March 2009 Archives

I've blogged before on Churches linking together and running an 'Open Crowd festival' in and for the community. Fusion are working with the Churches in Wheatley (Oxfordshire) to run one on April 25th! Willing volunteers would be welcome, plus it's a good chance to find out more ......

Contact Guy

A hardcore Rabbit in a 'don't be messing with me and by the way get OFF my land' encounter with a snake.

I present to you, Bunbo:

ht to Chris (Maybe the Rabbit had been reading Eldridges "Wild at heart" and was tired of turning the other Whisker)

The ski trip loometh and I'm having fun praying, scribbling and thinking about the talks. I've put together some stuff on 'mountains' for short reflective pieces (based on the comments when I first blogged this) but the talks themselves are still a bit elusive.

I was struck by the idea of 'community' that was also suggested (thanks) and have been reflecting on this and looking at spirituality, new monastacism and culture. I'm wondering about speaking about spiritual disciplines BUT in a way that feels encouraging not loading or guilt-inducing. But how?

I've also been playing with the idea of Christianity being counter-intuitive, 'love your neighbour,' not being controlled by 'the flesh' etc etc. Linked to this I've also been reflecting on the conundrums and contradictions of the Christian Faith, eg (thinking out loud here) that Christianity is about surrender and effort, blessing and suffering.

So, what do you think of these ideas?
Can you think of other conundrums and contradictions that are held in tension within the faith?
Have you any useful links?

Thanks, I don't know what I'd do without you :-)

Day conference on may 21st, details here. Looks like an interesting discussion to be part of especially around a definition of what spirituality in this conversation is.

"The conference brings together social workers, teachers, early years, play and youth workers, psychotherapists, psychologists, religious leaders and policy officers to discuss how to make schools, homes, youth clubs, places of worship and neighbourhoods more supportive of children and young people's emotional and mental well-being"

I've finished the pond, yay! Am well chuffed to have turned a swampy section of the garden into a raised bed and pond.

For reasons that I'm sure made sense at the time of agreeing, the Macdonald family are being filmed tomorrow as part of a project to do with the families of disabled children. I asked if Keanu Reeves could play me, to which at least two people have suggested that Griff Rhys Jones would be more appropriate!!

H is happy to particpate as long as his name appears in the credits, I'm expecting that he'll start negotiating the merchandising rights next :-)

I have a new phone! It's snappily entitled the W715 and is I think the result of a bunch of electronics engineers having rather too many drinks after work one evening leading to a beer fuelled boast about how many gizmos could physically be incorporated in one phone.

The W715 has:
Bluetooth, Wireless, WAP and USB Connectivity. It has a music player, radio, diary, games, GPS, Sat Nav, Google Maps, e-mail, web, a 3.2 mega pixel camera, text messaging, remote control function and even a health-check footstep counter! It has 4 gig of storage, the music player can list tracks by mood as well as genre, you can change tracks by a quick shake of the phone. It handles RSS feeds, the video app' is compatible with Youtube, you can record a few seconds of a song and send it off to find out the Artist and the track!
And so the list goes on! (And the obvious gag that the battery only lasts 5 minutes as a result is so not true!)

Anyway, serious W715 review:

It's a slider phone with a conventional phone key layout. It's small stylish and fun, with a humungously long list of features and capabilities, which on the whole it does well.
If you are used to Sony's then it's easy to pick up and use, the camera and the screen clarity are particularly impressive. I like the GPS capability and may even consider paying the additional Sat-Nav subscription.

Frustrations:

1. The wi-fi capability is, in my experience, not easily used, the web browser seeming to want to use the vodafone front page via the data connection. (You have to wait for an error message then input the web address you want via Options).
2. Despite the Walkman status, the sound seems tinny to me (but this is subjective and I await other opinions)
3. The Lock/unlock function doesn't seem great and the phone easily becomes unlocked with functions becoming activated.

Overall, a positive thumbs up BUT having to mess around to get the web browser to connect via wi-fi is frustrating!

There is now a time scale for how the ISA will be rolled out which also serves to makle things a little more understandable. Details here

I had a coffee with Youth particpation and social media Guru, Tim Davies, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Oxford Diocese are running a day for Communications Directors around 'new media and opportunities' and Tim is leading a session exploring engaging with young people .... hence the preliminary chat.

We were talking about boundaries around Social Networking with young people and how should/shouldn't engagement work. I'm keen that if youth workers do have the young people as 'friends' then that fact should be written into letters/programmes for parents. Tim pointed me to an excellent bit of practice though where a youth worker he knows, in addition sends a note to the young person reminding them of their 'friends' status and laying out what that means, including a reminder that the youth worker will now see stuff they post on their profile. I thought this was good practice!

We also chatted about young people not always being aware of what was private and what was public, as well as citing other examples of where young people are highly proficient but not always savvy. Tim quoted me an excllent phrase that I think is a great summary of young people as 'digital natives.' The phrase he used was that they are (often) 'fluent not literate.'

We also had a chat about young people seeing SN as their space, was the presence of a youth worker an invasion of privacy? Tim pointed me to the site of Tom Gasken who uses SN to engage with young people but is very keen to embody the principles of 'voluntary participation' with the young peson having the choice to not be involved.
He also pointed that as in the physical world, the presence of responsible adults makes spaces safer!

In terms of Outdoor ed' I'm qualified in a few areas but have never progressed beyond happy-paddler at Kayaking. This is because whenever I've been Kayaking with youth groups it's always been about the basics of control ... and having fun. This has been an entirely good thing however it means that I've not learnt rescue techniques, rolls and the like ... although I am a competent paddler.

Last night I had the opportunity to join Adventure Plus at one of their Pool sessions and get some tuition.

In a bizarre bit of double booking the Pool had given permission for the Scouts to use the pool to swim in, as well as the kayakers to kayak in! Thus we only had half the pool which was hilarious ........... a kind of aquatic traffic jam ensued at times.

The Adventure Plus crew were fab though and I had a great time as well as learning a lot. Sadly though, the Eskimo roll COMPLETELY elluded me.
It didn't help that I am somewhat un-lithe and found it extremely difficult to exit the kayak when it went pear shaped (the boats were MUCH smaller than mine), but even allowing for this fact .... I was rubbish! I found it extremely difficult to work out what the paddle should be doing while I was busy being upside down under a Kayak, how to do the necessary sweep stroke and even which way I was actually trying to roll. Hilarious.

This is pretty much what I looked like, this is what I aspire to.

Conclusion: I'm more suited to Arctic Rolls than Eskimo Rolls :-)
_____________________________________________________________________

Captains Log Supplemental: The tricky thing about the roll is that it requires you to act counter intuitively, got me thinking about aspects of our faith .... he says in a Radio 4 'thought for the day' stylee

Richard Passmore has uploaded a session he did on missional apologetics. I HIGHLY recommend having a look at the notes and the Powerpoint.

I love the visual framing of this key question:

And I'm making a note of this quote (so I can find it again)

My hands were really dry this morning and quite sore (after a weekend of digging and building), so one of the Admin team gave me a dollop of moisturiser! All good eh, however I then made an important discovery!

So, today's wisdom (in case it is useful) is thus:

Don't attempt to lift a full coffee cup straight after applying moisturiser!!!!!!!

It was a great VERTIGO on Saturday night! The theme was Justice, explored via Worship, prayer, malarky and talk.

It was also the launch of the "VERTIGO ACADEMY" .... these will be one-day Discipleship training days running a few weeks before each vertigo, a chance to learn and grow. The aim being for Vertigoers/Vertigites (suggestions?) to be more involved in mission in/through/with their churches, as well as being more involved in Vertigo.

First Academy is October 3rd!

I took a bunch of young people from Newbury with me so we could be the Cafe team. They were fab ... working really hard, and with enthusiasm and verve! (Thanks guys)

Next Vertigo: May 17th (out door event following on from LOVE OXFORD) then October 17th

Oh, and VERTIGO is on something called Facebook? Clicketh here

Ok, so it was the canal but I couldn't think of a song with canal in (arrgghgh, now I have, the theme to "Rosie and Jim" ..... I've so got to get that out of my head).

Anyway I had an afternoon off so I took the chance to launch the good boat Maui and explore the Berkshire waterways. I shall be busy tomorrow with VERTIGO so some R&R today was fab!

Darren over at Digital Orthodoxy is having a muse about Manipulation, Evangelism and Intentionality. I recommend popping over to his site and reading the three muses so far.

I think this is an important debate for everyone involved in faith based work with young people, and that is a vast spectrum ... all the way from the "it's all about decisons" ultra right to the far left, eschewing any discernable christian mention or practice.

My muddled thunk so far:

Manipulation is ALWAYS wrong
Evangelism, as a word, is difficult to discuss at it carries too much baggage. It must in my mind however be freed from its' locked into modernity, intellectual ascent to a propositional belief system, approach.
Who we are and where we are coming from should be open, transparent and clear.
I think there is a difference between being intentional about building relationship and having an agenda.

But while I'm still musing, heres's a video the legendary Miz sent me. It's a spoof on the Celebrity Youth Pastor! Laugh, cringe, reflect :-)

Shalom

I was enjoying some seriously mellow music last night and thought I'd flag up a couple of the tracks that I thought were fabulous:

'Into my Arms' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I've only just discovered this track, but the genius of such a beautiful, simple and elegant love song that can begin with the line, "I don't believe in an interventionist God" has to be heard to be believed.

You can find it here on last.fm but I'd recommend listening to it on Spotify if you have access to it.
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'Verdi Cries' by 10,000 Maniacs. I've loved this song for years, an evocative and haunting reflection on a holiday of long ago, the opera-loving occupant of the next hotel room inadvertently providing the mood and soundtrack to the memory.

It's here, live on Youtube, but again I'd recommend the studio version on Spotify.

A village just outside of Oxford are looking for a sessional worker to commit to three hours every other Sunday night, this is a paid position and I'd be happy to chat to you about the details!

Great Missenden are looking for a youth worker/minister to work during the maternity leave of their existing worker, details below:

Part-time Youth Worker
An enthusiastic person to cover maternity leave of Youth Minister for
up to one year from Mid April 2009.
In return for accommodation, competitive salary and an active,
friendly church near Oxford and London, you will be expected to meet the challenge of maintaining our successful youth work.
Contact David Harris 07736 814 995

Did you see this article about a school that proposed not starting lessons until 11am to better engage with teenagers' body clocks?

I'm wondering if it crossed the mind of any youth workers that this was a rather good mandate for staying in bed until 11am :-)

I was enjoying a chat with my youngest son last night and I referred to a film we'd watched recently to help explain a question that he was asking. This didn't quite work as he countered with, "but you said films weren't real, they were just pretend!"
At this point I made the mistake of trying to show him that although the film, the characters, and the events were not true, there were still things that could be learned or understood from the story.
"Oh," he said, "You mean like that you can learn to fight from watching Star Wars!"
Entirely the opposite to the point I was trying to make but hey ho, it made me laugh!

(I now have to pay my daughter a £1 royalty fee for each blog post where she is mentioned, I'll therefore hold on to those stories for one mega post!)

A round up of learning, growing and encountering opportunities:

NOW: Greenbelt are having a mahoosive sale on their recorded talks/seminars. Great chance to snag some food for the brain, soul and spirit. details here

28th March: ' Youth Ministry, a Trinitarian view.' All day event in Winchester with a raft of key thinkers and practicioners. Details here

11th July: Boiler Rooms Unpacked. A day in Reading exploring the six values of 24-7 Boiler Rooms. See the web site or download the flier Boiler Rooms Unpacked.pdf

A round up of EVENTS:

March 21st: Next Vertigo event, a look at Justice. Details here

25th April: One day 'SPORTS CAMP PLUS' at Chipping Norton run by 'Christians In Sport' See the web site for more details and booking

My lovely children have been making me smile over the weekend:

My daughter is a very upbeat and positive character so I was doubly-amused when she described an event as "Poop times two!"
Meanwhile my eldest son was waxing lyrical about how lovely and how happy someone was, the term he duly invented was "Grinful!"

I'm hoping my Monday will be Grinful rather than varying factors of poopiness!

Like a lot of Youth workers (and especially those who operate in a number of settings) I have an impressive collection of CRB certificates. My portfolio ranges from rare 2002 editions right through to current examples in both voluntary and paid capacities.

Today though was truly bizarre! Two turned up on the same day!! What are the chances of that? (I guess it's a very positive example of double-checking).

I re-watched "About a Boy" last night (after Andrew Root used a clip from it in connection with "Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry"), it's a great film! I was then musing about how much potential inpsiration, training and reflection, that was relevent to youth work/ministry, the film contained. Which got me thinking further, what other films would/should you include in a media based course on youth work/ministry practice?

I like the idea of a course that revolves entirely of:

• Watch the film
• Discuss & Analyse
• Reflect & Explore
• Apply insights to/against practice

I think I really like the idea of working with film as it is more likely to encompass reflection with our whole being, for some of us who exist more naturally as Logicians, this could be dynamite.

PS: Go and re-watch (or watch) "About a Boy" (I know it's entertainment that is a glossy and sanatized feel good version of reality BUT there is something really really amazing embedded in the unfolding story)

Mark Hamilton (formerly Mark Cox) has been over to Church House this morning filming an advert for the Vertigo Academy. This has been great fun though ..... and a re-realisation that talking in front of a camera is not my gifting at all!! The (possibly cringeworthy) results will be up on the screen at the next Vertigo on March 21st!

Good fun to hang out with Mark though .... and if you are looking for a Rock guitarist, a band (Quench) or a voice-over artist you should check out his site.

"Free training for young Christians wanting to work in the media
8-10 June 2009, Swanwick, Derbyshire

They are looking for 16 young Christians to produce a mock episode of a reality TV show called 'Angels and Demons' using video, audio and the web. The Academy is a 3-day training course where they will learn new skills and get some great experience for their CV. Successful applicants will be trained by industry professionals as part of a multimedia team"

I had the privillege of delivering a section of the "mission and evangelism" course last night, specifically looking at young people. There were a couple of people who wanted a copy of the powerpoint ...... so I'm uploading it here! Reaching a new Generation2009.pdf

There are also some related articles below:

Post Christendom
Star Trek Metaphor of the changing context of Youth Ministry
The Church and mission
The Times they are a changing
The new Bohemians
Goodbye Kansas

This video has been around for a while but it still makes me laugh. My colleague in Cornwall has been using this alongside the question, parish ministry in Cornwall?

Yesterday was a full day out for me. I worked from a cafe in Theale for an hour and a half, went onto a training day in Guildford before venturing round the M25 to see a Youth Worker in Buckinghamshire. The final call of the day was an evening meeting in Marlow.

Now, If I cannot get home to eat then I am allowed a limited budget for a meal. Thus it was that I was in Marlow with 25 minutes to spare and needing to find somewhere cheap and cheerful to eat ............... this turned out to be not entirely what Marlow is about. In the nick of time though I spotted a 'WIMPY' and chose a rather sumptuous looking burger and chips that looked very appealing in the picture, filling the plate with it's generous and tasty portions.
When the meal arrived though I inadvertantly laughed out-loud. Here was a little burger in a roll next to a selection of stringy french fries and vast swathes of white plate clearly visible. I said (still laughing) to the waiter, "it doesn't look much like the picture!" To which he replied, "no, they never do!"
I had no wish to argue with this and duly munched my snack-ette happily, still finding it oddly funny.

This morning I had a trawl round the internet as I was sure that someone must have done some 'work' on the difference between the picture and the actual products that companies produced, and Lo, I found this. Which also made me smile!

I've been thinking about microphones! This is not as odd as it sounds, I'm not saying I was just randomly thinking about them and say, idly contemplating the merits of the SM58 for preaching (although thoughts on this would be welcome). It's just that every event I speak at creates some sort of microphone/sound system conundrum or learning experience. For instance, I now carry a spare 9v battery with me as I've spoken at several churches where the radio mic' battery hasn't been changed since 1994 and I sound like a Dalek with a stutter (mind you I'm now thinking this particular vocal mode does carry both Authority and Humility!).

Last night I had the choice of a hand held mic or a lapel mic? (went with the hand held!)
The mic/sound system challenge last night though was quite a common one, no fold-back speaker! I find this really difficult as I can't get a sense of how things are sounding to the congregation .... volume, tone etc! This is the serious bit of the blog post, has anyone got any advice on how best to work in that circumstance?

Now a funny story: I came across a church 'sound team' that were fed up with the preachers turning off the radio-mic then looking at the sound-desk like it was the technicians fault when the mic didn't work. Their solution was elegant and brilliant, they re-wired the mic' so the switch merely turned the little red light on the mic on and off but the radio mic was actually permenantly on until the tech guys got it back at the end of the service. genius!

It's not often there is the potential of something free on YOUTHBLOG beyond 'speech' but here it is. Drum roll .... CPAS want to know stuff about you and residential holidays and you may* (just may) win an i-pod! Give it a whirl

* Entry is no guarantee of success, other competitions and holiday companies may be available. Remember you investment may decrease not increase, that your home may be at risk if a loan is secured against it and the BBC would like to apologise if they have misled anyone ever

Our whole garden is a slope and I have been digging into the hill to make a level area for a patio and a pond. The irony is that as fast as I dig the space that would include a pond, it fills itself with water thus creating a muddy temporary pond that makes it impossible to build a proper one. In the midst of this a couple of amorous frogs have spawned much .... well, spawn.

I now have a problem, as when the weather dries up, so will the pond and the froglets will all croak* (or fail to, if you see what I mean).

So, I now need to build an emergency temporary pond to house the frogs and froglets currently residing in the non-pond in order that I can build a proper pond.

*one of several thosuand English euphamisms for dying

ht to Asbo Jesus

Sheds for living in, what's not to love? Although it would be interesting to see whether I then felt compelled to build a small house in the Garden as a place to retreat and to fettle.

You should read this piece (and the linked Word document) that aims to raise debate/campaign on the values and drivers of historic youth work as opposed to the Government, outcome and target driven, agenda.

You have the opportunity to sign up and/or debate the thinking therein.

As an aside, it's also well worth a read for its' great phraseology, I really liked this:

ht to Dot

For on-line music I was a big fan of Pandora before the plug was pulled for European subscribers. I discovered a whole heap of new (to me) artists from the streamed recommendations that Pandora 'radio' played and loved the instant-mellow-evening-of music-old-and-new vibe that it excelled at. The ability to pick by genre, artist, suggestions or to be able to mix it up was (still is if you are in the U.S) unbelievably excellent!

Of late I've been using Last.Fm a bit but it feels like a pseudo Pandora and I haven't got into it in the same way, although it is really good.

But I've been playing big time with the new kid of the block, Spotify! I'm by no means an early-adopter, I've got into it at the same point as the entire blogosphere it seems, but nevertheless it warrants a mention especially if you've not given it a spin yet. You can do the genre radio stream, you can assemble play-lists BUT it's biggest plus is that whenever you are online it's like having access to the biggest i-pod (adopting Clarkson voice here) "In the world!"
The free version involves the ocassional advert but these tend to be for music it seems rather than the very cheesy, corny, 'singing' double-glazing-pitch beloved of l-o-c-a-l Raadiiio! Spotify also contains a wealth of artist info ... and the sound quality is spot-on.
What's not to love?

I'm currently listening to a whole heap of Natalie Merchant, her solo stuff and the entire 10,000 maniacs back catalogue, nice!

Found this satirical picture on the FYT web site, loving it

Ht to Brian and Jacob, Ideas for lent here.

I've been to all sorts of venues for Youth Events but the one on saturday was a new one on me. Saturday night saw me in a Double Glazing factory, specifically ..... in the conservatory show room! Weird as that sounds, it was brilliant. The Churches in Wokingham put on a monthly youth event and are generously given permission to use the building on the industrial estate as a venue. Each Church hosts an activity/opportunity in their allocated conservatory, with the central plaza being a place to mix and to listen to music and bands.

This is what the venue looks like before it's turned into the Warehouse event

Hi and thanks to everyone I met there! (Kat, thanks for the invite)
And --- if anyone has a more unusual venue for a youth event, let me know eh!