As with many infographics this data is based from America, but it has much to apply to the UK situation.  Some key points

1. Use of technology -  75% on a social networking site and 20% having posted a video. This is a generation who socialise, create content and believe in the use of technology in all spheres of life. How as youth workers are we using technology beyond having a Facebook page or showing YouTube clips?

2. Without a religion – 25% are without a religion. Are we as youth workers telling the same gospel story that we heard? How are we retelling the story of the gospel to this generation of fresh ears, does the emphasis need to change?

3. Unemployment – With youth employment at an all time high in th UK. How are youth workers preparing a generation for potential unemployment?

I’ve been to countless seminars and read probably dozens of books on small group ministry.  For the past couple of decades, we have consistently heard that the right small group programs will grow our church, create fully-devoted Christ-followers, ease the burden on pastors, return us to New Testament Christianity, etc., and I’ve said those things myself.

Yet as I have tried to implement them, I’ve found that either it doesn’t work as well as advertised or there must be something wrong with me (which is quite possible!).  Sure, there have been many people helped through small groups, but the small groups have also been accompanied by frustrations.  Balancing fellowship-vs-study/accountability is always difficult; many people just aren’t ready for that level of intimacy and accountability; and it usually isn’t the ideal next-step for newcomers; and how do small groups do mission and grow?  On the other hand, the relationships built there are often very important to people. But now there’s a fresh answer to help make some sense of it all.

Joseph Myers’ The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups is a timely and refreshing look at what community really is.  He explodes some of the myths of belonging that we have often believed.  He helps us see, through research and experience, the four different “spaces” of belonging: public, social, personal, and intimate.  What’s more, he helps us see the value of each space, how relationships are carried on in each space, and how to balance them.  Bottom line, people can feel a substantial level of belonging to a church on many different levels.  Understanding people’s genuine community needs, and working with it and affirming it will get us a lot farther than trying to fit everyone into the “intimacy” mould.

Myers has an inspiring chapter on “Searching for a Front Porch” in which he challenges us to find ways to interact with others in the in-between land of social, neighborly friendships–not “out there” in the public world, but also not “in here” in my private home.  The book is probably worth it just for that chapter.

Not only are the principles in “The Search to Belong” applicable to church leadership, but understanding the four spaces of belonging goes a long way toward understanding our other relationships – in our marriage and family, neighbourhood, work, etc.  Good stuff; worth the read.

Doug Pagitt is a lead pastor at a church in Minnesota called Solomon’s porch.  Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church is about his journey away from the program centred mega-church into a more organic, decentralized community.  He talks about some new ways of viewing spiritual formation that are quite different than the commonly used “talking head,” educational approach.  His ideas are, self-proclaimed, experimental. He admits to being at the early stages in his church journey, however his ideas are quite compelling.

You are coming to realize that the program-driven, “what can you do for me now” consumer approach to Christianity is quickly becoming unworkable.  Where are all your 18-30 year olds?  Are they at churches like Solomon’s Porch and other emerging communities?  They are doing their best to walk away from the “provider of religious goods and services” paradigm for church and get back to being covenant communities.

If you are interested in connecting with the next generation in your church, or are involved in any youth or student ministry – I would order this today and read and discuss with your fellow leaders.

There is much talk about post-modernism in churches, and often there is no real story of success – instead it is just a bunch of ideas that never become anything.  Solomon’s Porch and this book are the beginning of healthy dialogue and ideas turning into reality!

It is not Pagitt’s desire to create a thousand churches just like his.  Rather, he has asked some honest and searching questions about how God and His character are going to be formed in his people and is trying to be and do this in the way that meets the needs of his church.

Pagitt will anger you, inspire you and humble you all in one sentence!  The book doesn’t give you a program, or a blue-print but it may inspire you to do something beyond the “seeker” paradigm (which doesn’t seem to draw many seekers) you’ve leaned on but are finding less and less workable all the time.  This book certainly has me asking some honest questions.

Key points

• In the year to 2009/10, the child poverty rate fell to 29%, the second fall in two years. Child poverty fell by around one-seventh under the previous Labour Government.
• The poverty rate for working-age adults without dependent children rose both in 2009/10 and over the last decade. It now stands at 20%.
• The pensioner poverty rate, at 16%, is now around half the rate it was in 1997.
• By mid-2011, six million people were unemployed, lacking but wanting work or working part-time because no full time job was available. Though no higher than the previous year, this was 2 million higher than in 2004.
• On a range of education indicators at ages 11, 16 and 19, more pupils are reaching expected standards than in previous years, continuing long-term positive trends. Although closing slowly, the gaps between attainment levels of those on free school meals and other children are smaller than in previous years.
• The proportion of households in fuel poverty has risen significantly in the last few years. Almost all households in the bottom tenth by income are in fuel poverty, as are half of households in the second bottom tenth.
• Changes to the tax credit system mean that an additional 1.4m working households on low incomes now face marginal effective tax rates of over 70%.
• The number of households accepted as homeless in England rose in 2010/11 for the first time since 2003/04 and now stands at 65,000. The number of court orders for mortgage repossessions in England and Wales rose to 21,000 in the first half of 2011, the first significant rise for three years.

Here are some key infographics that sum up the report:

Beginning Well: Christian Conversion and Authentic Transformation by Gordon Smith is one of those books that has slipped under the radar (I had never heard about it until a few months ago), but it really should be widely read.  We would do well to think about conversion and the impact the type of conversion can have on transforming the individual.

Many of us have seen individuals who go through a Christian conversion experience only to see little evidence over a number of years that any conversion has taken place.  This book helps the reader to think more deeply about what is a Christian conversation and the ways in which we discuss conversion.

There are 2 main arguments made in this book:

1. Conversion is a process of working out one’s conversion, not necessarily a single, conscious moment of conversion.  Paul exhorts us to “work out our conversion in fear and trembling”.  Smith writes that the “punctilear moment” model of conversion does not jive with the honest experience of most Christians, for whom it is more like flying over mountains; there is a moment when the plane has crossed the mountains, but the passenger does not know exactly when it is.  Rather, conversion is an often lengthy process of transformation and of understanding the work that God has done in one’s life.  Testimonies, Smith writes, are as a result hugely important, because they provide they structure within which Christians learn to work out their own conversions.
2. One cannot work out one’s conversion within a single denominational tradition.  This is fascinating.  Smith, far from being a “non-denominationalist” or a superficial ecumenicalist, writes that the major denominational traditions each emphasise something critical to a complete conversion – e.g. faithful reliance on God’s sovereignty, taking responsibility for one’s spirituality, and being filled with the Holy Spirit – such that Gordon Smith’s brand of ecumenicalism relies heavily on appreciation of various denominational traditions.

This is a book that I’d encourage church leaders, and especially youth ministers to read.  I don’t agree with everything Gordon Smith wrote, but he certainly got me thinking more deeply.  For example,  I am skeptical of his assertion that a rebellious period is almost necessary for adolescents raised in Christian homes, but it was helpful in challenging me to think more deeply on this theme.

The government has abandoned plans to scrap the Youth Justice Board, minister Lord McNally has announced.  The Ministry of Justice said the youth justice system still needed reform but, “following careful consideration”, the board would be saved.

The board was set up in 1997 to oversee the youth justice system and ensure that under-18s in custody were kept in safe conditions.  It was due to have been scrapped as part of a so-called “bonfire of the quangos”.  But the government was defeated in the House of Lords on the decision earlier this year, and there were fears that continuing anger over the proposed abolition could have led to another defeat at the latest stage of the bill.

Announcing the reprieve, Lord McNally said the government realised “that the future of the Youth Justice Board is an emotive issue”.  He said ministers believed its functions could have been brought in-house and carried out by the Ministry of Justice, but they accepted that in both Houses of Parliament and in a public consultation there had been “considerable opposition” to such a move.

“During that period the Youth Justice Board played an enormously important part in liaising with, overseeing and helping both the youth offender teams out in the community and also the oversight of those being received in custody who required a great deal of help”

For Labour, shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan said he welcomed the government’s “long overdue change of mind”:

“The YJB does an important job battling to reduce youth offending.  It has a proven track record in reducing crime, which is why it was madness for the government to want to abolish it and why Labour and so many groups have campaigned for its survival with such determination.”

But Mr Khan said the work of the board was “still being undermined by severe cuts to youth offending teams, which work within communities to cut crime and anti-social behaviour”.

In October the government announced it was scrapping 192 public bodies – such as the Film Council and the Audit Commission – while 118 would be merged.  It said the move would save more than £1bn, but opposition to the plans has led to the reprieve of about 20 quangos and forced ministers to drop proposals to abolish 150 more without parliamentary approval.