A Merry Christmas dear friends! Thank you for your company over the course of 2011 on a journey in faith, youth ministry, life and humour. See you here in 2012
Every blessing
(and if your Christmas still needs a little more Muppetesque celebration, enjoy the 12 days)
Having saved some annual leave up I get to go home this evening and not re-appear at the Diocesan Office until January. I feel very blessed to have such a chunk of time off, a very Cool Yule indeed.
A reminder that the Diocesan Youth and/or Childrens' workers retreat is early in January (17th-18th/19th). If you are thinking of coming please let me know and book in. I look forward to catching up with those coming to the wonderful Douai Abbey.
I'll also be going to SOULNET and am looking for chalet buddies!
Anyway, back to operation 'Clear the Desk!'
and a social media Nativity
Amy Dreemin
Arthur White
Chris Moss.
Jess Lykedee
Juan Swee
Hugh Sterno
Wendy Treetops-Glisten
Ann Deach
Hilda wren
Liz Tenn
"Two-Ears" Laybelle
Cindy Snow
Emma Drieming
Offa Wyte
Chris Muss-witt
Eva Ree
Kris Mascar
Dai Wright.
Mayor Daseby
Mary-Ann Bright
Anna-May Hall
Yorky Riss
Mrs B White
Worry ye not, I'm not advocating a naturist approach to Christmas, just flagging up the (IMHO) best ever Christmas Album: Barenaked for the holidays by the Barenaked Ladies.
I love it, it's funny, moving, quirky, original (but includes some classics) and is musically phenomenal. Enjoy! (The link is to LastFM so you can even listen to it without handing over crinkly stuff)
I had a great time at a youth group last week who were having a kind of 'Britain's got X Factor' Talent competition. I was one of the judges (eek) alongside the vicar (sporting the glasses here and the fine pair of lice ladders) and a lass from the Diocese.
It was a fabulous evening! There was a great sense of how much the young people were encouraged and valued at the group as I've never known such a great range of 'acts' ..... even improv comedy and Scottish dancing!! (with the young people as young as 11).
To complete the evening the leaders delivered their own act which they had spent weeks rehearsing, choreographing and costuming. Hilarious beyond belief and I will never hear Bucksfizz's "Making Your MInd Up' in the same way again.
Really fab to spend an evening with such a great church and the young people from the local community. #Ilovemyjob
Closer to home the teenagers here are a constant source of delight. Loved the Youth Carol Service .... particularly the shepherds out on the hillside washing their socks and hanging them up to dry as part of the unfolding nativity tableau.
Last night we were playing Giant Jenga ... and the suggestion was made for 'Foot Jenga' instead. Rather than the normal 3 and 3 layout with spaces (as per giant jenga instuctions) the tower was made 4 on 4 with no spaces. Despite my skepticism about this working, it did ... and was brilliant. The teens managing not only to remove bricks with their feet but to place them on the top. HILARIOUS!
No more youth groups want me until the new year now :-(
Looking for a christmas present?
You'll be the toast of your family with this divine snack maker
Spam continues to be a problem on the blog with incoming hits arriving at approximately two a minute, thankfully the filter is managing to identify most of these and file them under 'B' for Bin. One piece of spam that made it through was advertising 'anti spam' software, I was amused by the idea of self nullifying spam!
Despite the frustration of endless dueling with the misplaced energy of the evil (although *probably* ultimately forgivable) Spambots it's been an encouraging sort of a week on the blog. A suggested link to a whole bunch of V-dub accoutrements (Thank you Sandra) and bumping into Tim who ministers under the flyover (and also reads the blog) , has been a great blessing.
How so?
Well, I have very little idea who actually reads this, apart from a few commenters and the odd friend (I also have friends who aren't odd ..... no, probably don't actually) so coming across people who access it in this our now Twitter/FB paradigm is great, I may have to go on scribbling stuff.
I'm trying to bring the blog a bit more up to date at the moment but Moveable Type is more complex, it feels to me, than wave particle duality or deriving the proof of centripetal acceleration.
The web master is trying to make sense of it all but so far I have no 'like' 'dislike' or 'whatever' options on posts ..... or a sensible two way link with FB and Twitter. I've been blogging for about seven and a half years now, how weird is it that something can become old school in that time frame?
Anyway, if you do still find the blog useful/funny, fab!
Thanks for calling in to this back alley of the t'internet
The "Wing Clips" site is currently offering some free downloads from the film "Jesus of Nazareth", you can pick from:
Humorous competition anyone?
Yes!
Oh good ..... read on
A while back (ok, a goodly while) we had a good go at listing songs where the word 'Love' could meaningfully and humorously be replaced with the word 'lunch!' Here
In a similar vein it was pointed out to me that fun could be had by taking songs with the word 'Christmas' in and substituting the word 'Breakfast'
So, as I'm going to 'step into breakfast' ........ it's over to you :-)
Prize for the one that makes me laugh the most!
Really useful article in the national Geographic looking at some of the recent research and understanding about brain development through adolescence. It's a good read that is really positive about this remarkable 're-wiring' process that gives rise to great adaptive thinking.
It also de-bunks the view that teenagers are less good at assessing risk ... showing this capability to be in place but that teens are much more influenced by the social reward or recognition that the risk may generate.
Really useful article on the impact of bereavement on children and young people, looking at support given and flagged up in the context of some work Salisbury Diocese are doing.
Linking to it so I can find it again, and in the belief you might find it useful.
You'll find the Fulcrum article here
A while I talked about wanting to make "Like" stickers in order to bring the functionality of Facebook to play in real life. I reasoned that I can 'friend' people in actual reality, and I regularly "lol" .... so a means of awarding "Like" status to people and things seemed a great idea.
Well, I've done it. I commend the idea to the blogosphere for its affirmatory fun. I 'liked' an entire youth group this evening, a particular flavour of crisps and our dog!
I think I'll put a link to this post on Facebook and then you might like the like as it were, if you like!
Had a fabulous morning being the character "Dr Chris Mass" (a bit corny I admit, but then (before you say it), so am I). My main role apart from running a Christmas Quiz is to take any questions at all on anything to do with Christmas. I am introduced, slightly dangerously, as the worlds expert on Christmas!
The funniest thing though was that despite me having ridiculous amounts of christmas trivia, information, factoids and data stored in the old grey matter ....... nearly everything I was asked was theological! Now don't get me wrong, this is very exciting and really encouraging; however I have a brain full of the most arcane Christmas information including dates, sales-figures and derivations of customs that I now have NO outlet for.
So, in case it is useful I'd just like to say: 346, 1843, "White Christmas" 1930 and Mariah Carey! Feel free to have a stab at the questions :-)
For parents with younger kids I thought I'd flag up this, the five best kids toys of all time. I commend it's accuracy ................. and as an added bonus they are all still available.
On the verge of thinking about the possibility of committing to the idea of investigating booking for the SOUL NET conference/retreat? Need to know if i'm going to be 'Norman-no-mates' or if other Youth Minister Bretherin and Sisterin are going?
The Childrens' Society and Ecclesiastical and Ecclesiastical have teamed up to provide grants for local community projects. Well worth a look at:
a) Having a Good Childhood Conversation
b) Looking at the grant possibilities
You'll find the necessary gumph and information here
I wasn't working this weekend so a great chance to let mellowness abound, and abound it did!
On Saturday, the faint vestiges of Autumn sunshine were low lighting the day and it would have been criminal not to have taken Charlie van Bus out for a spin. We chugged over to Hungerford to peruse the various Antique emporia in the search for a trunk ... a trunk of a very particular size, design and strength for the van. The hunt was unsuccesful but chips in the van, this rather wonderful Album-coveresque shot of the offspring, plus the sheer joy of V-dubbing through the lanes, made it all worth while.
For a number of years during our time in Newbury I would from time to time pop into one of the multitudinous gyms and try to persuade them that allowing people to join for a single month would be a great idea. This was for a long time unsuccessful and the establishments were wedded to their 'join FOREVER' or not at all business model. Much to my surprise a while back one of the leisure centres didn't reject my pitch and allowed a one month package. This weekend saw one of our rare purchases of said month. As a result that it is only 31 days worth we use it LOTS. This weekend has seen two swims and a great session in the Gym.
Sunday morning was mainly church, afternoon at the Leisure centre then Youth Group. A nice family meal this evening and mellow musical nostalgia as we enjoy the back catalogue of the quirkily wonderful Colorblind James Experience
And now Monday loometh but there are a few more minutes of the weekend to be carpe-diem'd yet.
Loving this advert ..... great human exploration on anxiety and community. Very clever piece of advertising but also incredibly useful as a discussion starter (Chris wonders if it mirrors peoples experience of coming into church (in the 'not fitting' sense rather than our congregations being mainly bikers).
big ht to Chris (who is reading books like they are going out of fashion ..... oh hang on, they are)
Had a great spontaneous session with a youth group on Sunday looking at the whole area of happiness.
Well I say spontaneous! What actually happened was that I said to the youth worker as we chatted with the teenagers, "So, what are we doing?" to which he replied, "You tell me?"
Hilarious few seconds where we both thought each was winding up the other BUT the reality was I was supposed to be leading a session on 'Happiness!' and had failed to check the details properly, thinking I was just being there.
One of those classic, "Give me a pen, a piece of paper and 5 minutes" moments
Useful session as it turned out though (fab young people). We looked at what shapes and gives meaning to our lives and then tried to see if there was a contrast between Christian and cultural values and priorities. 'Happiness' emerged from this discussion as a universal pursuit (in their assessment) and we critiqued that with the Bible ..... and asking if pursuing happiness was the best way to achieve it. Great discussion that came into land with exploring contentment (Phil 4:12) and Joy (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) and how they shaped our world view and experience. Good buzz as we 'moved into a time of' Pizza :-)
Note to self: Read e-mails more carefully!
