Posts filed under 'Children’s and Youth Work'
Soul Survivor Bible In One Year
Jon helpfully posted on the Soul Survivor Bible In One Year. Similar to Jon many of the young people who we sent to Momentum have come back enthusiastic about joining in the Soul Survivor’s Bible In One Year. Jon has taken this a step further explaining how you can link the Soul Survivor blog material into your youth group’s facebook page which we’ve set up today. Check out what Jon wrote, and read the comments on his post for more information on how to link the Soul Survivor feed to your website:
The really interesting and exciting thing about this one is the collaborative effort being promised by the new Bible In One Year Blog. From the blurb:
- Take thousands of young people all committed to reading the Bible together
- Add in a brand new arrangement of the Bible, with specific chunks to read each day
- Start on 1 September, when the new school/uni year is getting going
- Kick it off with a bit of explanation about how the Bible works and what it contains
- Mix with online blogs and commentary from Mike Pilavachi, Andy Croft, Ali Martin and more
- Top it up with prayer, good friends, supportive youth leaders – and a lot of help from God.
A number of our young people were keen to purchase a copy and we’ve committed as a group to get stuck in together. The great thing though is that you don’t actually need a ‘Soul Survivor Bible In One Year’ to follow along. The references and notes should be posted on the blog each day, and being a geeky kind of youth worker, I’ve plugged the RSS feed into our youth group’s Facebook page so they’ll get each day’s notes popping up in their News Feed!
Add comment September 2, 2010
Treating youth ministers like silver medal ministers
I loved the post on Treating youth ministers like silver medal ministers over at the Stuff Christians Like site. Last weekend we visited a church where Hannah grew up, and I spent a lot of time as a teenager, volunteered a lot in the youth work, and got married in and over the course of a Sunday morning I was asked 3 times when I was going to be an adult minister, in one sense it is a compliment, but it frustrates me because I know I’ve been called to minister to children and young people, not adults, so it was great to see this post from Jon:
“Do you ever think you’ll be a real minister someday?”
If I had a dollar for every time someone said this to a youth minister I could probably train a worship eagle to hunt and kill the pigeon that pooped in the mouth of the Kings of Leon bass player, forcing them to cancel their St. Louis show this weekend after only three songs. (In pigeon society this event has already been labeled, “The greatest day ever.”)
Alas, no one pays me money when youth ministers get insulted. That’s a shame because it happens. We think youth ministers are goofballs. They’re good at kickball and pranks that involve whipped cream. And once a year we let them preach on youth Sunday.
But I think in a lot of ways, they’ve got the toughest job at a church. In fact, here are five reasons we should never consider our youth ministers silver medal ministers.
1. Liability forms
2. Relevance
3. Speaking
4. Dramas
5. Orange Drink & Pizza
There are probably a billion reasons it’s difficult to be a youth minister, but one of the reasons that it’s not, is pretty simple:
This generation has more potential to spread the gospel than any other generation in the history of mankind.
It’s true, teenagers today will communicate more, share more and talk more than ever before. Twenty years ago, when a student heard a great sermon, they maybe told two friends at school. Now, they post a link to it on facebook. They tweet about it. They blog about it. Your sermon can go viral in about 12 seconds. The ability for this next generation to be salt and light is unbelievable.
I thank God for Kurt Andre my youth minister growing up.
If you had a youth minister you’re thankful for too, give them a shout out today. Forward them post and comment with this:
“I thank God for ________________.”
1 comment August 26, 2010
Priorities for 2010/2011
A few months ago I sat and wrote some priorities for the next academic year. I came across them a few days ago and thought I’d blog on them:
Things to say no to
- Boys’ Brigade Weekends Away (2 weekends per year).
- Leading a youth cell group.
- Regularly attending the Tonbridge & Malling Youth Association.
- Regularly attending the Trench Neighbourhood Action Group.
- 50% of Connexions Networking meetings.
- A local secondary school’s Yr 5 transition days.
- A local secondary school’s Governors role.
- Doing less Fairtrade presentations in local secondary schools.
Things to focus on
- Management, leading, and pastoring of adults
- Writing of resources and articles
- Doing further study (possibly including the gaining of JNC status)
- The transition of year 6s including those about to attend our local secondary school
- Moving mentoring (both for me and by me) to school holidays
- Recruiting and training of leaders
- Delegation of administrative tasks
What are some things you’re having to say no to, and what are the other things you’re focussing more on.
Add comment August 20, 2010
Youth Ministry Links
Some links from the world of youth work and youth ministry:
- Music industry looks beyond music sales: One in five pounds collected by record labels last year, wasn’t actually related to music sales.
- Teen sex has no effect on school performance: Research presented at the American Sociological Association conference suggests that if students have sex within a committed relationship, there is no resulting effect on grades. However, if students simply “hook up” and have casual sex, their grades do tend to be lower.
- ‘Only children’ are not socially disadvantaged, research suggests: Children who grow up without brothers or sisters are just as adept in social situations as their peers, according to a new study.
- Wear wristwatch? Use e-mail? Not for Class of ’14: These are among the 75 items on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List, the compilation, is assembled each year by two officials at this private school of about 1,400 students in Beloit, Wis. The list is meant to remind teachers that cultural references familiar to them might draw blank stares from college freshmen born mostly in 1992.
- A fifth of girls pregnant by 18, survey reveals: Almost one in five girls say they have been pregnant at least once by the age of 18, according to a Government survey.
- Fall in drug use among schoolchildren: Biggest decline in smoking, where number of 11- to 15-year-olds who had smoked has fallen to 29%, from 54% in 1982. Fewer schoolchildren are smoking, drinking or taking drugs, according to an NHS report which contradicts the widespread belief that such behaviour is increasingly popular with young people.
- iPods and MP3 players ‘linked to teenage deafness’: The number of teenagers experiencing hearing problems has gone up by nearly a third in the last 20 years, it is claimed. Between 2005 and 2006, one in five adolescents suffered some form of hearing loss, the study found.
Add comment August 19, 2010
Kent Safer Practice with Technology guide
I saw on a tweet this morning the Safer Practice with Technology from the Kent Safeguarding Children Board. The paper takes a brief look at issues such as social networking, photographs, mobile phones and more – it may be a useful document to tag and come back to at some point for those who work with young people.
Add comment August 18, 2010
Books I have read: Alternative Worship
This year at 
summer camp we tried to use more alternative worship experiences for the young people and leaders to encounter God, one of the key resources we used was Alternative Worship by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay. We were based at Quinta Christian Centre this year which has limited internet access so being able to take some physical resources such as this book was really helpful. The book is shaped around the Christian year with sections on:
- Advent and Christmas
- Lent
- Easter
- Pentecost
There were lots of exciting sessions, resources and prayers and although we didn’t use too many (mainly because we’d already prepapred what we wanted from sites as Proost). The CD-Rom is helpful but not set out in the most logical way.
If you’re beginning to explore different ways of meeting with God this is a book that summarises a wide range of different ways.
Add comment August 17, 2010
And we’re back
The last few weeks the blog has been a little silent as I prepared and then led youth camp, I’ll be writing over the next few days some of the things we did and talked about. Hope your summer is going well too.
Add comment August 17, 2010
Books I have read: Jesus Centered Youth Ministry
The fourth book of the holiday was Jesus Centered Youth Ministry by Rick Lawrence, the editor of Group Magazine. The book takes Spurgeon’s premise that everything can and should lead to Jesus, and applies that to the field of youth ministry. Rick examines the topics of:
Discipleship- Mentoring
- Evangelism
- Small Groups
- Outreach
- Engaging Culture
- Counseling
- Volunteers
- Parents
- Communication
Each chapter starts with a comment piece from an experienced youth worker, e.g. Duffy Robbins, Greg Stier, Walt Mueller and Kurt Johnston to name a few.
In one sense there is nothing special to this book, but like Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields it deeply challenges the frame-work in which you do youth ministry and is immensely practical at suggesting different ways of working. If you’re involved in youth ministry and haven’t read this book, add it to your pile to read, it’s worth the time.
Add comment July 31, 2010
Books I have read: Models, Mentors, and Messages: Blueprints of Urban Ministry
Book three of my summer holiday reading was Models, Mentors, and Messages: Blueprints of Urban Ministry by Rene Rochester. Mentoring has been a buzz word in youth ministry over the last few years and whilst there are many variations on what is mentoring, the concept of deeper relationships with young people that take them further certainly makes sense.
The book is written 
from the perspective a African American women in an urban ministry and that means I found some bits harder than others to translate across. Dr. Rochester presents a vision for how communities can change this pattern and plant redemptive and sustainable urban ministries, by looking at the developmental stages of Jesus’ life, focusing on how family, his heavenly Father, the Jewish community, and neighboring nations were used to shape his holy destiny. One of her big concepts is that the most authentic models are individuals who have wrestled through life’s challenges and learned to trust God in difficult situations, and so by empowering urban students today and showing them how to nurture one another in faith, you can help create sustainable ministries in which each generation will model for the next how to follow Jesus.
I’m glad I’ve read the book, but it won’t be one I’ll be putting near the top of my list for others to read, it spoke more about community work than mentoring itself.
Add comment July 31, 2010
Books I have read: Read, think, pray, live
Whilst on the train I’ve read Read, Think, Pray, Live: A Guide to Reading the Bible in a New Way by Tony Jones. It’s a nice short book, 154 pages, looking at the topic of Lectio Divina. The book starts by addressing three questions:
- Ways we read the Bible
- Why pray the Bible
- Where did Lectio Divina come from?
It then breaks down the process of Lectio Divina into the …
- Lectio
- Mediatio
- Oratio
- Complemplatio
The second half of the book includes Tony’s experience of this process himself, in his youth small group and with his large youth group. It then gives a number of example practices and exercises.
This is a helpful little book, more helpful than others because it grounds itself in the practice and reality of life.
Add comment July 24, 2010
Books I have read: Ten Time Bombs – Defusing the Most Explosive Pressures Teenagers Face
When I was younger I read Ten Time Bombs: Defusing the Most Explosive Pressures Teenagers Face by Ron Hutchcraft, I recently re-came across this book. Ron takes a number of big issues, ticking time bombs, if you like:
- sex
- friends
- family relationships
- things that make you angry
- things that make you depressed
- things that make you hurt
- the lonely times
The great thing about this book is it is written in a way that both teenagers, youth workers and parents could access it with. The book now in 2010 comes across as dated both by it’s style and some of its illustrations so it isn’t a book I’d bother to buy now.
Add comment July 22, 2010
World Cup Service and Final
Having showed most of World Cup 2010 on the big screen we ran a shortened evening service, followed by a showing of the final on our big screen.
We started by singing a couple of songs and then moving into an update from our church football teams. From there we watched a clip from the Onside 2010, a DVD produced by BMS that looked at the Street Child World Cup. We linked into the Street World Cup by praying for a number of our young people who were leaving that week to go to Mumbai for a two week mission, working with Oasis India. I then preached a short (11 minutes) sermon using the following points as reasons the World Cup reminds us of the Christian life:
- There’s a prize to win
- There’s a team to play on
- There’s training to be done
- There’s a captain to follow
- There’s a perfect referee
Having whizzed through these points we again used the Onside DVD, this time watching a two minute clip of Kaka’s testimony. Following this we closed the service and started the coverage of the Final.
We saw over 70 people start the evening watching the final, unsurprisingly, given it’s stop-start nature due to the constant fouls and it being the night before a school day we saw numbers decrease at the end of normal play, before extra time.
The service seeemed to go well, although attendance was well down in comparison with a normal Sunday evening – a number of people didn’t want to come because it was about football, a number of others were watching the game at home with family and friends, whilst others had lost interest because England has been knocked out two weeks earlier.
What did you do, if anything, for the World Cup Final?
Add comment July 18, 2010
Young people and alcohol
Although fewer young people are drinking alcohol, statistics indicate that those who do drink are tending to drink more and what they drink tends to be stronger. Around 10,000 under-18s are admitted to hospital every year because of the effects of alcohol.
It was interesting reading the case-studies from Blackpool, St Helen’s, South Tyneside, Brighton and Hove, Leicester, Plymouth and Greenwich, in Safe. Sensible. Social. Tackling alcohol fuelled youth anti-social behaviour and crime, and to read the Lessons Learned:
- Co-ordinating activity across the three strands (prevention, enforcement and support) is essential. Agreeing a shared set of priorities and collaborating on timing helps maximise impact and awareness of progress made.
- The links between support and enforcement agencies are particularly important. Having embedded support workers alongside the police or street based teams helps ensure direct access to help for those who need it.
- Tackling young people’s drinking has to be linked to a broader strategy to manage the night-time economy. However the two issues do have significant differences. Approaches need to take account of the problems experienced in city centres, parks, estates, shopping
centres and other locations where young people drink. - Licensing activities, particularly test purchase operations, can be better-targeted using information from health, support and other enforcement agencies.
- Positive activities, particularly under-18s clubs or music events that are alcohol free have shown considerable promise in reducing the problems associated with young people’s drinking. They also provide an opportunity to disseminate advice and information.
- It is clear from the summer, that communicating effective police action on alcohol misuse can be successfully combined with promoting positive messages about young people more generally. The two do not contradict each other if planned in a co-ordinated way.
This is an issue that so often the church seems to ignore and not really engage with. Reading the partner guide Safe. Sensible. Social. Young people, alcohol and positive activities I was challenged about how much have we in our youth work thought about credible alternatives to drinking, and how prepared are we to engage with young people who might be under the influence of alcohol. We’re in the process of re-writing much of youth work policies and so one of the things we’ll be reviewing in the next few months is exactly what is our alcohol policy – are young people who have been drinking allowed to take part in activities; if we exclude them does that mean we provide a safe space in our building, do we take them home.
If you’ve got experience in this area what are some of the credible activities that you run or signpost to, and what is your policy for engaging with young people who might be under the influence of alcohol?
Add comment July 17, 2010
World Cup 2010 on the big screen
Throughout this year’s World cup we showed all the England games on one of our big screens at church. We started with England v USA which we showed in our youth cafe with over 70 people turning out, the Friday evening game against Algeria saw over 180 people, and then for the last group game against Slovenia, during the day, we had about 30 people turn out.
With all of these games it was interesting to see that we didn’t just have lots of young people, but the full range of families, and some of our older people
The game against Germany on the Sunday was our lowest attendance this was surprising, although there could be a number of reasons to explain this: as it was a Sunday afternoon people were more likely to watch it together as a family; having had to wait until the group stage was over we’d had less chance to publicise the specific timings and this then coincided with me being on holiday so we didn’t catch as many fans as we expected.
Here’s a picture of the England v USA game:
Overall I’m really glad we showed the games, we created a place for people to come together and be community, and watch the game in a high quality environment (even if we missed the first goal because of ITV HD!). A number of non-Christians enjoyed the atmosphere and non-threatening context.
Did you show any of the games, and if so how did it go for you?
1 comment July 17, 2010
New Facebook app – ‘ClickCEOP’
As you may have seen in the press this week, Facebook and the Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (the police agency set up to tackle child abuse) have joined forces to make young people safer online by launching the new ‘ClickCEOP’ application. Launching this week, all young users of Facebook – and their parents – are invited to add the new ClickCEOP ‘app’ to their profile. Through this app, they will be able to access advice, help and support from the CEOP Centre. Crucially,young people and parents can get support from CEOP on a range of issues – viruses, hacking, dealing with bullying online and they can report someone who is acting inappropriately towards them online.
The ‘app’ is the outcome of collaboration between CEOP and Facebook who have combined Facebook’s expertise in connecting and communicating online with CEOP’s expertise in helping young people stay safe. Once added to their profiles, young users will receive regular messages from CEOP and its partner organisations who operate ‘behind the button’ to make children safer. CEOP’s new Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ClickCEOP) will also contain polls, news alerts and status updates. The page will look at topics that teenagers care about, such as celebrities, music and exams and will link these subjects to questions about online safety.
Users can either add or bookmark the ‘app’ so it appears on their profile, as not only a constant source of help and reassurance for them but also as a strong visual signal to their friends, family and others that they are in control online.
The move is also being supported by an advertising campaign on Facebook that will encourage take up. This will include an automatic advert appearing on every profile of users aged between 13-18 years inviting them to add the app.
Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre said:
“Today represents a huge step forward. By adding this app, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCEOP button and this should provide reassurance for the many parents whose teenage children use Facebook. We know from speaking to offenders that a visible deterrent could protect young people online. We urge all Facebook users not only to add the app, but also to bookmark it so that others can see that they’re in control online. Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCEOP button is well documented – this is a good day for child protection.”
Joanna Shields, Facebook’s Vice President for EMEA said:
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our users, which is why we have invested so much in making Facebook one of the safest places on the internet. There is no single silver bullet to making the internet safer but by joining forces with CEOP, we have developed a comprehensive solution which marries our expertise in technology with CEOP’s expertise in online safety. Together we have developed a new way of helping young people stays safe online and backed this with an awareness campaign to publicise it to young users. It is only through the constant and concerted effort of the industry, police, parents and young people themselves that we can all keep safe online – whether on Facebook or elsewhere.”
Add comment July 16, 2010
The Five Tanks Of Youth Ministry
Loving The Five Tanks Of Youth Ministry blog post by Jeanne Mayo. She writes about to be fully refreshed there are five areas we need to focus on, not just spiritual refreshment:
- The Spiritual Tank: In a church, a highly Christian environment, it is easy to talk about the Lord, referencing, praising and lovingly bragging on Him, yet without alone time with Him, our talk creates a false sense of relational maturity.
- The Physical Tank: Our physical tanks are critical to our overall well-being. The Bible describes our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit, yet how quickly we turn our temples into pizza eating machines.
- The Emotional Tank: For youth pastors, the emotional tank of life gets unusually low, and at some point, do not be surprised if you feel blue and withdrawn. I often tell youth ministers, never resign your ministry on Thursday (if your midweek service is Wednesday). Wait until your tank fills back up and then go after it again…and again.
- The Intellectual Tank: The Bible clearly states we are all spirit, mind, and body. If you continually study the Word from the same angle, you will find yourself growing very bored. Every two or three years, I change the type of Bible I study with, but in addition, I read other books, listen to tapes and keep myself on track to be a life-long learner.
- The Relational Tank: Every individual alive needs relationships. As a minister, you still need people who replenish you as a person, bring joy to your life and strengthen your walk with the Lord.
Great post, and really helpful for me, especially as I see myself getting tired because I’m not doing enough exercise as I should – playing fatboy football once a fortnight for an hour isn’t good enough.
How about you, which tank do you need to focus on refilling?
Add comment June 13, 2010
Church and the World Cup
We had a great time (except for the result) showing the England game last night, in our new youth room, with over 65 people of all ages and backgrounds squeezing in to watch the game on the big screen. It was a great atmosphere with lots of noise and excitement – watching the football is so much better done in community than on your own. We’re going to be showing the rest of the England games in the church (with up to 350 seats available) and doing a special evening service followed by a showing of the World Cup Final:
What are you doing at church linked to the World Cup?
Add comment June 13, 2010
Christmas is coming…
Nick blogged about Christmas is coming and the 2010 Christmas Poster from ChurchAds.net. As Christmas is launched earlier and earlier I think this could be quite a powerful poster. Certainly one I’d be happy to use with our youthwork, maybe for a series on Advent, in the run up to Christmas.
Add comment June 10, 2010
