November 2009 Archives

Confucius
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and Third, by experience, which is the bitterest.

It's interesting that in the area of 'discipleship' on of the questions I often hear is "What do we need to teach?" ..... It's a well meaning question but is too rooted in a culture of modernity, with the assumption that having the correct information/understanding (or in this case, Doctrine) is the key to developing as a disciple of Jesus.

I don't feel I've the right question defined yet but I guess it's around, "What do we (leaders and young people) need to explore, do, wrestle with, experience and question in order to be growing as disciples?"

This is me musing out loud about the enormous danger in the 'teach' approach that may unwittingly forget that young people remember little of what was taught, but enormous amounts of what they experienced, observed and encountered.

In musing about this one of the scenarios that comes to mind is a residential centre that I am connected with. When groups have left one can often find evidence of solid and heavy Bible Study along a discipleship line. The oddity being that the place is often left in the sort of state that suggests the clearing-up model applied was "what, if at all, is the absolute minimum of tidying/cleaning that we can get away with?" (in my mind, at odds with notions of a discipled life)

What did we teach verses what did they learn? mused Pooh

Of all the stuff I've weeted* on the blog, it's the story of my sons battle to become a Go kart pilot that has attracted the most delight and conversation when I've actually bumped into online blog friends. (You'll find the back story here, here and here).

Given the reaction to the driving saga, I thought I'd post a photo of H chucking the kart into a corner. The picture doesn't convey the speed but it certainly conveys his enjoyment!

* I figure if tweet is the verb when you twitter, the act of wittering (my normal blog mode) must be weeting!

"What I believe is so magnificent, so glorious, that it is beyond finite comprehension. To believe that the universe was created by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love of us, defies reason. It is so wild that it terrifies some Christians who try to dogmatize their fear by lashing out at other Christians, because tidy Christianity with all answers given is easier than one which reaches out to the wild wonder of God's love, a love we don't even have to earn"

Madeleine L'Engle (November 29, 1918 - September 6, 2007 )

Lack of blogging ...... let me tell you why?

I managed to fall over while carrying my laptop, doh! My leg REALLY hurts but worst of all are the very real signs of the impact that the laptop is (quite literally) displaying.

I was away on a residential so was rendered incommunicado. I'm now back though and thankfully have found the gubbins part of the unit still functions fine, so with the aid of an external monitor I am back in business.

Did you miss me? (actually, don't answer that)

Captains Log Supplemental: I'm fully back in line and online after our wonderful IT department set up a spare laptop with all my programmes and files on. The prognosis for my old one is not good but I am awaiting a final decision from Dr Dell about its future.

I would like to thank everyone who expressed sympathy with; me, my leg and my laptop via the mediums of blog, phone and Facebook. As a token of that gratitude you'll see I elected to post a photo of the laptop rather than my leg

The big news over the pond is that Youthworks has acquired Youth Specialities from Zondervan. Brief details are on the Youth works site here detailing that Zondervan retain publishing while Youthworks will take events and training.

(BTW Marko is back to blogging and he has a whole load of stuff that will make sense of the goodbye Zondervan, hello Youthworks)

Talking of publishing though, The UK's IBS-STL (book supplier) is up for sale due to financial problems caused by the recession (and I guess the changing landscape of publishing). Only time will tell what that means for Christian books/youth ministry resources in the UK and beyond.

Funding I think will be the major conversation for next year, with posts, resources and organisations struggling. By way of (painful) example, three of my colleagues in different Dioceses are facing redundancy.

A while back someone commented on the blog (I can't find where) about this Howie T Shirt, "Shed Envy!" I'm delighted now to be the proud owner of the T shirt

Other than than this there is nothing to report on the shed front other than:

1. The small Garden store shed took quite a battering in a storm last night and may need to be rebuilt.

2. The 'Boat House' or Kayak Store is an impending project which will be a radically different approach to the art of shed in that I'm hoping it'll be a triangle ..... and thus entirely roof (kind of)

Message from FYT

"AT FYT we are just about to nationally launch our new StreetSpace project to engage young people on the street and in the community and we could really do with your help to make this possible.

If you could turn on your phone and text the word MITE to 82540 it would be really appreciated. Texts cost £1.50 (plus your standard network charge) and over a pound will go directly to the StreetSpace initiative"

I had a great weekend away with friends at the awesome Woolhope Cockshoot (complete now with two newly refurbished bathrooms). It did rain quite a lot BUT it mattered not. We discovered a fantastic Crazy golf course at Hereford .... which was a whole lot crazier in a deluge!! Good times

Update: Version 3 of the video but still a work in progress

We also discovered a game called Perudo which is a highly addictive game of bluffing and calculated mathematical skulduggery, great fun!

For both of the regular readers of this blog (before you ask) we never got around to doing the "twenty years on" versions of the photos! Next time though ........

I'm thoroughly looking forward to this weekend when I shall be away with a wonderful bunch of blokes with whom I have been friends since we were in the youth group together (twenty odd years ago).

It'll be a weekend of very old jokes, great food, fun, prayer, walking, talking and much laughter! A cracking mix of infantile silliness and deep conversation in the company of friends who know each other in a way you only can when you grew up together.

One of the activities for this time is a bit of photography. Specifically I have some photos from back in the day on a youth residential that we'll be aiming to reproduce as we are now. As we are going to exactly the same place, this should be possible. Although I am not sure I can still cling on to the beam on the ceiling in this way anymore .... but hey I'll give it a go! (note that my friend Stu in the right of the picture is sitting on the top bunk)

Previous mention of this event that happens every 14.5 months here

Have you ever played the game where you have to balance an unwrapped "After Eight" on your forehead and then have to move it to your mouth without using anything other than head movement and facial muscles? (The winner being the first person to eat their mint).

It's a classic game for a youth group, or even a dinner party setting!

At CYM on Thursday one of the students introduced this game but with Jaffa Cakes rather than After Eights. I initially thought this would be easy as the cake side of the jaffa cake doesn't melt and introduce the challenging variable viscosity dimension of the normal version. HOWEVER the transfer to the mouth in this scenario was only half of the objective and the additional goal stated was that the chocolate and cake must be then eaten away (Still without hands) leaving only an intact orange filling layer!

I did not believe this to be possible .............. but it is! (Successfully achieved by two of the group)

Hilarious, give it a go!
(You could also play the French rules where you are allowed to use your hands, but this is not good form as the Irish will tell you)

A friend sent me this brilliant reaction game. I'm throwing down the gauntlet folks, over to you at 0.188 seconds!

Ok, lunch time re-try produced this:

Newbury finally has a cinema (Yay) after years of being a cinematographical back water where a great night out at the movies meant peering in through the window at Dixons after emerging from the chip shop.

We now have a shiny new multi-screen complex which is cheesily being marketed as New 'Vue' bury.

The funniest thing though is the plethora of AA Road signs directing hopeful viewers to the "Multipex!" Begging the question, where the L is the cinema?

Captains Log Supplemental: The AA were busy taking the "Multipex" signs down at 8pm last night

With grateful thanks to Ben for finding the clip.

Laugh, cry, think, cringe BUT Enjoy, here it is:

You'll find a bit of reflection on the sketch at the actual (Posrtsmouth Diocese) Dopcandy site.

I'm still looking for a couple or a team who can lead the Youth programme at a Church weekend away next October. It might be a great opportunity for you to take and develop some young leaders as a distinct piece of work away from their normal context.

Let me know if you want to have a chat about this and I'll introduce you to the church involved.

(The picture is of the venue, not the church)

I love this video of the Church and the Teddy Boys, fab!

I'm in a weird music twilight zone all of a sudden. I'm listening to Blue Grass Worship and liking it!

I'm sure it's the sort of thing I normally wouldn't gravitate to AT ALL but I'm really enjoying it ..... and now picturing Soul Survivor as a really chilled country festival :-)

Armstrong and Miller in the latest episode had a hilarious take on "Back to Church!" The Church in the sketch also ran a photo printing business and the Vicar tries to persuade the customer to stay for the mid week service while the photos are printed. (Now available here)

My favourite sketches though are the two Pilots with some satirized teen speak exploration of various 'harsh' injustices:

I'm delighted to see that Dave Walker has been given a residency at Youth work magazine where his cartoon sideways take on things will be musing and amusing about our trade.

If you have an ideas for him to explore he'll be at 'Youthwork the Conference' looking like this:

Or you can comment your idea to the relevant blog post here

I were Chatting with a youth worker t'other day and they mentioned the blog series on Youth workers offices. In their opinion a more interesting piece (and a bigger revealer of chaos) would be youth workers cars ..... specifically the interiors.

So if you have a moment over the weekend, snap a picture of the inside of your particular youth work mobile, taking in as much of the back seat, floor and boot as possible.

I'm guessing that this is an example of the sort of thing we are unlikely to see ......

Youthworker (29) seeks other Oxfordshire based youth workers to share journey to Eastbourne for Youth work the Conference. GSOH essential.

Reply to Po Box Youthblog

I feel like I'm in a parallel universe today watching normality from a slightly askance and fogged view point.

The conclusion I'm drawing from this that I have not beaten this fatigue thing to the degree I'd been optimistically claiming. Thankfully, after a very busy weekend and week, today is a lighter day with a Youth Drop-in as the only thing in the diary. Furthermore the computer network is down replace the Hamster with a proper Gerbil ... and so I'm safely in an electronic e-mail free Oasis.

Anyway, this advert rather amused me as the antithesis to the miriad of "energy" drinks that seem to be the fuel of choice for the 21st Century lifestyle:

You have to check out this script created by Mike Peatman, in which 'Father Ted' explains to Dougal about the influx of Anglican clergy. You'll find it here

Enjoyed a great Anglo German dinner party last night feasting on a glorious (steamed) full-on Steak and Kidney pudding made the traditional way with beef suet. (Brilliantly cooked by Mrs Youthblog who has recently started to dip into the blog from time to time, so I'll take the chance to say Hello!)

Music wise, Spotify provided the backdrop and played a selection of mellowness from:

Dead Can Dance
Penguin cafe Orchestra
Nick Cave
Lambchop
Miles Davis

One of the highlights was trying to explain the word "Gobbledegook" to our German guest. To our delight though we discovered that the Germans have an equivalent word, Kauderwelsch. As far as I can tell this is made by joining up the word for the noise a turkey makes with another word that means either 'romantic talking' or is a derogatory term for various border hybrid languages or Swiss French!!

Meanwhile our friend is absolutely delighted with "upside down" and wonders why we have such a long and complicated word compared to their equivalent, "verkehrt!"
(Given that this is, in fact, what German normally does I thought this was a case of the Topf calling the wasserkocher Schwarz!)

Supplemental: Now back on line and e-mailable (14:16)

Our entire Network is down here at work and will be until the Gerbil powering the server gets back from the vets (at a currently unspecified time). If I'm not answering e-mails you now know why but I'm up and running on t'internet via my 3G dongle back up, so can be contacted via Facebook or the Blog if necessary.

I've been trying to find a way of producing short videos that have a MAC like quality even tho' I'm limited to a PC. Thanks to Youth Ministry Geek I now have Animoto which is fab. I've been messing around briefly with it and only using it in its free guise which limits output to 30 seconds. It's drag and drop with vids and with photos, Animoto then allows you to insert text and duplicate any clips/pics that you want to before it weaves the thing together.

I'm seriously thinking of upgrading to the paid version but here's a demo of the free set up with a bit of ski video and some stills.

Give it a go, be warned tho' you need very few pictures/clips for 30 seconds otherwise it feels WAY too rushed.

Ok a round up of interesting stuff that is collecting around my actual and my virtual desktop:

LEARNING and ENCOUNTERING

Reaching the Missing Generations Tuesday 24 November, 10am to 4pm St Paul's Church Bursledon (Winchester Diocese), £10 (including lunch) Details here

Eating Disorders and Self Harm training in Birmingham on Feb 6th 2010. Download pdf

Wise Up, the 'Bible Centred' Youth Work conference at High Leigh. 25-28th Jan 2010
The Youth Culture and mission lectures presents: GENDER! 18th March London & 25th March Leeds, more details here

READING and THINKING

Half of Girls Consider plastic surgery, article in C&YP reflecting on Guides survey.

PROMPTS and OPPORTUNITIES

Young people's Sunday! Grab some helpful stuff from the FYT site and make it happen in your church.
THE Message (Manchester) Open day. Sat 17th April 2010 @ Message HQ

As promised, Christmas resources:

TEACHING and LEARNING

Posada is the name for an old Mexican tradition where a couple would dress as Mary and Joseph and visit from house to house. The Church army are using this name for a variety of things to help explore Christmas; you'll find access to various worship and craft ideas here as well as a board game!
Light Live from Scripture Union is a massive collection of free ideas and resources, type "Christmas" into the search and you'll access pages of useful stuff!
Paperless Christmas have produced a road movie in a number of parts to explore the meaning of Christmas.
The Ten ages of Christmas is a piece from the BBC that could be the basis of a useful session exploring what has changed in terms of traditions, but what has remained at the heart of Christmas.
Frontier Youth Trust have posted various ideas at their Young Peoples' Sunday pages, click here and then on Christmas!
A series of ChristmasTalk ideas from Grahame at Insight
It's a Wrap is a four session resource.
The Spikyheaded blogsite have a generous list of free ideas and resources

GAMES AND PARTIES

If you are having a Christmas Party, need music and have an internet connection then I highly recommend Spotify. It's a FREE online music service with access to MILLIONS of tracks. You can pile your chosen tracks into the Play queue and it will then play and play. There is the odd advert but you can eliminate even these by paying 99p for a 24 hour advert-free passport. (One particularly fun album that's a mix of the traditional and fun is by a band called the Barenaked Ladies, called "Barenaked for the holidays!") Enjoy

Christmas Quiz ideas and further ones here (Scattergories) and here (Mixed Up Christmas)

MEDIA and INTERACTION

There is a film coming out which is called Nativity (certificate U) and is a family-friendly film, starring Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) as a desperate primary school teacher locked in a battle to produce the finest school nativity play in town. It gently explores themes of redemption, reconciliation and the real meaning of Christmas while providing more laughs than an exploding jar of incense. Nativity! is in cinemas from Friday 27th November!
The lovely crew at Damaris provide more details & creative ways of using the film here

Christianity Today with a series of slides exploring a diverse range of Christmas Art

Proost is a great site with some really creative multi media resource. Highlights include the video loop backgrounds to each of the 9 lessons and carols, and the make your own nativity set.

ARTS and DRAMA

A Matchbox Advent Calender idea

Chav a nice Christmas script

In producing this resource page I'd like to thank the network of Diocesan Youth Advisers and especially Ben at Dopcandy

Had a great meeting yesterday about an all night Easter Youth vigil at the Abbey in Dorchester-on-Thames (fab venue). It looks like I am going to be involved and I'm trawling for a few things you might be able to help on:

1. Are you and your group up for joining in?

2. Workshop suggestions, I'm especially looking for someone who can teach 'Street Dance' but am looking for other people/projects/things than can be woven into the experience and worship of the Vigil. No suggestion too wacky!!

I thank you for your help on what I'm expecting to be an .... Abbey Fabby do!

When our Swedish link Diocese were visiting on Friday someone was snapping photos whilst all the staff were coffee-ing together in the meeting room. I've just discovered this photo of me chatting with my opposite number from Växjö.

This is an important photo as it's the first media imprint of my new waistcoat!

For the last five years my jacket of choice has been one I picked up for £5 from Oxfam. I was very attached to this garment and wore it frequently, in 'fact' there is a 94% chance you've seen me in it (see previous guide to statistics). However I have been banned from wearing it as it has got a little on the scruffy side (actually a lot on the scruffy side) and was, I guess, potentially dangerous to wear approaching November 5th.

A trawl of the charity shops last week failed to elicit its spiritual successor, however for the princely sum of £3, this rather dapper waistcoat became mine.

In a study published today it was confirmed that more people take a 'sicky' and bunk-off work on a Monday than any other day.

I was contemplating this fact in light of the huge traffic jam I was stuck in this morning, as indeed I am on most Mondays.

It seems therefore that the traffic is worst on a Monday (experientially) by a long way as SO many people are heading to work, while work is at its' quietest (statistically) with the highest percentage absent.

Statistics eh .....

63% of them having no direct correlation with observed phenomena (and 86.2% of them are made up on the spot). But the odds are that you don't believe me anyway :-)

This post however is a good chance to salute all you Youth workers and Ministers who arrive at Monday having worked a VERY full weekend indeed. I wish you coffee and a bit of space!

I had a fascinating conversation with my counterpart from the Swedish Diocese of Växjö today, specifically on the subject of Confirmation.

In their Diocese confirmation is still in many ways a cultural norm, however the churches commitment to it is HUGE and Växjö confirm 52.6% of 15 year olds in their Diocese (higher than any other Swedish Diocese). As you can imagine I was keen to explore this given my previously stated criticism that in this country we often Confirm too young, and then with not enough thought to the connection with discipleship, calling, rite of passage and faith exploration, delivering the preparation in a very didactic style.

Two years ago in Sweden the Bishops set clear rules for confirmation, among which were that:

• Confirmation has to connect with Baptism
• It is a rite of passage
• It is a service to young people helping them to explore identity, identity in faith and identity in community
• Confirmation is not for those below 15

The commitment to the process is massive in terms of training, people involved, time and emphasis on participation. There is thought to before, during and after with a well thought out opportunity for belonging and working with the church post confirmation.

There are still a large number that choose not to belong post-confirmation so their process is not the be all and end all. I love their HUGE investment in young people though and their heart to serve and explore with young people. There is a lot we can glean/learn from their model methinks.

Much to my horror I have briefy become one of those sad bloggers who fail to file any meaningful blog fulfilling content; before re-appearing, lamely citing busyness for the glaring absence.

Even worse, the elapsed time does not lend itself well to individual blog posts as time has now rendered it a jumble of events, people and places. Recognising this as a given, here's a kind of stream of consciousness posting.

I was an event today where a track from Dead can Dance was used in worship. It's not a band I'm familiar with but the track, "Yulunga" was extraordinarily evocative (they're on Spotify if you want to check them out).

Talking of music, The Radcliffe and Maconie Radio duo have just played a track by 'Mumford and sons,' a band I'd only heard of for the first time yesterday when one of the students in the group I tutor had played a track. A happy coincidence as I now think they are fab too! (also on Spotify)

Talking of students, I'm loving spending time with the 'Professional Formation group' I head up for CYM. We had our second meeting this week and in light of the negotiated values, rules and boundaries ...... there had to be cake. Chocolate cake was my mum's signature dish but I had a bash at living up to the family tradition.

Talking of cake, we had some before youth group on Sunday, followed by toast!! Great session on prayer. I really enjoyed sitting around with a bunch of leaders and teenagers as we shared experiences and understandings of prayer, cool .... very cool. Very chilled opener from the curate who used the Lords prayer in a Rabinic series-of-headings stylee reflecting on each section.

Talking of Youth groups, I'm off into deepest darkest Buckinghamshire tonight to run a session. Am currently at the 'what on earth' shall I do stage :-)

Talking of 'what on earth' shall I do? I'd better get on with some work!!!!!

(Talking of work, still no new director BUT one candidate has been invited back for second interview. More news to follow at www.pleasecanihavemynormaljobback.argh)

A reminder that the CPAS training, Growing leaders (Youth Edition) is running at Church House Oxford on the evening of Nov 12th. Details here

We (the Diocese) are interviewing for a new director today, for the "Board of Mission" ("da BOM" as I've been calling it) which my department is in the process of transitioning into.

This is a KEY day, mainly because we need a new director .... and today is a chance to find one; but also because it means that if we appoint I can have my old job back rather than carrying co-responsibility for the department.

Prayer appreciated

Being able to return to being the Youth Adviser 100% of the time is really important as I've been asked to do a BIG piece of work following on from my concern at the number of churches becoming disconnected from adolescents.
(It'll also give me some time to blog)