November 2011 Archives

Here it is, medical endorsement of sheddiness! You see, not a bearded cave dwelling geek at all! I am in fact an lifestyle health guru!

Being health is not only about shedding the pounds, sometimes it's just about the shedding!

A piece in the Daily Mail that includes some really interesting 'before' and 'after' pictures showing that magazine photo complexions and bodies are often not just unattainable but also untrue!

I thought it could be useful for a discussion session, so here it is

(The article in the Independent has a useful look at what has actually been done to the photos)

StreetSpace with Frontier Youth Trust and Church Urban Fund, are seeking ways to help local churches respond to the growing marginalisation of the most deprived young people in the country. In the light of growing youth unemployment and civil unrest over the summer, many churches would like to do more to support young people in their community. Partnering with YOUTHWORK they are gathering evidence from church-based youth workers, with a view to helping churches develop a cost effective and manageable youth work response.

The short, 10 question survey, can be found online here

Chuckling at the above headline from an article in the Daily Mail.

The cause of such outrage is that the 'Littlewoods' TV advert runs dangerously close to suggesting that it is in fact mum and not Santa Claus who buys, wraps and delivers the presents at Christmas.

Ergo: Christmas does have an important sacred centre but it is in fact the commercialized Father Christmas figure that is the numinous heart of this celebration.

This is fascinating ..... especially with Kindergarten kids outperforming MBA grads. Much to be learnt about experiment and process

CYM Oxford are running monthly evenings for those who minister to children and/or teenagers. It's a great chance for volunteers to eat together, worship and engage with some learning and support. I think the idea is first rate!

The next one is next week on the 1st December, I commend the idea to you

"Refresh Review Receive" ... a programme to support and enable volunteer ministry can be found here

ht huffington post

Advice, resources, campaigning and the like ... all on the web site.

When I was a teenager I had a great, I mean truly great, collection of heartbreak records, tunes that oozed the pain of unrequited love and delivered the feel bad factor.

I invested a goodly chunk of my adolescence on sitting on my bedroom window-sill staring out at the grey sky above the poplar trees, whilst the record player dished out pathos at 45 rpm. The adolescent tortured romantic soul exemplified. Happy days! (no really)

I think this melancholic nostalgia was triggered by just hearing the song 'Jar of Hearts' which is a fine fine newer contribution to the heartbreak genre. Just got me musing idly on the intensity of life, feeling and longing as a teenager. I forget who said that 'adolescence was the human condition on steroids' ... but it's a really great descriptor of the intensity and heightened sense of being alive; the highs and lows.

Another bi-product of this muse though is that tonights' play list will be full of the angst ridden likes of:

Waren Zevon: Reconsider Me
Andy Kim: Rock me Gently
Richard Thompson: Waltzing for Dreamers
Culture Club: Do you really want to hurt me
Tears for Fears: Mad World

Other suggestions welcome!

"Songs are never quite the answer just the soundtrack to a life" Badly drawn Boy

If you are within skateboarding/hang gliding (or similar) distances of Oxford and are interested in Continuing Professional Development then you may want to download this handy guide from CYM of that which is occurring in the next 12 months!
CPD Programme at Oxford CYM - details.doc

*(and I thought the picture was almost germane)

If however you are from any other part of the world and are a little put out by the Oxoncentricity of this message, please accept this link to a classic Heineken advert from the 1980's as a consolation.

A day trip to Eastbourne for the Youthwork conference was (and is) a mad idea given that it's a 260 mile round trip for me, however I had an absolute blast.

I was inspired and challenged, encountered some really helpful theological thinking. I learnt a whole bunch of stuff, gained some ideas ... and was engaged in a series of peer to peer reflections about training, practice and culture.
The Ironic thing is though that I didn't actually manage to get to any of the seminars, workshops or main sessions! Of the five and a half hours I was there, apart from a brief sojourn in the 'Fish n Chip' shop, I never made it out of the exhibition area. This was where I either bumped into all sorts of people and conversations ... or spent time on the stands; all together these are the source of everything listed above, which all added up to such a great (and useful) day. Fab huh!

I'll try and scribble some stuff over the next few days that may be useful to others and post some of the links that I gleaned.

One of the funniest moment of the day was discovering SU had embraced a Dark arts Vamp-lit Goth like approach to Bible story. Engaging with the Bible may now be not so much morning devotions as Twilight encounter (pun intended). I exaggerate not

I am very grateful to Kat for smuggling me into the venue (ok, slight exaggeration but you do need to address me as 'Rob') and for Paul for his company and coffee provision.
Thanks also to everyone who made the event happen!

Next year will be November 23rd - 25th, putting it in the diary now :-)

Will be at Eastbourne on Saturday .... at the conference. Who else is around? (I promise not to mention that I remember when this was called 'Brainstormers' and happened at Bream Sands :-)

Catch you there!
(Leaving Newbury at 8am if anyone else wants to tag along)

Venn diagrams and Pie Charts are a thread of humour on this blog (use the search if you wish to validate this) and as at least one (occasional) reader is a maths teacher it will probably continue thusly.

I suspect this one though will not be lifted for illustrative use in a Maths Lesson :-)

An Article from Rethinking Youth Ministry
U.S context but real resonance with the UK, great piece of work and well worth a look

In particular, the study looked at those youth who had been active in church but are no longer. The respondents shared many reasons but six major themes emerged for what seems to be keeping youth away from organized Christian faith:

1) Churches seems overprotective (e.g. resist, demonize, and ignore real-world issues and problems).
2) Youth experience Christianity in the Church as shallow (e.g. not relevant or connected to an experience of God.)
3) Churches appear antagonistic to science.
4) Churches take an overly-simplistic or judgmental view of sexuality.
5) Youth struggle with exclusive claims of some Christian churches.
6) Youth sees the Church as unfriendly to those who doubt.

All credit to Dopcandy for link posting this WAY before me

Being an optimist and a believer is 'health and safety' I have ordered this helpful warning.

It should help to keep passengers in Charlie Van safe from adverse effects from untoward high speed instability!

(Not that Charlie has ever gone faster than 73mph (German Autobahn before you say 'lawbreaker') but I'd hate anyone to inadvertently open the window if we ever exceeded 120mph

Having a bit of chat about Line Management at the moment and the importance thereof. I was having a little bit of a "What has Line Management ever done for me" conversation on the way to work and this is the results.

I mean, "What has (good) Line Management ever done for me?"

Well:

• Kept me focused on Priorities
• Stopped a drift between what I am busy doing and the vision (of the church)
• Prevented time slippage
• Delivered accountability
• Asked questions that I had not considered
• Brought more creativity
• Helped me learn and grow
• Highlighted useful areas of learning and training
• Helped me to say 'No' to things I was finding it difficult to say 'No' to
• Said 'No' to things I would mistakenly have said 'yes' to
• Helping me to say 'Yes' to things I would probably have said 'No' to
• Aiding long term planning and thinking
• Encouraging both my work life and balanced time off
• Providing a big picture conversation

Any other suggestions?

Saturday evening saw the last ever Vertigo!

For a number of years 'Vertigo' has been an inter church Youth project in Oxfordshire to run three big events a year bringing teenagers together; celebrating faith, engendering worship and promoting discipleship. It's been a great project.
Over the last couple of years though the numbers have been dropping and the resources to fund and run a central event have become much more of a challenge. On the plus side we think there are now many more youth friendly worship gatherings than when we started so our obsolescence could be a good thing.

But Vertigo went out with a bang on what was a superb evening, this time at St Aldates.

Vertigo linked into the 'Battle for Your Soul' tour for this event.
MPFree and Superhero played with huge energy and went down really well. Compassion UK presented their work and Chip K spoke, challenging all of us to choose Christ.

It was a great atmosphere with chance to chat to all the bands and speakers involved. Enormous thanks to the 'Superhero' guys who were really great with my son H. (He is now a huge fan and I have to buy a frame today for his signed band pic!)

It's official: Winter is upon us. I can categorically declare this as Charlie Bus has pupated and entered a hibernative stasis until daylight and warmth return. Many thanks to Just Kampers for supplying the hi-tec Chrysalis.

(from the blog of youth work legend, Pip Wilson)

Play

As I said, much musing on this one at the moment .... and the importance of it. The Importance of play for health, learning, spiritual life and for relationships and community.

With that in mind, here's some Play Homework for Friday

Get yourself outside and in the proximity of some trees. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to catch a falling leaf. Trust me this is harder and more fun than it sounds.

Oh and you'll probably need to leave any self consciousness back in the building!

Go do it (and report back)
Even better grab several other people to play too

"Symbolism exists precisely for the purpose of conveying to the imagination what the intellect is not ready for" CS Lewis

Liking this quote given that I am doing much musing at the moment on play, creativity and spirituality .... and how much under the banner of discipleship is pre-packaged directly for the intellect

Consider yourself invited to this book showcase around Childrens and Youth Ministry on November 21st at CYM (at CMS)* in Oxford! Book_showcase_flyer1.pdf

* It's just behind thee Mini Factory which is, ironically, really really Big

At the parents evening for H last night the teacher suggested that he was using the word 'confused' rather too often! My suggestion that occasionally substituting the word 'discombobulate' would alleviate this ... was deemed to be not helpful :-)

My colleague, Yvonne, and I are working on a Child and Youth Friendly award for churches as a useful self-assessment and learning tool. The award is in two parts, the first a Welcome Award (looking at how welcoming the church is to children and families), the second is a more focused look at how the church engages with children and teens.

This is a kind of reflective numbered circle we are using and each of the numbers is a defined step.

We are working on what the steps are, trying to find language that is inclusive and encouraging and that allows for a variety of situations but prompts growth and development, e.g if a church is currently working with young people only up to 12 what would help them as well as prompting thinking about how they may engage with 13+

We would REALLY love additional thoughts, voices, wisdom to help us usefully iodentify and write steps 3 to 6 (but are also happy to have critiques and suggestions for steps 1,2, 7 and 8)

Currently our list looks like this minus steps three through six where we especially need some creative help!

1. We the whole church, have undertaken an honest assessment of
great things to celebrate, things not going so well and where there
are gaps in children, youth & family ministry.

2. We have (and are committed to) a vision and strategy for ministry
among children, young people and families.

3.
4.
5.
6.

7. Everyone who works with children and young people is trained, resourced,
supported and accountable in their role.

8. Progress is monitored, evaluated and reviewed regularly. Children,
youth and their families are included them in this process.

Your wisdom appreciated :-)

Sadly the forthcoming day is cancelled as we have insufficient numbers. Booking is invited for the remaining date of Jan 28th in Stoney Stratford.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused!

Someone e-mailed me this cartoon but I can't track down the cartoonist to ask permission to use it, anyone know whose work this is?

Nerdy fact: the W.D in WD40 stands for water dispersal, the 40 merely the 40th attempt to create a lubricant with said properties.

My brain, I think (or at least I think i think), often gets on with being a bit creative and then occasionally lobs the results back into the more conscious part of my grey matter.

This morning for example I was idly drinking a coffee and mulling over the mental 'to do' list when I realised that what I really wanted to do today (and I have no idea where this came from) was to have a huge pile of 'Post-it' notes, with each of them having 'Like' on in a Facebook stylee, and to go through the day putting 'like' on all the things I liked!

How much fun would this be, randomly sticky 'like' notes onto people, things, places and situations. All the benefits of FB style affirmation without the virtual, life avoiding, sterile non human contact, relational and community substitute that social media can end up being.

This idea has made me happy! (Now looking for post it notes and a marker pen)

For the last four years we've run a retreat for Youth workers and for Childrens' workers in the Diocese. I'm pleased to announce that Depth will happen again in 2012 and will be under the natty tile of 'Depth 5' (although haven't ruled out using a Roman numeral instead)

Publicity to follow but the essential info is that it will be around 'play, creativity and spirituality' will be at the lovely Douai Abbey and be in January from Jan 17th - 19th

Filed under: Things I am thoroughly looking forward to!

Putting the 'boro' back into collaborative ... I need your help 'blog chums' and fellow practitioners. Yes I have another deadline looming and the question is this:

How do you identify and initiate student leaders?

Do 'tell' (also present in the word collaborative)

"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."
Stephen King

Idly musing this morning I was thinking about the 'Sunscreen Speech' which was, I think, originally a piece in the Chicago Tribune? But was then rendered as a song which is the way most people encountered it. Not sure how I got to this, I think I was thinking about wisdom. Anyway here it is (in case you have never encountered it):

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97,
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen"

Muse continued on to re-rendering songs to give them an impact and I couldn't help playing great examples from Richard Thompson and Peter Sellers

In idle conversation t'other day I heard someone say that a style of service or the like was not part of their "worship diet!"

I loved this phrase!

OK, it could be a potentially dangerous view that confines our 'meeting' habits to a particular genre of worship, i.e you are a Townsendarian or a Taizen in terms of what you choose to ingest. But, on the other hand, it could be a useful way of asking the question, "What is a balanced [worship] diet?
It's not about us (duh!) BUT what could be a useful dietry range that enables us to praise God, encounter him ... and to be both worshiping ... and allowing ourselves to be changed by that encounter?

I'm guessing that a good solid Carbohydrate/Protein combo is whatever it is in our/your tradition that enables that "YES!" in our spirits and opens us to the presence and worship of God?

But could we be at risk of spiritual scurvy if we confine our 'diet' to just that that we enjoy and are comfortable with?

Musing into dangerous ground here so I'll throw out the only concrete-ish thought that is in my head then open the thing up to heckling, discussion and the like.

Silence = Fibre!
What do I mean? Well, 'fibre' a key part of a balanced diet but not that which we (usually) enthusiastically embrace!

So .......

• What might a FULLY balanced diet look like?
• Is there such a thing as spiritual junk food?
• Do the young people we serve encounter a range of 'food?'
• Have I had too much coffee this morning?