Latest Headlines
If your visiting having read ground level, the profile page in Youthwork Magazine then a very big welcome to you.
Regular readers may remember that a while ago I talked about putting up a video tour of the bus, well I have finally done it, as part of the preparations to put it on the market, so if you want to see it inside and out please click below.
well almost… I have been asked to write a case study on the bus project for Youthwork Magazine and submitted my article at the beginning of this week. I think it should be in the next issue (which I guess is due out in three weeks or so guessing from when I got my last issue). Although mostly focused on the bus and only short I have tried to relate it to rural youth ministry as much as I can as well. I am looking forward to having a copy in my hands and I’m sure I’ll put a note up here when I finally see it in print.
Last week we had the APCM at church, I had been waiting for this before I felt I could say too much about my thinking on the blog, but now the info is out with that annual report it all become a little easer as it is out there in the public domain anyway.
When I first arrived in Faringdon I was on a three year contract which was then extended for a further two years, this takes my contract until end of July 2009 but for the last year or so I have started thinking about what is next for me. Come that date next year I will have been in full time Church based Youth Ministry for 10 years (all bar a month) and I feel that perhaps I should be heading in a slightly different direction. As many of you probably know I feel passionately about Youth Work in rural churches, I have been frustrated by the focus on Urban Priority areas, not because I begrudge a focus on them but because I have been aware of a need in rural areas that seams to have been overlooked. (There is also a slight sense of irony here as the rural population of Britain is growing faster that any other!)
So I have had this vision for several years to set up a charity (called Not Ashamed, based on Romans 1:16 (I love that verse!) hence my owning the domain notashamed.co.uk) to ‘encourage, enable and equip good quality Youth Work in and through rural Churches’.
At Soul Survivor last year I went to a seminar by Bishop Graham & Jackie Cray called Getting Collard, obviously about ordination, this is again an idea that has been with me for quite some time, and something that had been suggested when thinking and talking about my vision as well. This has started much thinking and praying and as a result I feel I am being called to ordained ministry and that somehow this fits with the Vision, I don’t know how it all fits together, but I truly believe this is where God is calling me at the moment. As a part of this process I have an appointment with the DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) on the 23rd May to help start the process of exploring this calling.
At the same time as all this I am also looking around at what other jobs are around, I don’t know about you but it seams to me there is no one place to look for jobs in youth ministry, there seam to be several and not one that has all
I thought it might be helpful to have a list of places to look for ministry jobs and so at the bottom of this post is what I have got so far and I am sure there are several I have missed, especially any outside of the Anglican church, if you know of others please let me know and I’ll add them.
In the mean time I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I look to what the future holds for me and my family.
Had a couple of days away on retreat this week, depth was organised by our Diocesan youth & Children’s advisers. We were just 4 miles down the road from home which made it convenient, just 13 of us there (plus the two leaders) but this was really good as we had a chance to chat to everyone and felt you got to know everyone a bit, as well as having the opportunity to catch up with good friends. The two days were a good mix of input (which was optional) and space to think, reflect, chat, read & pray. It was fantastic and very thought provoking and challenging but in a really good helpful way. The time was spent reflecting upon how things around us, our culture, is changing and looking at how we as youth and children’s work practitioners respond to that in our lives and ministry. Of course there were some really deep questions that were raised like were there fish on the ark? And as for the prayer shack, we established that it is 15 miles down the road from a faded sign!
Thank you to Ian and Yvonne and doing all the work in putting the event on, the team at windmill Farm for their hospitality and fantastic food, the belt is now one hole looser! Â And to everyone else who was there and part of it for being just that!
Thanks to those of you that made the call, I have just heard that Project Inspire won it’s bid , although the info I gave before was not quite correct, they have won a grant of £90,000 and this will enable them to get going with the project and will make a huge difference to both the village community and those around the area, well done to Fernaham and Project Inspire, I look forward to visiting St John’s and seeing what it’s like after the work has been done.
Project inspire (click to find out more) is a project in a local Village of Fernham to help convert the church into a dual purpose building, both church and community centre, it is a village with very few facilities and a church that needed much work doing on it and it was felt that it would be good to make it a building that could be used for the whole community, it will be a place of Christian worship but also a place where young can have a youth club, the elderly can do what they do? This is a very important project and is really about putting the church back at the centre of the community, it being a place that can be used as it would have been when it was first built hundreds of years ago. Of course a project like this costs thousands of pounds, but you can help make a significant difference for just 10p! Today on the Peoples Millions Project Inspire is up for a grant of around £80,000 but they only get it if people vote for it. The phone lines are open this evening although specific times won’t be announced until the 6 o’clock local ITV news. Please, please, please would you call
Many thanks,
Last week we had a mission in our local secondary school, Faringdon community College. The mission was led by a group called Collective who are a group of three young ladies based in South West England (there are other collective bands around the country). Each morning year group assemblies were taken and then several lessons took place throughout the day, the lessons were in dance, drama, music and RE. each session gave the young people a chance to have some fun but also to explore some issues, things like dance after spending some time learning a routine there was a short chat about how we dance and the differences between what we might see on MTV and the image that is often portrayed through such dance compared with the dance they had been learning and saw the girls performing. Some lessons also gave a chance to ask the panel questions with the one rule being ‘if you can ask the question sensibly, you will get a sensible answer’ (in other words ask us about anything, nothing was out of bounds but you have to be mature in asking, not goggling cos it’s a slightly embarrassing subject). This all worked really well and over the week we must have seen somewhere in the region of 600-700 young people in lessons. The week ended with a concert on the Friday night to which we had 130 turn up (this is a good number considering the dispersed nature of the catchment area of the school meaning over 50% of pupils have to be bussed in). the concert ended with a kind of testimony/preach from Nikki one of the band members which was really well presented and very heartfelt and honest, after the talk there was an opportunity to say a pray and come and find out more, we had 52 young people come out at the end to chat which was fantastic and having done the first follow up session this week we had around 30 turn up for that. Exciting times for Faringdon, we pray that this might be the start of something in the school and the town.
Had one of those situations at the weekend, I was preaching after coming back from Soul Survivor, the idea that I could reflect something of the theme and help to make it more relevant to those that had been there. The theme of Soul Survivor was ‘Into His Likeness’ I felt that something I had actually spoken on at Yellow Braces fitted this theme well and so was looking at the theme of ‘Love your Neighbour’. I had the talk worked out but after I had delivered it I just felt like I hadn’t really got it, I felt it had been weak and was disappointed with myself for not putting more work into it and coming out with something stronger. Do you ever get that feeling after preaching speaking? Anyway after the service several people spoke to me and several positive comments, some people picked up on points and how it spoke to them, I have also received an email from someone who was there talking about how helpful he found it. A great example I think of how when we can feel weakness Gods strength can come through, this is not the first time I have felt like this, felt disappointment with what I did but yet in response found that God did something in people.
This weekend it was a great privilege to be invited to the wedding of Friends Mark and Lizzie. Lizzie joined the youth group Gill and I were running in our previous church when she was 13 and we saw her change and grow a lot over the next 4 years, including seeing the beginning of the relationship with Mark, they made such a great couple and it is great to see them now going on to make this commitment to each other. But have I really been in full time youth work that long that 13 year old members of my group are now old enough to get married? Of course Lizzie is not the first to get married, but she is the first who we saw through from the younger group that we did. The others who have got married (or are about to) didn’t even invite us (not that I’m bitter Peter or Laura!) but they were near the top end of their groups. It is always such a privilege to see the young people you work with go onto such great things, Not just in marriage but to see several now involved in ministry either voluntarily or as a job. To all those I have worked with over the years you have been such a great encouragement and I thank you for that, may God continue to guide and bless you in your lives and to Lizzie and Mark, thank you for letting us share in your special day and I pray that you will know God as the foundation of your love, drawing you closer and stronger everyday to each other and to himself.
The one thing I am discovering as I write these up for here is that I think I deliver better in person that i do writing on here, but i could be wrong.
Session 2 Saturday Morning – The body of Christ:
1 Cor 12:12-31
So what does it really mean to be a part of this body?
Well it means we all have a responsibility; we all have a part to play, even if we don’t think we have or don’t know what it is we are still a needed part of the body. Sometimes we like to try and come up with excuses as to why it’s not our responsibility, why we are ok just sitting on the edge, “I don’t know enough”, “I don’t have the time”, I did I once 20 years ago (this is one I hear occasionally when trying to get people to help, oh yes I did the holiday club 5 years ago so I’ve done my bit)”, or perhaps this one would be better for you “I’m too young”.
Paul wrote to a guy called Timothy and this is one of the things he said:-
“Do not let anyone treat you as if you are unimportant because you are young. Instead, be an example to the believers with your words, your actions, your love, your faith, and your pure life.”
We can come up with as many excuses as we like as to why this or for that matter any other part of the bible doesn’t apply to us, we may feel like we have nothing to offer the church, our Christian community, but our presence can make a difference often we might not now what we are contributing, it could be something as simple as someone else is encouraged to see you sitting in church. But we do all have gifts that God has given us, even if we don’t recognise them yet ourselves.
One of the things I would like to encourage you to do this weekend, is to think not about yourself and your gifts, but about your friends and the people you get to know while you are here, what gifts have you seen in them, how do they help or encourage you? Then if someone has encouraged you in some way or blessed you some way then please take the time to encourage them by telling them about it.
But also be thinking about how you can bless and encourage others while you are here, sometimes we need to think before we open our mouths, how does what I’m about to say encourage the person I’m about to say it too, sometimes we open our mouths without thinking and we say something hurtful without realising, and then we need to be prepared to say sorry, even when we think it has done no harm, the good that can come from going up to someone and saying look earlier I said … to you and I was out or order and I’m sorry, it’s not true and I don’t really think that about you, incredibly powerful words.
If your not sure what your gifts are, or think you haven’t got any and your worried about that then make time to speak to any of the leaders, cos we would love to talk and pray with you.
We would love for you to leave Yellow Braces knowing that you do have a place within the body, even if you still don’t know exactly what it is we want you to know that you are important and that you do fit in.
Email this post
Recent Comments