Today was my long-awaited first day as Youth Minister at Spurgeon Baptist Church, Bletchley (my home Church for 18 years). Having completed my Degree in Youth and Community Work & Applied Theology at the Centre for Youth Ministry in June, I’ve had a relatively quiet summer whilst waiting to be appointed and then reach the start date. But I made it – eventually.
My first appointment in the role was a visit to the Oakhill Secure Training Centre; a facility which accommodates 80 young people from 12-17 years old who are serving custodial sentences. The visit was to meet with the new Chaplain, Rev. Andrew Gale, find out more about the centre and discuss ways we can support his work. As a result I’ve been invited to join the Community Forum, to speak at small groups and services, and will be inviting our musicians to provide music for the larger monthly chapel services.
During the visit I was invited (along with my Senior Minister) to join a special small group session which had been organised for two ‘trainees’ who are not permitted to attend regular sessions in the chapel as they cannot mix with other trainees. During the session we share communion together and Andrew presented the Gospel, and we closed by praying for each other.
The visit also featured a short discussion of the rights and wrongs of wearing Lycra in church:
‘the people who wear Lycra in church are the people who should never wear Lycra; the people who could get away with wearing Lycra are exactly the people you don’t want wearing Lycra in church’ {paraphrase}
But seriously, it was great to learn about the work going on at Oakhill, both by the Chaplain and more generally. As we toured around the site, trying to avoid the mad ‘movement of trainees’, I was thinking about the ‘final judgement’ passage in Matthew 25.
‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ – Matthew 25:35-36
Whilst today’s visit was fleeting, I look forward to the ministry opportunities present at Oakhill, and pray that as a Church we would assist Andrew and his team in this important ministry.
The rest of the day has been spent ploughing through the to-do list I’ve been writing over the last month ;o) But it’s going to take more than a day to slay that monster. So glad to finally be in post and looking forward to getting my hands dirty! I particularly enjoyed working outside the Church – I didn’t expect to be so far outside the Church so early. Long may it continue.
Praise the Lord!
During my Degree at the Centre for Youth Ministry I’ve collected a large number of related books, with thanks to the Central Baptist Association for a generous book grant. I expect I’ll make good use of them during the next few years, but would like to loan them out to others who may find them helpful. I couldn’t face compiling a list of all the books, so instead decided to set-up a Youth Ministry Bookshelf on Amazon which features most of the books I’ve bought or found useful during my course.
So if you’re studying, or just interested in learning about Youth Ministry, take a look at the virtual bookshelf. You can buy the books directly from Amazon, or make contact if you’d like to borrow them.
Today I started reading Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen for the Worship & Spirituality module at CYM. I’m half-way through which for me is a record (ok, it’s a short book and fairly big text) and so far I’ve found it really inspiring and challenging. I’m looking forward to getting my head around it when brain-capacity allows. I don’t have time to write a review just yet but here are a few quotes which struck me:
‘Over the years, I have come to realise that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can, indeed, present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are a part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection.’
‘Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved”. Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our experience.’
‘What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence and, bit by bit, to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless specific realities of everyday life. Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about, and doing from hour to hour.’
‘When our deepest truth is that we are the Beloved and when our greatest joy and peace come from fully claiming that truth, it follows that this has to become visible and tangible in the ways we eat and drink, talk and love, play and work. When the deepest currents of our life no longer have any influence on the waves at the surface, then our vitality will eventually ebb, and we will end up listless and bored even when we are busy.’
‘The movement of God’s Spirit is very gentle, very soft – and hidden. It does not seek attention. But that movement is also very persistent, strong and deep. It changes our hearts radically. The faithful discipline of prayer reveals to you that you are the blessed one and gives you the power to bless others.’
‘There is little or no neutral territory between the land of the blessed and the land of the cursed. You have to choose where it is that you want to live, and that choice is one that you have to keep making from moment to moment. [...] I must tell you that claiming your own blessedness always leads to a deep desire to bless others.’
‘As the ‘blessed ones’, we can walk through this world and offer blessings. It doesn’t require much effort. It flows naturally from our hearts. When we hear within ourselves the voice calling us by name and blessing us, the darkness no longer distracts us. The voice that calls us the Beloved will give us words to bless others and reveal to them that they are no less bless than we.’
You can purchase the book from the Youth Ministry Bookshelf, along with all the other booksI have found useful from the reading lists throughout my degree.
It’s great to see on the Editors Blog that the BBC are trying to redress the balance of negative journalism towards young people by involving 250 schools in a “massive journalism deployment” involving 10,000 young people aged 11-14.
Stories that have already been filed include items on social networking, mobile phones, living with cancer, and campaigning on Darfur. Other school reporters have covered battery farming, what makes them happy and media images of teenagers.
Other students are reporting on News 24, Radio Five Live and 40 local radio stations – as well as at outside broadcasts in Belfast, Aberdeen and Snowdonia. And there are web-based radio and TV “channels” for the day being streamed live on the website.
Look out for the reports across the BBC this Thursday (13th March), and check out the School Report website to see the fruits of their efforts.
- Purpose: what are we here for?
- everything else should be measured up against this
- Values: what is important to us?
- values are often not what you make up, but are what you observe about yourselves and the way you do things…
- Vision: where are we going?
- vision should be imaginable, desirable, feasible, focussed, flexible and communicable
- Strategy: how will we get there?
- plans to make it work – reality is shown up when you think about strategy
- Goals: what will we do and by when?
- goals help you to make a start
Strategy and goals are likely to change as you travel along the journey – they are contextual – and change because they are based on the latest information – as you learn lessons and build up knowledge your strategy and goals are likely to change.
Excerpt from an article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled “A legless artist documents the world in 32,000 stares“:
A 3-foot-1-inch tall man with no legs propelling himself along by his hands on a skateboard tends to warrant a fair share of attention.
People stare.
Sometimes they ask questions. Sometimes they make up stories on their own.
Montana State University film student Kevin Connolly relates a story: In a Bozeman grocery store, a young girl the same height as him asked, “Why are you on a skateboard?” Mr. Connolly replied, “Because I have no legs.”
“She just stared at me and had the best question I’ve ever gotten,” he says. “‘Is it a trick?’”
Connolly assures that it is no trick. He was born without legs.
His online exhibition is interesting in itself, but a great way into a discussion with Young People about appearance & perception, disability, or even the concept of ’story’:
1 year ago I was asked by a little boy in Christchurch, New Zealand if I had been eaten by a shark.
2 months ago I was asked by an elderly woman in Sighisoara, Romania if I had lost my legs in a car accident.
6 weeks ago I was asked by a bar patron in Helena, Montana if I still wore my dog tags from Iraq.Everyone tries to create a story in their heads to explain the things that baffle them.
I love his counter-cultural approach to getting around too:
Connolly rarely uses his wheelchair, preferring his skateboard. And a pair of jeans-clad prosthetic legs stand in his apartment as a party novelty, unused since age 12.
“People are wanting effectively to put you in stilts,” he says. “Why?”
Connolly feels he’s just as able-bodied as anyone.”
Yesterday I lad the Brigade Service at Church on the theme of “A Different Christmas”. We had a quiz based around the following Christmas statistics (source) and then reflected on them and what they say about how we ‘celebrate’ Christmas:
- £600 million – spent on decorations annually
- 2 million metres – of fairy lights put up each year
- 15 hours – average time spent Christmas shopping (presents only, not food)
- 8000 tonnes – of wrapping paper discarded (enough to wrap island of Guernsey)
- 46 million – toys thrown away each year
- £1.2 billion – value of unwanted gifts each year
- 64% of over 45s said – they felt Christmas had ‘lost its magic’
- 50% of teachers said – their school would be incorporating a non-Christian Christmas celebration
World Vision have produced a video, called “no child should have to endure this”, which highlights the problem with our approach to Christmas.
I mentioned that I’ve had two conversations since Christmas with young people whose excitement about presents was bursting out of them – and they weren’t typical gifts. One was bought an alternative gift by her mum which fed a donkey for a month, and the other had bought a gift for her mum which would provide dinner for 100 school children. We talked about the benefits of different ‘alternative’ gift catalogues such as Living Gifts from Tearfund, Great Gifts from World Vision, Unwrapped from Oxfam and Present Aid from Christian Aid, before moving on to consider the needs of those around us. We then spent about 10-15 minutes in small groups considering the question:
How can we live differently and meet the practical needs of our neighbours next Christmas?
Next we discussed the thoughts of the groups, making notes as we went. The Amicus members will be considering the feedback in September, and we’ll seek to encourage everyone in the Church to put the ideas into practice at the end of the year with the intention of enjoying a different Christmas. We’ll revisit the topic in our October Parade Service and kick things off.
[Welcome to anyone visiting from MK Vineyard Church - please introduce yourself in the comments section below...]
This morning, along with my Minster, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation to the MK Vineyard Church about our new Youth Project for Central Bletchley & Fenny Stratford, and inviting them to become partners in the project. We were made very welcome, and we were delighted with the response. The Leadership Team will be considering the financial contribution they feel able to make, and we’ve had offers from five people to volunteer as Staff members and we’re looking forward to getting to know them.
The project will be run under the supervision of the Crosslinks Centre, in partnership with Spurgeon Baptist Church, MK Youth Service & MK Vineyard Church with anticipated support from Bletchley & Fenny Stratford Town Council. I’m involved in setting up the project as part of my Degree course in Youth & Community Work & Applied Theology at the Centre for Youth Ministry [Oxford], but the plan is to create an ongoing and completely sustainable Youth Project.
Here’s the presentation, which I hope makes some sense without my commentary and you can also listen to and download the audio of the talk courtesy of MK Vineyard:
If you have any questions about the project please let me know.
Or “How to fly like a superhero – the way you dreamt it would be as a kid”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt692UuRMyg]
hat tip to Marko
