradition 6' as KTvS pointed out that I had missed that one out) and a bit of poetry .........

"And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine"

Thirty second re-telling of the Nativity, ht to Chris

In the Nineteen nineties, my Youth work heroes were often described, at conference introductions, as being, Veteran Youth Workers. This badge of 'veteran' is kind of vague and I think it is largely conferred for having worked with young people for many many years, and for having greying (or no) hair. Having worked with young people for twenty five years now I've been looking out for signs that, in terms of longevity, I may be earning the prefix, veteran!

Having said that apart from the greying hair ... and that it takes me longer to recover from a residential event, what are the signs one looks for?

I may have spotted one I think though at the Youth Group Christmas Party! My response to the comestibles was a definite pointer towards veteranism. The food there consisted of chocolate fingers, crisps and cakes, accompanied by Lemonade or Coke. Back in the day this would have constituted the three main food groups for me and an excellent choice of beverage. I did however this time find myself thinking, oh I'd love a cup of coffee and a decent sandwich!

Happily though, I still LOVED the malarky and fun of the party and the young people were, as ever, wonderful company and completely and wonderfully CraazZZy.

During Youthblog's first Christmas I threw down the gauntlet and challenged fellow blog dwellers to find the worst nativity scene that t'internet could yield. The results were both amusing and alarming, with ever more cringe-worthy examples making an appearance annually since.

Ship of Fools have posted this truly surreal Bath Duck Nativity?

Even cooler though, Marko today has posted twenty examples of this 'art form'
Enjoy?

The newspapers this morning have much to say about Dr Rowan Williams views on separation of Church and State. A number of the papers though also pick up that in the same interview he revealed one of his favourite films was, "Muppet Christmas Carol"
For the record: I agree with his position on both of the above!

For overly-wordy quiz lovers everywhere, identify the Carol or Christmas song title:

1. Move hitherwards, the entire assembly of those who are steadfast.
2. Ecstasy towards the terrestrial sphere.
3. Hush, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.
4. Creator, cool it, you kooky cats.
5. O sanctified ebony atmosphere.
6. The thing manifested itself at the onset of a transparent day.
7. Embellish the interior passageways.
8. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic resonant cups.
9. Hey, minuscule urban area south of Jerusalem.
10. Nocturnal time span of unbroken quietness.
11. Us, the autocratic troika
12. The primary carol.
13. Natal celebration devoid of colour, as in a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
14. Valentino, the roseate proboscis wapiti.
15. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionist cylinders.
16. O nativity conifer.
17. During the time ovine caretakers supervised their charges past midnight.
18. What offspring abides thus?
19. Removed in a bovine feeding trough.
20. Expectation of arrival at a populated area by mythical, masculine, perennial gift-giver.
21. Fantastical vista during the season of Mother Nature's dormancy.
22. Proceed to declare something upon a specific geographical Alpine formation.
23. Obese personification fabricated of compressed spheres of minute crystals.
24. Jovial Yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us.
25. Thoracic-Squirrel diet being barbecued

I've been given a BIG TV and Stand! It is a CRT not a flat screen BUT it's a really good one. If there is a youth group that can use it for Wii, DVD or the like then let me know and you can have it! (no cost but you'll need to collect it from Oxford or Newbury)

I doubt there are many youth workers who have not at some time or another used the Blob tree or other Blob tools. They are the work of Youth work legend Pip Wilson and have become one of the quintessential tools of group work!

I'm aware that many of the times I encounter Blob sheets they have been photocopied from photocopies that have in turn been copied millenia before.

Here's a chance therefore to buy the BIG book of Blob feelings then you can, work from source and importantly give Pip some of the royalties he really deserves!

You'll find Pip's blog here

I've just discovered there has been an enormous problem with the comments on the blog.

There is a kind of electronic Gerbil that runs around the site sniffing out Spam and eating it before it appears on Youthblog. The Gerbil is normally quite compliant and happily ingests anything to do with Viagra, Russian brides or Time Share holidays. For reasons that escape me, its appetite has grown enormously and for the last week or more it has been eating EVERYTHING. If you've commented, then frustratingly, the Gerbil has gobbled it up.

I've managed to get it to regurgitate the last four days worth (and they are now on the blog) but anything before that is now just electronic Gerbil poop and unrecoverable.

I'm especially concerned that comments to the Where are they now post may have been lost. If you commented PLEASE could you re-scribble the gist of your thoughts.

Enormous apologies if yours is one of the comments that has not appeared, and please be assured that I have done some re-training of the Gerbil in order that your comments are food for thought and not fodder for the rodent.

(Fortunately the Hamster in charge of system power management is still performing well)

Urban Saints, CYFA and Scripture Union all have their hols brochures out now!

A Gingerbread Christmas shed! Not the most practical building material for the outside environment but probably the most easily recycled! (Plus it's got to be better than a plastic shed *shudder*)

CYM Nottingham are trying to collect impressions and ideas of what young people/families want from a youth worker etc in their Church! Info below

"It would be incredibly helpful if you could ask these questions of any of the young people and families you work with. (This might be in an informal group setting or by email.)

If there was a professional youth/childrens/schools worker in your church what would you want them to do?

1. What would they need to know to do the job?

3. What skills would they need to have?

We just want to get general impressions and ideas from the young people and families. In your reply, please remove all confidential information, but identify the group in general terms, stating age group, number and setting e.g. 'replies from a group of 6 young people aged 13-18 from a rural church youth group.'

PLEASE RETURN ALL REPLIES TO JANE CHEVOUS BY JAN 21ST"

On Saturday evening I was 'home alone' which is a very unusual occurrence! My good lady wife and my three wonderful offspring were at a concert and I therefore had the run of the fridge and in fact, the whole house, fab! There were many things I should have been doing, (finishing the decorating, writing Christmas cards etc etc etc), but a whole evening off demanded abandoning the 'should' and investigating the 'could!' A small amount of both musing and Whisky later and I hit on the idea of learning to play the piano! I was hopeful that with the aid of a book of simplified carol music (unearthed from the piano stool), google instructions and a bit of practice I would be able to meaningfully play, say, "God rest ye merry gentlemen" by the end of the evening.

I was staggeringly wrong in this assumption!

I vaguely remembered the notes on the treble clef ('Elephants Gallop Better During Funder') but had to look up the bass clef sequence on Google. Initially I set out trying to play with both hands but this was an unmitigated disaster so switched to one hand only. Even this was horrifyingly difficult and I was reduced to maniacally shouting out each note out in turn as I wildly dived for the correct key. After a while though this became quite good fun and I thoroughly enjoyed lurching through the carol trying to make it a little further each time (a kind of musical game of SIMON).

Twas a thoroughly good evening and although I have no idea of how you play the left hand part, let alone use the accelerator and brake pedals, I can now give a faltering (much simplified) one handed rendition of "God rest ye Merry Gentlemen" and "The First Nowell"

The funny thing was though. This morning I elected to go to the 11:00am service and not the 09:15, this turned out to be an enormously wasted opportunity! Apparently the pianist for the 09:15 had phoned in sick and there was no one to play the piano! Gutted, my potential moment of glory and I missed it :-(

Thought I'd post another one, see Venn that Tune:

Andrew of Venn that tune fame has designed some Christmas versions. They are available at Moo. This is my favourite:

Another Christmas shed, It's a great picture but I can only link to it because of copyright issues.

One of the arenas suggested that Youthblog could usefully explore was, "where are they now?" What has happened to youth workers who had trained on courses like CYM/Moorlands/Oasis, and also, what had former Church based youth workers gone on to do (and why)?

I'm hoping that the blog could be a useful platform for gathering some info. My thinking is this, all youth workers who read this blog know people who were in Christian youth work and no longer are, or know people who trained in this sector but work in another. If we can agree a few useful and insightful questions then we can send (and then gather) some responses.

So, as the starting point: What are the key questions and how would you phrase them? (having a sufficiently general and anonymous tone BUT gleaning some useful information)

If one of your intentions for 2009 is to get more to grips with the Bible then the Community of Readers website is a good place to check out. If you sign up you get e-mailed a reading plan, brief commentaries on some of the text and the chance to be in virtual community and discussion with your fellow readers.

Take on Leviticus and ACTUALLY finish it this time!

A shed shaped advent calender, what's not to love eh?

I love this old Connie Francis track, it has a seasonal feel good factor in shed loads! I dedicate this post to anyone who has ever had a brain-mushingly, irrationally, wonderfully love-smittenly ga-ga crush during Christmas, ever!

and talking of Cheesily wonderful Christmas music, here are some other gems:

God rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by the Barenaked ladies, from the Quirkily brilliant album, Barenaked for the holidays!
We wish you a Merry Christmas by the Muppets and John Denver!
Mary's Boy Child by the great Boney M ....... feel good present wrapping accompaniment since 1978

and in case there are other veteran youthworkers out there who are also TOGS, Sir Terry and Aled singing Little Drummer Boy!

"Our Ultimate Stakeholder, who art an avatar in cyberspace,
a big respect from the brothers.
In the long-term scenario your sphere of influence will take over big time.
Your mission statement will be expedited pan-globally,
as it is off-planet.

Standard"

By Frances Farrer, The Oxford Writer, Number 47, November 2008.

I love what 'Beyond' are doing in Brighton this year, they are running a day by day advent calender using beach huts! And as beach huts are really sheds .......... I'm adding this to the Christmas sheds series :-)

The web site of Beyond is here with pictures of each of the huts (so far) and here is the BBC South piece on the installations.

I've just listened to Podcast number 2 from the crew at Youth work magazine and really enjoyed it.
In an inspired move they managed to involve Pip Wilson as a guest, he both contributed to and shaped the podcast, pointing to the importance of feelings and stories, great fun.
I liked the way too that the 'cast had a visual resource in the magazine (and on the screen if you have an i-pod) that connected in to the podcast.

I haven't had time to sit down and read this months mag' yet, the podcast is great in this respect as you can be doing other stuff at the same time; Kind of 'Youth work magazine .... the drive thru" Nice!

The Bible is not very specific about the building Jesus was born in. It is very clear that geographically it was Bethlehem, however the specific details after that are only where it wasn't, that is, "not in the Inn" (no room). Jesus was laid in a manger, we're told, leading to the Stable or Cave scenarios that were the staple of Christmas cards before they had the Simpsons and/or Father Christmas on.

My point being, there is nothing in the text to suggest that Jesus wasn't born in a shed, while textually very much allowing for the possibility! This thesis being further reinforced by the carol writers, "Once in Royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed"

So, in the run up to Christmas I plan to post pictures of Sheds that connect in with a Christmas theme! (Contributions welcome).

(ht to the readershed website)

I was roped into helping with Sunday School this weekend. We were looking at the Wise men and their visit to the Stable in Bethelhem (bit early I know). The Children's leader re-created the story in a way that appeared to lots of the senses including smell, yep ....we had genuine horse manure! Cool huh?

We then split up into groups and I was co-leading the 5 - 6 year olds with my wife. It was hilariously good fun and I now know that it is possible to have more tangents thrown in than by Tweenage groups. We had gold quality street wrappers, an Incense stick (not sure whether it was frank or not?) but struggled for Myrrh? (in the end we mixed a powder of Paprika, Tumeric and other random stuff and put it in a posh box).

Today, I am back to being a youth worker, phew!

A bit of Friday fun and chance to warm up the voal chords for youth group tonight. Have a bash at these two tongue twisters which will reduce you either to a warm glow of accomplishment or a fit of the frustrated giggles. Enjoy!

A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree.
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad's heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn't please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.

or, arguably even more challengingly (and ht to My Small Boat for this)

Carolyn Wells The Flute Tutor

A tooter who tooted a flute
tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tooter,
"Is it harder to toot, or
to tutor two tooters to toot?"

Although we are well into Advent I thought I'd flag up some stuff that may be either fun or useful.

There are a great selection of ideas/links that Jonny Baker has found, you'll find this here. Steve Tilley meanwhile has pointed to an advent countdown of cosmic proportions.
If you are into craft, I thought this matchbox advent calender idea was great (may have to save this one for next year though)

If you would like to read a daily reflection then I highly recommend Hopeful Imagination.

Some Christmas story media resources that I really like, The Bible Society have put together this great little piece called The Real Story, and similarly themed (but funnier) is Retooning the Nativity by Ignite. Brian and Jacob have flagged up this video of the unoffical Christmas truce that happened between the trenches in 1914.

If you are in the U.S of A you can download a free Christmas MP3 track each day from Amazon, info here! (Won't work for us on this side of the pond, I tried!)

image by the very creative Ben Bell

Les sent me this link for these tongue-in-cheek Top Trump cards. The 'Church of England' and the 'Born Again' were too good not to share:

Amaze and Youthwork the partnership have put together an initiative called, 'We love our youth worker!' It is a charter that Churches can sign up to, those that do so, agree to seven promises that will affirm, bless and help their youth worker.
Although it is not, I understand, officially launched until next year, it is very much around now as postcards promoting it were available at the Youthwork conference, and it's on the very useful schoolswork site. So I thought I'd flag up the seven promises AND the rather brilliant illustrations by Dave walker!

1. we will pray and support
2. we will give space for retreat and reflection
3. we will provide ongoing training and development
4. we will give a full day of rest each week
5. we will share responsibility
6. we will strive to be an excellent employer
7. we will celebrate and appreciate

Good stuff eh? I hope it will be a useful aid to churches thinking through employment issues. I'm pretty sure too that if it catches on, adverts bearing the charter mark will be the first ones looked at.

Reflecting on this though I was thinking that we as youth workers are not always the easiest of employees. I got to wondering therefore about what the seven commitments of employed youth workers might be as a corollary charter that we aim to stand by?

I was in conversation with a wonderful bunch of youth workers on Monday and we kicked this idea around for a while. This was our brief initial stab at a, "We love our Church" Charter

1. we commit to managing our time effectively
2. we will celebrate that our church has invested so much in youth work
3. we will communicate what is happening and what we are doing
4. we will try not to be control freaks
5. we will be teachable
6. we will listen
7. we will invest in a family, spiritual and social life outside of the youth ministry

I was also playing with an idea of how we honour the history of our the employing church as part of our role in it's now and future, we didn't however manage to tidy and define this idea well.

Anyway ............ what would you add or take away from this speculative youth worker side of a charter?

My daughter and I were out together for breakfast and she was laughing at the posters for the brand of coffee they served. One of them looked like a Photoshop disaster as the coffee appeared to remain immune to the effects of gravity.

However on checking the web site it seems that it is in fact so strong that it remains solidly in place even at more extreme angles.

I flag it up as one of the Youthblog readers, Giles in the Community, would appreciate coffee that strong and may want to check it out :-)

I wonder if anyone else has watched "Outnumbered" on the BBC? It's a sitcom that's part scripted and part improvised by the family of two adults and three children (oh and a Grandad). I've been watching it via the BBC i-player and loving it. The cast are all superb actors (the performance of the children especially is extraordinary) and it manages to give the programme a 'reality TV' type air but with enormous (and natural) humour and for the most part subtlety. This is a superb piece of television!

The complexities, joys and challenges of the culture of democratic parenting are so well explored in this programme, it's a piece of 21st Century angst, joy and life.

If you get chance, check it out. As a starting point I would particularly recommend epsiode 2 of the current series! Painfully funny.

Friday night was the 'Christmas Bazaar' at my eldest son's school. The Bazaar is a chaotic and wonderful occasion when the children (and I) are let loose with pocket money to explore the various fund raising stalls. Great fun!

I made an early beeline for the 'Bottle Tombola,' always a highlight. The stall is a positive cornucopia of liquid beverages of all varieties, each displaying a number that ends in a '0' or a '5!' One pound buys you 4 tickets from the bucket, any that end with a '5' or '0' nets you the corresponding prize.
(Now last year had not provided much success, I came home with an Italian Liqueur that was a disgusting nutty cream based syrup of stupefying horribleness). So, this year, having spotted a single malt whisky among the varied prizes I handed over my pound.
The 4th ticket produced a winner! Although not the '105' that would have elicited the Glenmorangie, I did at least have a nice bottle of wine, a Pinot Grigio. I explored the book stall then invested in a cup of tea and a mince pie before heading back to the bottles to have one more crack at drawing '105' and appropriating the Whisky (ever the optimist). However as I queued the lady before me drew the magic ticket and snared MY bottle. I must have inadvertently let out a sigh as she turned round and asked, "do you, like whisky?"
I admitted that I was partial to a wee dram.
She then looked at the bottle of Pinot Grigio I was holding and said, "I hate whisky ..... I'll swap it for your bottle of wine if you like!"

How cool is that? I had a huge grin on my face!

However, my good lady wife has been ill with a flu like thing since Saturday, she has, as a result, been drinking hot Lemon drinks to which she adds copious amounts of the Glenmorangie (for its medicinal purposes).

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away

Many thanks for all the ideas for blog posts, you've set out some great ideas (and made me laugh). I've definitely got a renewed impetus for blogging as a result so watch this space!

I particularly liked the advice that if I got my 'shed' right, the rest would follow! It was also good to see two tensions emerging that would be fertile ground in which the blog could plough, those were: 1. youth work vs youth ministry, and 2. Apex sheds vs Pent sheds!
Roy made me laugh with his tongue-in-cheek suggestion that I could cover Grammar?! By my calculation there are over six and half billion people that have a better grasp of grammar than me; hey, ho?.

On a serious note though, you flagged up a lot of interesting themes which I look forward to doing battle with here via posts and comment.

(Blogging will re-start in earnest tomorrow. I have been dog-tired
today as a number of the tribe called Macdonald have been down with the
lurgy over the weekend, meaning I've been busy as a household
technician and domestic practicioner, as well as the nights being quite
broken. On top of this at 2am this morning my eldest boy shouted for me. I pleadingly replied, "Please .... just go back to sleep" But his reposte of, 'Dad, it's really really important,' had me worried so I had to check!
However it was just an elaborate trap and when alongside me he gleefully launched into, "Pinch-Punch first of the month ..... I got you!"
It was a LOL moment and was actually quite impressed with the
skullduggery involved in this successful attempt to beat me to the
pinch-punch marker at the start of the month, I did however note that
our first-of-the-month game might be getting too competitive. )

Advent greetings.
Shalom!